First snowflakes of the season spotted...

Light snow is falling here--I tried to capture a picture of it for you, but the flakes are too tiny for the camera to pick up.

First cursive (still more to share today!) / active roles and passive roles

After several attempts to begin the Peterson Handwriting Program today, I found, with some trial and error, something that is a great scaffold for a child who may be affected by both attention issues and movement/motor issues: I sat in the floor and my daughter sat in my lap, and she wrapped her hand around mine as I "air wrote" our first letter today. She was able to feel the motion through mine, and without my asking her to, she began to take the lead and move my hand through the motions. And her approximations of the cursive lowercase letter "t" began to resemble cursive lowercase "t's" instead of capital print upside down V's. (yeah!) The transformation of her letters was quite exciting once I figured out one way to help her "air write" and feel that movement.

Next time, I may sit in a chair and have her stand beside me in a way that she can grasp my hand/arm in order to join me in "air writing".

In the past, a lot of intervention with my daughter was done using what is referred to as "HAND OVER HAND", where the adult's hand is on TOP of the child's and guides the child's hand. "Hand-over-hand" is sometimes (often) used as a substitute for attention sharing when the child's ability to share attention with the adult is limited or developmentally delayed. "Hand-over-hand" puts the child in a passive role, letting someone do something *to* him.

What my girl and I did this morning was use my hand UNDER hers, where she could feel my movement, and as I put less effort into my movement, I gave her the opportunity to take responsibility for the movement, and I put her into an ACTIVE role, where she could feel herself taking an action, feel herself making the movements. When I removed my arm and hand from under hers, she was able to "air write" our first cursive letter herself.

The difference between "active role" and "passive role" is a BIG one--please don't miss the distinction.

Cutter's cramp

Is there such a thing as "cutter's cramp", similar to "writer's cramp"?

I began cutting the extremely sturdy letter tiles from the (way cool) All About Spelling curriculum, and *then* I realized that the tiles are just the beginning...I get to cut out the phonogram cards, next. ;)

I need one of those big paper cutters that schools and crafters use--I'd be done in a snap!

In the meantime, I'm pretty sure I have "cutter's cramp"...

Our first cursive lesson

We finally began working with the Peterson Handwriting Program. I received the materials a week-and-a-half ago, late on a Thursday, as I was preparing to leave for a Friday/Saturday conference. With church and small group on Sunday, vision check-up and grocery shopping on Tuesday, and playing catch-up the rest of the week, I spent some time over the past weekend familiarizing myself with the materials and planning a strategy on how I would begin with my daughter.

I discovered a presentation on-line that explains the Peterson Handwriting Program. It is approximately 20 minutes long and explains why Peterson Handwriting uses an exaggerated gross motor movement component and "air writing" that is different from other programs. Check out the internet presentation and take a look for yourself. I'm glad I discovered the presentation and took the time to watch it.

I hope the emphasis on movement as the early steps (and de-emphasis on making the letters wtih pencil and paper in the beginning) will provide both the framework and the scaffolding for my daughter to develop the foundations for cursive.

The lessons are supposed to be 10 minutes long--and, as we begin, ours are going to be shorter, *much* shorter. Ours are going to be approximately two minutes long, and we may sit down five times to get a 10 minute lesson. Over time, we'll do more and more "work" at one sitting.

My daughter's anxiety is our biggest obstacle--she, I suspect, is afraid that what I'm showing her will be too difficult for her. Her anxiety is a sign of stress--and who can actually LEARN when he/she is under stress? So, we will break the early sessions down, to allow her to discover for herself that a) the Peterson handwriting program is broken down into tiny managable steps and b) that she is competent to manage those steps. I know she can handle them, but she does not, and that's a discovery she will have to make for herself, and I must use myself as a trustworthy guide, not only in the instruction of the handwriting program, but also, as a guide to setting the stage so that she can make her own discovery. My challenge, today, is that she's got a sore, red throat, and her anxiety and resistance surface more quickly when she's not feeling her best.

The Rapid Strep Test is NEGATIVE...

We are blessed to have found a local family medicine doctor who has been very recently trained in the DAN! protocol. DAN! stands for "Defeat Autism Now," and the protocol addresses the many medical issues we see alongside a diagnosis of autism.

He is not set up to take DAN! patients yet. But, as a family medicine doctor, he was available last night for a dreaded throat swab--and while my princess's behavior last week was a foreshadowing of the red throat, (something I never put together until we became homeschoolers) and while the throat is shockingly bright red, the rapid strep test is negative. We'll wait to hear from the one they sent to the lab.

My challenge when my girl is sick like this, when she needs more of her energy and attention on shutting out the pain and cruddy feeling of being sick, when she prefers to draw away to herself and shut everyone out, is to keep her engaged for short periods of time without pushing so far that she's frustrated with herself and with me.

Friday, we managed to abandon the Charlotte Mason philosophy entirely, and she did reading and copywork from a Toys R Us toy catalog. She's got quite the Christmas list going! ;)

I have two new curricula to begin with her this week, Peterson Handwriting and All About Spelling. We're going to start the handwriting program today. And since the spelling program arrived yesterday, I've got some reading and some set up (cutting out more than a few letters) to do in preparation for starting later in the week. I'll have to plan the most gentle of starts with both of them.

Now, we need to figure out why the throat thing keeps happening...and help her feel better!

Have a great Tuesday!

Visiting the science museum

Today was the last day we could use free passes to a nearby science museum, so we seized the opportunity. The last time we visited this museum was during the summer, and the place was crawling with kids from summer camps and day care facilities--which meant getting to spend time at any one exhibit or hands-on display was impossible.

Today, we took a leisurely stroll through all the exhibits and were able to pause where we wanted to and spend as much time in one place as we wanted to. The building was quiet, today, too.

A PS: My princess seemed a bit withdrawn today at the museum, and she was resistant to my taking her picture. (Her pictures lately have been GREAT, but today, she wasn't interested, which was odd.) When we got home, she pretended to lie down and sleep, and I decided to check her throat. She can't always tell that it's hurting. BRIGHT RED. OUCH. We are going to the doctor at 6 pm tonight.

The bat exhibit is fantastic!

Hi Stellaluna!

Posing with a giant shell.
One of the cool, hands-on displays:
A stuffed penguin in one of the displays

Dinosaur bones!

Ideas for Autumn

Very RDI friendly ideas here:

http://www.cindysdesktop.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/HSEW-10-24-08.pdf

Freebies

The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Freebie Directory is here.

More goodies arrived...

Spears Art Studio's K-8 art curriculum arrived today. I am looking at it right now, as I type, in another window. I am impressed with it, have already printed out a project to use w/ my daughter tomorrow, and am excited as I look at all the possibilities. The web site has some free lessons here. I'll have a formal review soon, after I've had a chance to use some of it, where I can talk about how we used materials and what modifications we made, if any, for a child on the autism spectrum.

The Peterson Handwriting Program arrived Thursday, and I will sit down with the materials for the first time tonight. (I attended an autism-related conference all day Friday and all day Saturday, and with church and small group on Sunday, appointments and and grocery shopping taking up most of Monday, I am still in a bit of a "catch up" mode today).

And I received part of the All About Spelling curriculum today. The box came damaged and rewrapped by the US Postal Service, so I will have to wait for the other parts to arrive before I can use with with my children. All About Spelling is based upon the Orton Gillingham approach to teaching spelling and I have heard many positive comments about it.

I am working through the lessons for beginning homeschoolers from Knowledge Quest and this morning I began the lesson that walks parents through determining the learning styles of their children. I am enjoying this e-class very much, and am taking my time with it (I *am* a relatively new homeschooler, after all). I very much like the reading recommendations for the parent and have taken the time to get a book recommended by the course developer. Within the lessons of this e-course are links to materials to support the suggestions and content--the course has provided quite a few links to short cuts already (and I have just begun). I sound like a broken record when I say I'm finding new materials that I never knew existed before I became a full-time homeschooler, but it's true!

Another new-to-me resource is the Homeschool Library Builder, an on-line bookstore with some HUGE bargains...check out the $1, $2, and $3 bins!

Copying vs Joining and autism (aka daughter pokes fun because mom is out of shape!)

I was folding clean clothes this morning, quite a lot of them. I gave my daughter the option of playing alongside me or helping me, and she chose to join me by playing alongside me for a while, and a few minutes later, she chose to join me by helping me as I folded the towels and washcloths.

(A side note: way back before we abandoned the discreet trial approach, I had our ABA consultant write a program for folding washcloths. I wanted to give my daughter a skill she could use to join us in something, anything. What I didn't understand was that sitting alongside us and using the copying skill of folding washclothes did not equal, or even come close to, joining us. This morning, as she was playing alongside me, she was joining me, and when she helped me accomplish my chore, she still was joining me, not copying, me.)

We each took a stack of towels and washcloths up two flights of stairs to the bathroom, and my princess dropped a bunch of hers on the way up. I told her we'd go back to get those in a minute, and when we got to the bathroom with what was left of our stacks of towels and washcloths, I was huffin' and puffin' from being out of shape. And my princess told me that I sounded just like a dog panting, and she put her hands in front of her like paws, dropped her tongue out of her mouth, and panted for me, poking fun at me. While I was putting away some of the towels, she said she'd go back for the items she dropped, (and in case you missed it, that's yet another marker of joining instead of copying) and when she came back, she set them down, looked at me with her little poking-fun-at-me-grin, and began to overexaggeratedly huff and puff, quite aware that huffin' and puffin' was not a rigid part of the routine, but a hilarious rendition of the evidence that mom needs to start exercising!

I asked her if she was making fun of me, and she said, YES!!!

Stinker! ;) (I love it!)