If he's moving, he's thinking....

Do you ever wonder what homeschool looks like for one very wiggly, high energy boy with scattered development? Sometimes it looks like this....

Maybe you're thinking, "That's not school!" Do you ever remember sitting at a desk while a teacher gave directions and you had to show that you were listening and following directions? The difference is that Jack is moving so he's happy. He's listening because his depth perception is off and he really wants to get his skuut bike over that balance beam but he's cautious and he does not want to fall.

The Old Car

I mentioned that we've been cleaning up the basement and garage, right? Look what Jack found. Of course, he's so big now that he just pushes it.

Yeah, right....

It's still fun to go "whee" down an incline



but it's nice to know that you are big enough and strong enough to stop it when you want to.

And look....

if you get tired, just prop your feet on the hood and let mom push.

He's still responsible for his own car maintenance though.

Wind Chimes

Twinkle Twinkle

Twinkle twinkle little star

How I wonder if Jack can see that far 

Up above the world so high
Can Jack see those diamonds in the sky? 

Twinkle twinkle little star
How I wonder if Jack can see that far?

Super Moon high in the sky
How I wonder what Jack could see that night?

 

I don't know what I'm doing

I'm trying to surround this kiddo with as much as love as a person can feel.

You might think that life here is all sunshine and rainbows since I've just told you that I'm trying to surround my kid with love and I don't put a lot of pictures on the blog of Jack crying.

Well, life isn't all sunshine and rainbows and Jack does cry. And I don't know what I'm doing. It's a difficult thing to admit really. I believe that God creates each and every person for a reason. He created me for a reason. I think that at least one of those reasons was to be Jack's mom. The sum of my life experiences up to the day of Jack's birth prepared me to be his mother. I did not know it was possible to be this close to another human being. A relationship between mother and child is a special bond.

Yet, I have no idea what I'm doing. I spend a lot of time reading, thinking, and praying (and writing) about being Jack's mom. I try to do my best in every moment. But I don't know how all this is going to turn out. I can't even tell you everything Jack knows and can do right now. Jack shows us in his own time when he's ready and/or able what he knows and what he's capable of.

UpSide Down with Autism shared

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on Facebook over the weekend. And I guess that's where I am.This is what God has lead me to for right now. Jack is someone today. God created Jack for a purpose. I don't know what that purpose is. I'm here to help him. But helping him does not mean pushing him to be someone he's not. Helping him does not mean treating him as an unfinished project that needs so much more work to be done.

So I don't know what I'm doing and I don't know how this will all work out but I'm learning to be okay with that.....

And I continue to appreciate any prayers on our behalf.



Wandering Foot

Dave's mom is a very big money saver. She finds amazing things at great bargains. She has a saying that "the wandering foot gathers the loot". Apparently, Dave has picked up the gene. Jack and I were playing in the pool in the backyard and look who came riding up.

He left to get a haircut and apparently happened upon a yard sale on the way back. I've never known my husband to stop at a yard sale without his mother or me being present and requesting that he stop. I guess baby really does change everything.

Watering the plants

Jack is definitely not a pen and paper kid. He is a hands on learner. Whether his learning style has anything to do with his vision (or lack thereof) I don't know but hands on just works for him. Lucky for us, our family and work situations work out very well for allowing Jack to homeschool. Nearly every moment of our days is "school" in one form or another. Take a simple task like watering the plants. There is a sequence involved. It requires following directions. It requires problem solving.

Then there's fine motor work. Jack's fingers don't bend and his hands are small with short thumbs. Turning on a water faucet is an activity he has to think about. Also, it's speech therapy, as we go over the phrase "Lefty loosy, righty tighty."

Next, how do you figure out when the watering can is full if you can't really see the depth of the water?

Finally, the plants get watered. Next time, I should probably pull the plants down off their hooks because this was really hard for him.

The Wonders of a Car Wash

Don't you love seeing how kids find wonder in everything?

Evening Silliness

Sometimes we get a little silly around here.

Rest assured that Safety Dave is the head of the household. He's just good natured about it.