Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

I can't believe it's Thursday already and I haven't blogged yet this week, and guess what I don't remember Monday!

Tuesday, piano lessons for both Nathan and Gigi.  

Wednesday, physiotherapy Nathan, music therapy Gigi.  Hockey from 1-3.  

Thursday   

Gigi- ixl, and hot dots math flash cards, about 1 hr of math. 

Cheerleading practice 4:30-6

Nathan. Dreambox math, and website called cool math games, about 2 hrs.  Nathan and I also looked at clever dragons, he played and looked around a bit. We also spent about half an hour on the georgraphy we worked on countries of Asia as that's what he's doing in class at tla on Fridays.  I'm quite impressed on his geography knowledge.

Nathan and I made cookies after dinner. 

Then Nathan and I played some kind of game with cards and numbers and defence and attack... Nathan had to read the instructions and figure it out I couldn't get it.  What is each card worth how do I play???

What I've thought about this week. Asynchronous learning, foundations skills assessment, and how Nathan and Gigi are both happier on days we go schoolwork...

I have noticed that both Nathan and Gigi are all over the map on what they know and what they can do, I realize that every student is going to be like this, but I do find this interesting, while I like to I courage their strengths I think I need to work better at helping them excell at other areas as well.  For example Gigi is a great reader, writer, but she struggles at spelling.  I have known this ALL year, I have all about spelling sitting on my shelf, I need to dedicate 1:1 time for each child during the day at some point to work on these things.  Nathan we need to work on computer skills, I would like to use classroom suite and figure out how to use it to his advantage.  

Thinking about fsa, I'm not really concerned about Nathan taking the test except for how comfortable he will be.  I don't think it will really show us what he really knows and I think this is partly because he is so asynchronous as well.  And depending on how he's feeling the day he writes the test will have a huge impact on his score.  On a bad day he can't answer 1+3.  

Things I think we are doing well in our homeschooling is group learning, they both enjoy having discussions and really learning about things!  We love reading books together.  I have ordered books to do some more units from moving beyond the page, we really enjoyed the lion the witch and the wardrobe.  We are loving our history!   We are incorporating geography in our daily lives, we consistently look at the map as we do our work...

Next month we need to add in more canada.  When we are studying things we have been relating to things we already know about canada from the brief amounts we have studied so far.  

Saturday

I woke up this morning at 5 am with Genevieve complaining of a stomach followed closely with her throwing up.   I realize now that I think she got glutinized and that is why she was throwing up.  Poor girl....   

We were supposed to go on a bike ride and have a weeinie roast, I guess that will have to wait for another day. 

We did some school work but I can't remember what we did today. 

Nathan called me up tonight when I thought he was asleep.  He discovered his sternoclavicular joint was dislocating!  Say what, I've never heard of anyone dislocating this joint.  I took a video and posted it on an eds site to see if anyone else has experienced this, no one has, ugh and these are the bendy people I'm asking :).  Some have had movement but nothing like Nathan's.  I looked it up online, I know dr google you should never do but sure enough it seems rare, and difficult to prevent or fix.  

Nathan kept on telling me his collarbone felt weird and when I reduce his shoulder, it sometimes feels really weird I mentioned this to his physio last week that it feels like everything is moving.  Well no wonder absolutely nothing is stable in his poor shoulder. That's why sometimes it feels like his whole upper body goes clunk when I try to put his shoulder back in. His collar bone and shoulder are out.  

Friday!

Well sorry Rebecca, we were late again for class!  Nathan is NOT a morning person.  I unfortunately yelled at him a few times in the morning and then regretted yelling afterwards, especially when he says, why are you always mad at me!  Agh he started to feel better on the drive and was in a good mood before we got to school.  Kids had a good time at school.

We then had OT, Nathan's assessment report was finally finished.  The report I had somewhat mixed feeling about, maybe I was expecting more?  The assessment was in September so I don't really remember all that we talked about. But I know some of the suggested activities are completely out of the question due to his shoulder instability.  Rope pulling games, tug of war, swinging from trees, monkey bars, wrestling, these activities are ones that should absolutely be avoided.  There are quite a few great suggestions and the ot working with Nathan is wonderful.  I know the Nathan's Pediatrician told me I am going to have to be the expert in Nathan's care, because if a dr says he knows all about eds and Nathan we need to run fast as there are no experts in Nathan's diagnosis.  I just wish the experts can help more :).  I really like working with his ot and it is great to have someone to talk things out with and she is great at comming up with solutions to help Nathan.  You too Rachel!  One interesting thing is they suggested Nathan would be better at individual sports than team sports :). Another thing as how can you expect them to understand Nathan in 2 hours is his drive.  He excels at team sports, he loves soccer he loves hockey.  He has to work harder than anyone out there, as his body does not help him out.  I have watched him this year in hockey, going from barely able to skate to a confident hockey player!   I LOVE home school hockey!  Overall I am glad we did the report, as I think there is some useful information in it and it will help his ot. It didn't have very much on his auditory processing and that is what we talked about most when the assessment was completed.  I think it will help giving the report to Nathan's physiotherapist and then perhaps she can write her own recommendations to Nathan's ot team.  As Janet, Nathan's physiotherapist seems to have a pretty good understanding of Nathan's condition.  She read a book on ehlers danlos for physiotherapists, the only one ever written.   

While we were at ot Nathan's neck was really bothering him I could here Victoria talking to him so I went in and both his shoulders were dislocated, unfortunately his right shoulder we had to keep reducing it over and over as as soon as it would go in it would pop right back out.  I am glad that Victoria at least got to see his shoulder out, and how difficult it is to put back in sometimes...

So after it we went home for lunch and a play date.  

After dinner, Genevieve went to twisters gymnastics for tumble practice.  It is from 7-8:30.  A little late for us, but the level of coaching is phenomenal.  So even though at the time I didn't want to go it was worth it for Gigi.

Here is a video we took today that shows how Nathan\s sternoclavicular joint dislocates!  Poor kid

 

Thursday

Grandma and grandpa came for a visit, we went out shopping with them.  

Genevieve had cheer, while Nathan grandma and grandpa and I drove around Abbotsford looking at where grandpa used to live as a child.  Grandpa explained what the area looked like before it was developed. It was a pretty good history lesson.

After cheer we went home for a quick dinner and then we did some school work, I sent Gigi to the couch with ixl.  Nathan and I worked on a current events thing for school tomorow.  We read an article on Nelson Mandela and the apartheid in South Africa.  It was a very good read and we spent about an hour discussing the article. The current event article was from lesplan and I lived it!  We will definitely do more of these articles.  The kids definitely don't get exposed to much current events as we don't watch tv. 

After Nathan wanted to do math, but I said we have to go to bed , Gigi already fell asleep on the couch :)

Wednesday January 22

Started the day late Nathan slept in until 9:45.  We had physio at 10:30 so very rushed.  Physio was good, he has improved so much since first starting, but with everything I see slower progress now.  His physiotherapist is recommending seeing a second physiotherapist who does more work on the spine.  He also needs some nassage therapy.  

Genevieve loves her time with Nathan's physiotherapists daughter Kim.  They do singing, making music etc, she is a music therapist and Gigi loves playing with the music, it is so different then her structured piano lessons.  

After physio, we went to go buy Gigi a new pair of skates!  Hockey skates!  We bought a stick and other things for her to play hockey.  I am excited to see her start to play hockey, I will be looking for used gear this week.  

Then we went to hockey skating, then home for dinner and Nathan has a playdate over.  

Tuesday January

An overview of the last month :)

Zoob challenge for both kids, we have completed 1 challenge so far.  

It's been a long time since I have posted! Jeff had 4 weeks off of work, so we definitely took advantage of this time off and did some fun family things.  We did continue to do some school work over the holidays, just in general though.  We did not schedule anything but we had lots of natural on the fly learning.  The best kind I think!

Lego for Gigi

New diary of a wimpy kid

I found an intelliglobe at costco, last 1, and the box was damaged, we bought it for $20!  Kids are loving it, it came with a map for the wall as well.  The kids love the pen and the pen when you put it on a country gives you lots of info, language music, national anthem etc.  kids and Jeff are liking just playing with it.  We received a lot of fun learning games and activities for Christmas. We have played a canada trivia game together, we decided daddy and Nathan need to be on 1 team and Gigi and mom on the other, apparently Nate and I know a lot of obscure canadian trivia :).  We received another trivia game parents against kids, oh my Jeff and I have to work on our trivia knowledge! Kids beat us 3 times.  So many opportunities for learning.  

The kids had their first piano recital!   Nathan had a hard time leaving for it, he thought he was sick he couldn't understand why his stomach hurt so much and why he felt like throwing up.  I explained he must be nervousness, he could not understand how that could affect his stomach :).   He played well and was so relieved.  I loved watching them!

We also had a fantastic trip to California for 10 days!  4 days in San Diego and. 6 days in aneheim.  We had so much fun!   We all loved sandiego!

Gigi ready at 5 am!

First commercial flight for both

Visit to the zoo!

I don't think Gigi needs acting lessons :)

Here is a picture after a long day at seaworld, we had a wonderful dinner in old town.  A Mexican area, we went to a wonderful restauraunt, Spanish speaking, wonderful band playing in the outdoor courtyard, fire burning right by our table. The kids loved the food, and more importantly the atmosphere, they loved feeling immersed in a different culture!   Next trip will definitely involve a culture experience.  

Next up disneyland :)

The morning after we returned Genevieve had her 1 st cheer competition of the year.  

Jeff had to go back to work, we didn't do much in school, as I'm pretty sick grr just love getting chest infections.  

Today I'm feeling better, so we did a little today, 1st thing was a dr appt to listen to my lungs, yeah everything is clearing up, next piano lessons, then home for school.  We watched a video Rebecca recomended, we had watched it a few years ago but it was neat to watch it again, the kids definitely understood it more this time.  We then completed some math sheets, you colour the correct colour.  Little more interesting to do some math.  It's crazy how Nathan's brain seems to shutdown when he is having a bad day!   What is easy one day is hard another, he had a hard time during piano too, put his shoulder back in twice in 15 minutes while he was trying to play the piano, he took twice as long doing his flash cards.  After I asked him if his shoulder was out sure enough it was :).  

Gigi's math

Nathan's math