Autism and Expectations

My son is autistic.  He also has a receptive and expressive speech disorder and sensory processing disorder.  This means he has some challenges with social situations, motor development, coordination, communication, understanding, and certain environments (depending on lighting, weather, noise, movement, etc.).  While this sounds like a lot to deal with, and it is for him, it's our normal.  I forget; I don't view him through the lens of any diagnosis unless something requires me to, because it's just not on my radar.  He's just Little G, blue-haired superhero, cat lover, math whiz.  But sometimes, I am reminded.

Reezle, who also has a diagnosis on the autism spectrum, struggled a lot with learning how to pedal a bicycle.  She outgrew her tricycle before ever learning how to pedal it, and we finally bought her a scooter so she could enjoy a ride-on toy until she mastered the art of pedaling.  Though they are two years apart in age, Little G was pedaling like a pro before his sister really got it.  I assumed that riding a bike would always come fairly easy to him.  A big mistake when you're parenting an autistic child is to make assumptions about anything.

By age 7, I was riding a bike with tons of confidence.  This year, I decided, my son was going to learn to ride without training wheels.  I wanted him to have that same confidence, the fun of bike riding that only two wheels can provide.  We could ride on trails, then, I told him.  He liked that idea.  When he got his new green bike, because he finally, just barely outgrew his toddler-size one recently, I told him that I would teach him to ride it without training wheels.  He was stoked.  He was ready.  He was going to do this!

Little G on his new big boy bike

Or, you know, not so much.  I held the back of the bike as we rode around the driveway, becoming quickly aware of the fact that he had absolutely no ability to balance without my assistance.  He's tiny, but that little bike is quite heavy, and it became impossible for me to keep holding him up.  So, on the training wheels went, and we removed the pedals from the previous bike so he can learn to balance.  Little G has decided that he doesn't want to try riding without training wheels until next year.  Fair enough, this is his journey.

I had high expectations because of my own age when I learned to ride a bike without training wheels (I was 6).  Additionally, I recently watched a video of a friend's son, who is days older than Little G, riding like a pro around a bike track without any training wheels.  I immediately thought, hey, this is definitely something 7 year-olds can do, so maybe I'm slacking on the teaching or encouragement here.  But then I remind myself that Little G is not a typical 7 year-old, and it's not a fair comparison.

Little G has his strengths.  He is exceptionally bright, and a very fast, strong runner.  Socially and emotionally he is very young.  That is a point for me to remember as well; he is not the size of a child his age, nor is he socially like children his age.  It's just hard to remember, when I have a 7 year-old doing 4th grade workbooks and speaking with an impressive vocabulary, that he has any limitations.

My outdoor artist

I will keep encouraging him to pursue his talents, and to practice patience where he struggles.  Whether he rides his bike without training wheels doesn't seem to matter much to him, so I need to manage my own expectations.  I never want to underestimate him, but I also don't want to put unreasonable expectations upon him.  But speaking of expectations...

Harvesting some zucchini and tomatoes

Little G has been picking and eating vegetables that he planted in the spring.  "They really grew into food!" he says, every time we go out there.  He says he will be planting even more next year.  He is definitely great at gardening, so I will make sure he has all the room he wants and needs to garden to his heart's content.

Home Gardening

One of the things we love most about summer is our organic garden.  All of us love veggies, and nothing beats fresh ones right out of your very own garden.  This year, we've all taken turns watering, pulling weeds, and carefully picking.  Little G and Reezle both planted flowers along the perimeter and they did a fabulous job.  I was really impressed because it's the first time they've done that without any assistance from us.  With everyone assigned to a task and working together, our planting went quickly. 

Little G waters newly-planted seeds, tomato plants, and flowers

It was a slow summer in terms of garden growth.  Our weather has been strange this year, and we think that the decline in the bee populations isn't helping matters.  But Reezle and I love our zucchini, and once it starts to yield, it's the gift that keeps on giving.  Well, unless you get squash bugs like we did last year.  So this little one was a welcome sight!

Delicious organic zucchini

The other day, Little G asked if he could check the garden to see if any more zucchini had grown large enough to pick.  This is what he found!  Needless to say, we've been eating lots and lots of zucchini!

Little G's proud zucchini harvest

For perspective on how gigantic these bad boys can get, this is Little G holding the zucchini that is in the far right of the picture above.  He said he got his exercise picking these, and he wasn't kidding!

Little G and big zucchini

We're also getting some delicious cucumbers, and the rain over the past couple of days will no doubt move things right along.  No tomatoes or peppers yet, everything is still very green, but hopefully soon.  I wish we could garden year-round, and I've been looking into hydroponics and various greenhouse setups.  Our winters get blistering cold, and stay that way for long periods of time, so I need an option that will be able to withstand occasional sub-zero temperatures without failing.  However, even if I could have an option to extend our growing season so we can start earlier in the spring and continue enjoying fresh produce even after the first frost, I'd be very pleased with that.

Our First Day of Homeschool 2012-13

Today was our first official day of school! In continuing tradition, we celebrated in our pajamas.

Little G writing 575 in expanded form

I was a little concerned about how Little G would handle a full load of courses this year, affording him less time to do the things he enjoys independently. I expected boredom and frustration on his first day, but there was none! He handled his first day as a 1st/2nd grader like a pro.

Miss Reezle worked on math, language arts, history, and health. She also spent roughly 45 minutes playing Poptropica, which is surprisingly educational. She did great on her first day as a 3rd grader! Her spelling list for this unit is:

objects, insects, facts, products, plants, trucks, napkins, hundreds, numbers, gashes, boxes, foxes, riches, sandwiches, inches, bosses, dresses, *systems, *pencils, *presidents

The red one we need to work on. Mostly, she does fabulous with the root words; she just has a bit of difficulty with some of the suffixes. This morning, there were a lot more red words in that list. Once she reviewed them, she did great. I shared some tips I hope will be helpful for knowing and remembering which suffixes fit. She seems to have caught on very quickly, so we'll go through the spelling words list tomorrow and find out if it sticks.

Mr. G's spelling words list for Unit 4 was:

spot, stop, sled, brush, speck, swim, crib, drum, crab, splash, trot, grin, prop, slip, fled, brick, crush, grab, frog, crash, won, and busy, with bonus words travel, dragon, and crunch.

He got them all correct, easily, so we moved on to the unit review and wrapped things up.

As a little surprise for the kiddos, I downloaded several children's books to my iPad. Today we read Pete The Cat: I Love My White Shoes. This story was awesome. Both kids are well beyond the book in terms of reading level, but the message was fun and useful. Basically, no matter what happens, keep a positive attitude.

That's a message even I could learn something from. And Sticky, too, apparently, because she joined right in the reading break with us! What other school offers a furry friend to snuggle and pet while you're going through the day? We love our (home) school!

Someone Special Has Completed 2nd Grade

Congratulations are in order, for Miss Reezle has completed 2nd Grade!


We are very excited for her, and extremely proud of her hard work, dedication, self-discipline, and achievements this year. Good job, Reezle girl! We love you!

A Big Milestone for Little G

It's a very big day for Little G today...


He completed Kindergarten! That's including the 1st grade math, 1st grade phonics, and 1st grade language arts classes he took after finishing all of the Kindergarten ones! Our last day of 'school' is officially June 8th, so my little guy has worked very hard this year and done a wonderful job. He will be starting 1st grade in the fall as a 2nd grade math and language arts student. We are SO excited and incredibly proud of him! And Little G? Well, he's pretty proud of himself, too. He's jumping for joy!

We will be celebrating with his favorite dinner and a special gift. I'm not sure what the gift will be yet, but it does include a book store gift card so he will have plenty to read over the summer. I have a feeling he'll be devoruing piles of books at the rate he's already going!

Congratulations, my awesome little dude!