Between the Worlds - Homeschool Blogger

NDD Therapy Update

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:35:00 -0500

Over the last few months, I've had people find my blog as they're investigating Anna Buck's Neuro-Developmental Delay Therapy that we've had my son in since last January. I had meant to blog regularly about his progress, but it appears I haven't written much (if anything) about it since shortly after we started. So I thought I'd update with some of the changes we've noticed in him since beginning:

Reading: Before starting NDD therapy, he had a hard time reading anything more complex than a simple picture book with a few sentences on each page, even after months of Vision Therapy. However, last summer he became interested in novels written for his age level (he's 10 1/2) and started reading books like The Lightning Thief. His eyes still tire after 4 or 5 pages, but it's a huge step over a short period of time.
Clumsiness: Many friends have told me they noticed he's much more aware of his body and a lot less clumsy than before. He's obviously much more aware of his body, and much of that change shows in drawings of people - he started drawing pictures of people with features like ears and hair and the occasional neck.
Panic/Anger: He was always the kind of child who would fly into a panic or get overly angry over small things - losing something, getting surprised, things not going as expected. Wow, he is so much more calm as the "startle" reflex has inhibited over the last several months. If he loses something, he will just look for it and persist until he finds it instead of screaming in frustration and impatiently expecting me to look for it.
Hyperactivity: Much of this has decreased, but I'm beginning to notice a pattern that couldn't have been obvious when he acted hyper and impulsive all the time. Now it appears to be related to his diet, and we're making some small changes (agave nectar as a substitute for sugar, for example) and considering more significant changes (like significantly reducing carbohydrates in his diet).

We still have a way to go, but it's so exciting to see the changes in him. And we started taking my daughter to see Anna as well. She didn't have as many of the obvious reflex problems that her brother had, but she has had auditory processing and brain integration difficulties that have really interfered with her reading ability and memory. Since she started in September, she is beginning to read much better than before. She has another 3 weeks of "Listening Fitness Therapy," after which the auditory processing problem should be pretty much resolved. Perhaps I'll remember to update about that when she's done!

To Treat or Not To Treat

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:18:00 -0500

I wrote this a couple of years ago as a fun parody of Hamlet's famous soliloquy - it isn't meant to make any kind of judgement on whether or not we chose to participate in the activities of Halloween but simply to muse whimsically on the choice. I thought it might be worth posting again for your amusement. Enjoy!

To treat or not to treat -- that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The rings and knocks of outrageously-clad neighbors

Or to turn off the lights against a sea of begging

And by opposing end it. To hide, to flee --

No candy -- and by fleeing to say we end

The toothaches, and the thousand natural knocks

A door is disposed to. 'Tis a quietness

devoutly to be wished. To hide, to flee --

To flee -- perhaps to eat out: ay, there's the rub,

For in that escape from home what chance may come

When we have shuttled off in the minivan,

Must give us pause. There's the amusement

That makes savage such young lives.

For who would bear the nicks of pumpkin-carving knives,

Th' oppressive weight gain, the proud child's costume

The pangs of despised sugar, the delayed arrival,

The insolence of teens, and the forced thanks

That persistent merit of the giver takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a darkened porch light? Who would Snickers bear

To walk and walk under a heavy coat,

But for the dread of chill on an October night,

The carefully planned costume, now hidden,

No treat-donor guesses, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather compliment the unknown

Than offer them hot apple cider?

Thus conscience does make givers of us all,

And thus the expense of bags of candy

Is compensated with the sticky return of children.

And creative enterprise of the moment

With this regard our apples throw away

And lose the chance for health. Quick you now,

Fairy Princess, Knight, Mermaid, Pirate --

Be all my Skittles remembered.

with apologies to Wm. Shakespeare.

The Laundry Poem

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 15:09:00 -0500

composed by my very clever and understanding husband as we sorted post-vacation laundry

Laundry, laundry, so much laundry -

This is my eternal quandary.

Some's been worn and some has not

(My children do forget a lot).

Down to wash and up to fold:

So does my whole life unfold.

Wash it now and wash it later.

I am the laundry elevator.

Nature Walks

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:07:00 -0500

Yesterday, I felt the kids & I REALLY needed a break from the books. We're wrapping up our 7th week of school, and we can't usually make it more than 6 weeks without losing motivation and needing a break. (That's part of the reason I start in late July/early August - so we have freedom to take breaks fairly often and can still finish in mid-May.) Since we haven't had a break other than Labor Day, I decided to do a field trip day and take a hike. Living in Colorado, I reasoned, it makes no sense to sit indoors all the time and not enjoy the beauty all around us. We ended up at a creek not far from us. While there, we enjoyed seeing a couple of beaver dams (but no beavers around - the dams are old), a man-made dam with water flowing through the sluice gate, and a woolly bear caterpillar. We don't see woolly bears around here very often - this may be the 2nd I've seen since living in Colorado for 12 years - so it was cool to explain to the kids how we used to predict our winters by the woolly bears we saw when I was a kid growing up in Maryland.

Then today, my son & I took the dog out for a walk, and she found us another very cool item:

I think the snake must have finished shedding its skin not long before we found it because the dog kept reacting like it was a live animal. And it wasn't totally dried out. So we brought it home, did a little internet research on why and how snakes shed their skins, and put the skin in a jar to preserve. Gotta love how great learning opportunities show up on the days when we're taking a break from school!

Homeschool Parents: Certified Teachers?

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:07:00 -0500

This is the text of a speech I delivered at my Toastmasters group this morning. It seemed to do a good job persuading my audience not just toward my opinion, but that it's something they should be well-informed about.

Just over a year ago, a judge in California caused quite a stir within the Homeschool community. In a case that had to do with parental neglect issues, he ruled that parents did not have rights to determine their children’s education choices and ordered the children into a public school setting because neither parent was a certified teacher. Now, as shocking as that ruling was – and it was eventually overturned by a higher state court – it probably seems irrelevant to most of you since you’re not homeschoolers. But I believe it is important to be aware of the issues surrounding homeschooling for two reasons. First, education is always a hot-button political issue. If you want to make intelligent choices in voting or communicate intelligently with your political representatives, it is important to be well-informed on the issues. Second, a court may be ruling today about appropriate educational choices for our children – and tomorrow the judge may be ruling about appropriate health-care choices for your children, your parents, or even you. When we allow the government to interfere in personal choices that don’t matter to us, we risk allowing them to eventually interfere in personal choices that do in fact matter.

With this in mind, I want to share with you this morning four reasons why homeschooling parents can be highly successful teachers without state certification. Much of what I have to say today springs from conversations I have had with certified teachers who now Homeschool their own children. They have given me insight into the teacher education process and how it helps – or doesn’t help – in teaching their children at home.

One of the reasons critics believe homeschoolers require state certification is for accountability to be sure they really are educating their children at home and not sitting around watching TV. I agree with that. Colorado law does provide that accountability. Just like children in public schools take the CSAP test, our children are required to take a nationally standardize test or be professionally evaluated every other year beginning in 3^rd grade to demonstrate they are making adequate educational progress. With this kind of accountability, no homeschooled child will be “left behind.”

Second, if you think about some of the things that help students succeed, one very important element is how well the teacher knows their student. When a teacher understand their students’ learning styles, likes and dislikes, and status of their home life, then that teacher can customize lesson plans to help individual students. Now, I ask you, who knows a child better than the parent who spends every day with them, year after year? A Homeschool parent has no “learning curve” where the students are concerned. Before the school year begins, I already know I have one right-brained, visual learner who learns best in the early morning and is highly motivated by opportunities to play on the computer and a left-brained, auditory learner whose favorite subject is Art and does best if allowed to sleep as late as possible. I can anticipate how my children will respond to new material and structure the day to best fit their personal styles. So if some of the best teachers are those who know their students best, then homeschoolers certainly fit the bill.

And if good teachers are those who know their students well, then even better are those teachers who care about their students’ success. The current emphasis on testing to provide teacher and school accountability attempts in part to motivate teachers to be personally invested in their students’ success. This kind of motivation can work to a certain point, but it can never create a loving relationship between teacher and student like that of mother and child. Allow me to read you a quote from Elizabeth, a mother who is homeschooling her two children, one of whom is high-functioning autistic: “I am not going to give up on my kids…a teacher might think that they have tried everything but they don’t know how to reach my son, and after one year he won’t be their responsibility anymore, but I am his teacher and his mom and I will always keep trying.” Homeschooling parents are much more personally invested in their children’s success than those who teach one year at a time.

Finally, if you still believe that anyone who is involved in educating the next generation should be well-trained, then I assure you that homeschooling parents do seek out all kinds of training resources. I know homeschoolers from coast to coast across this country, and Ido not know a single one who does not read books, attend conferences and seminars, seek out and evaluate curriculum resources, and ask questions of other homeschooling parents in order to do the best job possible in educating their children. Even my friends who have education degrees from college and state certification say that they are constantly doing these things to fill in gaps related to their current situations. They agree that the resources available to homeschoolers are quite comparable to what they learned in teacher training. Since homeschooling parents are personally invested in their children’s education – not just because they know their children will be tested but because they want their children to succeed – they do take advantage of all kinds of training resources.

With the training that homeschool parents seek out, their personal investment in their children's success, their knowledge of their students, and their accountability to the state, they are well-equipped to teach their children without the additional burden of state certification. Are they good teachers for their children? Yes! Do they need a piece of paper from the state to prove it? No!

How Do You Eat Oreos?

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:46:00 -0500

We gave the kids a couple of Oreos yesterday evening. Watching them - especially my daughter - eat the cookies, I started wondering, "What does this say about their personalities?" I thought surely someone has come up with some kind of quiz to tell you about your personality based on how you eat Oreos, and, sure enough, this quiz is all over the internet:

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Choose which method best describes your favorite method of eating Oreos:

The whole thing all at once.
One bite at a time
Slow and methodical nibbles examining the results of each bite afterwards.
In little feverous nibbles
Dunked in some liquid (milk, coffee...).
Twisted apart, the inside, then the cookie.
Twisted apart, the inside, and toss the cookie.
Just the cookie, not the inside.
I just like to lick them, not eat them.
I don`t have a favorite way because I don`t like Oreos.

Made you choice?

Your Personality:

1. The whole thing.

This means you consume life with abandon. You are fun to be with, exciting, and carefree with some hint of recklessness. You are totally irresponsible. No one should trust you with their children.

2. One bite at a time.

You are lucky to be one of the 5.4 billion other people who eat their Oreos this very same way. Just like them, you lack imagination, but that`s okay, not to worry, you`re normal.

3. Slow and Methodical.

You follow the rules. You`re very tidy and orderly. You`re very meticulous in every detail with every thing you do to the point of being anal retentive and irritating to others. Stay out of the fast lane if you`re only going to go the speed limit.

4. Feverous Nibbles.

Your boss likes you because you get your work done quickly. You always have a million things to do and never enough time to do them. Mental breakdowns run in your family. Valium and Ritalin would do you good.

5. Dunked.

Every one likes you because you are always up beat. You like to sugar coat unpleasant experiences and rationalize bad situations into good ones. You are in total denial about the shambles your life is in. You have a propensity towards narcotic addiction.

6. Twisted apart, the inside, and then the cookie.

You have a highly curious nature. You take pleasure in breaking things apart to find out how they work, though not always able to put them back together, so you destroy all the evidence of your activities. You deny your involvement when things go wrong. You are a compulsive liar and exhibit deviant, if not criminal, behavior.

7. Twisted apart, the inside, and then toss the cookie.

You are good at business and take risk that pay off. You take what you want and throw the rest away. You are greedy, selfish, mean, and lack feelings for others. You should be ashamed of yourself. But that`s ok, you don`t care, you got yours.

8. Just the cookie, not the inside.

You enjoy pain.

9. I just like to lick them, not eat them.

Stay away from small furry animals and seek professional medical help - immediately.

10. I don`t have a favorite way, I don`t like Oreo cookies.

You probably come from a rich family, and like to wear nice things, and go to up-scale restaurants. You are particular and fussy about the things you buy, own, and wear. Things have to be just right. You like to be pampered. You are a prima donna. There`s just no pleasing you.

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But here's the funny thing: neither my daughter nor I fit any of these. My son is an "eat it all at once, live life with abandon" kind of person, no question. Or he dunks sometimes - and that fits his "messy" lifestyle, too.

I (like my mother, interestingly) like to take the cookie apart, eat one cookie half, and then nibble through the other cookie half with the filling. That doesn't fit any of these categories - maybe the slow, methodical personality. Or maybe a mixture of several.

But my daughter is the one who is totally off the chart. She takes the whole thing apart into 3 layers. Then she slowly nibbles away at the cookies while occasionally taking a small nibble or lick of the filling. It can take that child 10 minutes to eat one Oreo! I think it shows her complete artistic personality - she absolutely marches to her own drummer. You can see it in how she chooses to dress (often with a swath of fabric wrapped around somewhere just for a little "splash"). And she always wants to do something musical, crafty or arty. But at the same time, she has a tendency to be very methodical and perfectionist in things - this is the child who used to sort her M&M's by color before eathing them. I don't know if it shows that she's a crazy, mixed up person or not - but it's how God made her, and I find it refreshing.

So, be honest, how do you eat your Oreos?

Life as a Mogul Run

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 14:33:00 -0500

When I was about 13 years old, my dad & I went with a church youth group on a ski trip to Wisp Mountain in Western Maryland. At the time, Wisp was well-known for The Face - a run on the face of the mountain covered with moguls. Huge moguls. Moguls as tall as me (I was pushing 5 feet at the time). But Dad skiied well and helped me learn to ski the moguls, so I learned to make it down The Face alive and uninjured.

Fast forward about 30 years. I've been up and down The Face of life a number of times and hit some pretty rough mogul fields: infertility, depression, marriage and parenting struggles. Sometimes I've made it over the moguls with grace, and sometimes I have completely wiped out. And sometimes when I wiped out, I created obstacles that made the track harder for others around me. I have rarely picked myself up after crashing - usually someone has come alongside me and extended a hand of grace to help me get up and keep going.

Lately I've seen a lot of people I love hit some pretty big moguls. Some are falling because someone else wiped out in front of them. Others are seeing a mogul coming and don't know how they're going to get over it. I wish I had the right words to help them through these tough times. The best I know is to listen, pray, and offer support and encouragement.

"You, my friends, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 2:1)

"If anyone lacks wisdom, let them ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to you." James 1:5

Helping the Homeless

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:59:00 -0500

What do you do when you see a person standing on the side of the road holding up a sign telling you they need food and money?

I usually drive by, wishing I at least had a granola bar or something to give them, but unwilling to hand out money. And then I have a looooong conversation with my kids about why that person is standing there in the median and why I didn't give them any money.

One of the moms from my homeschool group got a great idea from her husband for what she started calling "Bags of Blessing" to help homeless people. (Shout out to ya, Angela!) Several families got together last week and put together ziploc bags (gallon-sized) filled with very helpful items that we can carry around in our cars and hand out to people we see in need. The bags include:

water bottle
2 pkgs of vitamin-enhanced flavor powder (to add to the water)
granola bar
toothbrush (generously donated by a local dentist)
toothpaste (ditto on the donation)
hand sanitizer
lip balm
tarp or rain poncho
Bible

I also hope to buy a roll of bus tokens to put in each bag as well.

Very simple and not very expensive (without the bus tokens, they're about $4 each) - and a ton of fun for a group of families to do together. And now I don't have to feel quite so helpless to help the homeless.

Re-entry

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:41:00 -0500

My son is driving me crazy.

"There's nothing to eeeeaat," he whines. "Nothing good, anyway."

I have just returned from a third-world country where children are quite literally starving to death. Malnourished babies aren't getting their prescribed nutritional supplement because they have to compete with other family members for it (and a baby can't stand up and say, "That's my mamba! You can't eat it!") People of all ages live on a staple diet of rice and beans and maybe some goat or chicken day after day after day.

And my son stands in front of a pantry and refrigerator fully stocked with a variety of nutritious food (some of which he begged me to buy for him) and complains about his choices.

I can't get that kid to Haiti fast enough.

Reflections on Returning Home from Haiti

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:54:00 -0500

cross-posted from the "Pneumas in Haiti" blog

Haiti gets into you.

It gets under your skin and up your nose and all over your feet.

It pours over your head like a cold shower and drips out of your pores.

It slams your vision with images of people - faces you may or may not remember, but in places you will never forget: thronging an open market, picking through a garbage heap, lying alone in a crib reaching up to be held.

It won't be silent, filling your ears with beeping horns, crowing roosters and enthusiastic music at all hours of the day and night.

As it jostles you down rutted roads, it jolts your expectations with startling contrasts: tin-roofed concrete block houses surrounded by lush mango trees, a beautiful home that lacks running water, families bathing and washing clothes in a muddy river minutes away from a clear blue ocean.

And, somehow, while you are distracted by all of its sights, sounds, and smells, Haiti creeps and seeps into your soul. Compassion for its people wraps around your heart and squeezes until you weep for the overwhelming multitude of needs. Who can fix it? No amount of money seems sufficient to satisfy all the starving children, build the necessary infrastructure, and educate millions of illiterates. You begin to understand the mindset of people who live only for today because there is no hope for tomorrow.

But there are bright beacons of hope shining with the love of Jesus all through Haiti. No one can fix everything, but each can help some. Offering hope to a handful of people at a time, they follow God's call to bring up a generation with hope beyond today or tomorrow ... hope into eternity.

Pray for these people who are committing their lives to serve the Lord in Haiti.

And pray for Kris, Andy, Linette, Rebecca, Shane, Michael and me as we seek how God wants to use us in and for Haiti's people. We can wash off our bodies, but we can never rinse Haiti's hold out of our hearts.