Hezzie : Goals and Such

Hezekiah loves numbers and math in general. He met most of his math goals on his IEP this year. That makes me one happy momma. We ordered Life of Fred Elementary set and we started today. He really loves learning and since this has reading, art, and other language arts involved...he is over the moon. Instead of paper we are using a dry erase easel we got awhile back from the Goodwill and the markers from Amazon.
Hezekiah is currently enrolled in a charter school and receives SAI classes during the summer. We started using index cards for him to keep track of the words he can read. When the index card box comes we will put them in alphabetical order and store them. He said he is excited to see how many words he can read by the end of this year (after Christmas). I think for his first 100 words I am going to make it special for him.
He has a temporary speech therapist who is pretty amazing and I hope maybe she can stay on through the next school year. She will be at his phonics day camp next week and work with him afterwords. She said that he doesn't have appraxia but a phonological processing disorder. So let's hope that being treated for that will be more helpful for getting his speech where it needs to be. Well, where he would like it. His vocabulary is pretty great.

Life of Fred on the dry erase board.

He is in My Heart

Today I gave a presentation on Hezzie. It was for the children in his program to better understand him and how his brain works. I had asked that parents be present, and well none stayed. The one kids nanny was there, she is always there. I think it went pretty well, but one kid was being a bit rude.
It was hard to put the presentation together. Not technically hard, but emotionally. As  parent/caregiver I know all these things about my child, but when it's ALL there in front of you it hits you in a certain way. A way that just makes your heart kind of leap out of your chest and sink all at the same time.

I could see at some point it was becoming hard for my two children who were in class. They didn't look embarrassed or uncomfortable, just sad. They've said some of the kids have made fun of Hezzie when he is not around. It is upsetting for them. They know Hezzie is not what someone would consider an ideal student, but they have always known what he as been through. But, it's not just the kids making this transition hard. I will leave it at that.

Lately Hezzie has been extra cuddly. Oh, it warms my heart. He comes up and covers us both up with his Star Wars comforter on the couch. We will sit there and read, or just watch TV. That is another thing, he is now wanting me to read to him more. I love reading to him. Now he is trying more to read. He has already earned two awards at the county library and we are working on some other reading challenges, most of the kids are. They are actually pretty fun to do.

I am exited for the day he is reading completely on his own.

Love, Momma

Books and Junk

Here is what I am reading now, or will be reading in the next month. If you want, read along and tell me what you think.

Scouting News

I am hoping and praying that is be Gods will that my Den Leader uniform is here and ready before Blue and Gold next week. Had a good talk with the boys parents in my den about looking neat in uniform and patches being in the right spots. They were very receptive, thank goodness.

I found Joaquin a troop that is excited to have him. He will go the week after next. Dexter will be in a Venturing Crew by summers time. That is exciting. Something he will do without any of his siblings under his heels. I am sure it will great for him. He wants to be more active and adventurous.

Good things happen at Roundtable.

In Other News

Just over a week away from Dexters 13th Birthday Celebration. Heck yeah! A 50's Zombie Dance Party. Also, next Wednesday is our 14th wedding anniversary...that's crazy.

Not much else...

Love

Momma

Libraries and Such

Today I took the littles to the library. We checked out plenty of books as well as paying a two dollar late fee. I am so horrible at maintaining library books. I am working on that. My kids all love the library. To them it's not a mundane event, it's exciting. That is how I have always been.

Most of the books we got are on the Solar System. Maggie and Waylon want to learn more on this subject, and I have a Magic School Bus kit to help them out. More on that soon.

Joaquin read this whole book today. Tomorrow I am taking him to get some more and return this and a few other books. If he enjoys those as well, we will be on Amazon adding them to our home library.

Maggie got a couple early reader books. With me and then later with Joaquin she read through them. Funny thing, they were both about dogs. This girl loves her animals. She is making progress despite her dyslexia. She doesn't let anything hold her back. Sometimes she gets frustrated and has to regroup. I am just thankful she knows when to walk away.

Here are the books that were read today.

Hope you all had a wonderful day.

Love,

Momma

Forts and Messy Rooms

There is nothing quite as awesome as building a fort on Friday morning. What makes it more awesome is the twinkling of Christmas lights. I helped the "three amigos" build a fort for their enjoyment. They had a ball playing in it, reading in it and of course singing in it. Mostly I just heard,.."shake, shake, shake your bootie" followed by giggles.

As you can see that under the couch is a book, this is not uncommon unless I do a good cleaning of the front room. If I see the stuff I will pull it out or have someone else grab it out. Right now my bedroom looks like a hurricane of dresses and skirts. It's not that I am a bad housekeeper, I've just never been so weak or sick in my life. I will have a burst of energy and do a few things and next thing I know I am waking up from a nap I didn't know I was taking.

Of course through my life as a homemaker I have had times of depression where I did nothing much except care for the kids, Jimmy cleaned the house. That depression is long behind me, this is pure exhaustion. It's upsetting that people in my family would tell me to clean my house, and that a couple flies are a reason to leave. Trust me, I hate flies...but, we live by horses and we have a few animals. I think I am just venting and really the people who have hurt me on this would never consider me anything more than lazy.

On a good note Maggie has advanced in her reading and Waylon is reading now. Maggie and I are writing a chicken story. :)

"Housekeeping is incredibly difficult with three kids. I'm trying to be more relaxed. You'll go insane if you try to have a picture-book house."

~Partrick Dempsey

Love,

Momma