I took my youngest off his meds about a week ago. He has been using some form of ADHD meds since the age of 8. I never liked them much, but without them, he couldn't focus for 5 minutes in a row and was unable to do ANY formal learning. Also, his behaviour was soooo impulsive that he was really a danger to himself and others. We were advised to put him on Ritalin when he was 4 (!!!) and first tried the whole natural route...supplements, no additives, fish oil etc. It made no difference for us and by the time we started Gr 1 work, we knew that we would have to do SOMETHING. Being deaf is bad enough...being deaf and having very almost no focus was a NIGHTMARE.Over the last couple of years, I tried to take him off several times ( every time we found a new, natural "cure"), but the longest time we were able to last was about two weeks ( I think) before murder was threatened ~ usually by my eldest! I always took him screaming "I hate you" or "I'll kill you" to his brother ( and meaning it) as a sure sign that we are not ready to go off the stimulants yet! LOL! Lately, he became increasingly vague...I started to worry, because it seemed as if, although he was sitting still and looking at me, his brain wasn't engaged. I don't really know how to explain... I just know he lost some of his sharpness. The dosage of his meds hasn't changed, but something else must have...I firmly believe the Lord is busy healing him. So....we took him off and it's actually going ok!!!!  You might ask what this has to do with homeschooling? Well, naturally I have been researching some alternatives ( is that a homeschool Mommy thing...all this researching stuff?) and one of the ideas I got, was to have school out in nature. So, we packed up and had school ( or a bit of it, anyway) in a botanical garden close-by. That also went really well! We only did math...I'll have to take some food with next time... but we did it without fighting and shouting, which has become the pattern of late. It was the first time we did any schoolwork since I took him off and we had a pretty decent morning. His reward for doing his math without an argument, was being allowed to take some pics all on his own! You'll notice that he couldn't resist taking some of himself! LOL!  This is the Karoo Botanical Gardens ~ the Karoo is a semi-desert area in the Western Cape of SA This is the natural flora of the area. In Spring the whole park is bright pink and yellow from little succulants called "vygies". They have beautiful, bright, shiny flowers! Luhan and myself in the restaurant...we had coffee and juice there. One of three "self-portraits"! hee-hee!There you have it... our outside-nature-school day was a success...ok, maybe "day" is to strong a word. It was just an hour, but who's counting?
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I had a revelation early this morning! I was getting ready to go an exhibit some of my paintings and I was thinking about a discussion I had with a friend last night. We were talking about how shepherding is really a difficult job in the natural and that pastoring in church ( specifically being a home cell leader) is equally difficult. I told her about my Father -in-law who happened to be an old-fashioned shepherd for a large part of his life. He was much older ( 34years) than my Mother-in-law and was of a generation where boys left the house at 12! He became a goatherd at the age of 7 and joined some teams of rural migrant workers at the age of about 13. Anyway, that's a whole different story... The point is, he had a real gift with the sheep. He really, really loved them and cared for them very well. It's an extremely tough job but he just loved being between the sheep. This is the God I love: He disregards our sinful genetics in Christ and gives us the inheritance of righteousness...the inheritance of our Father's house, because He has adopted us! In Jesus we now have His genetics!
 This is our young farmer! |
!!!!) and my husband went to Home Affairs to get his ID documents ready. He took the adoption documents with him, but the clerk still wanted him to fetch me. My husband was very adamant, that according to the court adoption papers, Iain was HIS SON. Eventually they gave in and helped him.|
I have entered some Web links on the blog today! I still have about the same amount bookmarked on my computer that I have not yet entered, but I got tired! You will notice that they are pretty much all free resources. I have been homeschooling on a SERIOUS budget, so I have had to make use of many of the free stuff on the internet. It has been such a blessing to find them and I am so thankful to everyone who has been willing to make their hard work available for free. I have also only added the sites I use most, so if you are looking for more sites in a specific subject ( e.g. you want 3 or 4 sites for Math! LOL) please contact me and I will send them to you. :-) One of the benefits of teaching children with special needs, is the discovery of many new things that I cannot use myself, but that will be of use to others. I have tried many things and then found that they did not fit our needs, but they do fit someone elses. Happy Surfing! |
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Oh man, I feel completely green! I have wanted to start blogging forever, but I didn't have a clue where to start ~ actually, I still don't! I guess I have always liked writing. I have also always had too much brain-activity. I'm hoping this will help me order some of those over-active brainwaves. I'm also hoping to learn from and share with other homeschoolers. We have been homeschooling for about 6 years and I suppose in the eyes of beginners, that would make me almost a "veteran". In reality, I fluctuate between both. Some days I think I know quite a bit and other days I know that I know nothing. I have two sons. My eldest is now 15 and doing Grade 10 and the youngest 14 and we are doing Grade 6 and 7. My youngest is deaf and has been diagnosed with ADHD. Homeschooling a child with special needs, automatically mean that you don't really find any boxes that fit!  So, no conveniently boxed curricula for us! I'll write more about what we have done and are doing at the moment some other time. Suffice it to say, homeschooling in South Africa is very new and resources are scarce for hearing children - for deaf kids they're almost non-existent! Around our house I end up writing most of it myself, because our homelanguage is Afrikaans and can't use the stuff on the internet without translating it. It's quicker to just write. Other than schooling, I read and paint. I LOOOOOOVE to paint. I think that's enough for a first post... I need to save something for the next one. |