Monday February 10

We started the day out with breakfast geography.  I find that while we are eating it is a great time for us to discuss, Nathan is already sitting at the table because he has to to eat, so let's use the time he's sitting for me to have their attention, as Nathan really does have trouble sitting for long periods.  

We looked at our globe and looked at the polar regions.  We looked at how in the North Pole arctic.  8 countries belong to the arctic versus the Antarctic is just one area.  We compaired what it looks like on the globe versus a wall map

And what it looked like in our book

I then peeled an orange in one peice and showed them how hard it was to lay it flat and have the prices together 

We discussed the land of the midnight son and why the arctic gets no sun in winter and midnight sun in summer.  I am so glad we bought a globe!  It helps so much to teach.  

Next up was reading, they both chose a book from the shelf.  Nathan grumbled a lot he has not enjoyed reading for a while.    I think the book holder will greatly help him!  

This was Nathan's book, he grumbled having to read but I love that he was so excited to share with me what he read about. He spent about 15 minutes reading. 

Gigi choose a book on helping monkeys.

She answered the questions in the back, we discussed it was an informational text she was reading.  

Here is her book summary, she didn't have time to finish it all. 

Next they played with the pentomoes, I asked them to make a rectangle.  Gigi was able to do it in about 10 seconds, Nathan had to move the pieces around quite a bit.  

Kids had a break next and we started with math

I did a small lecture on place value and adding 10 to any number. 

Kids did a math worksheet next.  

Next up was game time, I told the kids to pick a partner and don't fight over partners. Ha ha. Kids thought I was funny :).  They choose to play war, Nathan thought that was a babyish game to play, so I got them to play with two cards adding the cards together, to see who has the highest total. 

I wanted to do 1 more mini lesson and a word problem but well that didn't happen.  

So I thought we were done schooling for the day but the kids begged to do math worksheets at bedtime.  I was able to do some individual instruction with Nathan as well.  

And that's it I'm done for the day...

a recap of last week

So better recap some of last week as I see I didn't blog much. 

Wednesday same as usual

       Physio, music 

       Hockey.  Genevieve started playing hockey this week!   She lives it and Nathan loves playing with her, he was so excited to show her the ropes.  I think Gigi felt pretty good that her big brother was looking out for her, and it was great to see Nathan in a big brother role.  Gigi usually looks out for him :)

Thursday- not a typical Thursday

We had a Pediatrician appointment for Nathan at 9:30.  Overall he feels Nathan is doing pretty good.  He wanted me to say Nathan is getting better as he hasn't had an episode since November 22.  I said well they seem to come in clusters, every few months.  His last cluster included Nathan standing in the middle of a soccer field not really there, when he came to he didn't know where he was. Dr had no answers to what he thought that was. I'm starting to wonder if this is actually seizures, seizures migraines and stroke can all look alike.  I think everyday life is easier for Nathan now that we are homeschooling.  He is getting more excited about learning, and I know we can get the joy back and it will be easier, I'm thinking this may take a few years.  We will get there, I can see improvement, we just are crawling at a snails pace.  The dr gave me permission to take Nathan off of his daily aspirin, as it is not preventing any of the episodes from happening.  

Thursday cont...  We had a play date when we got home from the 2 hr dr appt, then visit from grandma and grandpa, and then Gigi's cheerleading

Friday.  Tla class

Occupational therapy- Victoria noted that he has good days and bad days, she said today she thought he was having a tough time, it was obvious he was in pain.  And even after reducing his shoulders they both kept on subluxating. She said it was obvious looking at his shoulders that the humerus was forward and not sitting in the socket.  

Next up was tumbling for Gigi at twisters gymnastics, Nathan played minecraft with 2 other boys. 

Saturday. Genevieve had cheer in the morning

Nathan had another episode of blindness!  I knew it lol, when the dr said it was improving I knew he was due for another episode...   Anyway he's fine it only lasted under a minute, it was his left eye, it was a constricting circle of black and purple dots.  His stomach felt weird and he was unable to stand as he feels very weak.  

Sunday we did a little school work talking about the arctic

Sunday night I did a lot if reading on teaching, Nathan's grade 2 teacher, used the daily 5 and cafe for teaching in her class.  I would like to incorporate these ideas into our homeschool.  I would also like to incorporate these ideas into math. I think it would work really well for us as Nathan does need frequent change and breaks because of his body.  I reserved the daily 5 from the library and if think I will buy the cafe book as the library doesn't have it.  

Tuesday

I already wrote this and it disappeared hmm

So today, lots of piano practice, and piano lessons. 

Trip to the library. 

Read some of the kids book of the far north.  Both Gigi and Nate asked to learn more about the polar regions.  

Some geography.  Asia 

Nathan and Gigi have been playing with their rainbow looms a lot.  This is a great activity for Nathan to do to increase his fine motor control.  So of course I spent $60 buying elastics and his own loom last week :).  It's therapy right, I don't usually buy toys.   

We are going to be starting a new unit in moving beyond the page, we have previously done the lion the witch and the wardrobe, which was 1 literature unit from there.  We are going to be doing the 1 st concept from the 7-9 age group.   This will have 3 lit units and 3 science/socials units, that you use at the same time as the lit.  I went to go get the book we need from the library today, it was in last night, but someone took it out this morning before I got there, so it's on hold.  

Here is some pictures of the scope and sequence of what we will be doing :)

Wow that just unit 1 which should take 3 weeks to finish, there are 3 units.  It sure looks like we are learning a lot when it's written out like that :)

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 :)