Day 3 and 4

Day 3 was a busy day where we had a lot accomplished even though it was quite broken up.

In the morning we started early, the kids new we had a busy day and that we needed o get started right away.  Well one great thing we found out is that non of us can follow directions, I complained about Tuesday that we had to read forever well if we would have read directions, we were not supposed to read the whole chapter!  That makes much more sense!    So we completed lesson three much easier as we read everything already.

1.) worksheet on verbs
2.) how to draw turtles
3) the worksheet on problems and solutions faced by the main character in this chapter.

I had a DRs apt at 9:20 in the morning so the kids brought their school work with them and worked on it while they waited, when I came out into the waiting room, I had to wait for them to finish what they were doing because they were working on magic squares together! 

We continued on in math with lesson 3 in Rightstart.  We did more complex magic squares, and they added two squares, multiplied etc.  Genevieve was really enjoying these.  Nathan somewhat enjoyed them, but he is definitely having a harder time concentrating, he was confused at first when we were doing it, and forgot what he had done yesterday, then he was saying he did not know how to add 8 plus 2.  And I was saying Nathan you do know how to do this look at it add it.   If you have 8 things and you add 2 more what is it.  He then went what you mean I am supposed to add 8 plus 2 well that's 10, I have no idea why he could not see that.  What was going on in his brain, but after that he seemed to do much better.

After math we had to go to physiotherapy and music.  Genevieve has 1 hour with Kim and Nathan is doing 1/2 hour after he is finished with physio.  Genevieve made up a wonderful song, she is not quite finished it but next week she will finish it.  I love ho w she knows exactly how she wants the song to sound and she can work with Kim to figure it out together.  I will attach a video I recorded so that they had a record of what it sounded like, so she would not forget how the song went.

After physio, we had planned on doing a little more school work, but Nathan was tired, I was tired...

So we had lunch and had about a 1 hour break before we left the house again.  I was dropping Nathan off in Rosedale at a friends house, and then taking Genevieve to her first day of CSOPA, and then I was going off to childrens for an EDS support meeting.  So we get to CSOPA and no one is there, guess what I am a week early, so off I go driving gigi to Rosedale, and this was already putting me behind dropping her off.  Then I had to pick up another fellow EDSer in sardis, and then another in abbotsford.  We arrived at childrens about 20 minutes late....  Oh well it was a good meeting, but long drive in and out again.



Day 4

Well I think Day 3 did me in.  I didn't wake up until 10:30  Kids came in, in the morning Nathan said don't wake her she is in a deep sleep.  So I woke up with the cold turning into a man cold today, you know the whiny this sucks kind.  I thought yesterday it was gone, and I was on the upswing! Not so definitely sick sick sick today.

So today for school we watched episode 1 in Canada a Peoples History.  We watched it on youtube, but it definitely was not a great copy, we tried to watch it on the tv, but it was not clear enough for Nathan and it was making him sick watching it, so we watched it on the computer instead.  I think I might look into getting the DVD's as they were definitely good, and would be great for the next few years covering Canadian history...

So after watching our movie, we got ready to go to cheer, Genevieve has a private lesson at 4-4:30 then has cheer until 6:30.

I promise I will take more pictures of school tomorrow!  I know it makes the post more interesting...

Day 2

Well today was definitely a better day academically!

We did start the day a little late, I rolled over in bed sometime early in the morning and nearly scared myself half to death, as someone was in bed with me!  I thought in my sleep it was jeff and then went wait a minute Jeff is not home!  Of course I am blind as a bat, so even more scary.  It turned out to be my little sweetie Gigi who had come into bed with her own blanket, because she knows I don't share mine, and she didn't wake me up, but she had a bad dream last night.

So it was about 9:20 when the kids started to do their school work, they all bythemselves, when they were done eating were excited to find their books, and figure out what they were supposed to be doing.  They read the MBTP instructions and then found out they were to read two chapters.  So they started reading, Nathan started complaining that his eyes hurt, he said he felt a lot of pressure on his eyes and they felt weird when he was reading.  I kept on encouraging him to read on.  Well 45 minutes in they both still had plenty of reading to do.  So I decided to take them upstairs and I would read to them from my cozy bed.  Well I knew Nathan was complaining about how much reading they had to do today, but I was not expecting to spend 2 hours this morning reading!  The chapter was sooooo long, and kinda boring.  I posted about this on a MBTP forum, and a bunch of parents said they felt this way at the beginning of the book as well, but the book does get better!  Thank-goodness for that.  This is the first MBTP book that I am not really enjoying reading.  It is called The View From Saturday.

So after completing their reading they didn't have much time for anything else, as it was already 11:30, and we have to leave at 12:30 to go to piano.

But Nathan and Genevieve completed these assignments

1) anwer chapter questions

2) Flow chart of events from yesterdays chapter

3) they then made a vocabulary game cube, gig started this by rolling the cube and then she would write a sentence with the word that was rolled.  She had to use the dictionary to look up a few words.

- When Nathan started playing I told them they could do it orally to save Nathan's hands.  We definitely learned some new vocab words and I think the kids enjoyed that they had to cut out the cube and tape it together and then play the game, it was definitely one of the more fun vocab exercise
 from MBTP

And after this we had to eat and take off to Piano


I had planned on doing math while each of them took turns in Piano, but I had to do a few errands, go to the bank, get new glasses, and pick up a refill on Nathans prescription so I decided to drop the two of them off.

While I was driving I got a text that Nathan was having an episode.  I must admit at this moment I had a bit of time that I felt why me, why oh why isn't it ever normal.   I was finding it crazy that I was on my way to pick up my 11 year olds sons medication to help control his blood pressure, and I get this text.  Most mothers don't have to deal with this.  Okay it might have lasted a few moments longer more like about 2 hours I was like really really, what the heck is going on with him...

anyway so this is what happened to him today

Nathan was sitting in waiting room while Genevieve was in taking her lessons.  He says he was closing his eyes giving them a rest (right there that's a sign something is not right, Nathan never rests), and he says he started to see spots.  He opened his eyes and they were everywhere bright multicolored dots everywhere and squiggly lines that looked kind of like the northern lights.  He waited about 5 minutes before he went and decided he better tell his teacher as usually it does not last this long.  So he went and told her, it lasted a little bit longer and then went away for about 2 minutes, and then it came back and lasted about 20 minutes, he said it was very hard to read his music as the dots were getting in the way, he could not see the music sheet.    So after it went away, he had a headache for about 30 minutes. 

When we got home he seemed in good spirits, he went up to his bedroom and fainted on the way up the stairs, thankfully he was able to fall up, and not down.  I am pretty sure it was a presyncope incident and not one of his episodes as he was fully with it when he called me and when I got up to him.  When he has his weird things that I think are drop attacks he always seems confused.  He said he all of a sudden felt his heart racing.  I believe that this was a vasovagal event.  


Both Nathan and Genevieve seemed very happy to be doing school work today and I think they enjoyed it, they were a little disappointed I think that they were not able to do more things on our schedule, who knew it would take 2 hrs to read today! 

A new Year!

So I had such high expectations of today, both Nathan and Genevieve were really excited about today. 

I should have noticed something was not right when I actually had to wake Nathan up at 8:30 am this morning.  Genevieve I let sleep in because at 7 am when my alarm went off, I could hear her hacking away, and I thought it would be better for her to sleep later since she has a cold.  But Genevieve came bounding into my room at about 7:30 letting me know it was time to wake up, it is the first day of school, lets get going, I have lots to learn today.  So I begrudgedly got out of bed and went downstairs in search of tea to fend off my cold.  I started to make breakfast while Genevieve started her morning routine of emptying the dishwasher and setting the table.



see in this picture Nathan still looks okay...

Nathan woke up and joined us in time for breakfast, he was not too happy that he wasn't woken up earlier.  Nathan I noticed started doing his weird eye movement thing at the table, and he was in a terrible mood.  Nathan has been having a weird eye movement for about 6 months now, and it appears and goes away, I am finding that the weird eye movements are associated with behaviour changes.  he gets really grumpy, and sometimes downright mean.  This morning it took him about 40 minutes to read the directions of what he was supposed to do today in Moving Beyond the Page.  I then read to them the first two chapters of The View From Saturday, I read because I thought I only had 1 copy, but I found another copy in our bookshelves!  I buy way to many books and sometimes forget what we have.  So after they read they were supposed to complete their assignments.

todays assignments:
1) answer questions about chapters

2) write a thank-you note
            -genevieve wrote a note to her cousin Katrina and thanked her for coming to visit, of course she sealed the envelop before I took a picture
            - Nathan wrote a note to their friends anna and Kurtis, because they had delivered our papers for us while we were away - again he sealed the envelope.

3) worksheet on fact or opinion - both Nathan and Genevieve I think have a complete understanding of fact or opinion, as I was reading in the book, the character kept on saying FACT - the cake was beautiful, or other comments and both the kids were yeah that's kind of annoying its not facts at all, why does he keep doing that...

fact or opinion

4) worksheet on homonyms and homophones.  

homophones, homonyms

Nathan was trying his hardest while doing his work, but he was slow, and having a difficult time

We then moved onto math today we worked on magic squares, both Nathan and Genevieve really liked these, I think more so Genevieve.  Nathan again worked very slowly, and was just not with it.  He finally perked up and looked like himself right after we finished lunch.  Just before lunch I had to take Gigi upstairs as she was a little annoyed at her brother for being so annoying himself.  I had to discuss with her that Nathan is not himself, and that I think Nathan is scared he is having epileptic seizures and that Nathan was aware that he is not acting himself and I think that scares him as well.  She cried and was a little upset that she was so excited to learn today, and that we were moving so slowly that we were not going to get everything done.  She was much more understanding once I explained how Nathan was probably feeling.

magic square

After lunch we started our Canadian studies Donna ward Courage and Conquest.  I am thinking I may need to order a new copy of courage and conquest, because I think mine is outdated and does not match the books.  I had one of the suggested books in the package, and we read about the Vikings.  I found in the book about the Vikings, a section on building a Viking ship out of paper, so I copied and printed it on cardstock.  It was a little tricky making our ships but it was a lot of fun, and we learned that a lot of naval terminology comes from the Vikings.  

it was hard gluing these little pieces

this is sooooo fun Mommy :)

We then ran out of time as we had to go to the barn for horse riding, by the time we got to the barn, Nathan had such a headache that he was not able to ride, but Genevieve rode instead. 

We arrived home Nathan was doing good, and then again all of a sudden he was in a really bad mood and laying on the couch not doing so good, and his eyes started rolling in the back of his head again.  I have been trying to get a good video of him doing this, but he gets upset when I video him.  He also gets upset when I tell him his eyes are going weird.   He was like this for about 30 minutes, and then with the snap of your fingers he was back to normal again, cleaning his bedroom and sorting his bookshelf.  I had a talk with him about what just happened, and he said he had no idea, and that he said he just all of a sudden felt different, he did not know that his eyes were doing the weird thing and he was okay talking bout it.  Genevieve explained to him what it looks like.  I told him it was important that we talk to his pediatrician about it and that would he be okay with that and not get upset.  He was happy and okay with it.  Poor guy I have no idea what is really going on with him...  but more and more I am thinking that maybe he is having seizures.  His episode of going unconscious last month and stopping breathing to me seemed to detail an epileptic seizure exactly.  We have an apt I  think either next week or the week after and we will talk to the DR and get his opinion on what the heck are these things that look like seizures.

I am hoping tomorrow will be a better day.  Today was a hard one, even though I really truly think Nathan's behavior today was because of whatever was happening, it did not make it that much easier to parent.  I was drained and ordered pizza for dinner.
  

Night before the first day of school 2015-2016

We are starting a new year of homeschooling tomorrow.  Nathan and Genevieve are excited, I am excited and a little nervous!   I was not expecting to feel a little nervous this year, but here I am and for the last three weeks I have been feeling a little nervous.  I am not sure where the nervousness is coming from, I think it is a little from excitement of the possibilities of the year, I think a little is from having such a crazy busy schedule.

For the possibilities of this year, I think I see so much potential in both Nathan and Genevieve, but this year, I would really like to see Nathan take off on his learning.  The year 9-11 in our Moving beyond the page program, is taking a big step, it is written to the student and is meant to be more independent.  Of course I will be here to guide, but I am looking forward to them reading the MBTP manual and figuring out what they need to do.  I suspect that Nathan will have more difficulties in this area, but I am hoping he can grow in this area.  I am looking forward to hearing Nathans voice grow this year, I would like him to be able to put on paper how he is able to talk.  We have hired a Educational assistant to work with Nathan every Friday, I am hoping that this extra voice will help him get his own on paper.  During the time the SEA is working with Nathan, I will be able to spend some time with Genevieve on some individualized learning for her.  I am not sure what kind of studies we will be doing together, she loves Art but we are having Jessica in on Mondays to do art.  She has taught herself cursive writing last year.  Some ideas floating around my head are working 1:1 with her doing the brave writer that  I purchased that go with our literature units, or I also have the institute for excellence in writing level A program.  I had bought the excellence in writing program the first year we were homeschooling looked at it and thought it may kill their creativity and did not want to complete it, but I don't think I could kill Gigi's creativity, and it might help her give her writing a little more structure.  I do love how moving beyond the page does teach the writing aspect already though.  I would like to take this time and just do something with Genevieve, and not do something that Nathan would feel he is missing out on either.  Maybe some more videos of fun facts with Genevieve.  I am willing to take suggestions (Rebecca do you have any?)

Our crazy busy schedule.  So many activities, but I know that the activities are the right ones for both Nathan and Genevieve.  But it does mean I will be exceptionally busy!   I have been trying to do some prep work ahead of time, making up extra meals,  making up a menu plan, and doing some lesson planning ahead of time. 




Here is our schedule for this coming week.  I have printed out one for each of the kids, and have their books organized for tomorrow.







I hope to update this week on what we have been up to this summer. 

week at a glance

This week has been a busy week as usual.

Monday
9-12 teacher meeting with Rebecca
12:30 private tumbling in abbotsford
2 horse therapy for Nathan in Rosedale


Tuesday
Kids had no sleep We did not do any school work today, but kids made things with duct tape
12:30-2:30 piano and voice lessons

3:30-5 art journaling class, Nathan loved this class, he was so proud of his work.  It did not involve as much fine motor control and he had a great time.  Genevieve did report that it was not real art as they used stencils etc...


Wednesday
Moving beyond the page
Science
Kids were much better today, had a good night sleep and we were able to complete most assigned tasks

Cheer 4-6
soccer 5-7
thank goodness for Grandparents

Thursday

Teacher meeting with Rachel
Nathan woke up feeling quite good
12:30 physio
and greets us as he loves the kids.  I joked and asked if Nathan was feeling okay, as ginger does the same thing when Nathan is off. 
while at physio there dog would not come down the stairs, and was whinning and would not come down, he always if he is out, comes
We left physiotherapy, and Nathan's eye went bloodshot and his vision went weird he was seeing strobe lights.  I think dogs are pretty smart!

here is a song gigi composed at music today, she wrote the lyrics and the piano music to accompany.

Cheer 4-6:30

playdate 7-way tooooo late

Friday

was supposed to be art and chemistry today,  well we started off with music and Nate and gigi were arguing about that so we did not get what we wanted accomplished.

We did talk a lot about responsibilities and building up routines, since we no longer have a house cleaner, we discussed ways in which all of us can help keep the house tidy.  We talked about things that we can do that will become habit.  So all in all that was a good day

7-8:30 twister gymnastics

new schedule for next year

I have been working hard trying to figure out a schedule for next year.  We need to have more time dedicated to completing school work.  I have contacted a few of our service providers to move our sessions to later in the day.  I was finding that we just did not have time to finish all of the tasks that we needed to in a day.  I have also decided to create a loop schedule.  I have placed all of what I consider electives, or material that we do not need to cover every day, into a loop.  We will have a few loop blocks during the week during a regular day.  The biggest change will be that we will work on a loop schedule for  days of the week.  So Day 1, 2, 3 will be our regular MBTP day, and day 4 will be a loop day.  It will then keep repeat the schedule, so every 4th day we work will be more of a relaxed day.  I did it this way because we kept on missing all of our electives, as they were the first to go if we were short on time.  I really didn't want to do this as I think they are important and fun for the kids.  We are going to implement the loop schedule starting already. 

Looking forward to improving next year..


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next years curriculum choices

So I have been working on next years curriculum choices, and this is what I have come up with so far.  A little more work to do.