A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

  Lola is a power unto herself! There's just something about this tiny girl (10 1/2 years old, 64 lbs, 4'3") that defies expression. But she expresses herself as she sees fit, when she sees fit. There was that day she couldn't find matching shoes, so she wore one snow boot and one sandal to dance practice. There's the fact that she wears pajama pants under her church dresses so that she's warmer at church and faster to get changed after church. There's the fact that she frequently runs around on hands and feet--so quickly that she's just a blur going past.   There's the fact that her favorite outfit is a silver sequined skirt and . . . whatever t-shirt is closest to hand, whether it be clean or not. She's her very own self. And I have to admit (when I'm not stumped for how to get her to cooperate) that I rather admire my youngest daughter. Math Lola finished Teaching Textbooks Math 3 for the second time this past school year.  Repeating it ...

 My Lola. She's so very firmly her own person. Any efforts to get her to march to anything but the beat of her own drummer are met with failure. She's strong and unique. I just love her! Academics are not Lola's strong suit. *She's still wobbly with her number and letter formation. *Copywork is the only form of writing she'll do, and even that is iffy. *She is almost done with Math 3, but it's been accomplished with heavy assistance, and I plan to have her repeat it for mastery. But the drawings this girl can create . . . they are marvelous! Her constructions are architecturally awesome. And her ability to cartwheel, back flip, and do other feats of strength and agility is amazing. Her grandpa says she could be a champion gymnast, and I don't doubt it, but I have neither the money nor the stomach to support that pursuit.  (I do not believe competitive gymnastics is a healthy place to be.) Her best academic accomplishment this year was becoming a reader. And ...

 I have tried innumerable ways to write the kids' assessments individually, but this year does not lend itself to individual recording.  It was a kind of sabbatical year. We rested from our usual labors, and we employed ourselves in an array of activities that all blended together into general growth. Morning Meeting This continued as usual because it is one of the anchors of our days--keeps us from flying away into chaos.   Half of this school year included the end of our Come, Follow Me Old Testament studies.  We also read the Old Testament portion of Egermeier's Bible Story Book as well as our usual rereading of The Jesus Storybook Bible in December.  As part of our studies, we sang a hymn or primary song every week at every Morning Meeting.  We memorized the primary scripture of the month And I chose a scripture each week to go with the  Come, Follow Me  lesson that we recited 3 times during each meeting.  We didn't really memoriz...

  Lola had a tough school year.  Her ADHD (and whatever other diagnoses should apply) got in the way of schoolwork day in and day out for the whole year. This is the school year during which she was officially diagnosed, and during which we began working with a stimulant medication.  She's too tiny to mess around with very many meds, so we have worked with miniature doses of methylphenidate (Ritalin) in a variety of dosing schedules.  It does work, but it works in a very small window after a very specific time frame to reach effectiveness.   First, it took me a few months to figure out what the timing is, then I often missed that window due to behavior issues with other children.   I am convinced that Lola is quite bright.  I need to schedule her for a full assessment to confirm my belief, but that will be months and months away (waitlists!).  I also am convinced that the classic "Swiss cheese brain" that many FASD-ers deal with is a rea...

  Lola is scheduled for a psychiatric/behavioral evaluation starting July 16th.  I've done the two initial consultations, and I am grateful to finally get this ball rolling for my darling girl.  She is bright, funny, creative, energetic, and feisty.  However, she has clear symptoms of ADHD which are interfering with her quality of life and her ability to learn. This past school year has been both delightful and frustrating with Lola.  She's so capable of learning and so incapable of gathering her focus long enough to do the actual learning.  We've adapted and changed curriculum plans trying to meet her where she is with some success but not nearly as much as I know she could have with more than environmental support.   Supports in place:    Brief lessons    Textured sensory cushion for her chair    Chair bands for her to bounce her feet    Sitting in my lap for lessons    Including movement as much as p...

Lola, Baymax, and a few of the books we used this school year. Our cabooses are so much fun! They certainly keep the rest of us on our toes, and they are classically "the babies of the family," but we just love them so much, and they know it. At the start of this school year, they were already set with plenty of pre-school skills; however, they were only 4 1/2 each and not ready for a real academic load, so we opted for Jr. Kindergarten by Memoria Press. We skipped most of the activities as our little guys love tagging along for Academy , which is rich with literature, activities, and discussion, and they are always part of Morning Meeting . We stuck to recitation, read alouds, phonics, handwriting, and number sense. I let them take the lead--if they asked, we did school; if they seemed recalcitrant, we didn't. By the end, when I was using Skittles as a behavioral modification reward for some of the other kids, they got in on the act, and the...

Lola is like a whole party in one tiny person. Not many people outside of our nuclear family get to see the party that is Lola, because she doesn't talk to other people, but she gives tiny glimpses now and again. My favorite glimpse she gives is singing in church.  Every once in a while she decides to sing the hymns.  When the organ starts playing, she takes a hymnbook in her lap, finds a page that pleases her in some unknown-to-me way and starts singing.  She sings her own tune; she sings her own words. She sings out joyfully. Sir Walter Scott and I are often red-faced with the effort of holding in laughter because we don't want to be rude in church, and we don't want to embarrass Lola or distract her from her personal worship. Sometimes people in front of us look back to see where the extra music is coming from. And they smile when they see our Lola. She's growing, learning, and developing in many ways.  Like Baymax, she was 3 at the start of th...