Minnie..

Today we had to say good-bye to yet another of our wonderful pets. Minnie was relocated to what seems to be a FANTASTIC new home. One without any other dogs or cats, but with a loving kid and couple. Minnie started to have some problems here and began to get really aggressive around any of our other furry friends. Unfortunately, she was also *missing* and had bitten me in the leg 2 times while she was fighting with Timmy. While I consider it fortunate that it was me that was bitten, I don't think kindly of things biting me really hard. So, after talking about it as a family, it was decided that she needed to go to a home where there were no other animals. She is SUCH a great dog, in general, but she just gets so angry at the others.

Fortunately, this new family adored her. She seemed to really like them too. I'm hoping it works out well for them. We will be getting another dog at some point. I don't know when or what kind yet, but T1 needs a furry friend.

As you can tell from this post, our "Dogs inside the house" experiment - was a complete and epic fail. It was so far past a fail it was a ridiculously stupidly horribly bad fail.

My Pretty Girl

T1 has to do lots of therapy. But sometimes she's so darn cute doing it.

Here she is with her listening therapy. She has to do it everyday, but isn't she cute???!

Dogs and Pencils..

I mentioned before that I've been feeling guilty about the dogs and while I have been better about having them in, training them, loving on them and all those other things dogs like - I still feel like I should be doing better. Then, this weekend, I read an article about how these autistic kids have been benefiting enormously from self-trained service dogs. So, of course, I got a brilliant idea. We have 2 very easily trainable dogs that the kids love to spend time with. While the dogs will never be true service dogs, why haven't I assigned a dog to each kid to take care of and bond with? Even if we could get Minnie (the mastiff) to be able to calm or point out when to T1 when she's starting to get her engine too high by nudging her or licking her hand, wouldn't that be cool??  I realize this is a rather lofty idea, but I'm going to give this plan a week or 2 to see what happens. Both kids were VERY excited about being responsible for 1 dog each and chose their dog by preference (and thankfully they each chose a different one). I told them they would be able to have the dogs with them as much as they wanted but they would need to keep them with them and on leash. The were sooo excited. I know the dogs love being with the kids, so hopefully this plan will work out.

I will soon be posting a picture of T1 and her newest accomplishment at OT. She is SO excited  - and she should be - she's been working on this skill for almost 2 years now and FINALLY got it!

In completely unrelated topics, there are about 700 different kinds of pencils. When you have a kid who is OCD and has sensory issues - among the other issues - pencils can cause such a pain in the rear. Sooooo, for the 20th time, we've found yet another new kind of pencil to try to keep her from pushing her the pencil through the paper to make it "darker". If it's not dark enough she goes over and over and over what she's written and then can't get started yet. After looking at 3 different stores and online - we have discovered black graphite pencils! So far, she loves these and doesn't feel compelled to obsess about the color and darkness of her print. Hopefully this will keep her from stalling out as much when she's doing her school.

Motivation..

So how do you motivate an Aspergers kid who has decided to be stubborn? It's like trying to pull a donkey up a hill. T1 has decided that she "hates school and really just is going to skip doing it for now". Which for obvious reasons, isn't happening. I've been trying the polite: Hey, let's just do some math and then here you can do some writing etc.. Method.  I've been letting her work on her math that she find "really super hard" on the computer which somehow makes it *more fun*. I've been letter her earn art supply credits if she does all of her subjects without complaining, throwing fits, whining. But, for the most part, the donkey doesn't want to go up the damned hill. Getting her to do even subjects she "likes" has become difficult. It's actually easier to go take her to get teeth pulled at this point.

Now the even more difficult part, T2 is catching up to her. QUICKLY. He is very motivated. He does double on his books almost everyday, including weekends without being asked. He is passing her in math. He is quickly catching her in reading skills. He is behind still in writing ability, but only by a month or 2, 3 at most at this pace (if she doesn't actually get her butt in gear).  I KNOW part of her DE-motivation is T2's catching her and that he *appears* to have no problems learning like she does. It doesn't help that she gets frustrated and then gets stiff muscled and stops functioning, but dang. If she would just... WORK at it.  Now, she's smart. Brilliant in many areas. She KNOWS T2 is catching her if for no other reason he stands over her and shouts out the answers to her math problems as she pauses. 

But we are also waiting on insurance to do the educational disorder testing that her OT wants us to do (because really - we all know there's an issue there some where we just don't know what kind). She can't get through ANY kind of task with more than 3 steps. She just CAN'T. Which *I* know. I'm ok with it and try really hard to break the bigger things into smaller steps while trying to teach her to figure out how to tackle the bigger pieces too. But she hits her frustration level and freezes. Literally.  Freezes.  Sits completely still and stares. So. This makes things take longer than they should. (Imagine turning into a statue every time you tried to do anything required more than 3 simple steps, that's the issue at hand here.) So, when that happens here I have to break the statue and try to figure out where she froze and get her past it and moving again. It often involves crying. Why? I dunno. It just does. 

So.. Back to the motivating conundrum. I can't just club her like a baby seal nor does it seem truly proper to point out that she really is the idiot savant she really is (absolutely brilliant and yet, so very challenged with some things).

Baby Eagles..

So we've been watching the baby Bald Eagle nest on their web cam. Yes, the Bald Eagle nest has a web cam - and I don't. How's that for irony. But, the kids love it. They get to watch the Eagles from the day that they hatched and we check them every day and have watch both the mom and dad Eagle feed them.

Join us at the Eagle Camera. It's really pretty cool.

Anyhow, you know you are taking the Eagle watching a little TOO seriously when you join a facebook discussion about the 3rd eaglet being beaten up and when it will die or if it already is. That poor 3rd one is TINY compared to the other 2 and barely gets any food.

Now the really cool thing, this counts as school. Bwhahhaha! I can justify sitting around watching live baby eagles beat each other up and look cute and call it "education". Even better? I check the site and if they are doing something interesting I just holler at the kids - and they both come running down to check it out too.

Rule Changes..

We changes a few rules around here this week. I *thought* there would be dismay, whining, sobbing, and beached seal sounds BUT there hasn't been! For homeschool motivation, we let the kids earn "credits" for completion of work without procrastination, lollygagging, fit throwing, etc. They WERE being able to earn 10 minutes of time per subject. Until I realized the boy was just doing subject after subject every day (which is GREAT - don't get me wrong..) and playing video games for about an hour and a half. Which is grotesque. I could practically see his little brain oozing out of his brain. I'm not worried about this for wee girl, she just doesn't like the games nearly as much - but the reward wasn't working so she was only completing 2 subjects per day. Then comes the creeping in of TV time. We had all been sick for an extended period of time and TV time had also grown excessive. Once again, mostly for the boy.  That boy loves his electronics.

Enter the rule changes. The credits are now to be applied to a new game (by our picking and well - most like on clearance or used.. but still) and they have to have 45 to earn it. They can still earn playing time but there is a 30 (ish) minute limit that can be earned the rest goes towards the new game. The girl gets to apply credit towards her new game AND for everyday she completes her work (a minimum of 4 subjects) she gets to apply a credit to going to Michaels and picking out a craft. She LOVES crafts. She doesn't care for hours of video games, but would do crafts forever. So once she has 12 days worth of Michaels credits its craft time.

The TV rules are also very different. They had been turning the TV on as soon as the first one woke up and leaving it on until 8-8:30. Soo 2 ish hours. But that's now been modified to they each get to pick 1 show and we usually fast forward through the commercials. So 1 hour max there. They each get to pick 1 show around lunch time break. And in the afternoon they HAD BEEN either watching a movie or a few shows (remember they and I had been sick for several weeks, it's not always been like this..) This has been completely cut out. And they get to decide on 1 show together in the evening. So they were watching 5-6 hours of TV (which yes, nasty, grotesque, and brain rotting - I admit. ) to after we fast forward through commercials about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. 

I has expected a large amount of whining, in all honesty. But there hasn't been. T2 has asked a few times for a show in the afternoon - and maybe once a week we will - but not this week.  We will still be doing our traditional Saturday Movie Nights because it's now one of our family things. With the TV off, they go off and find a book and read or play outside (when it's warm enough) or just go play. I've had maybe 2 episodes of "I'm BOOOORRREED" but a quick "I'll find you something to clean" took care of that.

The long and short of it is, Rule Changes are a good thing. As long as you remain consistent with it. Stupid good parenting!

Banal Life..

Someone posted this: The Real Groundhog Dog Day:A Mom's Life on Facebook the other day. In short it calls every day in the life of a mom- the Bill Murray's Groundhog Day. I can see the author's point of view. To a point. But only to a point. Mostly - I think this woman is boring and makes it banal. Yes, laundry ALWAYS must be done, but her kids (and mine) are old enough to help and do it. Get them to. Dishes must always be done, but once again, the kids are old enough to help. 

I think the key to making the everyday NOT banal, boring, tedious, painful, boring and trite? Not let it be. If you have multiple kids how CAN it be? I have nary a day go by when one of the little darlings not do something absolutely ridiculously hilarious either on purpose or accident. No, that doesn't get the laundry done, but while I am laughing (usually in the other room to protect their poor, delicate feelings) they can haul the laundry and load it up.  Like this morning 1 & 2 decided (while eating their cereal, of course) that we needed to have cake for the Super Bowl. What kind? Angle food cake. But it needs to be "realistic". Realistic of what, I ask. (Because now I'm just curious as heck what could you possibly make an angle food cake possibly realistically into..) After much debate between them, they decide it should not be a football, because angle food cakes are round. Nor should it be a football field. They've settled on.. A basketball. They want to make "a realistic basketball for the Super Bowl out of Angel Food Cake". I'm sorry, but anyone who calls THIS a "banal" day is out of their mind. 

Sure, dishes will still have to get thrown in and out of the dishwasher like everyone else. I still have to feed and make dinner. But I don't have to make the SAME dinner I made yesterday, if *I* get bored - like she clearly is I can go and get creative and unbored the place. I think perhaps she's mistaking

rou·tine

 [roo-teen] Show IPA

noun

1.

a customary or regular course of procedure.

2.

commonplace tasks, chores, or duties as must be done regularly or at specified intervals; typical or everyday activity: the routine of an office.

3.

regular, unvarying, habitual, unimaginative, or rote procedure.

 

with 

				banal  (bəˈnɑːl)
— adj
	lacking force or originality; trite; commonplace

 

 

 

 

You can have a routine, a very strict one in fact, without it being banal. Her disillusionment with her own life isn't commonplace. I very rarely find myself going "Oh, me. If only I wasn't so bored with this routine!" And we have a very strict daily schedule and routine - especially with T1. Tedious some days, yes. But it's not "boring". It's not "commonplace" and I don't think anyone could label anything my kids do as "trite". If only they would be for a few days!