Our family has learned to appreciate little things when working with our son, 3B8, who has autism. He is a high functioning child, but has struggled with reading and grasping many concepts that have to carry over or transfer information, as many children with autism do. I am so very thankful for the world wide web and all that it does in allowing us to reach information that God has used in tremendous ways for our family. From the initial floortime and ABA programs we used when working through early intervention five years ago, to the gluten free/casein free diet that brought on speech, to PECS and the use of flash cards even today, much of what we have learned was brought on through web searches.

Recently, I found these crazy old playstation games that had been used by public school systems around the country over the last eight years, maybe more. They are called Lightspan Adventures and our son is absolutely THRILLED with them, and he is learning. Today he begged to play longer and I was stunned as he sounded out more words, built groups of word families, and determined sounds at the beginning, ending, AND middle of words!! He was reading more and didn't even realize it, it was so awesome. We have once again found something that is going to work for him, if only for a while. I am thrilled at any level as long as he continues to learn. The great thing with this is that I am able to watch him play the entire time, pick up on a few things, and then pull workbooks to correspond so that he is transferring anything he is picking up from the games onto hard copy activities. And he was actually BEGGING to do school. He has always loved games, but this is amazing. I cried, I know, I'm a big baby with this, but it was so terribly awesome to watch, he was so excited!

Granted, these were public school items, so I have already scanned for the usual evolution influence and old earth dating that we do not agree with, and I am quite sure there will be additional items that cause removal of some of the programs, but it will be worth it. I plan to team play any of this, meaning he will not be alone for any of the learning/playing with this program. I won't actually be playing, but will be reading while he works or will be actually reading through the activities with him as he works, which is working very well so far. So off we go on, yet, another adventure. Pray this will be an additional way for him to learn, by far not the only way, but any extra things always seem to help him.

This is my beautiful boy, with a superhero blanket on, of course!

For those of you who keep up on here and are my "blogging buddies", I was excited after New Year's with a goal of a real family vacation this year. As an update: it's not going to happen. We had hopes of finally hitting the Creation Museum with Answers In Genesis, but God is leading right now in a different direction. We will be staying home this year and completing some necessary home improvements. Our oldest has been battling some physical difficulties for a little too long, so we will be spending her spring break with some much needed medical testing and simply stay close to home with a few extra activities so that we have some sort of vacation at the same time. We appreciate prayers for her, particularly for her legs.

So, in your homeschooling, is there any particular activities that God is using beyond your hopes in your home??? We'd love to hear about any!

It has been a while since I've shared anything about our teaching efforts with 3B8 and his autistic characteristics and how it affects his learning. We have been trying so many different things with him, recently we have returned to flashcards as they have always been a favorite. For a change I thought I would share a few of the things we do, although generally painfully simple, they seem to work for him in increasing his knowledge base. These are particularly helpful when trying to spread information across different picture types, considering the difficulty he has with transferring information.

One thing we enjoy is lining up cards in rows and he simply points or turns over a card when I ask for it. We use this for pictures, word recognition, and for him to break out sets of items. This is something we do on the table while sitting around it, or while sitting on the floor with the cards spread out before us.

For large motor fun we also spread cards throughout the house, so that he has to run around from room to room to find a particular picture or word card. This is not a type of hide and seek, as all cards are in plain view and at eye level, rather than actually hiding any cards.

For outdoor fun, if you have a willing fence, lawn furniture, larger yard toys, and no wind, we spread cards throughout the yard and he has to run around and retrieve specific cards as I request them. This is a lot of fun and can include siblings and friends or become a competition if your child can handle that sort of competitive atmosphere.

For extremely simple copywork, I have him write down the words on the cards. Or for sentence work, arrange the cards in a working sentence, and then copy them onto his paper once approved for accuracy. Sentences can be designed for structure, or for silliness, or whatever else you may desire.

One area of difficulty recently stressed by his TeachTown work, is articles of clothing. As we have a full range of ages in our home we were able to take a full variety of different types of clothing along with clothing flashcards and he had to match cards to clothing by placing the card on the clothing. You might also place the cards on the clothing items, but all on the wrong clothing, and have the child accurately rearrange them. If you do not own a set of clothing flashcards, or desire more possibilities, cut apart various catalogs and paste them onto 3x5 cards or cardstock to make your own cards. This is cost effective and can actually offer more clothing options, particularly for the additional types necessary to get an autistic to transfer information. You will be able to find an endless supply of shirt types or various pants in comparison to the very limited number in traditional flashcard sets. By preparing two of everything but of different actual items, you may design your own game of concentration where the child finds a pair of "like" items rather than actual exact matches.

These are a few of the ideas we have for flashcards that work for us. So what sort of thing do you make yourself to use in your homeschool? Or is there a non-traditional way you use a particular item in your homeschool that helps your child(ren) learn best?

One thing about homeschooling that I really enjoy, is that I am always learning right along with my kiddoes! Sometimes, that learning comes with some harsh reality, and the reality check that is necessary for improvement in life. One of my reviews recently has been for material relating to apraxia of speech, or in it's simplest terms, young children who do not learn to speak. My children have not been formally diagnosed with apraxia, but my two year old, 4B2, is now almost two and a half and really doesn't talk. We have wondered, particularly with his older brother being a high functioning autistic, whether we may be about to head down that road once again, but he has not had the many other signals and issues that went with our precious 3B8 and his initial diagnosis. He just doesn't talk very much, has about five words and a couple of phrases that we recognize by the singsong tone he uses in saying them rather than the words themselves. He says "ThankYou" in this one word rythmic little voice that we recognize, but no one would actually hear the words "Thank" and "You", only the mimic of the tones in our own voices when we have said it to him. So he doesn't speak, although he seems to be beginning to improve. He communicates very well with a spunky little attitude, drama that could challenge the best of actors, and mannerisms that our family enjoys every moment, but he doesn't talk.

In reading this material pertaining to apraxia, my son is TOTALLY described, and what is worse? So am I! In learning about the steps children take to learn to speak, I am finding that I actually have inadvertently fed into his problem of non-speech. Wow, what a blow as a Mom, to think I could have hurt his speech processes??? In an effort to not speak "baby talk" to my children, I have avoided copying the noises they make as infants and toddlers. Oh I talk to them as infants, like crazy, but I have not actually copied their fun little noises as we talk back and forth. This material, by Pam Marshalla, is enlightening. Evidently, in the learning process, having someone copy the sounds and words that they make as infants, helps to feed a child's learning processes, enabling them to copy us later as they begin to build vocabulary and true speech. With my son, there is no response when you try to get him to copy a word you say, just a blank look like he doesn't get what you are trying to get him to do. Now it makes sense, why would it cross his mind to copy us when we have never copied him?

So tonight, I tried some of the very simple steps Pam's books call for to have him work through some of these processes that we, up until now, have skipped entirely in his speech development. AMAZING!! He was so amused at having me copy what he was saying, he'd stop and make a different noise, just to see Mommy do it. It was fun! It took all of a few minutes, as she instructs you to limit the time you spend copying your child so that you don't end up with a child who expects you to live your life copying everything he attempts to say.  Wouldn't that be fun?!?!?  :-)   Anyway, I think I have found some great information and tips and tools to help my child work through his speech development. What a blessing. And considering my tiny guy, now 5B5months, will be coming up next, now I know how to improve my performance as a Mom, and teacher. If you have a little one who is not talking the way you think he or she probably should, seriously consider this book, by Pam Marshalla, entitled "Becoming Verbal with Childhood Apraxia". Even without a diagnosis, much of the games and advice is easily applicable to "normal" families with kids who aren't picking up speech as quickly as we'd like for them to. And if your child has been diagnosed apraxic, she walks through the developmental aspects of the diagnosis in an understandable fashion and gives you much hope for improving their learning process in the area of speech.

In other news: our family is doing just fine with a normal start to the year. I am a little stunned that FALL is already upon us, where did the summer go? Our school year is progressing well and we have quickly jumped back into a fairly normal "groove" for our home, we are enjoying it. I am already looking forward to the holidays!! Our Sunday afternoon Bible Study with "Demolishing Strongholds" is going well and the girls seem to be learning a lot. We have a total of six consistently involved, so that is a blessing. Our basement is back to a livable level, although I still have much work to do in the bathroom, it will all be back to normal very soon. For now, we are already enjoying the space as we have reached a point of almost completion enough to use the space.

So what are you learning??? I truly hope everything is going well.

I am regularly amazed at the faithfulness of fellow Bloggers.  The responses from my recent request for advice regarding our growing children has been absolutely wonderful.  I know many people have built friendships through homeschoolblogger, even though we've never met the other person.   What a blessing to know that the family of God can be tapped into even through cyberspace!!  I appreciate so much the commitment of my Blog friends to help us out and offer advice so willingly.  We still have no firm decision/response from our daughter as to her plans for schooling next year or for the publishing of her book, but we'll be having lots of family meetings over the coming weeks as she makes her decision. 

The rest of the family is doing well and my gestational diabetes and the pregnancy are actually staying under control and moving along really smoothly.  Our autism spectrum son even had cavities filled this last week with no ill effects from the anesthesia or behavioral issues with the process itself, which was truly a blessing.  Schooling is still moving along and this week we add violin lessons for my 2G15, which is long overdue.  I am so thrilled that we were able to find a violin teacher through our Oklahoma homeschool website.  I also have new review materials on the way, which just thrills me like crazy!

I am getting much more anxious for the arrival of this little one, but there is still much to do before then, so that will keep me busy enough I suppose.  I have to clear some things out of the room that will become his, wash up the second hand clothes from brother that have been in storage.  And 4B22m needs to have all of his clothing gone through and the smaller items sorted for later use.  Of course, everyone needs all of their winter items set into the deeper parts of closets as we prepare for more shorts wearing weather.  And I have some bathroom renovation work to get going on before I get so big that I can't crawl around the tile floor for some re-grouting.  Yep, I suppose I have enough things to do until this baby arrives, now if I'd just get to them.....

I hope I will have time to jump through blogs once again this evening and that this finds everyone having a great second half of the school year.  We have started using a special board for 3B7(autism spectrum) to keep him focused and more responsible for his work and it seems to be working well.  It was designed for the classroom to be set up as a learning center.  It is the size of a science fair board but covered in canvas with pockets for workbooks or sheets of assignments, little pockets at the bottom that can hold flashcards, colored pencils, etc.  It even has a bit of space for pocket chart material.  The great thing is that it folds up and velcros closed at the end of the day and can be set aside. OR for future use, I'm thinking we can easily haul it out to the grandparents' home and still have activities right at hand within it's own workspace instantly!  My daughter already commented that it would be great for him to take to the hospital and still be able to do some of his school work.  Somehow, I'm thinking that when baby arrives, no one is going to want to be doing school work for a few days, but we'll see.  Drop me a note and let me know what new idea you might be trying in your homeschool, or even an old idea that continues to work well?????

I cannot believe I have reached the point of not blogging for a MONTH!  Once again, I hope to get back on track now and run through all of my wonderful little blogging buddies and check in.  Our family is doing well.  I have finally reached the last trimester of our pregnancy and am becoming increasingly anxious about meeting this new little boy.  We are all so excited.  Just received the diagnosis today for gestational diabetes, again, what a bummer.  I suppose we are getting used to it, and my doctor will have us change dietary habits and hope to not need medication, but with the last one we did, so we may reach that point again.  We'll see.  I am feeling great, all is well.  This baby is MORE than active, a healthy little guy.

Kids are good.  School is going well considering my very tired moments, we are in our last couple of weeks for our second quarter, it will feel good to have one semester completed for the year.  I have implemented a reward program for our autism spectrum son, it has made a huge difference and he is moving along quite well.  I made a list of various schooling activities; work with manipulatives, 4 workbook pages, easy readers with Mom or Dad, listening to books read to him, PlayNTalk Phonics, Hooked on Phonics, Handwriting W/out Tears, writing assignment, spelling test, etc. and we have a chart on the fridge with the list and little round magnets to be placed accordingly when he completes an activity.  On another sheet on the fridge we have a list of reward activities; play a game with mom, play a game with mom and sister, play educational video game(which is the easiest one to earn), play regular video games(which is the most difficult to earn), receive $1, etc.  These things can be anything that will work for your child.  At the end of our school day, we move all of the little magnets over to the reward chart to determine what he has earned for that evening.  I graphed out little marks for each magnet, so that he has to do 4 to 10 items to earn different things.  I have worked most of the rewards to still be educational, he just doesn't realize it.  And I have no comments on time committed, so I can have him work as long as is possible for him to handle in any schooling area, just as I can determine how short or long we spend in any reward area.  I love playing games with him, but I certainly didn't have three or four hours to play games at the end of the day.  Those details have completely slipped his mind, he just enjoys the rewards regardless.  It has truly helped keep him focused on wanting to accomplish more work each day.  Also, I do have a spot for "Work by own initiative" as well, and we have found him coming up with his own writing assignments in order to get that spot marked.  I know some may balk at the idea of rewarding a child for something they should be doing anyway, but it is working for us.  I don't know if it the autism that has made work so dreaded for him, but he was unable to see the end result before now.  Since we have started this program, he has become more excited about learning as it has been a natural response to his work and the work is no longer work as much as it had been.

In other news, we are letting go of Algebra for a bit, my fifteen year old is absolutely burned out!  Instead, we have bought a new ten key and since I used to work as a Bookkeeper, I will be heading up a little course on business math.  I think it is wonderful for her to learn the basics of business and we are excited about this second semester being a whole new course for us to embark on.  I wish I had been taught this type of thing when I was in school instead of teaching myself as an adult just to be able to get a job!  I am thankful now, it has been a wonderful skill and it's great to be able to pass it on to my kids.  Other areas are going well.  We still absolutely love Mystery of History and working on our timeline folders.  The lead in to different biblical areas is so constant for discussion and we find ourselves daily investigating a new question or area that my kids didn't fully understand before this class.  God Bless Homeschooling!!!!  I am so very thankful every single day for this opportunity, it has been such a gift straight out of heaven.  Even my teeny guy who won't be two until April, is busy climbing into a lap already at the work table.  He doesn't want to miss anything either!  I'm figuring we'll be starting preschool with him as soon as the baby arrives and everyone has enjoyed settling in with him.  Wow, another baby, what another fantastic blessing.  Life is good.  I hope this finds you well and that if you are reading this, you are perhaps a new blog friend, or an old one that I finally hopped over to your blog to touch base and say Hello!!  Forgive me for my lack of blogging.  Hugs to you!!

My son (3B7) is truly such a blessing.  As a high functioning autistic, he does still struggle with many social skills.  The other day, he was standing in the kitchen and announced to me that "most people scare him".  As we discussed this fact, he explained it to me like this:  "Most people scare me, I just don't know them.  It takes me a really, really long time to figure out if I can trust them.  Like you guys (meaning our family), I know I can trust you guys."  From a seven year old!  He certainly has a grasp on trusting someone else, and on the fact that it is just going to take him longer to let other people into his little world.  An "AHA" moment for him, we were able to talk about ways that he can take more time to get to know other people so that he can trust them and no longer be afraid.  I explained to him that most people are very much like our family, that most people would not want to hurt him or be mean to him, but that we need to be careful in building our friendships.  Discussing friendships with my 7 year old who was never supposed to "want" friends because he would never have any desire to play with other children?!?!?!  What a wonderful talk!

He is so great at home, talks almost constantly, is excited about learning--most of the time, and shows only a few of his autistic traits.   Our whole family is very aware of his "stims", his obsessions, and watching for overload in sensory areas, but overall, since deciding to homeschool, he is truly a different child.  Public schooling was such a nightmare for him.  I am so very glad that he is home, has the time to think through issues such as why he is afraid of most people, and has us as a family around to talk through these thoughts.  What a change from wandering around the edge of a classroom, playing only in a parallel manner with other children, learning almost nothing academicly, and dreading most days heading to the school room.  I love my boy!  I just could not and would not trade him for the world!!!  The only thing I do miss about the days he went to school, were the moments when as he was lined up outside with so many other students waiting to be picked up, he spotted us, and ran to throw himself into my arms!  No other typically developing child did that every day.  Granted, it was every single day in exactly the same way, a sense of normalcy that he needed, perhaps one of those obsessive things, but still...it was into my arms that he was running!  Now, I have him every day to curl up with and read together, I am right here, he no longer has to run to me, he need only to call my name.

I hope that we each remember it is that way with God, when we need him, no matter where we are, we need only to call on His name!  He is there.

Recently, I have had several pop overs and questions about Sensory Integration disorder and our 3B6.  I just wanted to push two of the most helpful books for me.  Both are by Carol Stock Kranowitz, the first is "The Out of Sync Child" the second is "The Out of Sync Child Has Fun" and they were a tremendous help to me.  They also helped in my former employment as a Child Care Home just working through stressful times with all of the children.  EVERY child has days when they feel out of sync, need a little extra stimulation, or need to get RID of a bit too much stimulation.  The info in these books will help with all of that.  For younger children, having them push things can relieve some tension, try a bucket full of blocks or toys.  We made little sand filled jugs and decorated them to look like people and the kids could just carry them around if they wanted to, move them to different rooms, use them as a door stop, whatever.  You will be amazed at what young children can lift when you make something thinking it will almost be too heavy for them to move!  Sitting on the floor facing a child with feet to feet and pushing feet into each other can de-stress some kids as well.  Try a little jogging trampolene and let them just jump for a little while, preferably one with the handle.  My son also loves what we call "rub downs".  Starting at the shoulder we do small squeezes and work our way down to his hands, finishing off at the fingers.  Some days we also do the legs, starting at mid thigh and working down to feet.  It can do wonders for calming.  I know many of us with kids who at times work up to meltdowns have already learned through trial and error that "petting" can work, simply rubbing down their fore arms, often we do this during meetings, church, anytime we need them to be able to calm down and sit still for a while.  It's relaxing.  Shoot, I wish someone would sit and give me a massage like that some times!!  I hope this helps a little.

Our 3B6 has made tremendous strides in his behavioral areas, but we also no longer inflict on him the school environment or many situations where he has to "handle things".  He does sit in "big church" with us every Sunday and handles it now.  Children's church over stimulates him, too many children and too much noise (they sing loudly with a great deal of music).  We do sit in the balcony in church so he is distanced from some of the noise level.  We have chosen not to put him in AWANA, although I love the program and my 1G18 & 2G14 enjoyed it, he just is not able to handle so many children and without a "shadow" or an aid of some sort, he would just get lost in the shuffle or suck up all of the teacher's attention.  We might put him in the next year or two with one of us as parents shadowing and helping in the class, we will see.  He has not had a meltdown in a very long time.  His learning is still delayed, but we are also giving him some time to just relax at home and so we are not working very hard at direct learning, rather we are living learning without him even knowing it right now!  He will be 7 next month and we are slowly working harder on reading skills and math, although he is already doing math problems in life skills.  Sorry for the rambling, just wanted to get that info out so people can browse it if necessary.  We are so busy LIVING now, sometimes I forget how hard it is when every day is another meltdown, or the fear of one.  When I think back to the days when we battled self-injurious behavior with him and meltdowns at 3 and 4 years old where we had to restrain him....it sometimes builds up too much and makes me sad, for all that he went through.  Others in that boat right now, hang on, you CAN make changes, God can help your child!  Look into the Sync books, try diet changes like the gluten free/casein free one, it did wonders for our son.  He barely spoke before we found the diet.  We still struggle, no doubt about it, just yesterday my husband walked out of the bank without my son!!  My son had just gotten wrapped up with wanting to look at something and quit paying attention to where Dad was going, he really was following along right behind him just seconds before.  (Before jumping on my husband, 3B6 is almost 7, many kids his age walk without holding hands and he has shown some desire to be "bigger" and have a little more freedom, so my husband was just simply trying to offer that freedom that Mom is not always willing to offer.  We try very hard to sort of shift back and forth between us to broaden his range of abilities.  It just happened that in this instance, we had a little problem.  Believe me, I was almost hysterical and it was literally a matter of 20 seconds.  Growing up can be so hard to do...as a parent!)  We had him in nothing flat, to plenty of people it would have been no big deal, but I HAVE to have him right with us at all times.  He wanders too easily, he has no clue of his surroundings, and he still has no fear or sense of safety.  He'd step right into the street with no regard for the consequences, ...YES, there are still many days when we are reminded that our 3B6 is "not like all the others" but I would not trade his sweet, innocent nature for anything in the world.  My God made him, he is exactly how the Lord wanted him to be.  Pray for your children, PRAYER WORKS!

Does anyone have any great tricks for teaching an almost 7 year old boy who is mildly autistic how to lower his voice and wait his turn to speak??  HELP  My son is beginning to drive us all crazy.  He has absolutely no concept of his volume in his voice and despite multiple call downs from all of us trying to get him to understand and whisper in public or be patient and quiet while others are talking, his little voice keeps speaking up, rather loudly, every chance he gets!  If anyone has tips for tackling this issue in a way that he can understand, I sure would appreciate it.  :-)

The week is getting away from me as my 14 year old has caught a pretty good little cold.  Today we curled up and got some reading done, rested, and read some more.  It was a fairly easy day.  I enjoyed my younger ones while she napped and tried to get over this bug.  I found time to browse the internet, particularly the Christian Book Distributors site for some shopping/dreaming time.  I'm already feeling the urge for preparation for next school year.  I can't believe this year is already getting away from us and will soon be over.  We should be getting snow by tomorrow and I plan to be nice and cozy inside the house all weekend while we make sure she gets better and none of the rest of us catch it.  I hope everyone is having a wonderful week.

My first day on this weblog and already this will be my fourth log!!

Our son was delayed in almost all of his developmental milestones, but as the youngest with two older sisters spoiling him rotten, the doctor just kept telling us to give him time.  He was always progressing, but seemingly six months behind his peers of the same age.  We watched, wondered, and waited.

At two years old he was still almost not talking at all, perhaps had three words.  Although I had years working in child care environments, as "Mom", I never picked up on the fact that he had never pointed to anything.  Something I probably should have caught, but missed it.  He slept for extensive hours, at times as much as 16 hours a day.  And yet, he would wake up in the middle of the night laughing hysterically, and then drop back to a deep sleep.  I spent many sleepless nights wondering what on earth was happening to my beautiful baby boy.

As he neared the age of three we were fighting new battles.  He had begun to hurt himself.  In frustration he would claw at his arms and legs by crossing his arms in front of him and simultaneously scratch down both arms.  With his legs it was always starting right at the knees and scratching up to his hips, repeatedly, as hard as he could.  We learned to restrain our three year old.  We learned that while in restraint you have to be sure to have a strong hold on a child's hands, pointing the hands away from their body, or else they may very well still claw at themselves while you are holding them.  We learned that precious detail the hard way.  When we reached the point that we had to ask our daughters to leave the room so that Daddy and I could pin down our son....it had gone too far and we knew something was wrong.  After these episodes he would lie in our arms, staring up at us with this expression that spoke volumes of "What is happening to me?" and "Help me" and just broke our hearts time and time again.

During this time we had taken him to the pediatrician and he sent us on to a Center for Developmental Delays in children, he suspected autism.  At this point, he was not quite three, only spoke 20 words, and had not a hint of understanding potty training.  At this same time, through website research, I discovered a diet commonly used for autism, the gluten free/casein free diet, which cut out all wheat and dairy products.  We began the diet and within two weeks saw huge changes in our son.  As we logged his vocabulary we saw quick improvements and after six weeks on the diet he went from 20 words to 200 words and we stopped counting.  Also, with the dietary changes he began to feel pain, which he obviously had not felt before.  The first time that he attempted his usual self-injurious behavior but felt it????  That was an amazing moment, a little frightening to see the expression on his face.  One of shock, curiousity, and absolute amazement that he was feeling something that he obviously had not felt before.  We knew we were on the verge of major changes at that point, we continue the diet to this day.  Occasionally we allow him a break, for some reason we can give him an anti-gas agent and it tends to flush the bad proteins from his system before they can do much damage.  At least it has been working for him for periodic breaks like birthday cake annually and sometimes for pizza.

So we began to see major improvements, but never easily.  Our family worked together on a nightly ritual of floor time activities modeled after everything I could find on the internet about behavioral modification and techniques that worked well with autistics.  Through his screening with the developmental delay hospital he was diagnosed with sensory integration dysfunction.  The developmental preschool for delayed students diagnosed him with pdd, or pervasive developmental disorder.  We taught him any way that we could and eventually found out the hard way that public schools were not working for him and turned to homeschool with great success!!

I could share more, and if someone is interested they may certainly email me or comment on here.  This had to be one of the most difficult times for our family, but he is doing beautifully now.  And I have to add, for those struggling through the possibility of a diagnosis of autism, our son has always been social, and that happened to be one of the things that slowed us from truly being able to work with him with any success.  Even without the formal diagnosis of autism, I always tell people that as long as we work with him the way you would work with an autistic, it works.  So that is what we do.  I wouldn't trade him for the world!!