Archive for January, 2016

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Fall & the Holidays


2016
01.10

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imageThe fall was busy as usual.

Daily outings:

Monday – hippotherapy

Tuesday – speech therapy & Park Day

Wednesday – 4-H, Forest School and OT

Thursday – violin private class

Friday – Co-op

Saturday – group violin

 

Even with this busy schedule we managed to stay home until after lunch Monday – Thursday.  We tried a new scheduling and learning approach.  Cisco got one hour per day to do arts and crafts and reading time with Mommy (brother liked participating too). Big Brother then got an hour of my time so we could work on projects and reading together.

Big Brother tried his hand at having more freedom to control his learning.  He did Beast Academy for math, cursive practice, a Brave Writer beginner Writing class with mom, Sassafras Biology and geography.  He had a checklist he had to cover each week.  I also had bins for the main topics that he could choose activities from.  I got the idea from the Savvy Homeschool Moms Podcast.

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It worked great for awhile.  He had a great time.  Then a few appointments and distractions left him unmotivated and turned into arguments and decreased ability to finish.  It is one of the difficulties we have time and time again.  If I’m not fully engaged and continually motivating, he looses interest.  Then we took thanksgiving to new years off to focus on holiday crafting and holiday time off.

Big Brother is now trying “Homeschooling Boys Library Based Curriculum Journal.” The jury is still out on this one.  Big Brother says he liked picking his own topics and books for this but we had trouble with motivation.  I’m hoping it goes better this coming week.

The holidays were spent at home.  Thanksgiving was hosted at our house with our two single guy friends joining us.  It was nice enough outside to enjoy sitting on the patio table while the turkey cooked in the smoker all day.  Christmas Eve was at home and Christmas Day we were with our dear friends we’ve spent Christmas with each Christmas for years.  We made crochet wash clothes, pictures, photo books and necklaces for gifts.  The boys enjoyed getting lots of gifts including a sturdy Melissa and Doug shopping cart for Cisco he used constantly for several days and Duplo, and Dr. Who LEGO and a Robotic Arm enjoyed by Big Brother.image image image imageimage

 

 

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Cisco’s First Steps


2016
01.10

Posted in Ocular Motor Apraxia, special needs, strabismus | No Comments »

Cisco took his first true steps this Monday! He was working with his new PT (first real session as we did an evaluation before Christmas). He stood about 5 seconds at the end of his last winter hippotherapy session in mid-December and I have got him to stand a few seconds here or there but not by his choice. In our first session with Children’s Therapy Center his therapist had him standing 5-6 seconds several times and then had him walking with help down the hall. Then it was time to go back to his room and on the way in she had him walk toward her and he made it 8 steps with her scooting back then he fell on her. It was amazing. We have waited so long for this day. He will be 4 in February. This woman is amazing so we quickly contacted her after thinking more sessions during this important milestone would really help. We will see her two times per week this month and maybe next. During our second session this week he did 5-6 steps several times then 10 steps although he will only do 3-4 at home with lots of work and tricks from us. Unfortunately, we can’t keep up this pace for long. PT is our only therapy right now (we also do OT, speech and hippotherapy throughout the year) and insurance will only help cover 75 sessions per year of all therapies regardless of diagnoses. I hope to be posting pictures or video of his walking soon.

In other news, we have had a busy fall. During home-preschool we focused on learning colors through stories and art projects along with therapy practice. Cisco had weekly speech therapy that we discontinued because while his verbal skills are improving we felt our therapist was lacking new ideas, we did OT which we are taking a break from, and we did hippotherapy that is off for the winter. The NP at our Physical Medicine doctors office empowered us to take big breaks. She says that the present research is supporting intensive therapy with long breaks to helps families not become burnt out and better outcomes. I had been feeling this way but felt guilty when I felt we needed a break from one therapy or another.

For the winter we plan to focus on numbers and fine motor skills from wooden puzzles to Montessori type scoop and pincher activities in addition to walking/standing practice.

 

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