Ten Random Things About Me

Stephanie at A Room of My Own tagged me to do a meme naming ten random things about myself. I feel so special 🙂 Of course, after reading various other blogger’s responses, I always then have a hard time coming up with my own original categories, but I’ll give it a good try . . .

Ten Random Things About Me

1. I grew up in the same small town my mother did (population about 5,000) up in Allegan, Michigan. I was born and raised until 12 years old in a house my parents rented from her parents inside the city limits one block from the local elementary school. My parents then acquired four acres across the road from these same grandparents in the same city just outside of town where I lived until I left home.

2. I was a major tomboy growing up, constantly following my two older brothers into their sports games with the neighborhood children. I followed the adage, “Anything boys can do, girls can do better”, and I would set myself up to prove it. I was a Daddy’s girl, so I think I adopted this perspective from him.

3. I have always been a “defender of the underdog” ever since I can remember. I just could not stand idly by if I saw someone picking on someone at school or around my neighborhood. By junior high school time, I decided it was time to change how I did this when the boys were now beginning to have actual fist fights with blood flying. I stepped into the middle of this type of thing a time or two, as I always did in elementary school, but recognized the potential risk involved.

4. I was extremely shy up until fourth grade at which time I completely changed when the “most popular boy” stated that he liked me. I know, kinda sad, and yet, I’m so thankful that I had that experience that helped me turn into that social butterfly with confidence. I don’t know why I was so painfully shy before, and I don’t know why this experience changed me so dramatically.

5. Another “gag me” confession about my school life. I was a cheerleader for four years with basketball and four years with football. The funny thing is that the only reason I first got started was my best friend at the time SO wanted to try out in seventh grade, it was the only girl sport offered in that grade, and she begged me to tryout with her. I made the squad; she didn’t. Figures. Of course, having tagged along with my brothers for so many years playing football and baseball especially, I knew about the games I was cheering for. Also, in my junior year, our squad competed and recieved fifth place in the state; the best for our little school. We did a three man high mount when they were still allowing such things. The next year, they banned mounts above 1.5 people high.

6. My absolutely favorite sport I played in high school for four years was fast pitch softball. I was the smallest player on the team, the worst batter for many years, and I was the starting catcher! For those not in the “know”, most catchers are the biggest players and a strong batter. What I lacked in strength, however, I made up for in speed (agility, not running speed). I had a traditional coach/player moment my senior year. I was literally the strike out queen. I dreaded hearing the groan from my team when they knew I was up next. Early in the season, the coach needed a relief batter (someone to bat for someone else), and usually you will pick the person who can bat best who isn’t playing at the time. She chose me. Everyone’s jaw dropped, but not further than mine. I gave the coach a questioning look, and she simply gave me a thumbs up. I guess she saw potential in me, but the lack of confidence. Well, I went up and hit a double, and from there, it was history. I was one of the top batters for the year.

7. My hubby and I were high school sweethearts. He was the only young man I actively pursued. Usually, the guys pursued me, and when the chase part was done, I’d drop them. I knew my hubby was different, and I was waiting until I was ready for a more serious relationship. We dated our entire senior year, I then went off to college, and about three months into that, he went and served a eighteen month mission for our church in Concepcion, Chile. I wrote to him weekly and within two months of his return, we were married (eloped, actually).

8. I have an associates degree in Executive Secretarial Science. Truthfully, it’s only because of my teachers that this even occurred. My parents were not big on parenting nor did they have any clue as to how to open the world to me. I discovered in my senior year that I was pretty talented in typing (got up to 100 words per minute) and transcription (got up to 140 words per minute). Our particular high school had their focus in this area as a place of “speciality”; other area city high schools had other areas (small town focused skills). My secretarial teachers encouraged me to apply to a business school, using class time to bring in nearby colleges to share what they offered. My teachers took a special interest in me because of my talent. I probably would not have gone to any college without someone sharing their belief in me. No one ever mentioned the possibility before this time, so I had never even taken the SAT/ACT because I didn’t know it existed. Going into this field for a season was perfect for my plans to be married and put my hubby through university.

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9. A life changing course I took in college was my Introduction to Psychology. Interesting how I had no idea how psychology would later come into my life. This professor opened this small town girl’s eyes in a huge way. He showed me how my perspective was but minute compared to bringing in other vantage points from other’s experiences. He showed me how we give power to others or things, and that we can choose to take that power back. He introduced me to Leo Buscaglia, who helped me want to choose to keep my child-like wonder and excitement in my life (again, how much did that set the scene for my homeschooling life later!). He showed me that I had a unique talent in being able to influence people, and to never choose to use that power for selfish purposes.

10. I am a huge “party in the mouth” person, to take the phrase Oprah used to refer to eating as a reward or guilty pleasure. Most of my married life, when evening comes and the children are in bed, I grab either potato chips and French Onion dip and a pop, microwave popcorn and a pop, or other such chippy type of food and plop in front of whatever my latest TV craze is . . . mine currently is realty TV shows . . . I know, sad . . . I also live for chocolate. There’s good and bad. My genetic make-up is such that it never shows on my body. But, remember, one can die skinny :-0 I have no exterior motivations, and it’s hard to create an internal one . . .

Okay, so I wasn’t very random with my list. Boy, is my sequential personality showing through as I went from childhood up to present . . . LOL! But, it was really fun to share what has shaped my life and who I am today.

I hope you learned a little bit more about me . . . and still want to come back . . . LOL!

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Me, somewhere between 18 months and 2 years old

Getting Started . . . Again

I can’t believe October is almost done, and I have but a single post on my blog to show for it! We actually don’t do a lot of full out family vacations and/or overnight activities, so when we went away for the week to the beach mid-September, and then a few weeks later, we went to a homeschooling weekend camp trip at the beginning of October, it has thrown me completely off any type of rhythm. This week is the first time I feel a sense of finding my place again.

As indicative of my sidebar, I have two yahoo groups that I moderate that have been in existence for seven years and 1.5 years, respectively, so I feel a commitment to putting in some effort there to catch up and connect with my fellow listmates, some of whom have become great friends IRL! By the time I get around to working with my blog, the desire to write is gone, and I find it difficult to write if I don’t feel like it. So, instead, I have kept up on reading my fellow blogger’s posts and throw in my comments here and there, but otherwise, haven’t carved out the creative time I can devote to posting on my blog.

The last thing that has taken some of my attention away is a person was found to work with William through my state service organizations. Although I wasn’t sure I was ready to train someone, it was apparent she would be a good fit, and I felt I needed to give it a try. After a few days of training, I got the clever idea to have her also work with Adam as well. After a week and a half of training, my heart just isn’t in it to put in the appropriate level of training to get her at a place to know how to interact in a way that works for my children and our family while implementing the goals in a fun way utilizing their unique learning styles. So, I decided to follow my heart and let her know that I’m just not prepared to train her properly and that we need a break from outsider energy.Psychological Causes When no physical causes discount levitra bought this can lead to male dysfunction.

Now that all of that is decided, this week I’ve been able to find a new rhythm that works for all of us. Give me a couple weeks, and maybe I can share some of what’s happening and how it’s going. I just feel great about getting back into the groove of a chunk of time dedicated to my screen goals, and hopefully that will include a more consistent time back in my blog 🙂

Life Without School Post: Answering the Question, “How Do You Homeschool?”

My post is up at Life Without School called, Answering the Question, “How Do You Homeschool?” At a community meeting, I ended up in a conversation with a woman who was interesting in learning information about seriously considering homeschooling her daughter, and the article is about that conversation, the things I shared, and the things I find hard to help othersSudden power outage would mean these machines coming to a halt and the entire levitra generika Recommended store production line going for a toss. understand in such conversations.

Sorry I haven’t been on for a while to update a post on my own blog here. Life has become so busy, particularly as we have taken a couple of family trips. I’ll try to get back into the swing of things here soon. I’m trying to catch up on my e-mail lists as well.

Beach Vacation

Our family enjoyed a weeklong beach vacation at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with our great homeschooling family friends who invited us along to this annual get-away for their family. We have three sets of children who “match up” as friends: our daughters (16 and 17), our teen sons (13 and 15), and our little sons (5, 5, and 7). We moms have a WHOLE lot in common with homeschooling, foster care, cross-cultural adoption, special needs children, large families, and religious. That’s a whole lot in common that I have a hard time finding in the world. Even with all our similarities, the way we go about each of these can be quite different, but it works to bring in ideas versus limit us.

Our family had never taken a vacation to the beach before. In fact, sad to say, having lived in North Carolina now for six years, we’ve only taken day trips to the beach about three times. I wasn’t sure how my family would take to this type of vacation. We rented a condo . . . two bedrooms . . . nine people . . . LOL! Actually, though, the small space has its benefits . . . easier to keep clean, in my opinion!

I estimated that William, Joseph, and Adam would LOVE the ocean. I was right. I guessed that Abbey and Eli would enjoy themselves because they had good friends to enjoy it with. I was right. I assumed that Alex, who hates the water and doesn’t know how to swim because of it at 11 years old, and Eric, who had no one to match up with and doesn’t have a strong interest in water/swimming/ocean, would tolerate it. They both did better than that!

I knew Alex was interested in “the babies” (my friend has two babies at 16 months and 12 months; one adopted, one by birth), and I had hoped that one of us would have ceiling fans in our condo (our friends did; ours didn’t), but I wasn’t sure if that would be enough for a whole week’s entertainment value. Well, not only did Alex enjoy those two aspects of the trip, but he went in the ocean on many occasions (with a life jacket I brought along) and really, really enjoyed it! (Maybe that’s my foot into encouraging him to try swimming again?)

Eric brought along his game systems and enjoyed the solitude of our long absences to the beach (which was right outside the doors of the condo . . . about 10 feet!). However, the last three nights, the five oldest children between the family (19, 17, 16, 15, and 13) played a Cranium game I picked up that I heard was a bunch of fun, and the bonding among the group occurred, which Eric enjoyed, as they continued staying up to around 1:00 a.m. each night either watching movies, going to a museum, etc., together.

A side benefit, that Stephanie of Throwing Marshmallows mentioned on my Homeschooling Creatively list, is that Adam’s consistent time thrashing against the ocean waves allowed him to fall asleep on his own initiative around 10:30 p.m. without the help of his melatonin the last three nights! Because of the effects of autism, Adam’s normal wake/sleep cycle is 18 hours awake/12 hours asleep, which equals 30 hours a day, which doesn’t happen (don’t we wish), so he could cycle all the way through the night every so often. It could also often take him 2-3 hours to fall asleep. Finally, I decided to try melatonin to help him, and oh boy, has it ever! It now only takes him about 15 minutes to fall asleep, and he goes to bed around midnight and awakens around 10:00 a.m., and it’s really working for us now. But, it was nice that the deep and intense sensory input that the waves created for him allowed him the same sleep benefit as the melatonin 🙂

My hubby, Weston, was only able to stay through to Monday afternoon before he had to high tail it back to work. (Not being salaried has its downside; the upside is the fantastic money that is earned as a consultant . . . we’ll endure the season, and, as my mother-in-law says, “make hay while the sun shines.”) Before he left, he had some great times in the ocean with the boys (and girl), but particularly the three who love the ocean. We also went to see Ripley’s Aquarium on Monday just before he left. Stupid me didn’t think to ask about a homeschool discount; whereas, my friend’s family did, and they got in later in the week for half price . . . grrrr. I guess it’s because we don’t go to these types of out-of-state activities often to think of it. Live and learn . . . and pass on the remembrance to all of you . . . always, always ask for a homeschooling discount.

All in all, it was really, really relaxing . . . more than I thought it would be. In fact, it was my intent to do a lot of “thinking” while I was there, but every time I tried to do that, I just drew a blank. My friend concurred that it was the same for her, but that’s why she enjoys it so much. She doesn’t usually start her new fall routines until after their annual beach trip . . . now I know why! We had about three weeks under our belt, and it was weird to stop that flow and go on this trip, but once there, it was worth it!

Interestingly, as soon as I stepped through the doors of our home, it was like the “go-go-go business mentality hat” just jumped right on my head. AND, it helped me really realize that I have almost a business mentality to the running of our home. In one sense, it has to be that way with seven children and four children with significant disabilities in order to meet all their needs and manage all that needs to be done, but I want to take some time to think about it and see if I can maintain some of the relaxed and “in the moment” mentality that we all enjoyed while there.

Pictures will be pending as I develop what little we took, as our digital camera (of only one year) seems to be on the blink.Milk is a reservoir of nutrients and forms generico viagra on line downtownsault.org an important ingredient of a balanced diet.

Abbey and Alyssa digging (with the two babies in the background):

Eli and Seth digging (with my friend and youngest son in background):

Who is that dork?  Oh, it’s me!  (I like comfy and practical . . .):

Adam spent most of his time with this:

Internal Readiness vs. External Readiness: New Beginnings

This is the “final chapter” on my thoughts on the post that JoVe from Tricotomania wrote called “Contemplations on the School Year.”

In her post, JoVe considers how the impact of the school schedule can possibly migrate to the way we look at progression and grade classification with this comment:

I suspect that this calendar pressure also affects our ability to lose a dependence on grade level and progression expectations, too.

Interestingly, it has not affected me to the level I thought it would or could. With my focus being on learning development, I didn’t see a place for “grade levels” with my children during the pre-goal oriented years. And even then, because of the leaning toward “delayed academics”, I still saw no logical place for “grade levels”. All of my children through the teen years still get stumped with the question of grade levels by first, pausing with a long, drawn-out “aaaahhhh”, and quickly conclude with “we homeschool” as if that should put an end to the mix-up.

In fact, this JUST happened yesterday at the vet office. The vet asked my 17 year old daughter what grade she’s in, and she simply is still at a loss to answer that question, so replied as per above. I think the vet was confused as he stated, “Don’t you have a general idea where you are?” They just don’t get that we don’t think in those terms. She then looked at me and concluded, “I think I’m considered a senior.” And yet, that “status” just doesn’t encapsulate our way of looking at the learning time table of our child. She knows that; I know that; others just won’t get that, I think. *I* concluded by saying, “She’s pretty much done all that school would typically require of her. She spends her time writing a novel these days.” The vet, who was quite pleasant really and not judgmental, was impressed with that type of initiation.

As for the beginning of the “school year” in September being a time for progression expectations, I do find myself “assessing” if anyone needs changes to their learning lives in a more broad context. On the other hand, I feel I have a pattern to this “assessing” every three months or so. But, I do feel a “new beginnings” atsmosphere in the air for which I allow myself to be a part. The operative word, hopefully, is “allow myself”. As my daughter and I shopped the “back to school” specials, we confided in each other that we love this special time set aside to renew your giddyness over all the new learning condiments that we so enjoy using day to day.

To end my dissertation on school schedules . . . LOL . . . I share my thoughts on JoVe’s lamentation:

I have found myself somewhat annoyed that there is an expectation that I (and others) will be around on September 5 to attend a picnic.

Work schedules are much more a factor for our family than school schedules. Obviously, there is periodic overlap between the two. There is also a natural shift in our family rhythms between summer activities and winter activities. Depending on where we live and the climate that we experience, that can be September, or into October. Here in North Carolina, we’re planning a week beach trip mid-September with a homeschooling family we adore. For our large family, individual rhythms shift and change throughout the year. “New beginnings” for each child happens at diverse times within each year. I do believe in and embrace new beginnings, but it doesn’t usually coincide with the first day of school. I see the picnic as an offer for new beginnings within a group. Sometimes I’m ready and interested in that offer, and sometimes I’m not, and sometimes I join in a little later.

I can totally see JoVe’s point about SO many in society live and breathe by the school schedule, and many homeschoolers continue that rhythm. By sharing some of our experiences, it has been interesting to discover how our family has focused our cycles around the weather patterns and our personal family heartbeat that doesn’t include the school schedule. I believe it is one reason we enjoy certain family connections in our home.
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Abbey at an “8th grade” vet camp offered by Michigan State University. It was a competitive application process in which one of three applicants were accepted. At the time, Abbey had been seriously contemplating becoming a vet, and this was her opportunity to try it out, which just so happened to coincide with this “8th grade” offer:


Abbey goofing off at vet camp:

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Abbey and her group dissecting a chicken to determine its cause of death:


Happy Birthday, Adam

Today is my sweet Adam’s birthday. Many would find our use of “sweet” an anomoly, since he frightens most people with his intense personality (because of how autism affects him). But, when you get to know him by loving him and learning with him, you fall in love. (A young lady from our church just discovered that this summer as she worked with him while on university break. She adores him now.) Anyway, he’s 14. My unique son had a unique birthday.

It started off as a normal day. We were able to go two days in a row now with “working”, as we call it . . . where he will do some activities with me, some academic, some language, some pleasure, etc. For instance, the agenda today was clean room, math (one of his favorite subjects), switching attention (mixing between asking what’s an opposite, what’s another word for, and what rhymes with with one word . . . so, a language activity), spelling (another favorite subject), read aloud (a short story Sleeping Beauty today . . . Disney being a huge favorite of his as well), scriptures (he has learned to “mark” them simply by underlining them with various colored pencils), piano (still at 5 finger playing, but he loves music), and riding his bike (which he just learned to do . . . he went down to the stop sign today).

Afterward, we drove to Wal-mart so he could pick out a birthday present. He wanted a video game. He chose “The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King” . . . that latter part seems to be important to include . . . for Game Boy Advance. While there, as a spur of the moment decision since we were passing through the birthday party aisle, I asked Adam if he wanted some birthday blowers and balloons. He excitedly pointed to the mylar balloons and asked for one of those . . . an Elmo one. I happily agreed, and grabbed some of the blowers and blow up balloons as well.

Upon arriving home, Abbey helped set him up with GBA and his new game, while Eric was finishing up baking Adam’s birthday cake: chocolate/chocolate. Alex then announced he wanted to spend his earned money on Papa John’s cheese sticks . . . his favorite food, as is Adam’s, and wanted to buy a whole one just for Adam for his birthday. Usually, when it’s pizza night, I get a cheese stick and the two of them split it. Alex kept it a secret and upon returning from picking it up with his sister, went upstairs to “surprise Adam” with his birthday present for him. Adam was indeed surprised, especially to be getting a whole one to himself. You could tell from his face and eyes that he was appreciative of his brother’s generosity.

Within a short time, we called Adam down to sing happy birthday and have him blow out his candles. This is an important event, as Adam wouldn’t understand that he was a different age without being able to count the candles on the cake, and have the birthday song sung to him. It’s his prompt that he has to change the age in which he responds to the question, “How old are you?” He grins from ear to ear when he gets sung the happy birthday song and is privileged to blow out the candles of his own cake. He eagerly took a slice of cake up to his hideaway (his bedroom, along with the cheese sticks and GBA).

This was a good birthday, indeed, Adam-style.

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Anna helping Adam learn to wash his own face and hands, then brush his teeth, but Adam periodically having fun spraying the water everywhere instead:

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Memories

As some are looking back at the five year anniversary of 9-11, I thought I would take the opportunity to share our memories of that time. In 2001, our family had been homeschooling for nine years and one of the benefits we enjoyed was our family togetherness. But, a few months before September, I thought it would be enjoyable to get to spend a “vacation” in my own home . . . alone . . . no children, no husband . . . giving me a chance to organize. So, my involved hubby volunteered to take the children on an adventure camping in a cabin at a state park in central PA. It was set for the week including . . . 9-11. So, the one time I choose to be separated from my family, something catastrophic occurs 🙁

As most other people naturally reacted, I desperately wanted to “circle the wagons” and be close to my children and hubby, and yet, I couldn’t. Not only couldn’t I be with them, they were out of contact, including cell phone. I just prayed my hubby would call me at noon, as he had the previous two days, although we had not scheduled to do that on a daily basis. He did, and I was able to let him know what happened. We agreed that he should stay where he was since all the airports were shutting down, and with the plane that was going down in rural PA somewhere, and all the traffic from those trying to get home was still occurring, it seemed it would create potential chaos to throw themselves into that. He was at a peaceful place and could safely share the news with the children.

I found it ironic, and even a little unfair, that I was separated at this time from my family. Here I had created a lifestyle that increased the odds of my being with my family during a crisis, and yet, I wasn’t with them. The next day, September 12, is my fourth child’s birthday, although he was not there to celebrate it. However, I tried to remind myself of my blessings. This same day as my son’s birthday is the anniversary of my baptism into the church, which is a source of peace and a firm foundation for all that I believe and hope. Regardless, it took me several days to tear myself away from the TV and try to create a semblance of normalcy and still accomplish a few of the goals I had for organizing.

Before leaving on the trip, we discovered our station wagon of ten years would not be able to make it, so we rented a van. Upon my family’s return from the trip, we hit the car lots for a new family vehicle. Business was expectedly very dry, so deals were prevalent. I felt a bit guilty capitalizing at this particular time, but life does what it does, and we needed a vehicle. We ended up getting a used GMC Surburban.

Then, go forward a few more weeks, on September 29, and our lives changed dramatically, again, forever. Two little boys entered our lives through foster care, and are now permanently part of our lives through adoption. So, a month of disaster turned to one of blessing for our family. Of course, we no longer fit into the new family vehicle . . . LOL! (We since have traded in the Surburban for a 15 passenger van.)

Admittedly, September, 2001, now stands as a beacon to the additions to our family more than the tragedy to our country. But, as others have said many times since 9-11, no terrorist acts will keep us from standing tall and proud and strong and ever moving forward in hope and love.

Three of the children at the cabin in central PA, 9/01:
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First photo of William, 9/29/01:


First photo of Joseph, 9/29/01:


“Steps” to Riding a Bike

It is common in autism to have low muscle tone. The reason it occurs is that often, our children don’t do the typical day-to-day physical activities that we all take for granted: running, climbing, exploring, skipping, gathering, jumping, poking . . . that overall general “business” that we all expect in toddlerhood and beyond. The reason this doesn’t occur for our children is because that “natural drive” is hampered in some way, imitation skills are often impaired, and, therefore, motivation to do something that requires effort for no known benefit wins the day.

Adam was drawn to swinging as his primary outdoor activity for the sensory integration it provided him. It was easy to set him on a swing when he was little and give him a push, with no effort on his part, in order for him to understand and literally feel the benefits to him, and the enjoyment factor. I always thought that Adam would really love to bike ride, if he would understand to give it a try. I brought out the typical tricycle bikes and pushed him on them and encouraged him, but Adam would simply not exert the muscle effort to either push the bike with his feet on the ground or on the pedals. Years passed, and the idea that he would love this activity stayed in the back of my mind, looking for inspiration to help me help him “catch the vision”.

A young lady named Jennifer worked with Adam in helping him learn skills back in 2001-2002. Jennifer was special in that she was in her early 20s, unmarried, but totally dedicated and passionate about the special population in her community. She had a lot of knowledge about resources for someone so young and without a direct link to special needs in her own personal life. After leaving our home and Adam, we have kept in touch consistently, as I do with many of our past tutors. Sometime in 2002, Jennifer directed me to a resource called Ambucs that identifies children who would benefit and enjoy a modified tricycle for special needs.

I found myself last minute at the open house and was impressed with the sincere interest in my child and his needs and the individualized attention they gave him in fitting him with a bike that might suit his age and needs. I was amazed to see Adam shoot off on that bike right inside that public building immediately upon sitting! He had never ridden a bike independently before, but there he was, doing so on this particular modified bike. We qualified to receive one and a few months later, did at a special ceremony. Here is Adam riding that bike (one pedals with their feet AND hands, which seemed to be the clincher for Adam in being so successful with it):


Adam spent some good months being interested in riding his Ambucs bike, including hauling it up to the top of the cul-de-sac, which is on a slight incline, and coasting down and into our driveway, which continues the same incline/decline. Eventually, this resource waned in progressing toward a regular bike.

A year or so later, I became re-inspired as to what might be the next “step” to riding a bike for Adam. I envisioned that if Adam could FEEL the thrill of the ride on a bike, that he had progressed enough in his cognitive skills that he might just become self motivated in figuring out how to ride a bike. I knew that it wasn’t that he couldn’t physically ride a bike . . . that wasn’t what was preventing him from doing so. It was pure and simply Adam’s lack of “natural drive” to desire such a thing.

So, to get Adam on a bike and riding, I thought . . . tandem bike! One Easter season, as I was shopping at Wal-Mart, I saw scores of tandem bikes hanging from their ceiling. I spied the reasonable price and determined that I would buy a tandem bike for Adam for his Easter present. (Our tradition for Easter presents is getting each child an outdoor toy.) He was immediately interested after seeing Dad and Abbey demonstrate the process. He’s been riding off and on over the past year on the tandem bike with Dad, Mom, or Abbey. Here he is with Dad:They brought gel and soft tablet version purchase cheap viagra browse over here in the light with many benefits.


A tandem bike allows a person to have the “thrill of the ride”, with the wind blowing though their hair, pedaling the bike (with some holding back from the person in the front), and the feel of what balance on a bike is like in all its forms. Sure enough, some months back, Adam started hauling out his younger brother’s little bikes to the top of the cul-de-sac, sitting on it, and putting his feet up in the air as he coasted down the incline into the driveway . . . on a two-wheeler! using his balance! enjoying himself! The conditions were all set up to take the plunge into independent, two-wheeled bike-riding 🙂

So, in June this summer, I fitted him out with Abbey’s old bike as the perfect size for him to learn on. Basically, because of the past experiences on the other “steps” to bike riding, he seamlessly learned to ride this two-wheeler. Here he is riding, including convincing him to put on a helmet (no small feat), as well as shoes (most of my children love barefoot, him included . . . autism simply adds an element of “love of sameness” that makes it difficult to convince a child to do something different). Here’s a picture:


We’re not at the stage where he’s going off doing any more than “practice rides” at this time, but as time continues, I feel confident he will go venturing on his new mobile ability. In fact, as his imitation skills have improved enough that it inspires him to try new things, and as he watched his much younger brothers catapulting their bikes down the more serious decline of an empty lot across the street, I found myself seeing Adam hauling his bike to the top of this lot and coasting down, with his feet out, like his little brothers.

Tears on many levels . . .

I thought I would share our process for any others who might benefit.

Family Rhythms vs. School Rhythms: Travel and Community Activities

This is a continuation of my thoughts on the post that JoVe from Tricotomania wrote called “Contemplations on the School Year.”

In regard to the wonderful opportunity homeschooling provides in travel year-round, JoVe wrote:

First of all, let me say that one of the positive benefits of homeschooling for me is the ability to do things (particularly travel) outside of the usual school vacation times. This has financial benefits and also means that attractions are less crowded.

As I mentioned earlier, our family also takes advantage of “out-of-season” travel, also known as within the operational school schedules. But, there’s a difference in my mind because it rarely has occurred to me to think about our travel plans in conjunction to the school schedule! Why should it? As JoVe mentioned, I’m a homeschooler, so the school schedule doesn’t mean anything to me in planning travel experiences. The primary motivating factors for our family in looking into travel opportunities is the inspiration or drive of a particular family member’s desire to experience a particular event or activity as well as timing in regard to our own family rhythms. The secondary factors that are considered are weather conditions and expectations, prices (which obviously are effected by the school schedule), and expected crowds (again, effected by the school schedule). Therefore, it has been just as prevalent for our family to take trips during typical travel times such as summer or holidays as it is during regularly scheduled school days. We travel year-round in synchronization to our own family rhythms.

JoVe continues with some thoughts about local and community activities offered in relation to the school schedule:

So one thing influencing homeschoolers’ calendars is the fact that we might want our children to partake in some group activities with other children and these are often geared to schooled children and thus available in relation to the scholastic calendar.

This would also extend to activities during the school year. The recreation centre organizes their swimming lessons on a timetable that fits with school terms and summer holidays so even the homeschooling groups get scheduled in those terms.

I’m not sure I have felt these effects as greatly as JoVe is implying. I have found, particularly in the last 5-7 years, that most activities are now offered to homeschoolers during school hours, and at wonderfully advantageous lower prices. Admittedly, I absolutely love this aspect about homeschooling and group activities in the community because I get to drive in regular, low-key, day traffic, save a few dollars, and wait out the activity in a usually laid-back environment with periodic great conversation opportunities with like-minds. These activities can be from gymnastics to YMCA gym-and-swims to park and recreation sponsored sports to 4-H groups to the typical field trip to anywhere.

I have found the main problem arises when a child is interested in entering a more competitive atmosphere, such as when my son, Eli, wanted to join the competitive boys’ gymnastic’s team. I found myself stuck with the school schedule-driven timeframes, and the traffic, prices, and mainstream waiting room experience that goes with it. What that time period gave me was simply the realization of how nice the “slow life” really is.

On the other hand, in some fields, entering the competitive field doesn’t have to mean you end up in the “hustle and bustle world” of school schedule timing. When Eli took high quality piano lessons, we were able to find qualified instructors that gave us our preferred times during the day. This was also true for English horse riding lessons for Abbey, although the competitions were on the weekends and summer, though that may have been based more on work schedules since there were as many adults at these events as young people.

JoVe goes on to comment about the pacing of the events offerered:

Has anyone thought of a different format? Perhaps the intensive 1 week day-camp format? Has this been tried and shown to not work for one reason or another? Or are we following the scholastic calendar and once a week scheduling out of habits so deeply ingrained we hardly perceive them?

Again, my first instinct is that I am not attracted to once a week scheduling out of habit or conditioning, but because it would be more in line with respecting our family’s internal rhythms. In order to bring one child to an activity, let’s say based on an interest, that met every day for a week, for a 2-4 hour block, would require extensive rearrangement of my schedule, let alone everyone else’s in the home. Then, try to dupicate that for several children, I wonder if there would be any semblance of rhythm to the family? The family and home are important elements to our homeschool lifestyle.

On the other hand, week-long overnight camps for my older children are something we look for at least on an every year basis. I believe a week-long day activity 2-3 times a year per child would be likely an advantageous immersion experience into a beloved topic. My oldest son, at 10, attended a week-long day camp for drawing, and he absolutely LOVED it. But, to do something like that every week would interfere with what homeschooling stands for in our life. So, let’s say it might be beneficial once a month, but then, it comes down to a binge sort of experience, which might have it’s appeal. On the other hand, take those five days, spread them over the month, back to the once a month system, and you have a consistent diet, which has another sort of appeal.

I guess what I’m saying on this one is that I don’t see it being representative of a school schedule, but one of a rhythmic sort of feel. Further, I don’t see what would hold a homeschooler back to creating week-long “day camps” based on various interests. As homeschoolers, it’s long been a mentality of “create what you want” and “if you create it, they will come”. I remember my first year of homeschooling, my oldest was extensively into dinosaurs. He had accomplished so much independent learning that I could sense that he would enjoy sharing this passion with someone else. So, I organized a “unit study” type of situation, invited a young lady that was equally enthralled with the topic, and met and learned together every day for several hours or more for one or two weeks, I can’t remember. It never occurred to me not to put something together for him in this vein.
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If you’re talking about other facilities and organizations offering these types of week-long camp experiences, I would think it would be a matter of discussing it’s viability with them and asking them to give it a try. For instance, our local science center often offers week-long camps in the summer, but only weekly classes for homeschoolers during the school year. But, I’ll bet they would consider offering a week-long camp during the school schedule if it was broached by the local homeschoolers.

Abbey with horse, Radar, and coach, Christy. Weekly riding lessons on Fridays at noon:


Adam on the parallel bars for Special Olympics gymnastics, with me as coach, during the day each week at a gym I was able to work a freeby deal with:


Alex with friends for a weekly unit study that he desired, so I made it happen . . . weekly was enough for him:


Family picture at Disney World in February, 2006. We had a FAB time:


Eli

I’m (hopefully) going to write a shorter post today because Eli has been asking me now for a couple of weeks to get a schedule together for him to start some formal learning again. He says he’s bored and enjoys the formal learning rhythm. Eli enjoys predictability; he loves feeding his mind. He enjoys schedules, probably due to his high functioning autism. On the other hand, being that he is 15, I would like to encourage him over the next year to take more responsibility for his own schedules and goal-setting. He didn’t stop his formal learning until mid-June because he wanted to complete some of the books he was working from. That was the longest he ever went before. On the other hand, he is a bit of a home-body and isn’t big on the out-of-doors. He continued with his computer programming and piano on his own over the past couple of months. He also attended three (or four?) youth camps without supports (parents in tow) 🙂 and grew in confidence.

He recently shared with me, “I feel like I’m younger than I’m supposed to be.” (This is typical conversation starters with him, so I know how to tease out what he is feeling or trying to convey.) It seems he has finally noticed that “others seem to know things that I’m supposed to know, but I don’t”. I knew he wasn’t talking about book smarts, because he recognizes in himself, and others notice as well, that this is an asset. He was talking about “street smarts”. This is another on-going request from him over the past few months . . . he wants to learn more social skills, executive skills, and perspective taking. About three months ago, I had some time at a dentist visit or something, waiting for a child, and I jotted down about fifteen “skills” that Eli doesn’t have, but are inhibiting his quality of relationships or ability to be independent. So, I have a starting point . . .

This is a big year for Eli as he has become cognizant of this arena and is eager to understand it and incorporate its tenets into his life, which means it is a big year for me to commit to facilitating his needs for growth in this area. No small task, let me tell you! So any advice for resources would be greatly appreciated, particularly from those with experience with high functioning autism.

Well, I’m off to do the easy part . . . get a schedule for him of his formal learning goals!

Eli with his best friend, Seth:This product is an excellent one which is look here cialis 10 mg prescribed to the ED patients with a common suggestion that use it only when a male is sexually aroused.

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Eli at the computer, where you will find him every day:

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