Been Gone For Nearly A Month.....

Wow, didn't realize how quickly that flew! In the last month, I've rearranged our room, painted the bathroom, painted most of the living room, cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more. It's been super busy around here. We also got some new furniture and appliances with our tax refund. That took most of our refund, but we really needed them. And scratch-and-dent is cheaper than you'd think! We now have an oven that actually preheats! And a fridge whose shelves aren't falling out every time we open the door. Amazing how little things like that really make a difference.

As far as schooling goes, we've backed down a little on the pressure that Gabe was feeling. He has voluntarily started to do lessons with me out of the "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" book. Easy? Yes for a regular child, but not so much for mine. It's not pretty, but he's trying. He already knows the letters, but not so much the sounds that they make. So this book teaches him the sounds and helps him to learn how to sound out words. Since the 5th, he has been working on the beginning lessons, and he can now recognize am, mat and sat. But we've also noticed that he's now reading more sight words without our prompting (mostly on games!). Words like "infection" and "slayer" and other game-theme related words.
He's also consistently falling asleep but 10 (most nights, we have had a few bumps), and is drawing more pictures. He wants to draw nearly every day now, faces, people, things. Always with pencil, always what he wants to draw, always when he wants to draw.
Caleb and I are working on his reading, as he can do it, but lacks confidence. We skimmed through the same book I'm doing with Gabe, and I just had him do the words. He knows the sounds the letters make, and knows how to sound them out. It only took him maybe 20 minutes to go through all the words in 23 lessons. And he had them all right. Granted most of them are simple easy words. But it's gotten him to realize that it doesn't matter how big the word is as long as you sound them out.
James and Caitlin are reading well, and we've been trying to really make sure that they are engaged in what they are reading. She's been reading the Junie B. Jones books, and is enjoying them immensely. He's reading Artemis Fowl, and has already listened to all the books on CD, and checked out a lot of them from the library before I bought him the first set that he wanted.
Our main focus the past few weeks has been their reading, because I feel that with reading, anything else is possible and will fall into place.

Aside from the early spring cleaning we've been doing, that's pretty much it. Hopefully I can remember to keep posting and not let there be that much of a break!

Great Weekend!

We had a great weekend. We took the kids and Scooby to Heritage Days. They got to dog for potatoes, ride in a horse drawn carriage, see a blacksmith work (actually 2 blacksmiths!), and see an old Mill. They got to watch some people grind corn into meal, and see an old cooperage. It was an awesome day!
Scooby was very well behaved, and got plenty of compliments on how well he was behaving with the other dogs there and other kids. Caleb found half of an old hinge, and the blacksmith straightened it out for him and told him he could take it home. Caitlin found a dead bat (no she didn't take that home!), and all the kids got to look at it. We visited the people that run the honey stand at the Farmer's Market downtown. Bought more honey and got to taste several different flavors.
When the kids dug for potatoes, they got about 40+ in 10 minutes of the 4 of them working together. They also got to look at all the different crafts that people did during the fall/winter season when they spent more time indoors. Basket weaving, rug making, re-caning chairs. We got to watch some of the older men carving on wood and making little trinkets. There was even a man there who carved a beautiful chain out of one solid piece of wood. The little links in the chain were just awesome!
Scooby was very intimidated by the horses, and sat there hiding behind my legs while the horses whinnied and neighed at him. He did seem to enjoy meeting all the people, especially the other kids.
And the kids got to see a mock-up of the Civil War era tents and weapons, along with how they built fires and cooked their food. They were amazed by the way things used to be back then. And last night for dinner, we made a beef roast with the wonderful fresh potatoes that the kids dug. All in all a good day together. Everyone enjoyed themselves immensely, even Gabe, up until the last few minutes when he decided that he'd had enough and wanted to go home.
I think we have enough to work on in our journals for the next week or so, and we'll continue to learn more about the early 1900's and how they used to amuse themselves over the winter, what they ate and how things were done back then.

Long Week...

I just don't know some days how to keep going. Things haven't been the best in the last few months, but then again, compared to last year they are not near as bad as they were. How do those of you with more than one ASD kids do it? Caleb was dx'd PDD-NOS at 2y9m, and ADHD at 5y7m. Gabe was 5y7m when he was dx'd PDD-NOS, and 6y1m when dx'd Mild MR and a host of other things. Some days are so bad meltdown wise that I wish I didn't even get out of bed. Caleb is a screamer, and since starting school has learned some colorful vocab that he likes to share with anyone that ticks him off. Gabe repeats everything and I do mean EVERY thing that he hears others say. Both are hitters, punchers, hair-pullers. Caleb used to be a headbanger, and Gabe still is when upset.

It's hard enough with one kid doing this all the time, but when they both get going, I may as well pull my own hair out and go bang my own head against a wall. I've run the gamut of responses from other people, the whole "he just needs a good a** warming" being at the top of most peoples lists as to how to fix the problems.

The biggest thing we fight about right now is Gabe and his not sleeping. He is up most nights till 1130 or later, and always -- no matter what time he goes to sleep -- is awake and climbing into our bed by 3-4 am. I've done everything I know to get him into his own bed, to no avail. He starts out the night in his bed (I sit with the boys till they fall asleep or else no one gets to sleep), usually wakes up about midnight or so, and comes down and sits with me while I check email, falls asleep in the recliner. Then wakes again about 3 am, and comes in by us. Hubby leaves for work about 430 am or so, and Gabe sleeps thru till about 830-9 am (thank god for homeschooling, because in public school he had to be up by 6 to get there in time which really wasnt a good thing for him if he had a bad night!). If he has to get woken up earlier than that he is VERY grouchy and not happy for the rest of the day. He has always slept like that though, and naps when he was a baby were horrible. 20-30 minute naps and he woke whenever put down.

Caleb is not the best sleeper either, but he is waaaaayyyyy farther than Gabe, he has a hard time falling asleep, but once asleep he is down for the count till at least 6-7am(assuming that he's asleep by 1030 or so). As I'm typing this, Caleb is settling in bed, the other kids (besides Gabe) are sleeping, and Gabe is crying because he doesn't want to sleep in his bed. I know that part of the problem is that Gabe isn't functioning at *age* level, and doesn't understand some of the things expected of him. But that doesn't make it any easier.

I keep wondering what his future will hold and if I'll be able to handle either one of them when they get older. Gabe is the same size as Caleb even though they are 2 yrs apart, and when angry (or scared) is very strong. He's already started being aggressive (with the other kids and sometimes me) when he feels threatened. It just scares me to think of what might happen when he's older.
He's never been close to his dad, even when I was working and dad was stay at home. Neither was Caleb. But now, he always says for me to make dad go to work, and asks why dad doesn't like him or hurts his feelings or whatever the flavor of the day is. I keep telling him that dad does like him, but he's tired after a long day of work and doesn't want to be yelled at (Gabe has a naturally LOUD voice, almost yelling alllllll the time). He has been telling dad "you dont make the rules, mom does" and "you go away" and of course the all time favorite "you hate me". When he was in public school, he learned the phrase "go to jail", so he also likes to tell dad "you're mean, go to jail" and "I'll call the cops on you". I've corrected him that yes dad does make rules, no dad doesn't hate you, it's not nice to say, etc. But nothing seems to change what he says/thinks about dad. Dad doesn't go out of his way to push his authority on Gabe (at least not as of late), he leaves that to me.

I just don't know sometimes though, he's done so much better since he's been out of public school, but I'm not sure that the trade off is worth it at this point. I'm glad that he's happier at home, and that he's learning so much better here than he was there, but sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice in bringing him home.

Homeschooling is going well, we are getting better with letters and numbers. Now just figuring out how to teach him to read! That's a challenge, because while we are finally past the rejection of all things school related (due to some major issues with things at the public school). he is still very resistant to actively learning anything.

I think the thing that burned my a** the most about his school placement was that they told me flat out that it wasn't about catching him up to grade level, it was about putting him with kids his age.
Some days I wonder what it would be like to have kids without all the issues, and be able to go out and enjoy myself without calling every 1/2 hr while gone to make sure that everyone is ok and not killing each other. At this point, IF I could find a good decent placement for Gabe, I think I might just jump at it. Even though it would be hard for both of us to adjust, and he would probably hate me for it for a while. It hurts to say it but sometimes it just doesn't seem worth it to keep working so hard and pushing to get him to learn. I hate listening to him cry and say that he hates school, but I also hate having to force him to sit and do work with me. At least at school, THEY have to do that, it's not me having to go over and over and over the same things day after day and wonder what's going to stick.

Anyone else feeling this way? I want him to learn, but does it HAVE to be a constant battle?

Homeschooling is going pretty well....

Except for trying to keep a certain 7yo boy motivated and occupied. I am running out of ways (creative ways) to keep him interested in learning and what we're doing.
Now, logically, I know that while he is 7, his mental age is at about 3-4, so that accounts for some of it. I've begged, pleaded, bribed, and done pretty much everything I can think of to try and get him doing something.
I've took tv and made it only educational programs, I've taken video games and made them mostly educational. I've made flash cards with easy words, letters and numbers. We've done "field trips" to the zoo, the aquarium, the museum, and other places. He shows no interest at all in letters, words, numbers or any of that. He does know some numbers and letters, and knows what the flash card that says "DS" means (go figure!). I'm at a loss as to how to do things to help him learn.
The other kids did stuff about presidents and the elections, the Whitehouse, and how the government is the one that makes the laws and such (not too in detail, but the basics). That whole time, he was totally letting everyone know that he wasn't having any part of it. I've tried having the other kids doing something and (them) asking him if he can help. I've tried making him sit and holding him in the chair so he would sit long enough to let the cd rom that we were doing catch his attention.
Nothing seems to work.
The other kids are doing well. We are working out of some books that tell what words they should know by when, but alot of our work comes from things that they decided they wanted to know! If something catches their attention on tv, we write it down and it becomes part of tomorrows lesson. They love watching shows like "How It's Made" "Cash Cab" "How Stuff Works" "MythBusters" and all those type of shows. Oh, and "Dirty Jobs"! Thats a favorite of even Gabe! Gabe also likes Sesame Street, Dragon Tales, Wonder Pets, Dora, Diego, Backyardigans, Little Bill, Barney, and Teletubbies! And also Thomas, almost forgot about him, we only recently started watching that one, I can totally see how some kids can't deal without him, lol.
Of course since we don't have cable (yet), all they can watch is what's on PBS unless they're at grandma's house. Any ideas?????