My homemade pizza! I wish you would try it I know you would like it!!
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Dear Noah:
I know a lot of people if their child were diagnosed as autistic would think "oh no....it is the end of the world" for their child..etc. BUT we have never actually felt like that...which is actually a GOOD THING. We should NOT feel that way...so hopefully that will never be a problem. Does not mean there aren't trying times.....as there have been and will be. But that is part of life. We will just have more trying times than some...and there are some who have more than us. I think I would tend to cry more over lack of help for Noah than anything....but I don't even cry about that. I don't feel like crying....I guess cause I don't look at this as a sad diagnosis. I know when I told my physician that time when I went in for my physical that Noah was autistic...she rolled her chair back from the computer immediately and said "OH NO!" and looked really sad. I was kind of surprised and wondered WHY she did that. BUT I think that is pretty typical...and I am not sure why we have not ever had that reaction. I guess that is why God put Noah in our family....maybe He knew we would NOT think that way and Noah would have a better chance? I don't know.....things like that and too deep of thinking makes my head hurt!! hahahahah
Have a good night. It is 72 degrees and sunny here today! WHOOO HOOOO
Have a good night. It is 72 degrees and sunny here today! WHOOO HOOOO
Dear Noah: (Your formal evaluation day)
Well I guess I did such a good job sending in Noah's past medical history and film clips and sound clips etc...that they did not need to do too much more today at the actual physician's office. She did check his muscle tone...which we already knew he had low muscle tone in his upper body as well as other parts of his body...but we had been told it had improved since he had overcome many of the obstacles he used to have problems with. Apparently Noah still has pretty severe low muscle tone.....upper body....arms....no grip.....chest.....all over...but mainly upper body. She said he basically had no upper body muscle strengths/tone. We already knew this and have been working on things but had backed off a bit as we were told he had improved. Guess not. Keith has no upper body strength/tone either though. However..she also noticed he had oral motor skill problems which means he cannot move just his tongue without also moving his entire jaw...etc....or move his tongue properly....his jaw/mouth properly....and that combined with his sensory integration issues definitely affects what he can eat or will eat. SO he will need intense occupational therapy....I am sure a lot more than what he had been getting before which was only 30 minutes per week. He seemed to be right handed but can do things with both hands...always been a problem for him as he cannot make up his mind which hand to use. However...she believes he will be right handed and is....but he has more problems with his right side/hand.
He still has a pretty bad speech language delay....she called it severe but we know it has improved. However...it still exists...and she said he needs intense therapy there too. Probably again more than the 60 minutes he had been receiving (we now have him doing 30 minutes ever day here at home).
They did say he has MANY signs and symptoms of MANY different things...but he DOES INDEED HAVE AUTISM. He does NOT HAVE Asperger syndrome because Noah did not even try to start talking till he was like 3 years old. You have to be able to talk really well and very very early with Asperger syndrome. We knew that part never fit but some of his teachers had wondered if he had it. So he has autism. She said he has many symptoms and characteristics of many PARTS of the autistic spectrum disorder classification....and she does NOT just single a child out with autism as having like high functioning autism or pervasive developmental disorder or ADHD or Asperger or any of the like 7 different parts of the spectrum his symptoms could fall into. See...Autistic Spectrum Disorder is like a huge umbrella and all those other more specific labels/diagnoses fall under the umbrella. However....they all also (bits and pieces from each) can make up the big umbrella. Kind of confusing...but basically it just means he has AUTISM. SO....we already suspected that so that was also no really new news.
They DID notice he had a heart murmur on his exam today...a pretty obvious one. The other woman in there helping also heard it. Noah's pediatricians have never mentioned it before. I have mentioned to them before how he will stop sometimes and say his heart is beating...and I tell him that is good cause it has to beat....but he goes on and on about it. That I know is not normal and I was going to take him back to be checked. I know his heart can really pound away sometimes. So.....we have to take him to a cardiologist....to have his heart checked. He could have problems with a valve or something causing the murmur. If so....you have to be careful when kids get infections or go to the dentist and things like that as any infection can settle in their heart and attack it and then if you get cardiomyopathy there is nothing you can do other than have a heart transplant. So you have to take preventative antibiotics or antibiotics early with infections...etc. SO he will have to see a cardiologist and have an echocardiogram done. We will go from there on that.
She noticed some things about his feet...his middle toes seeming to be connected to a point I guess....Keith and I do not have toes like that.....things that correlated with the low muscle tone...same with his hands and arms....etc. His ribs were flared...signs of low muscle tone....She noticed his right eye was a bit smaller than his left..which we had already mentioned....and she said he sometimes seemed to be squinting it shut and looking mostly with his left eye. While he has better than normal vision she suggested he be evaluated by a pediatric ophthalmologist. So we will see.
ALSO...she said it was best if they could do genetic testing to see what caused his autism. Only about 20% of the time however do they actually find out what caused it. However..IF they can find out....they know how to treat those kids better cause they know what types of therapies work better for them. Not sure how accurate that is but she is the expert so I guess she should know. However...so far we have not had much success with the so-called experts...at least not in the public school system.
As far as what to do now...we go back to his pediatrician who will need to make all the referrals for the other physicians and therapies. We will end up having to decide where to send Noah for his therapies or HOW to provide those for him...etc. Some our insurance covers and some would be out of pocket and very expensive. However..if we cannot do his therapies somewhere closer than downtown at the hospital all the time I would seriously consider checking into them coming to our home. They don't really provide you with a MANUAL of what to do and where to go once your child is diagnosed with autism. She asked if I had any questions but really after all the research we have done what is there left to ask? so.....we will have to do more searching and check into where would be the best place for him to get his therapies and what he will need. His pediatrician might be able to refer us to someplace...but they have to specialize in autistic kids. That is hard to come by it seems. SO we are kind of back where we originally were as far as the end result goes. We will still have to check into things and find out where to either send Noah or how to supply him with all he needs here from home or somewhere close by...etc. She agreed he will need social skills classes/training. Autistic kids can be taught.....but it is extremely time consuming and you have to do constant over and over play acting. She also stated right now Noah REQUIRED a lot of movement (which again we already knew). She could not believe they were not letting him have recess at school. She said that was something that should never be taken away from him. I told her we have him out pretty much every day to run around at the parks and to play and move....and are on the go a lot. He requires a lot of movement just to make up for his sensory integration issues and his low muscle tone/occupational issues and his autism. She said it was easier for him to just keep going full speed all the time rather than stopping and restarting and stopping and starting. We already knew that and keep him busy and always have something else ready for him to do all the time. She said if he was not always given something else to do next he could get into trouble and snickered. Again we knew that as it happened apparently at school all the time. She was not surprised to see us bring in a backpack for him with all kinds of things he could keep doing. Right now she said everything he does has to be done in a hurry and kind of out of control. She asked him to draw a picture and he did it in like 5 seconds. It was a picture of me. Good but very fast and erratic. The goal is to teach him to be more slow and to be in more control and take more time with things and handle transitions better...etc. He is doing better with all that at home but today in her office he was at his limit within 1 hour. She got to see first hand how he can be...right down to his sounds..etc. BUT at least she GOT IT. She was not too surprised to hear that Jefferson County our school district...did not do what they should have for Noah. She said that was the same district that when she said a child had Autistic Spectrum Disorder...they would still call to ask her WHAT the diagnosis was. She would say..THAT IS THE DIAGNOSIS. SO...they don't get it. AND they don't really have trained staff and personnel to deal with autistic kids.
So....it was not a lot of information we did not already know. He has great memory skills and can repeat things and some will THINK he has gotten something....but in reality he has not. It is time consuming "ACTING out" that actually teaches him things...so she said my doing the social stories with him was great....however...we will eventually need to broaden that out and let him interact with a few peers....till eventually he might be able to handle working around larger groups. Right now however...he just cannot handle it....and she agreed if he was running away from the school and the playground while at school or leaving the building..it was not the safest choice for him NOW anyway.
So............guess that is about it. She examined him.....mostly muscle/neurological stuff. He has some deficits...we knew that. He has autism. We already also suspected that. He has speech/language delays...we also knew that. He has a heart murmur...that we did NOT know. His eye issue...we knew about his right eye being smaller and him looking/squinting at things with the left side.....so we did not really learn anything much new. However....we basically GOT the "official" diagnosis, which I guess will help us to get any therapies he needs. Many we could not take advantage of before because he had no official diagnosis.
SO taking each thing a day and step at a time. Noah has made great improvements but still has a long way to go.
That is what we found out today.
He still has a pretty bad speech language delay....she called it severe but we know it has improved. However...it still exists...and she said he needs intense therapy there too. Probably again more than the 60 minutes he had been receiving (we now have him doing 30 minutes ever day here at home).
They did say he has MANY signs and symptoms of MANY different things...but he DOES INDEED HAVE AUTISM. He does NOT HAVE Asperger syndrome because Noah did not even try to start talking till he was like 3 years old. You have to be able to talk really well and very very early with Asperger syndrome. We knew that part never fit but some of his teachers had wondered if he had it. So he has autism. She said he has many symptoms and characteristics of many PARTS of the autistic spectrum disorder classification....and she does NOT just single a child out with autism as having like high functioning autism or pervasive developmental disorder or ADHD or Asperger or any of the like 7 different parts of the spectrum his symptoms could fall into. See...Autistic Spectrum Disorder is like a huge umbrella and all those other more specific labels/diagnoses fall under the umbrella. However....they all also (bits and pieces from each) can make up the big umbrella. Kind of confusing...but basically it just means he has AUTISM. SO....we already suspected that so that was also no really new news.
They DID notice he had a heart murmur on his exam today...a pretty obvious one. The other woman in there helping also heard it. Noah's pediatricians have never mentioned it before. I have mentioned to them before how he will stop sometimes and say his heart is beating...and I tell him that is good cause it has to beat....but he goes on and on about it. That I know is not normal and I was going to take him back to be checked. I know his heart can really pound away sometimes. So.....we have to take him to a cardiologist....to have his heart checked. He could have problems with a valve or something causing the murmur. If so....you have to be careful when kids get infections or go to the dentist and things like that as any infection can settle in their heart and attack it and then if you get cardiomyopathy there is nothing you can do other than have a heart transplant. So you have to take preventative antibiotics or antibiotics early with infections...etc. SO he will have to see a cardiologist and have an echocardiogram done. We will go from there on that.
She noticed some things about his feet...his middle toes seeming to be connected to a point I guess....Keith and I do not have toes like that.....things that correlated with the low muscle tone...same with his hands and arms....etc. His ribs were flared...signs of low muscle tone....She noticed his right eye was a bit smaller than his left..which we had already mentioned....and she said he sometimes seemed to be squinting it shut and looking mostly with his left eye. While he has better than normal vision she suggested he be evaluated by a pediatric ophthalmologist. So we will see.
ALSO...she said it was best if they could do genetic testing to see what caused his autism. Only about 20% of the time however do they actually find out what caused it. However..IF they can find out....they know how to treat those kids better cause they know what types of therapies work better for them. Not sure how accurate that is but she is the expert so I guess she should know. However...so far we have not had much success with the so-called experts...at least not in the public school system.
As far as what to do now...we go back to his pediatrician who will need to make all the referrals for the other physicians and therapies. We will end up having to decide where to send Noah for his therapies or HOW to provide those for him...etc. Some our insurance covers and some would be out of pocket and very expensive. However..if we cannot do his therapies somewhere closer than downtown at the hospital all the time I would seriously consider checking into them coming to our home. They don't really provide you with a MANUAL of what to do and where to go once your child is diagnosed with autism. She asked if I had any questions but really after all the research we have done what is there left to ask? so.....we will have to do more searching and check into where would be the best place for him to get his therapies and what he will need. His pediatrician might be able to refer us to someplace...but they have to specialize in autistic kids. That is hard to come by it seems. SO we are kind of back where we originally were as far as the end result goes. We will still have to check into things and find out where to either send Noah or how to supply him with all he needs here from home or somewhere close by...etc. She agreed he will need social skills classes/training. Autistic kids can be taught.....but it is extremely time consuming and you have to do constant over and over play acting. She also stated right now Noah REQUIRED a lot of movement (which again we already knew). She could not believe they were not letting him have recess at school. She said that was something that should never be taken away from him. I told her we have him out pretty much every day to run around at the parks and to play and move....and are on the go a lot. He requires a lot of movement just to make up for his sensory integration issues and his low muscle tone/occupational issues and his autism. She said it was easier for him to just keep going full speed all the time rather than stopping and restarting and stopping and starting. We already knew that and keep him busy and always have something else ready for him to do all the time. She said if he was not always given something else to do next he could get into trouble and snickered. Again we knew that as it happened apparently at school all the time. She was not surprised to see us bring in a backpack for him with all kinds of things he could keep doing. Right now she said everything he does has to be done in a hurry and kind of out of control. She asked him to draw a picture and he did it in like 5 seconds. It was a picture of me. Good but very fast and erratic. The goal is to teach him to be more slow and to be in more control and take more time with things and handle transitions better...etc. He is doing better with all that at home but today in her office he was at his limit within 1 hour. She got to see first hand how he can be...right down to his sounds..etc. BUT at least she GOT IT. She was not too surprised to hear that Jefferson County our school district...did not do what they should have for Noah. She said that was the same district that when she said a child had Autistic Spectrum Disorder...they would still call to ask her WHAT the diagnosis was. She would say..THAT IS THE DIAGNOSIS. SO...they don't get it. AND they don't really have trained staff and personnel to deal with autistic kids.
So....it was not a lot of information we did not already know. He has great memory skills and can repeat things and some will THINK he has gotten something....but in reality he has not. It is time consuming "ACTING out" that actually teaches him things...so she said my doing the social stories with him was great....however...we will eventually need to broaden that out and let him interact with a few peers....till eventually he might be able to handle working around larger groups. Right now however...he just cannot handle it....and she agreed if he was running away from the school and the playground while at school or leaving the building..it was not the safest choice for him NOW anyway.
So............guess that is about it. She examined him.....mostly muscle/neurological stuff. He has some deficits...we knew that. He has autism. We already also suspected that. He has speech/language delays...we also knew that. He has a heart murmur...that we did NOT know. His eye issue...we knew about his right eye being smaller and him looking/squinting at things with the left side.....so we did not really learn anything much new. However....we basically GOT the "official" diagnosis, which I guess will help us to get any therapies he needs. Many we could not take advantage of before because he had no official diagnosis.
SO taking each thing a day and step at a time. Noah has made great improvements but still has a long way to go.
That is what we found out today.
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Dear Noah
Noah today you came out first thing in the morning after getting up and said:
" I want a magic wand". "I want a magic wand so I can make Dick and Jane come to my house and play". See...you have been reading TONS of Dick and Jane stories lately...and have really been getting into them. This was so cute and sweet but also kind of sad cause you were so upset and crying.
"I want a magic wand....I want to make Dick and Jane REAL so they can come into my house and play".
I proceeded to tell you then how there were probably no real magic wands and that if you found one it would most likely be a PRETEND wand. I told you how you could PRETEND to make Dick and Jane come to life and be a part of their lives and you a part of theirs every time you READ a story about them.
You still stood there crying. Then said: " I want to skidoo"...."I want to skidoo like Steve does on Blues Clues". "I want to skidoo into the Dick and Jane book and play with them". All the while crying and crying.
I asked you if you dreamed about Dick and Jane. You told me no. I held you on the sofa and explained how you could pretend to skidoo...that READING was a way to skidoo INTO a book and become a PART OF IT and pretend YOU WERE the characters in the book...that that was what Steve was really doing on Blues Clues as he was PRETENDING and that he could not really jump into a book but he was THINKING about how it would be by reading it. It was like BEING in the book and being a part of it. I told you to read more stories and pretend to skidoo like Steve does....you cried out" but I don't know how"...."I don't know how to skidoo like Steve does". SO I went through the entire process and told you how to read and then THINK about what it would be like to be DICK in the Dick and Jane stories and then to imagine YOU were DICK. You calmed down more.
You then said "Mommy I want more friends" (crying more again now) "I want more friends like Dick and Jane to come and play with me". Kind of sad to mommy to hear you say that as you are an only child. I told you we take you places and you could pretend with others you were Dick. I told you that your cousin Audrey could be Jane. You asked me who could be Sally. I said maybe one of Jane's dolls could be Jane. You were finally calm....and seemed to understand.
Daddy got up. You came out and told me I could be JANE...you were Dick and when daddy walked out here you told him "you can be Sally".
So here we sit.....during a major snowstorm on a Sunday morning all pretending to be Dick, Jane and Sally and playing. You are happy again. I am thankful.
I also told you to learn to write your letters better so you could write sentences and then make up your own stories like Dick and Jane. You smiled.
So another hurdle out of the way. Now for breakfast.
I love you to the moon and back again and again and again....forever and ever and ever!
Mommy
" I want a magic wand". "I want a magic wand so I can make Dick and Jane come to my house and play". See...you have been reading TONS of Dick and Jane stories lately...and have really been getting into them. This was so cute and sweet but also kind of sad cause you were so upset and crying.
"I want a magic wand....I want to make Dick and Jane REAL so they can come into my house and play".
I proceeded to tell you then how there were probably no real magic wands and that if you found one it would most likely be a PRETEND wand. I told you how you could PRETEND to make Dick and Jane come to life and be a part of their lives and you a part of theirs every time you READ a story about them.
You still stood there crying. Then said: " I want to skidoo"...."I want to skidoo like Steve does on Blues Clues". "I want to skidoo into the Dick and Jane book and play with them". All the while crying and crying.
I asked you if you dreamed about Dick and Jane. You told me no. I held you on the sofa and explained how you could pretend to skidoo...that READING was a way to skidoo INTO a book and become a PART OF IT and pretend YOU WERE the characters in the book...that that was what Steve was really doing on Blues Clues as he was PRETENDING and that he could not really jump into a book but he was THINKING about how it would be by reading it. It was like BEING in the book and being a part of it. I told you to read more stories and pretend to skidoo like Steve does....you cried out" but I don't know how"...."I don't know how to skidoo like Steve does". SO I went through the entire process and told you how to read and then THINK about what it would be like to be DICK in the Dick and Jane stories and then to imagine YOU were DICK. You calmed down more.
You then said "Mommy I want more friends" (crying more again now) "I want more friends like Dick and Jane to come and play with me". Kind of sad to mommy to hear you say that as you are an only child. I told you we take you places and you could pretend with others you were Dick. I told you that your cousin Audrey could be Jane. You asked me who could be Sally. I said maybe one of Jane's dolls could be Jane. You were finally calm....and seemed to understand.
Daddy got up. You came out and told me I could be JANE...you were Dick and when daddy walked out here you told him "you can be Sally".
So here we sit.....during a major snowstorm on a Sunday morning all pretending to be Dick, Jane and Sally and playing. You are happy again. I am thankful.
I also told you to learn to write your letters better so you could write sentences and then make up your own stories like Dick and Jane. You smiled.
So another hurdle out of the way. Now for breakfast.
I love you to the moon and back again and again and again....forever and ever and ever!
Mommy
Thursday, April 07, 2005
Dear Noah:
You are too cute! Last night I had made low fat oven fried chicken for daddy and me along with potato salad and baked beans. You had your usual chicken nuggets and tater tots. You looked all around the table and said "WOW...this is a FEAST!". I thought that was so sweet. You are so considerate and thoughtful and come up with the most amazing things lately.
I gave you a digital camera (SMALL ONE) to play with and take pictures. You are doing great for a 6 year old! AND taking some unusual shots...like a view UP to the ceiling fan. Looks really strange but is unique!
JUST LIKE YOU.
I love you to the moon and back again...forever and ever and ever!
Mommy
I gave you a digital camera (SMALL ONE) to play with and take pictures. You are doing great for a 6 year old! AND taking some unusual shots...like a view UP to the ceiling fan. Looks really strange but is unique!
JUST LIKE YOU.
I love you to the moon and back again...forever and ever and ever!
Mommy
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Dear Noah
Noah...you are so cute. We were all sitting at lunch the other day and after our prayer you immediately said to your daddy ..." SO............how was your doctor appointment today?" It was sooo cute....so grown up...you were just like a little man sitting there trying to start a conversation. You have been so sweet and snuggly and just adorable! Tomorrow is Easter. Time is flying. You are growing up so fast!
I love you to the moon and back again.
Mommy
I love you to the moon and back again.
Mommy
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Dear Noah:
So.....Easter is almost here. We went to see ROBOTS the other day at the movies. Was pretty good. Poor Noah had to sit with his hands over his ears almost the entire time. It was pretty loud. I guess we will have to get those headphone hearing protection things for him to take along to wear when needed. He did pretty well...but had a hard time making it for the entire 1 1/2 hours. I think the sound was just too much for him to take and he was ready to go.
Noah, someday you will look back and read this and remark about what we spent at the movies. The movie was a matinee so it was cheaper. That means about 6.50 per ticket...but it cost even MORE to get 1 drink each, 1 bag popcorn and 1 bag of M&Ms. Another 20.00! AMAZING. Forty dollars to see 1 movie for 3 people. Outrageous.
Well...I just cooked you some eggs to color later today. We will also make some gingerbread cut outs and sugar cookie cut outs for Easter. That is probably it. That is enough. I will make a dessert for Keith and I..though I will not be able to eat much of it. TOO rich and fattening! An oreo cheesecake of some kind.
Been much colder.....only 34 now. SUPER cloudy and raining off and on combined with fog and snow. SO like Ohio and not Colorado but I am enjoying it as I like a good rain storm every once in a while and we rarely see a cloudy day here let alone have any rain. SO it is nice!
Took the VUE to get the recall thing fixed...and the oil changed. ALL done and good to go now.
Guess that is it for now. You are sitting here beside me looking at all your house plans and reading the blueprints and going through each room of the house. The breakfast nook on one design you said "would make a great calm down room".
LOVE YOU!
Mommy
Noah, someday you will look back and read this and remark about what we spent at the movies. The movie was a matinee so it was cheaper. That means about 6.50 per ticket...but it cost even MORE to get 1 drink each, 1 bag popcorn and 1 bag of M&Ms. Another 20.00! AMAZING. Forty dollars to see 1 movie for 3 people. Outrageous.
Well...I just cooked you some eggs to color later today. We will also make some gingerbread cut outs and sugar cookie cut outs for Easter. That is probably it. That is enough. I will make a dessert for Keith and I..though I will not be able to eat much of it. TOO rich and fattening! An oreo cheesecake of some kind.
Been much colder.....only 34 now. SUPER cloudy and raining off and on combined with fog and snow. SO like Ohio and not Colorado but I am enjoying it as I like a good rain storm every once in a while and we rarely see a cloudy day here let alone have any rain. SO it is nice!
Took the VUE to get the recall thing fixed...and the oil changed. ALL done and good to go now.
Guess that is it for now. You are sitting here beside me looking at all your house plans and reading the blueprints and going through each room of the house. The breakfast nook on one design you said "would make a great calm down room".
LOVE YOU!
Mommy
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
An Update on Homeschooling
Noah wrote himself off school yesterday on his calendar. He phonetically spelled out No Skool...it was too cute.
yes...homeschooling seems to be working out much better. He is more successful.....his behavior is a lot better though he still has moments. He has more freedom to do things he NEEDS to do in order to complete assignments such as move around more if needed......make noises..etc. though we are even trying to teach him to be quiet during class work time. He does pretty well. Had 2 tests today...a math test and spelling test...he got A's on both. Math he missed 1...spelling none. NO..we did NOT help him.
He starts his day with CHOICE time...as he seemed to like that so well in school. Then he does music and movement where he does sing-a-long songs that have catchy phrases and lyrics and words and MOVEMENTS. They are tied in with him learning his LONG and SHORT vowels.
Then he does math and language arts, he has reading time.....writing etc. All the basics....then he gets to work on arts and crafts stuff....and Tuesdays is music....Wed. is science and Thursdays is social studies. Friday is more of a free day as we run around more then.
He is working on music now playing his piano...learning the notes and where they are on the keyboard. The big full size Casio keyboard I got him for Christmas. He has been working on planting seeds and watching them grow and change for his science project. Next will be seasons.......he is learning about his neighborhood.....and he tracks weather on a graph for our area to see how temperatures change every day. He also sits at the computer and looks for other cities and compares their temperatures. SO that is all kind of connected. Summer he will learn about the Flag and Betsy Ross and Declaration of Independence...etc. He will also learn about the zoo and animals......and beaches and sand and the animals with that. I am going to have him work on dioramas. In the fall we will tackle the human body.....the major organs....how they work....etc.
Meanwhile he is also working on Bible studies.....we are working on the story of Creation and that ties in with spring. Next will be Noah's Ark probably...not sure. We have many good ones to choose from and he enjoys them all. We read from his Bible every night and he really likes that. We tie it in to movies when we can.
I am also working on social stories with him when I can...and teaching him appropriate behaviors and to recognize emotions and people's reactions and how their faces look. That is a bit tougher and more time consuming but he is making progress and has learned a lot. He has a long way to go though.
I am going to have him work on a map of OUR neighborhood too.....so he can learn where everything important is...he pretty much knows already. We will go around and take pictures of different places...and have them developed...cut them out and make a map showing where things are or what is in his neighborhood. Or he can draw them out..or us the PC to make one. He loves maps.
SO we are going to go get him a desk. We got the chair already but they had no desks down from the top level in stock till the forklift got back so we need to go back and get that. He will soon go out and plant more seeds/bulbs in pots on the balcony and watch them grow. We took pictures of his sunflower seeds as they have been growing to document and make a book. We try to have him do coloring, cutting or pasting everyday if we can. He has been reading from his Dick and Jane books and loves to do that. He can sound out most all words on his own.
This morning we worked on states and their capitals. AND their abbreviations. He loves that.
SO it is going well and he gets a lot more done than he ever did during school. We had a field trip the other day to Krispy Kreme donuts to see how they made them. We will take a field trip to the zoo this summer and Museum of Natural History maybe too or in the fall. Denver Botanical Gardens will be nice to do soon as that is along with what we are already doing. The Butterfly Pavilion is another scheduled SPRING trip as I want to teach him about butterflies and how they grow (as it is spring). We are getting the hang of it all and love teaching him and planning out schedules and watching him soak everything up. Keith does speech therapy with him since he went to school for Speech Therapy.
So.....that is a lot but we are doing it all and then some.
yes...homeschooling seems to be working out much better. He is more successful.....his behavior is a lot better though he still has moments. He has more freedom to do things he NEEDS to do in order to complete assignments such as move around more if needed......make noises..etc. though we are even trying to teach him to be quiet during class work time. He does pretty well. Had 2 tests today...a math test and spelling test...he got A's on both. Math he missed 1...spelling none. NO..we did NOT help him.
He starts his day with CHOICE time...as he seemed to like that so well in school. Then he does music and movement where he does sing-a-long songs that have catchy phrases and lyrics and words and MOVEMENTS. They are tied in with him learning his LONG and SHORT vowels.
Then he does math and language arts, he has reading time.....writing etc. All the basics....then he gets to work on arts and crafts stuff....and Tuesdays is music....Wed. is science and Thursdays is social studies. Friday is more of a free day as we run around more then.
He is working on music now playing his piano...learning the notes and where they are on the keyboard. The big full size Casio keyboard I got him for Christmas. He has been working on planting seeds and watching them grow and change for his science project. Next will be seasons.......he is learning about his neighborhood.....and he tracks weather on a graph for our area to see how temperatures change every day. He also sits at the computer and looks for other cities and compares their temperatures. SO that is all kind of connected. Summer he will learn about the Flag and Betsy Ross and Declaration of Independence...etc. He will also learn about the zoo and animals......and beaches and sand and the animals with that. I am going to have him work on dioramas. In the fall we will tackle the human body.....the major organs....how they work....etc.
Meanwhile he is also working on Bible studies.....we are working on the story of Creation and that ties in with spring. Next will be Noah's Ark probably...not sure. We have many good ones to choose from and he enjoys them all. We read from his Bible every night and he really likes that. We tie it in to movies when we can.
I am also working on social stories with him when I can...and teaching him appropriate behaviors and to recognize emotions and people's reactions and how their faces look. That is a bit tougher and more time consuming but he is making progress and has learned a lot. He has a long way to go though.
I am going to have him work on a map of OUR neighborhood too.....so he can learn where everything important is...he pretty much knows already. We will go around and take pictures of different places...and have them developed...cut them out and make a map showing where things are or what is in his neighborhood. Or he can draw them out..or us the PC to make one. He loves maps.
SO we are going to go get him a desk. We got the chair already but they had no desks down from the top level in stock till the forklift got back so we need to go back and get that. He will soon go out and plant more seeds/bulbs in pots on the balcony and watch them grow. We took pictures of his sunflower seeds as they have been growing to document and make a book. We try to have him do coloring, cutting or pasting everyday if we can. He has been reading from his Dick and Jane books and loves to do that. He can sound out most all words on his own.
This morning we worked on states and their capitals. AND their abbreviations. He loves that.
SO it is going well and he gets a lot more done than he ever did during school. We had a field trip the other day to Krispy Kreme donuts to see how they made them. We will take a field trip to the zoo this summer and Museum of Natural History maybe too or in the fall. Denver Botanical Gardens will be nice to do soon as that is along with what we are already doing. The Butterfly Pavilion is another scheduled SPRING trip as I want to teach him about butterflies and how they grow (as it is spring). We are getting the hang of it all and love teaching him and planning out schedules and watching him soak everything up. Keith does speech therapy with him since he went to school for Speech Therapy.
So.....that is a lot but we are doing it all and then some.
Monday, March 21, 2005
Dear Noah
You have been doing pretty well the past week or so. However....today daddy started his vacation and it seems you and him can really butt heads. Daddy still does not always know what to do to NOT set you off...so it happens time and time again over and over and everyone gets tired and frustrated and ticked off.
We started cleaning and packing things up today. Got quite a bit done even with your daddy not really wanting to help. He did.....but you could tell he did not want to.
Anyway....tomorrow we will get a storage locker and start taking things over to it I think. We need to do that to make more room here in our condo. ONCE we get everything extra packed up and put into storage (mostly seasonal items..etc). ..we will do anything else we need to around here and may go ahead and put the condo up for sale. We need a bigger place. 936 square feet for the 3 of us and all our stuff is not quite large enough...especially with no basement or garage. We have gotten rid of a lot of stuff over the years but also got NEW stuff to takes its place. So we are to the rim so to speak. No room here for anything more. I have been good about when you bring something new in something old must go out. We are good about donating items and parting with older things to bring in newer things. I don't want a bigger place to get more stuff. We could get by the rest of our lives without buying any more Christmas stuff or wrapping paper, boxes and bows..hahaha. Someday you will get all those things. All the ornaments and collectibles we have collected over time together. We are so glad you enjoy and love Christmas as much as we do. SO I think someday even as an adult you will like to have all these things. I also don't need any more stationery for a long time or cards...stickers.....etc. I have BOXES of brand new scrapbooking items I bought and have yet to even BEGIN scrapbooking. I guess it looks like we have a lot of stuff...and I guess we do. BUT....for the most part we really do use all the things we do have. The only things staying in storage long-term or periodically would be seasonal items. SO anyway....I am trying to get rid of things I don't use or won't...things just sitting around. ALL collecting dust. You should have seen the dust today. Cannot believe we let the condo get like that. But with lack of time and energy it seems things don't always get done around here. ONCE we are organized that will HAVE to change.
Well...I am about done for TODAY. Tomorrow will be another day. I imagine we will all have sinus problems tonight after stirring up all that dust.
By the way...daddy got out his old 8 mm movies and you have LOVED watching them...so much you don't want to ever stop. Amazing.
I LOVE YOU
Mommy
We started cleaning and packing things up today. Got quite a bit done even with your daddy not really wanting to help. He did.....but you could tell he did not want to.
Anyway....tomorrow we will get a storage locker and start taking things over to it I think. We need to do that to make more room here in our condo. ONCE we get everything extra packed up and put into storage (mostly seasonal items..etc). ..we will do anything else we need to around here and may go ahead and put the condo up for sale. We need a bigger place. 936 square feet for the 3 of us and all our stuff is not quite large enough...especially with no basement or garage. We have gotten rid of a lot of stuff over the years but also got NEW stuff to takes its place. So we are to the rim so to speak. No room here for anything more. I have been good about when you bring something new in something old must go out. We are good about donating items and parting with older things to bring in newer things. I don't want a bigger place to get more stuff. We could get by the rest of our lives without buying any more Christmas stuff or wrapping paper, boxes and bows..hahaha. Someday you will get all those things. All the ornaments and collectibles we have collected over time together. We are so glad you enjoy and love Christmas as much as we do. SO I think someday even as an adult you will like to have all these things. I also don't need any more stationery for a long time or cards...stickers.....etc. I have BOXES of brand new scrapbooking items I bought and have yet to even BEGIN scrapbooking. I guess it looks like we have a lot of stuff...and I guess we do. BUT....for the most part we really do use all the things we do have. The only things staying in storage long-term or periodically would be seasonal items. SO anyway....I am trying to get rid of things I don't use or won't...things just sitting around. ALL collecting dust. You should have seen the dust today. Cannot believe we let the condo get like that. But with lack of time and energy it seems things don't always get done around here. ONCE we are organized that will HAVE to change.
Well...I am about done for TODAY. Tomorrow will be another day. I imagine we will all have sinus problems tonight after stirring up all that dust.
By the way...daddy got out his old 8 mm movies and you have LOVED watching them...so much you don't want to ever stop. Amazing.
I LOVE YOU
Mommy
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Noah says the cutest things!
Last night before we went to bed Noah was already in bed waiting for me to come in. He was talking/reading to himself I assumed. I went in and asked him what he was doing. He said "I am reading to my 2 friends...pillow and covers."
I thought that was so sweet. AND using quite the imagination that he never used to have.
Noah has been back OUT of school for the past 3 days and we have already noticed HUGE improvements in the way he is behaving. Even though he thought he WANTED to go back to public school we can see that it is just not a place for him...at least not now. SO....we are going to get the legal paperwork in order and send in to "officialize" our homeschooling him. He has so much fun and does so much better here at home. We can cover so many more different subjects and he has been able to control himself better. The difference is like night and day. SO...while he may have wanted to continue to go to a public school setting....this is best for him now. I think we knew that all along but were for some reason kind of holding off on making any definite decision.
SO...that has been decided. Now we can move on and forward. I bet in his mind somewhere and body he is greatly relieved as well.
I thought that was so sweet. AND using quite the imagination that he never used to have.
Noah has been back OUT of school for the past 3 days and we have already noticed HUGE improvements in the way he is behaving. Even though he thought he WANTED to go back to public school we can see that it is just not a place for him...at least not now. SO....we are going to get the legal paperwork in order and send in to "officialize" our homeschooling him. He has so much fun and does so much better here at home. We can cover so many more different subjects and he has been able to control himself better. The difference is like night and day. SO...while he may have wanted to continue to go to a public school setting....this is best for him now. I think we knew that all along but were for some reason kind of holding off on making any definite decision.
SO...that has been decided. Now we can move on and forward. I bet in his mind somewhere and body he is greatly relieved as well.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
To Send or NOT to Send? That is the question of the year!
Noah stayed home from school today. He informed me yesterday he wanted to stay home....and since Keith and I were mixed about sending him back.....we let him stay home. GOOD thing as he has had an extremely difficult day even around us. I mean really difficult. Cannot listen well at all for us today. Felt the need to body slam himself into things all day...open cupboard doors in the eye doctor's office and shut and repeat over and over even though I kept telling him to NOT do it. Kept feeling the urge to KICK things....walls at the store...climb on shelves in store...almost out of control type behavior. I have noticed when he goes to school he then starts to act like this again. Whereas if he stays home he does much better and is more calm and acts better and does NOT have days like this. SO it could be because of him being in school for the past 6 days being stressed...not sure. We are still debating about what to do. Part of us wants to send him but in reality we don't. We cannot let NOAH make the decisions...we have to decide what is best for him. And to be honest I am not thrilled about having to worry if he is going to run away from the school all the time. SO.....we are probably going to yank him again...and proceed with the formal evaluation and meanwhile homeschool and work on behaviors here at home and go from there. He was doing so well when we were doing things at home 100%. It has fallen apart rapidly since he has been back in school.
BUT.....we put in an email to the behavioral consultant who went to Noah's school on Monday to see what her thoughts were about the day there and how things were going. I then put in a call to her to see if she got my email. No word back from her yet. I kind of wanted to see what she had to say before we made a final decision about Noah. BUT I think we already have.
BUT.....we put in an email to the behavioral consultant who went to Noah's school on Monday to see what her thoughts were about the day there and how things were going. I then put in a call to her to see if she got my email. No word back from her yet. I kind of wanted to see what she had to say before we made a final decision about Noah. BUT I think we already have.
Monday, March 14, 2005
Noah: Do you want to go back to your school?
I just asked him. I asked him if he wanted to go back to Sheridan Green. he said" well...maybe a little bit". I asked him...."or would you rather do school here at home with mommy and daddy?"....he said "yeah...I would rather stay home and do school here tomorrow". I asked if he ever wanted to go back to Sheridan or just stay home....he said"MY school at home is better". I asked why and he said "cause I can do it".
Pretty much says it all.
Pretty much says it all.
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members of the autistic community who share the common goal of seeking
acceptance for those on the autistic spectrum, who aim to educate about
autism, and who are not seeking a cure for autism. This is part of the
global autism rights movement.
