After a great start to Daddy's vacation two weeks ago it ended midway through this week. While we hated to see him go having him home totally upheaves our routine. Combine that we all of the other curveballs thrown our way and I'm not even sure I still have a routine but on we shall go.
We have recently been told that Colton has some ADHD and eye problems. So I signed him up for OT (occupational therapy) and made a eye appointment. As far as the ADHD goes not really stressing about that, I mean I already knew he was hyper and had a hard time staying on track that was the main reason we homeschooled. Not really a big deal, I did make a few changes to our school day such as not insisting he try and sit still. If he wants to stand on one foot and lay across the table while I read to him and teach then so what. That's why I'm doing this right? His OT has been a huge help for both of us the past few weeks in showing me different ways to get a better result in our activities and helping him understand ways to focus even when it's hard. After our last OT session we hopped on down the road for the eye specialist. Colton's vision is good, 20/30 and 20/40 to be exact but he has a visual processing problem. What does this mean? Well honestly I'm still not completely sure, essentially he sees things but by the time it makes it to his brain it's different then what he actually saw. His eyes are not working together or properly, when they say eyes they don't mean his actual vision but instead the muscles that make the eyes work together and the muscles that communicate from the eyes to the brain. This is the way I have understood it to the best of my ability between talking to his doctor and researching visual processing disorders. It also come with many other symptoms some which mirror ADHD. He needs to wear glasses for a length of time(not sure how long yet) and start a version of vision therapy(not a clue what this will consist of). In short I have went from being a slightly stressed out homeschool Mom to a extremely stressed out homeschool Mom. David and I are both feeling about a inch high as we think about all the things we have relentlessly fussed at him about such as; making eye contact when we he was speaking to someone, being difficult about number or letter recognition when we knew he knew what it was, not focusing, etc. and this whole time he had no control over any of it. So in response I am determined to do this the best way possible for him. If I have read or been told about something that will help him then we are doing it. We are in the process of incorporating many new things into our classroom, mini trampoline, clay, motor skills activities, boombox, audio books, colored paper, manuscript paper with raised lines, taking away a lot of our copy work and purchasing a new supplement for Math (Life of Fred). While on a determined search last night for those "dot" art stampers for a particular activity I have found for his Math David made the comment that maybe I was getting a little carried away. A innocent and accurate statement which probably shouldn't of caused a complete sobfest in the middle of Walmart .......but it did. Why? Because I am immensely insecure about my ability to do this now. Can I be the best for him and provide what he needs? David says yes without a doubt and that he trusts me to do this more then he would trust anyone else and that I should have the same trust in myself. So after implementing some of our new elements this week(when Daddy wasn't distracting us) we are going to start next week with a whole new plan. So far Colton is doing spectacular with our new way of doing things.
Enjoying one of his audio books from the library on the new CD player in our classroom.
Alright now I know he's mine but have you every seen a kiddo look more handsome in lime green glasses?
Our donation jars...this project was actually supposed to be completed during our Virtues and Values week but we didn't get them all the way finished. So they finished them up this week with a little help from Daddy:-) There will be a tutorial on these in the activities section, from now until Christmas the boys feel their jars with money and at Christmas they get to pick which cause/charity to donate them to.
On a complete side note I would just like to add that I have a extraordinary Husband and my boys have a extraordinary Father, we love him so much and we are incredibly thankful for all he does for us!!!!!!
http://lifeoffredmath.com/
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