Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Blog Reading..

I was reading this blog thing earlier and it had a Facebook question leading from to it.. (Or from it.. or however that works..) And it was "How long have you been homeschooling?" 85% of the people answers included SOME version of "from birth" in it. REALLY?  From birth? How the heck are you "homeschooling from birth?" The kid pops out and you show it a book at tell it to read at 2 days old?? Damn your kid must be brilliant! I want to see that. I do, I honestly want to see someone "homeschooling" a freaking newborn. I can see "How long have you PLANNED on homeschooling?" "How long have you desired on...?" "When did you decide to...?" But come on..  You can't teach a newborn to not throw up it's breakfast, let alone a useful, viable piece of knowledge, and any parents JOB as a parent is to teach it basic life functioning.

Thank you, this has been the irrational rant for the day.. *curtsy*

Monday, November 28, 2011

Never Boring..

I must admit it's never boring here. How I wish it were, OH how I wish it were. Between the Thanksgiving holiday, Christmas anxiety (one has to know when it is - EXACTLY when it is. The other is better of not know - until it magically appears.), medical issues, and homeschooling 1 & 2 - it's never boring. Why just 2 seconds ago I had to explain why you can't just randomly learn things from a book (a piano book specifically) and have it mastered in 3 seconds. The specific explanation, after the normal version didn't work, included 4 pieces of wood, 20 screws and Sumo John falling on his arse when only 2 screws are used per piece of wood. The logic evaded what was being built with 4 pieces of wood with said screws but somehow THAT made the point. Illogical logic. Great.

1 & 2 have also decided they REALLY want *me* to teach them to play piano. NOW. Mathematically and with numbers. Awesome. *I* don't know how to play piano. And. Last time *I* looked at music it wasn't "math" based per se. But by golly it will be by the time I'm done with it.  Now. I must clarify that the piano thing isn't out of nowhere exactly, but T1 took piano lessons for a while from a wonderful, great teacher. Megan is a fantastic teacher. T1 got very, very frustrated as the lessons got harder because it's turning out she *probably* has some sort of education learning disability that they are just now testing for that makes it so she can't process past 3 steps in a row. As piano gets harder, there are more steps. Left hand, right hand, reading notes, hand position, etc. She literally gets stuck inside her brain and freezes in a loop. My current theory is to simplify the lessons by changing the notes to numbers (she can't tell patterns and differences in note location either.. Another piano/music learning flaw..) to help alleviate some of the steps to see if I can help her get past a portion of the loop.  T2 has an overwhelming urge to learn it to, so with 2 really eager triers and a piano already, a piano learning, again, we go.  Now, I know there are piano teachers and players alike groaning in misery. Sorry. I really am. I don't know how to play piano. Never really wanted to learn. Really don't want to have labels ALL over the piano, but come the end of the day - labels there will be. 







Sunday, November 20, 2011

Turkey Week!

Thanksgiving is Thursday! While that is good, getting there is going to be a royal PITA. T2 has his EEG on Tuesday. T1 has Therapy and  Girl Scouts Monday. C has a colonoscopy and endoscopy Wednesday.

Getting to Thursday is going to be special. For the EEG T2 has to be kept awake until at midnight Monday night and then be woken up by 5 am. His appt is at 10ish. That boy loves his sleep. I have NO idea how the hell we are going to keep him awake until midnight. We can barely keep him awake until 9 for the 4th of July. The waking him up is going to be a battle of epic proportions because we can't give him any chocolate (ie no chocolate milk) which is his favorite wakey beverage. Not a lot, just a smidge in his milk. But, it's a routine, and breaking a routine on a stressful morning is going to break the morning and day and evening. Fun times.

Thanksgiving this year is going to be ham. Mmmm Ham. C doesn't eat Turkey. We've had a chicken the last few years, but are going full our Hammy this year. And potatoes, and stuffing, and cherry pie. Because who doesn't like pie??

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Weekend!

It was a busy weekend for having absolutely nothing going on. Oddly, there's always something to DO around here.

T1 started listening therapy again last Monday. Listening therapy is a fairly intensive program (because what would it be if it wasn't intensive and time consuming around here?) where she listens to modified music 25-30 minutes - 2 times daily, everyday for several months at a time. During the time she is listening to the music (which is through special headphones and programed mini-sd card on a player now) she has do be doing something "creative". Sooo. I have to come up with 2 - 30 minute crafts every stinkin' day now too. This is in addition to the brushing every 2 hours or so as well as still going to OT and behavioral therapy every week. All in all it averages about 3 hours of therapy a day or more. Not counting "extras" like fits, mood swings, outbursts, or learning moments. Those can easily add an extra several hours a day or week.

T2 has gotten sick. He's got a super sore throat with little pus pockets, a slight fever, and blood coming out in his sinus rinse. I'm going to have to get him to the ped. tomorrow. This on top of trying to get him adjusted to the new medication jump is going to be super special. He's miserable today, but taking him to something like an urgent care given his problems - isn't going to be all that helpful. He needs to be seen by HIS doctor. The one who believes ME when I tell them something is wrong because of the way he presents with problems.

C had to work all weekend, but even so we managed to get a few things done. A tent is currently occupying our entire living room. The gerbils have a nice clean bed. I got all the therapies, medications, and sinus rinses done despite massive protest.  A cat, snake, button, and badges have all been sewn. Groceries were gotten on Friday. The house is somewhat clean-ish and the 20 loads of laundry done this week put  away. (I swear it multiplied at night. I'd go to bed almost caught up then there would be 4 more loads!)

I admit I am copying this listing idea of being productive from http://oursunnyview.blogspot.com/ . Sometimes, when the To-Do list is 900 miles long, it's hard to remember what you HAVE done and need to write that down too.