A Sensory-Friendly Homeschool

When deciding whether or not to homeschool, one of the main things we considered was the fact that Shannon has Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). But, when it came to choosing curriculum last year, I don't feel like I considered his special needs as well as I could have. I am not a kinesthetic learner. I am mostly visual. So for someone like me, teaching kinesthetically does not come naturally. Many moms are so into crafts and projects and I must admit my envy. But, just because it does not come to me naturally, it doesn't mean I will not give it my very best to be the teacher Shannon needs me to be. One of the main advantages of home schooling is I can teach him and understand him better than someone who is not as in tune with him as I am. I have been spending a lot of time researching some SPD friendly tools and curriculum for us to use next year.

Consistency is important to the sanity of almost every child and even more so for a child with SPD. When we are coming into Cheney from Spokane, there are two routes to take: straight through town or up and around past the college. I originally started taking the college route because there were some new apartments going up and the kids liked to watch the workers and see the progress. Now it is just out of habit. If I ever decide to go through town because I need to go to the bank or something, Shannon will get really upset because we're not going the "right" way. I have learned that I must let him know ahead of time if I need to go through town so he is not taken off guard. The same goes for rearranging anything in the house. He will immediately point out that something is not in the "right" place. This may seem a little OCD and you are correct. A child with SPD will often have some OCD tendencies. As Shannon gets older, he is learning to work around his environment but he is still a little boy and therefore needs coaching most of the time. 

 

Organizing Our Day

 

When it comes to keeping our days consistent, I am thinking of trying out a couple of new things. I wrote out a schedule for me and the kids using A Mother's Rule of Life. I keep this schedule in a sheet protector in my Home Organization Binder that I recently put together. This schedule will serve as a guide for me as we move through our day. I also just ordered a new book/system called Managers of Their Chores. Other moms who have used this system have found their children to be more efficient, independent, and cheerful in completing their chores. I am hoping we can all do our chores at the same time and get everything done quickly right after breakfast and before we begin formal schooling. The main structure of the system is a "chore pack" that the child clips onto their clothing as a hands on and visual guide while completing their chores. The chore pack is a plastic pocket, like a name badge, with a card for each chore the child is to complete in it. So I would hand Chloe and Shannon their chore packs full of (don't know how many yet) chore cards and they would do the card that is on top and when it is done move it the back. This physical movement of the chore cards will be so helpful for Shannon as positive reinforcement. I'll let you know how it goes.

Organizing Our School
Now that I have, hopefully, found a system for getting us through our morning routine smoothly, I needed something to get us into and through our school work smoothly. I have decided to implement Sue Patrick's Workbox System. This system was created by the mother of a child with autism. When I first came across this system a few months ago, I thought it looked like it took up a lot of space, was a big investment, and was a lot of work so I mentally tossed it aside. I came back to the idea after seeing it pop up on various blogs I read. I attended her webinar, Implementing Sue Patrick's Workbox System, presented by the creater last monday, June 28th, and I was impressed by how low maintenance and versitile the system is. She has used this system for children as young as 15 months old so the whole family can do school at the same time. And the start up cost is low. The physical structure is a 4-shelf rack (target $15) and 12 shoebox sized bins (I've seen these for $1 each in many stores). So for about $30 I can give the system a try and see if it works for our family. I am sure I will be reviewing the system a few months into the new year.

So that is how we will frame our days. Now on to curriculum . . . in Part II.

Plans for Summer

I just read "A Summer Schedule" on The Homeschool Classroom and it inspired me to come up with my own plan of attack for summer. Of course the thing I look most forward to the most is a little relaxation and fresh air. Most years we end up doing way too much stuff and by the time the summer is over, we're exhausted. Last year, we purposefully did not make any plans for the summer and by the end we felt like the summer was wasted. This year, I want a happy medium. So, I'm making a plan.

Places to go

• Park days with our home school group
• Library
• Greenbluff
• Lake Coeur d'Alene 
• City pool (for swim lessons and for fun)
• The Farmers Market

Special Events

• Shannon's 6th Birthday and he actually asked for a party with his friends so we're having one for the first time. -sigh- How they grow.

Things to do with Stacey

• Sunday evenings at Arbor Crest 
• Warm afternoon dates on restaurant patios

Household Projects

• Get doors installed in basement
• Thoroughly clean kitchen (something that slipped through the cracks during Spring cleaning)

Homeschool prep for Fall

• I want to create activity boxes for Athena so she will something to do while I do one-on-one lessons with the other two
• Order the rest of our materials
• Create a few weeks worth of lesson plans

Chores to teach Shannon and Chloe

• Fold and put away own clean clothes
• Wipe down bathroom throughout week
• Get into a better chore routine with the chores they already know

Activities to do at home with kids

• Cooking: I have a couple of cookbooks that I have been meaning to crack open with the kids
• Lots of picnics to enjoy our newly baked creations
• Decorate the various glass jars I have been saving to store craft supplies in
• Teach Shannon to ride his bike (I realize many 5 year-old boys can already ride a 2-wheel bike but he just wasn't ready last summer. He has actually shown interest in learning so I have a good feeling about this year)

Creative projects of my own

• I want to give digital scrap booking a try
• Canning peaches and pears from Green Bluff

My next step is to get out the calendar and start planning on where these things can fit in. Of course I can't plan every little thing, nor would I want to, but I do want to have a rough outline.

We will continue reading over the summer and take advantage of other learning opportunities but I do want a more laid back, summer-like, feeling around the house.

Now if only it would stop raining, we could get this summer party started.

Simplifying

I have been writing a lot lately about decluttering, cleaning, organizing, etc. Originally I started this process to make life easier and less stressful for me and the rest of my family. But then I realized an even greater purpose through the reading I have been doing lately. First, A Mother's Rule of Life by Holly Pierlot. This book really got me thinking about my calling. Since God has called me to this vocation of marriage and motherhood, everything I do is for Him and should be that much easier to say "yes" to. "Yes, God, I will go do the laundry even though I would rather sit here and look at everyone's Facebook status updates." God asks this, and dozens of other tasks, of me everyday and that is a pretty awesome thing. So many people are lost out there, living with pain in their hearts, wondering what it is that God wants them to do with their lives. Well, I already know! Yet, it is sometimes so hard to just do it. So, that it something I am working on in my prayer life right now. I already know what God wants of me and that is a huge gift in and of itself.

The book that I am reading right now is called Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne. Since I have been reading a lot about cleaning and organizing, I actually thought this was another book on simpifying your home. But, this book is actually about the effect that a messy, hectic, stressful life can have on children. The funny thing is, I put this book on hold at the library about three weeks ago, because I saw it mentioned on a website along one of my web surfing adventures. Apparently, I didn't even know what the book was really about. But as I started reading it, I realized it is exactly what I need to be reading at this time.

 Shannon's occupational therapy came to an end about two weeks ago and I wasn't really sure how we were going to have to adjust for that in our everyday lives. Things have actually been working out okay with a few exceptions. Whenever Shannon watches too much TV or plays computer games, he gets all crazy eyed. He becomes irritable, gets a nasty attitude, starts hitting things/siblings. I then react with complete non sympathy and pretty much get nasty right back and then we have this great unbreakable cycle until I finally remember that I am the adult (sometimes I wonder who throws the bigger tantrums: me or my kids). Well, lately the weather has really been gross and the kids have had a lot of down time due to my own projects around the house. And they have naturally spent a lot of this time in front of the TV/computer and that has caused fighting over said TV/computer, lots of screaming, and an overall stressful tone within my family. I tried to get them to play in the toy room or do some crafts instead but they haven't seemed interested. Enter Simplicity Parenting.

So, the third chapter deals with the environment that your child lives in. He begins addressing the toy situation. Most kids do have way too many toy. Now, I am pretty proud of the fact that we do not keep many toys around after they have been played out and I go through and throw out broken toys at least once a month if not more often. But then after quantity of toys, Payne addresses the kinds of toys you keep in your home. He said that any toys that don't foster creativity or use of imagination are pretty much useless and kids get tired of them after a short time. As I was reading this, I peeked in on my kids. Do you know what toys they were playing with? Not a single one of the new toys they had received as Christmas gifts. Not a single toy that requires batteries and makes lots of awesome noise. Nope, they were both in the toy room playing with good ol' reliable Legos. They were building airplanes . . . that talk, of course. Another thing we are guilty of is something the author calls "toy multiples". When we noticed how much Shannon loved playing with his wooden train set and trains, we went out and bought even more train track and even more trains. We also thought that this way the kids wouldn't fight so much over the two or three wooden trains. Wrong! They immediately started fighting, even more so and louder, over the twenty wooden trains.

So, I will be doing a toy makeover very shortly. I am not going to just dump it all in the trash (and the author does not suggest this either) but I will be putting a lot of stuff out of sight for a while. I can't believe how many perfectly new-looking toys the kids have because they lost interest in them after only a week of use. The toys I notice that they still play with are the wooden bead maze thingy (we have had for over two years), the wooden food (old), the dolls (old), the Legos (old), the stacking toys, and several of Athena's baby toys. Kids really do like to create their own fun. They don't want a battery operated toy doing it for them. Even though Shannon asked for a battery-operated train set for Christmas, he barely ever plays with it because it is constantly falling apart or running out of battery. And it only does one thing: you push a button, it goes around and around. I am only on chapter four but the premise of the book is that kids, in general, have too much stuff, too many choices, too much information, too much in their schedules. And this can make them crazy.

Stacey and I went out last night and bought a few items in an attempt to organize the arts supplies so they are more accessible to the kids. I can't expect them to want to do art projects if they can't even see the art supplies. And I got a folding table for them to do their craft projects on so we don't have to push everything aside when we do school or want to eat a meal.

So, that is where I am on my domestic journey right now. As I was typing this, Shannon woke up a bit early so I told him while I was finishing up he could either read or play quietly. I heard him shuffling around in the family room and finally he asked me to come look at what he made.

Out of all the toys in that room, he chose the Styrofoam (from the packaging of a shelf we just bought) to play with. Yep, sounds about right. 

Spring Cleaning: The Livingroom

I did it! I Spring Cleaned one entire room! I finally buckled down and actually used the three step process in the e-book, Spring Cleaning For Normal People: declutter, clean, organize. See, you're supposed to take everything out of the room and throw it all in a designated spot. I chose our bedroom. Then you clean the entire room. Then you put everything back, that is, everything that actually belongs in the room. This doesn't seem too difficult but my first attempts were ridiculous. I would pick something up and then decide to take the object to the room it belongs in. Well, this takes forever and is really not efficient. It is much faster to throw everything in a pile and deal with it all at once. My entire living room really only took a couple of hours. After I had it all done and put back, I still had two bins of stuff to sort through. That took about a half hour to sort through and put away. And my living room has never looked more fabulous.

 As I was putting things back in place, I realized many things that simply did not need to be returned to their spot. Things that had lost meaning to me, or lost beauty, or lost usefulness. I think sometimes, we tend to put things back because it has become a tradition of sorts. "This thing goes here because we have always had it here." So I busted out of my rut. I used to keep a double frame in the cabinet. One side had my college graduation picture and the other had Stacey's college graduation picture. Well Stacey looks as handsome as ever in his picture but I have never liked that picture of me. EVER! But I felt like it just had to be there. Well, it's my living room and that picture is gone! We also had a few random baby pictures of Shannon in really odd frames that were each given to us by different people around the time of his birth. Now our walls our covered with beautiful photos of our family and all of our children so the beat up little novelty frames were also taken out.

Complete Organizing Solutions has been featuring a series called, "Picture my memories" where in she discusses taking pictures of those items that we only hold onto for sentimental value. The things that are sitting in boxes, not being displayed (because we don't find them to be particularly beautiful) and not being used (because the item is not useful). I have a storage bin full of things from when I was a little girl that I am thinking of doing this with. I want to take pictures of everything, make the photos part of a scrap book and then donate the whole thing. I have already begun this process with a few things that were in our living room. The top shelf in the corner cabinet is dedicated to items from our wedding and a few things that seem to fit in with that theme. Our unity candle, ring barer pillow, and flower girl basket also used to be crammed onto that shelf but I have taken them out with the intention of taking some pictures and selling them on ebay. I have always wanted to make a wedding album but we really don't have a lot for decent photos from our wedding. So I think the pictures of these wedding accessories would fill in the space and create a beautiful album.

 The shelf below that holds all three baptism candles and white garments from our kids' baptisms. It also has the missal that was given to me by my parents when I made my first communion. And to the right, Chloe and Shannon's rosaries and rosary book.

 And our family Bible sits on a desk in the corner of the room that you can't see in the pictures. My dad was Stacey's Confirmation sponsor and he gave this to Stacey after his Confirmation.

Now I can truly say that I find everything in our livingroom to be either useful or very beautiful.

Here is one last photo of Athena helping me clean.

Wish me luck as I attempt to complete this same process in every room in our house.

From the Kitchen

I've been trying out a few awesome recipes from Kitchen Stewardship and I meant to take some pictures so I could post them but the food kept getting eaten before I had a chance. We made homemade granola bars. Mmmmmm. And I really want to try making our own yogurt. It is supposed to be really simple and it could save us some money. The kids love yogurt.

But I did manage to get a few photos of my latest gourmet recipe. I call it "Leftover mashed potatoes and vegetable puree". What? That doesn't sound appitizing? Well, Athena begs to differ.

Domestic Makeover

A couple of weeks ago, I heard myself saying, "Why can't I ever find anything?" and "Nothing is where it is supposed to be!" I realized that nothing had a proper place to be so that was probably why I couldn't find anything.

I have never really Spring cleaned our house before. To be fair, we are not pack rats at all. So, we don't have 5 years of pile up over here but we do have some stuff that can go. I downloaded an e-book from Simple Mom called Spring Cleaning for Normal People and it was very inspiring. Last Monday, I realized a few of my zones had been neglected so I went through the house, doing a light cleanup and throw out of each room. That evening I downloaded the e-book and to my surprise that was the same task that the book instructed to do on the first day of Spring Cleaning. The book has a 10-day program to get the whole house down. She has you focus on one room of your house each day or two days for larger areas. Since that was last Monday my house should be totally clean now right? Wrong!

I believe I have domestic ADD. I started to work on Shannon's room first for some reason and then I kept wandering over to Chloe's room to do some stuff in there, then I would go put something away in the guest room and realize I wanted to clean out some stuff in there as well. So after nearly two weeks, I am not even close to being done but I did get a lot accomplished. Something that always frustrated me was that we keep stuff in random closets so we never know where to find anything. I was determined to only have Chloe/Athena related stuff in their closet and Shannon related stuff in his closet. I did break this rule a little bit becaue Shannon has the largest closet in the house and he doesn't really have a lot of stuff. So in the main section of the closet, I kept it strictly Shannon and I continue to store a few baby items, that we won't need for a couple more years, in there as well. And my snowboard. We finally got a shelf and bar for the guest room closet so I was able to move all of Stacey's military stuff out of Shanon's room and into the guest room. So Shannnon's room is done. I do want to get him a more grownup bedding set now that he is turnign into quite the little man. He has had the same one for four years so I think it is reasonable to get a new one.

The girls room was not very hard to tackle. We've had our eye on a bunk bed for their room for some time now and we fnally went down and ourchased it this past monday. I can't wait until it comes in. It's a twin over double so I figure the girls can sleep together in the double until Chloe feels comfortable sleeping on the top bunk. I also moved the dresser out of the closet and in the spot where the crib used to be, to make the closet roomier. In the process of cleaning the rooms out, I also found myself with 3 large storage bins of clothes and other items to be sold, tossed, given away. My friend, Pamela, is having a yard sale next friday and I already took the toddler bed, the changing table pad, the toddler bedding, and two crib mattresses over there. I hope to get all of the clothes sorted out this weekend so I can take it all over there next week. I will post some pics of the kids' rooms as soon as I get the bunk bed setup in about a week.

So, yes, I have two rooms down, and many many more to go. The decluttering is getting easier. I started to follow the mantra, "If I don't find it useful or beautiful, get rid of it". Something I have always had a hard with is getting rid of things that other people have given us as gifts. But, I just have to do it. I cannot possibly keep every nick knack that has ever entered these walls. I think the gift givers will understand . . . right?

In addition to the Spring Cleaning book, I also downloaded Simplifying Your Domestic Church and my friend Cherri recommended A Mother's Rule of Life. SYDC starts right off with gettign rid of clutter so I stopped there and started working on that. I am really enjoying MROL. She really focuses on what it all means. Being a wife, a mother, and a servant of God. This really spoke to me because I sometimes get the feeling that my sngle, childfree, friends, think my lfie must be a drag. If I just made a list of the tasks I completed on a daily basis and boiled my purpose down t those things, they would be right. "Dear diary, today I scrubbed my toilets and changed Athena's diaper. Life is good". But when I do these tnings with a greater purpose in mind, I am not only more productive but fullfilled and proud of my accomplishments. So, that book is pretty stinkin' awesome and I highly recomend it.

So that is the Spring Cleaning update. By the way, Simple Mom is beginning a Spring Cleaning series this Monday so if you want to get your own domestic church all sparkly, follow along.

The Storm Before the Calm

Last week was nuts and this week even more so. Let's take a look at last week:
Monday - Prepare to make meals, get in a lot of school time because rest of week will be crazy
Tuesday - Go into spokane to pick up chicken, start preparing meals, gymnastics in the evening
Wednesday - Occupational Therapy, Albertsons to score free cereal, more meal prep, teach Childbirth Ed in the evening
Thursday - More meal prep, soccer in the evening
Friday - Fun at the park, get home and prepare to be gone most of the weekend, go to first day of motorcycle safety course in the evening (wanna know how that went? See next post)
Weekend - mototcycle safety course, church, resting

This Week (watching my cousin's daughter Tuesday - Friday):
Monday - More meal prep, coupon class in the evening (had a lot of fun. Pamela rocks)
Tuesday - Last of the meals will be prepped, meet with doula network officers in the evening, stacey will come home early to get Shannon to gymnastics
Wednesday - Occupational therapy, Childbirth Ed in the evening
Thursday - Soccer practice and then meet with NFP instuctor (we have an awesome woman instructing us in the use of the Creighton Method)
Friday - Date with my husband. We're going to Taste for Life, a benefit for Hospice.

And then . . . nothing. Peace. Quiet. A week to prepare ourselves for Easter. Although, most of the things I have scheduled this week are things I will enjoy, I am very much looking forward to the stillness. Next week I do not teach, gymnastics is over, and I don't have any other meetings. Our family will be together every night. A very Holy Week indeed.

Freezer Meals

I was able to score boneless, skinless, chicken breasts for $1.58/lb last week but I had to buy a 40 lb case. So, the weekend before the purchase I planned several meals I could make and freeze and I purchased the remaining ingrediants I needed. The awesome thing it, I had most of the dry and canned ingrediants already in my stock pile. I basically had to purchase about $35 in produce and herbs. I also thawed out 12 lbs of chicken from a previous score (1.88/lb).

I used recipes from my two favorite freezer meal books:
Don't Panic Dinner's in the Freezer and Don't Panic More Dinner's in the Freezer

I bought these books when I was 8 months pregnant with Athena so I could load up our freezer before her birth. So here are the meals I made last week and part of this week:

Chicken Parisienne (crockpot meal) x 3
Chicken Cacciatore (crockpot meal) x 3
Chick Breasts Stuffed with Pesto (oven) x 2
Buttermilk Herb (grill) x 3
Chick Pot Pie (oven) x 6 this one is a family favorite
Grilled Honey Lime Chicken (grill) x 3
Teriyaki Chicken Stirfry (stovetop) x 4


So, I made 24 meals and I believe the cost came out to about $5.25/meal. Not too shabby. Oh, and I should mention, each meal will feed our family for dinner and then Stacey's lunch the next day.

Now I'm hoping to find a deal on pork and repeat the process. I would like to spread these meals out over a 4 - 5 month period. We're not huge beef eaters but if I find a deal, I have recipes for that too.

Renovation station

Just as I was loving my awesome new focus clipboard and my new lists and my overall organization, we decided it would be super fun to renovate our basement. We actually decided a while ago that we would use our tax return to finally finish our basement, which has been a work in progress since we moved in nearly 5 years ago. We just weren't sure when, exactly, each piece would fall into place. Two Saturdays ago my mom and dad came over and put all of the electrical in place in the soon-to-be guest room. We had already done the other rooms as parts of previous projects. Last week, we had the drywallers in. I was actually able to keep on task during that time because the kids' play room had already been done a couple years ago (still no carpet) so they were able to play and we didn't have to move any of their stuff. On Sunday, we had to move everything out of every room to prepare for painting and carpet. So, all of the kids toys and shelving, all of the crap we used to keep in the spare room, our TV and other electronics from the family room are now occupying our living room, office, and bedrooms. In short, this place is a mess and I don't even know where half our stuff is. As I type, there is a man in our basement installing the carpet. I keep watching the clock, peeking downstairs, pacing. I am itching to put everything back where it belongs. I can not live in this disorder any longer! Needless to say, school took a back seat this week. But, the kids have been doing crafts like crazy. I've just been leaving all of the supplies out and they dig in.

I am comforted by that fact that the disorder in the house has effected my children as well (because I know I am not the only one). Shannon and Chloe have been at each others throats. I am trying so hard to teach them loving and effective ways to sort out their conflicts. They are very good at asking forgiveness so we've got that going for us. And Shannon does not do well with change. We have all heard that kids crave consistency, but him even more so. He is so lost right now. He spent the first few days pointing out, over and over, all of the things that were out of place.

I have realized over the years that I become visually overstimulated very easily. For instance, when the living room is cluttered and the kids run through, tripping on stuff, I can feel my heart beating faster and faster and I feel as though I may blow. Also, I crave light. Sitting in a dimly lit room is possibly the must unnerving thing in the world. Great, now everyone knows I'm a spaz. My point is, this renovation is really taking a toll. I just feel out of whack (is that a medical term?) and nervous. What is truly exhausting, is having to hold Athena all the time. There are very few safe places for a baby to roam right now. Okay enough of my wining! When it's all over our basement will be beautiful, the kids will finally have a finished playroom, our family room will actually be a place the family wants to be, and we'll have a comfortable place for guests to sleep (when we get a bed that is).

My plan is to do a bit of school this weekend while Stacey is at guard. I think my folks may come over to help me with some finishing touches on the basement but other than that, we don't have any plans. We did get to go on some adventures this week as an attempt to stay away from my stressful house so I'll put those in our notebook this week.

Posts to come:
Review of virtual conference sessions
Notebook: Week of 3/1/10
Lenten update
Pictures of awesome basement!