I joined the homeschool legal defense association today. I did so for a specific reason; my son was diagnosed, through the school district, with a learning disability.  They called and told me and said as soon as I received the report in the mail they will be calling me to set up a meeting about what should be done next. NOTHING. I will continue to homeschool my son at home!  I was disappointed to receive this news. I was hoping he didn't have a learning disability, but, at the same time I thought he might. I also want to see a copy of the report. I wasn't there when they tested him and maybe he was scared. I know he told me he never wanted to see that lady again. School is hard for him and if she was tough he probably got scared and couldn't do anything.  I know he has difficulties with school but I didn't think he was behind. She said he was behind in many areas. If I don't agree with the report, I may pay to have a psychologist test him. Unfortuantely I live in one of the strictest homeschooling states. Now that my son has been diagnosed with a learning disability I will have to have my objects approved by a special ed teacher or clinical or school psychologist each year. 

I know what I want to do, why do I let other people intimidate me!  I have the right to homeschool my children and I wish I would be stronger in how I respond to people. I feel a lot better now that I joined HSLDA. I am so glad they are around.

Hello long, lost blog.  It really is my intention to write in my blog more often then every two months! 

I just got back from another awesome ladies retreat. God is just amazing. I love the time at the end when people can come up and share about the weekend.  It amazes me the way God works differently in each person, but uses the same speaker to to it.  The theme was, "What Women Want."   We want to be pursued, protected, and provided for and Jesus is the one who can meet all those wants!  We had a sweet time of communion at the end.  There weren't any tears shed on Friday night or all day Saturday and I was beginning to wonder if we would see any this year; I mean, what's a ladies retreat without the waterworks!  No need to worry they came on Sunday by the bucket fulls.  Thank goodness my roomate brought tissues. We were passing them down the row.

I've started school with the boys and so far it is going well.  DS1 is starting to get the whole reading thing. It is very exciting!  We still have a long road ahead of us, but atleast we have started on the road. 

Here is another gem I just read in the Home-Making book; "If Christ could be taught by his lowly parents for His glorious mission, where is the true parent who is not worthy to be his own child's guide and teacher."  If we are doing God's will, with God's help, then we can homeschool our children with all their challenges and struggles.

I was reading bits and pieces of a homeschooling magazine to my husband, about all that is going on in the public schools and he strongly stated that is why we homeschool our boys. I know he is all for homeschooling, but he leaves it all up to me and doesn't seem to talk much about it.  This is the first time I heard him passionate about us homeschooling them. It was a great feeling.

I was slow to get out of bed this morning so DS2 joined me. A little while later DS1 joined us.  DS2 says to DS1 as he climbed in to bed, " I love you so much!" I couldn't believe my ears. I thought my heart would explode.  Then he gave him a great big hug. It gets better. DS1 asked DS2 if he would pray for a cut he has on his knee; so DS2 prayed for his brother's cut. They are 6 years old. As I sat down to type this on the computer, I can still hear then chatting away in my bed.

Growing up, I was not a good sister to my little brother. As a result, we never had a relationship. I have always prayed that my boys would be the best of friends and to get along really well; even better then most siblings (because of the way I treated my brother).  This morning was music to my ears. I also believe that homeschooling has helped them to be closer, because they can spend so much time together. I can see that reading other people's blogs also.  They talk about how well their children get along. As of right now, my boys spend an equal amount of time getting along and fighting, but this morning I saw hope, that maybe, some day, there will be more time getting along then fighting.

Encouragement:

While driving my son home from speech therapy I was listening to one of the cd's I bought at the homeschool convention called making your home a joyful, peacful place. DS2 asked why I was listening to it.  I told him that I was trying to learn to be a better Mommy and to make our home a joyful, happy place. He says to me, "Mommy our home is already a joyful place." My heart just melted.  What a wonderful thing for him to say. I am glad that is how he sees our home.

Discouragement:

We were looking at camcorders tonight. My grandmother turns 95 years old on Sunday and we are having a party for her. There will be family and friends there that we haven't seen in a long time, so I wanted to be able to record it all (Our old camcorder broke). While shopping, the boys were playing with the camcorders that were on display. DS1 looks through one and says, "Mommy, you look tired.  Let me see your eyes again." Wasn't that sweet of him !?! I already know I am tired (and look it), but now my 5 year old son sees it too. I didn't think I looked that bad, but I must. Also, I walked past one camcorder and it showed my large backside on a very large tv screen. That wasn't something I needed to see! What a night!

We ended up with 5 butterflies. One of the ones that I thought didn't make it, made it! We watched them for a day and then let them go. They came out one at a time. The last two didn't seem to want to fly away.  There was one butterfly on each of the boy's hands. DS2's butterfly finally took off, but the one on DS1 didn't want to go anywhere. It was alot of fun to get to watch this butterfly up close. DS1 didn't want him to fly away either. Finally, I encouraged him to put his by one of our butterfly bushed and let the butterfly crawl onto it. The butterfly did and after a little while it flew away. DS1 followed it for as long as he could. If I knew how to post pictures on my blog I'd show you, but I don't (someday I'll learn how to do that!). 

The homeschool convention was great. I really like what I will be using with the boys. There was a problem at our hotel so we each ended up with our room for the price of one room!  We had ice cream for dinner one night and did whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted!  We had fun!

Here is the latest going-ons on our house. 

The boys "graduated" from Kindergarten yesterday from our Homeschool Learning Group. They were so excited and couldn't believe they would be in "1st Grade" in September and get to move to a different room. They couldn't wait to show Big Daddy their "diplomas".  Of course, I didn't have my camera or gifts for their teachers. I had my cell phone and tried to take pictures with that, but they didn't turn out well.

I tried Hooked on Phonics with DS1 and it didn't work well. I gave him time off and just recently started using "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons".  It is working really well. It is still a struggle for him to sound out words but he is starting. Today he read his first sentence: See me eat. He was so excited and ran to tell everyone in the house he could. He wants to read so badly.

I am leaving for our state's Homeschool Convention tomorrow and I couldn't be any more excited. I am going with my dear friend Angel from Aduladi' and Co. We are staying over night! This is the first time in 6 years that have gone away without a family member. This is a big step for me. I just haven't had the opportunity. We can do whatever we want whenever we want! Of course, we are only going to be away for lest then two days, but still, that's better then nothing. I do need a break from my house. Of course, DS2 is already telling me how much he is going to miss me. I will miss my boys and Big Daddy too, but it is nice to get away and then come back refreshed and ready to love on everybody again.

I never thought this would happen to us (I don't know why I didn't), but DH ate DS1's science experiement!  DH thought it was funny, me - not so much.  We were seeing how long it would take for grapes to turn into raisins. We were journaling what they looked like each day. I don't have any more grapes in the house. We don't usually do science experiements so I was excited that we started doing one. One I thought we could actually accomplishment (it seemed easy enough!). 

We also ordered caterpillars and have been watching them turn into chyrsalis' (I don't think I spelled that right, but I'm in a hurry and don't feel like looking it up in the dictionary!).  I was very excited because they are actually doing what they were made to do. We ordered ants last year and they didn't do so well. Some arrived dead and the rest slowly starting dying right away. They didn't make very exciting looking tunnels. The caterpillars arrived alived, so that was a good start. They started growing and are turning into chyrsalis'.  DH hasn't eaten them (yet!?!).  I think it is really cool to watch something that God created up close and seeing it turn into a butterfly. It is a miracle and very exciting.

A little background.  DS1&2 were born 3 months early. It was very frightening and we weren't sure if we'd have a future with them.  Thank you God, they did survive those difficult early years.  Because of their rough start anything they did was truely amazing and a miracle to us. I get so excited about everything and I hope people don't think it is because I think my boys are better then everybody else's. It's because I never thought I get to see them do anything. Last year the boys joined T-ball. We were at every practice and game with the camcorder and camera to capture it all! Again, not because we thought they were greater then everybody else, but because we never thought we'd get to see them play t-ball.  This year DS2 thought he was ready to move up to coach pitch. DS1 thought he was ready also, but after two practices, decided another year of t-ball would be better and he is doing great there (Kids usually play ateast 2 years of t-ball before moving on). Today was opening day. DS1 had his game first and he did great; not because he made great hits, made great stops or ran fast, it was because he stayed on the field. He didn't run off crying every 10 minutes telling us he wanted to quit (he did that last year).  He worked with his team and did his best.  We were so proud of him. The next game was for DS2. There is a big difference between T-ball and coach pitch. In T-ball every kid gets to hit every inning, there are no outs, the kids hit off the "t" and only three innings (which was good because it was freezing and drizzling out).  In coach pitch, the coach pitches them the ball, three strikes and your out and three outs and your team is out. From what I had seen at practice, DS2 had only hit the ball maybe two times in all his at bats.  His first time up to bat he struck out. I leaned over to my mom and whispered, in my most positive and encouraging mom voice, that hopefully by the end of the baseball seasion, DS2 would get a hit.  I was expecting very much of him and think that is because of all those years of not knowing what to expect.  I was just thrilled that they were alive to be playing baseball; it didn't really care how they did. Well, wouldn't you know it, his next up to bat he hits the ball and his next up to bat he hits the ball again! I was yelling and jumping up and down. I was so excited for him. He still seemed a little lost out there, but I think that will come over time (for example, he forgot to run to first base after he hit the ball and then he forgot to run to second base after the next guy hit the ball; so we had two guys on first base, and then he never knew what to do with the ball once he got it in the outfield).  As I was putting him to bed tonight, I told him I was so excited for him and prould of him and wondered how he felt after hitting the ball. Were you excited or shocked. He says, "I didn't feel anything". Typical guy answer I guess. It's a baseball game, there are no emotions involved! Just had to share my proud mama moments.

As I was tucking DS2 into bed, when oked up at  me and lovingly said Mommy. I told him that that was my favorite name and how I had always wanted to be a Mommy and how blessed I am that God has allowed me to be a Mommy; and that I wouldn't want to be anything else. So he says, what about a hot dog seller. I said, no, just your Mommy. What about a hot dog seller with your kids with you. I said, no, I just want to be at home with my kids. He thought that selling hot dogs would be boring, so he says he wants to sell marshmallows. For me, they would be free, but he would charge everyone else $5.00 and $86,000 to a bad guy. Of course, if the pirates came then we would have to run the other way! Then he says that he wants to be a Daddy. Just like his Daddy, because he is strong and tall. It was just such a sweet time with my son.  I wouldn't trade that time for all the hot dog selling booths in the world!

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The meeting tonight was excellent!  In just 4 meetings with DS1, she had him pegged. It was such an answer to prayer. It was such an eye-opener to us. Big Daddy and my parents came and it was so great that they were there.  We had lots of questions for her and she gave us some really helpful things to do with Sam. We also started to understand why he does what he does. There is a reason (whether it is sensory issue, reflex issue, visual tracking issue) for everything he does! We all kept saying, so that is why he does that! Of course, my mom starts crying. In part for relief, we finally have answers, in part because all these years we have been yelling at him and punishing him for things that he can't help. I feel terrible about that too, but we didn't know.  I am so glad we know now. She said that in time we will begin to see what is a sensory issue and what is a behavior issue. Right now though, it seems that everything is connected to the sensory issues.  We have a long road ahead of us. We really need to change our entire way of doing things with DS1. The OT has great ideas she will be implementing and then having us carry them through at home.  And like I said, she gave us ideas for some of the main issues we are dealing with right now, that we needed immediate help with. 

We all actually have 7 senses. For DS1, as the different senses are trying to interact with his brain, his brain is not allowing enough of the senses in, so he has to seek those senses himself (whether it is through hitting, running around, climbing on furniture, etc.).  He is working so hard at dealing with all the sensory stuff (which is just automatic for us, we don't even know our bodies are doing it) that he can't think about what I am teaching him in school or trying to get him to do.  It's just all so fasinating what she was telling us.  So, we need to help him finds ways to get the sensory imput he needs through other more appropriate ways. Instead of hitting his brother or himself, he can hit a punching bag. Instead of jumping on the furniture and crashing to the floor, he can have a section just for him filled with pillows that he can jump and crash into. Also, before starting school, have him do something physical so that it won't be so difficult to sit for 5 minutes to do a little school at a time. The same thing before sitting down to eat a meal, etc.  Thank you all for your prayers and support. I am feeling so much better after meeting with her.