Caps for Sale

Last week, we "rowed" "Caps for Sale" by Esphyr Slobodkina, and we had so much fun! From the first reading on Monday, Clayton absolutely loved the story. In fact, we're still having to wear our caps around here when we read it! We acted out the story all week with Clayton trying to balance many hats on his head like the peddler in the story. And of course we had to roll through the house yelling, "CAPS! CAPS FOR SALE! FIFTY CENTS A CAP!" But by far, his favorite part of the story is when the peddler gets so angry with the monkeys that he throws his hat down--we had to throw our hats down in the floor too and Clayton laughed until he hurt when we'd get to that! We definitely bonded while rowing this book. :) On Monday, as we were putting up our hats, Clayton looked at me and said, "Momma, give me a BIG hug!" Absolutely melted my heart!

On the bookshelf:

Caps for Sale

Casey's New Hat

IPOD Playlist:

Money by Ron Brown

Penny, Nickel, Dime Quarter by Ron Brown

The Animal Fair by Laurie Berkner

Resources:

Five in a Row Fold-n-Learn

Slobodkina.org

We did a few things to put in his notebook:

We counted caps and I managed to get him to help connect the red caps to create a "C."

We talked about the different hats people wear. He was mainly interested in the yellow construction hat that Daddy sometimes has to wear.

And we counted monkeys (he was willing to help write the first day, but not the second):

This next activity was harder for Clayton, but I wanted to go ahead and try it. I did all the actions myself as we talked about them, and then I pointed out the peddler doing the action.

We had several colors of these flashcards and we had a breakthrough this week on colors. Clayton always calls red, orange, and yellow PINK. This week was the first time he named them all correctly! I bragged and bragged on him, but of course he went back to everything being pink after that. He even had a slight grin on his face, so I know he was just working me instead of actually telling me the right color. . .

We made "Monkey Bars"--we have a ways to go on our cooking skills (me and him both!). I almost forgot to take a pic, but I remembered as we were putting them in the baking pan:


We also spent a lot of time talking about money. We mainly worked on identifying a penny, nickel, dime, and quarter and how much they are worth. We sang Ron Brown's two Money songs to help. He can tell you how much each is worth, but still can't tell the difference between the four. We'll get there!

Again, we had to wear our hats ALL. THE. TIME. and I'm sure this will continue for a while. On our walk:

In the house:

And even Jackson had to wear his:

It was such a great week last week, that I'm at a loss on living up to it this week! Hopefully I can make the next lessons just as interesting for him!

Best Laid Plans

So the last few days have seemed a bit hairy . . . It actually all started over the weekend when Clayton started getting a stuffy nose. His eyes were red and had a very slight rash on them by Sunday. He had a few slight desats during those nights and by Monday night, he needed oxygen. Full blown 1 LPM oxygen. :( Not really knowing what was up, I cancelled his therapy for Tuesday, but I still had to get my car to the Honda place for an oil change since They Only Take Appointments and you can't just Drop In for Service. Ugh. So I loaded up both boys, listened to Jackson scream the entire way there (have I told you he hates riding in the car?), get to the service department, only to realize that the tank holder for Clayton's chair isn't on the chair anymore since we didn't think we'd be needing it anymore. So I can't even get us all out of the car without one of the guys from the place helping us in with all of our stuff! We were there for over an hour, finally loaded up for the screaming ride back home. Clayton and I ate lunch and I tried to pick up the messes we had left from that morning. And then it was off to ACH for Clayton's two appointments. Oh, and by this time I had also realized that Brian had Clayton's bag in his truck. Good thing he was in LR as well because we don't go anywhere without the button supplies . . . so he met me at the hospital to fix the chair and help with the boys since it was also pouring rain. Clayton and I were lucky that Jackson fell asleep about halfway there . . . We go in to his first appointment, Clayton gets a new button (a new size that we're not sure he really needed), and then we're off to the next. By this time Jackson's good and hungry and screaming his head off for food. I had some BM, but it was frozen and of course this is the one clinic that you don't have to wait, so while I was fixing the bottle, they called us back. We finally got Jackson fed and had a good meeting with the doc. And then it was back home--Clayton rode with Daddy and Mommy got to listen to Jackson scream the. entire. way. home. Man, that child DOESN'T GIVE UP! Luckily, the rest of the night was easy-breezy, except for that darn O2 cord and extremely loud O2 concentrator. I can't believe we lived with those things for so long! They are so annoying now when they come out of hiding!

Fast forward to Wednesday: I let Clayton sleep in since I still wasn't sure if he was actually getting sick or just dealing with allergies. Decided we could do school after therapy since we would be cooking something for our lesson (Family, don't laugh). Of course, it's still pouring rain today and the wheelchair was only halfway fixed, so Brian had to meet us at the clinic in the rain to get it fixed right this time. Meanwhile, Jackson is just as upset about riding in the car as he was yesterday, so once again, it takes the whole fam to get Clayton into the clinic. Clayton of course gets upset because Daddy's leaving him so we have to just turn and run so we don't give in to that sad little face. Jackson screams the whole way home. And the whole way back to pick Clayton up. We get home, I feed Jackson, and then Clayton and I read our book for the week (he's loving it, by the way) and then I get him in his stander so he can help me cook. We are reading "Caps For Sale" so we all had our hats on--Momma, Clayton and Jackson. We're all ready to cook and then as soon as Clayton's in the stander, he starts complaining about his button hurting. And sure enough, it's leaking big time. So I get him out of the stander, and take the button out, only to irritate the skin and cause bleeding. Put it back in and then call the nurse. Leave a message and then sit and wonder if we should move on with cooking. Jackson's starting to fuss. While I'm deciding what to do and waiting for the nurse to call back, I fold clothes which puts Clayton in a huge funk. He whines the whole time and Jackson starts piping up as well. I finally decided we'd cook and get Clayton back in his stander. That's when the nurse calls back. The whole time I'm talking to her, both boys are SCREAMING. It was fun, let me tell you. She even started laughing because we couldn't hear each other. We finally decided there was no emergency and hung up. FINALLY started cooking with Clayton and of course since I am not a cook, we make a huge mess and about that time the doorbell rings. O2 Delivery Guy. Then Brian walks in and walks out to look at the tanks. Clayton immediately tunes up AGAIN. Our exciting, fun-filled afternoon making "Monkey Bars" just wasn't happening! By then, nobody is wearing their "caps" and we're just finishing the recipe so we can finish, not because it's fun anymore . . . when the monkey bars finally came out of the oven, Brian and I tasted them only to decide they weren't good enough for anyone else to eat (pretty much the norm for something I cook!). All that blood, sweat, and tears for something we didn't even like the tastes of!!!

Surely today will be a better day!!!

Something New!

Tara, creator of the Kidz Blog, has asked me to become a contributing writer! Click here for the announcement and for links to some other great blogging moms of some very special kids!

Not Even a Pre-Writer

So one of the few battles I've been fighting during these first few weeks of homeschooling has been writing. Boys typically develop handwriting skills later than girls and Clayton is even farther behind than the typical boy his age. He has never been interested in coloring and almost all of the prewriting practice I've had him do has been The Most Terrible Activity on the Planet. I decided today that I'll fight no more. If he's interested, I'll let him hold the writing utensil, and if not, I'll just hold it for him and write down what we're doing for him, if need be. And of course on the day I decide that, he was a willing helper in writing some numbers down!!

Corduroy

We just wrapped up our first week with Before Five in a Row. Corduroy is one of those classics that's been around forever, so it was perfect to start with.

On the bookshelf:
Corduroy
A Pocket for Corduroy

On the IPOD playlist:
What a Friend We Have in Jesus by The Wonder Kids
Penny, Nickel, Dime, Quarter by Ron Brown
Money by Ron Brown

Online Resources:
HomeschoolShare

ABCTeach.com

Doesn't he just look sooo excited to help mom take the pics???

We spent a lot of time working with buttons this week: sorting, counting, talking about colors, etc. And we even did some sewing (waaay out of my comfort zone!). It didn't take Clayton long to catch on to the pattern of sewing--front, back, pulling the thread tight . . . he helped me with both buttons after he figured out what I was doing. And when I stopped to take pictures he tried his best to do one himself. You can see he's concentrating by the lean he's got going on!

We had a bible verse for the week: Proverbs 17:17. Clayton halfway learned it--he could finish it if I started it for him. We listed all of his friends on the heart. He practiced writing his F's as well.

Again, counting and pre-writing:

We retold the story using this rhyme book--he had to put the right picture with the right part of the story.

We also used these flashcards from abcteach.com throughout the week. Today was our field trip to the mall. :) We went to Build-a-Bear and also went for a ride on the escalator since that's what Corduroy does in the book. He was a little overwhelmed in the Build-a-Bear store since he has so many sensory issues--a fluffy bear isn't exactly on his list of favorites! But he stayed pretty interested and mostly liked using the computer for the birth certificate. He did name his bear all on his own: Zacchaeus (which I incorrectly spelled on the birth certificate: Zacheus!) This has been his favorite song of late . . . Here are the pics from our day at the mall. I wanted to help him with everything, but as usual he preferred The Teacher's Aide (A.K.A. Daddy) to help him.

Cleaning the bear was fun for him--he loved the noise the machine made--sounded just like a vacuum cleaner!

All in all, a good week at school!

Blue Sky July

"It's the strangest time--a birth--for life to start falling apart."

I'm not usually into reading books about cerebral palsy. Especially the "self-help" ones that promise some miracle treatment. But after hearing so many moms talk about this particular book, I had to give it a look-see. And I'm so glad I did . . .

It's not about how to help your child, not about how to deal with different therapies, just a simple memoir of a mother whose child has severe CP. It's written so beautifully . . . I don't know if it's because she is a writer by trade or a combination of that with her UK brand of the English language, but she has such a way with words. It's the story of the first seven years of her son's life, and it's almost like poetry. It's hard to imagine someone could write so eloquently about such a difficult subject matter, but Nia Wyn does!

If you are the parent of a special needs child (especially a severely disabled one), please pick this book up and read it--it'll do your heart good!

Change of Heart?

In all his life, Clayton maybe slept a total of four hours in this crib. Never was interested in it one bit until the other day when he noticed Jackson having some fun in it. He just had to get in too! He sat up for a while but that wasn't good enough--since Jackson was laying there looking at the mobile, then of course he had to also!! Nevermind that he was as long as the actual crib!

They watched the mobile together, but then Clayton decided to start turning it off and on constantly. And you see what Jackson thought about that:

That's what brothers are for, right????

Five in a Row

This coming week, we start the only official curriculum I've invested in: Five in a Row. Or in Clayton's case, Before Five in a Row. This is what I've been the most excited about starting with him, I only hope he likes it as much as I do! FIAR uses the unit study approach to learning, built around classic books. Each week (or two if you'd like), you read (or "row") a particular book five days in a row. And with each reading, you incorporate a different subject's lesson based on the book. The lesson could be an obvious one from the book, i.e. learning each animal's name in the book; or it could be on something just mentioned once in the book, i.e. a study of a particular location. I feel like this approach to learning is great for Clayton simply because one thing that does usually get his attention is a good book. And I'm using the "Before" version because I don't think he's quite ready for the more involved lessons of the regular FIAR curriculum. I'm hoping this year will be a good starting point for a lifetime of him learning from good, classic books!

Weather Unit

This past week, Clayton and I completed a unit on the weather. I picked this topic because he's always discussing the rain and loves it when you need an umbrella!

On the bookshelf:
Weather Words and What They Mean by Gail Gibbons
What Color was the Sky Today? by Miela Ford
I Call it Sky by Will C. Howell
Clouds by Anne Rockwell
Down Comes the Rain by Franklyn M. Branley
Flash, Crash, Rumble, and Roll by Franklyn M. Branley
Noah's Ark adapted by Shawn South Aswad

IPOD Playlist:
Rainbows by Ron Brown
Rain, Sleet, Hail, or Snow by Ron Brown
Noah's Arky Arky by The Wonder Kids
Who Built the Ark? by The Wonder Kids
I'm a Little Snowflake by Laurie Berkner

Online Resources:
HomeschoolShare
First-School

We started out the week by discussing the different types of weather we may see: sunny, snowy, rainy, windy, stormy, and cloudy.

We talked about what the weather was like each day (in very general terms).

He likes the interactive pieces in his notebook!!

On Wednesday, we read the story of Noah and talked about rainbows and their colors. Clayton learned that "God keeps His promises."

We also talked about temperature. Clayton learned that when the temperature is high, it's really HOT and when the temperature is low, it's really COLD.

We did some other prewriting activities, although mostly against Clayton's will . . . W for Weather and S for Snow. He just fights me tooth and nail on holding pencils and crayons. I'll be glad when he is motivated to write like other kids--if he was halfway interested, he would make a lot more progress.

All in all we had a good week. I knew before we ever started his inability to focus would be my main battle and that problem definitely showed up during this unit! But the good news is he is telling everyone he has "HOME SCHOOL" or he learned it "at the house." :) So hopefully the higher motivation will soon follow!

It Was Inevitable

When you come out of the womb chewing on your hands, I guess it's a given you'll be a thumbsucker. I was doing my best to keep it out of his mouth, but I was fighting a losing battle. Now I just pray he's not still sucking on it when he's five!