New Materials

These are Little G's first grade materials. My 5 year-old first grader is pretty stoked.

There is also new Math materials, not pictured here since it was a lot more of the same items we had for Kindergarten and I've already put them away. We do have Math+ Green now, and apparently the color change is pretty exciting stuff. There will be plenty of pictures soon.

The weather remains unseasonably warm and beautiful for October. My husband and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary yesterday, and the warmth and sunshine reminded me of the weather when we got married in 2001. I've got all of the windows open and we're taking advantage of these beautiful days before the dreaded snow starts to fly. Outdoor hooping for the win!

Bunny Ball

We played "Bunny Ball" as a family tonight. It was lots of fun, a great PE activity (yes, at 7pm on a Saturday, we can log PE hours!), and also a wonderful sensory diet activity for Little G.


Yes, the Easter Bunny sure scored big points when he put these in the kids' baskets last year. And yes, I intentionally hide my children's faces on my blog. And I always will.

A Sensory Diet Super Win

This picture captures something absolutely amazing.

It seems simple, right? A cat-lovin' boy and his pet cat sharing a friendly hello. But this? It would not have happened even a week ago. Little G has some sensory avoidance issues, but overall he is a sensory seeker. This means that he is always jumping, spinning, speaking loudly, putting things in his mouth, squealing, humming, intentionally bumping into walls and furniture, and handling things - and pets - roughly. Because of this, I incorporate a lot of proprioceptive input into Little G's sensory diet.

For those not in the know about sensory processing disorder, a sensory diet is simply a list of things a person can do to give them the sensory nourishment they need to function at their best. Just as children need proper nutrition from food to be healthy and grow, they also need a proper sensory diet to be healthy. Some children have greater sensory needs than others, as my son does. Because of this, I use all kinds of sensory diet suggestions and invent a few of our own to meet these additional sensory needs. Some of the activities in his sensory diet are designed to give him extra input to help calm him, while other activities are meant to desensitize his system so he can handle typical sensory information (sounds, foods, etc.) in a way similar to how most people do.

For Little G, I make up a lot of games that involve jumping, clapping, or running. We have a cool game called "push mama" where we put our hands together and he pushes me backward around the house, the yard, or wherever we happen to be, which gives his muscles and joints lots of "input" and helps him to relax, or seek input less. His sensory diet is long and ever-changing, and I would love to blog more in depth about it, but for now I want to discuss the incredible success with our cat.

Little G loves cats. He has endless books about cats, cat toys, cat coloring books, and often plays dress-up as a cat. The fact that our cat, usually tolerant of anything, runs from him has always been a source of pain and frustration for Little G. I have explained to him, talked about what cats like us humans to behave like, shown him how to pet the cat gently and without being scary to Sticky. But nothing really worked. So, with the hope that my little guy would one day be able to enjoy his pet cat as much as the rest of us do, I started putting together a sensory diet plan specifically for getting him to relax enough to be gentle with our cat. I implemented my plan for approximately three weeks, frequently discussing the topic of building trust with the cat by behaving in certain ways and by giving him a book on cats to read. I remained hopeful, but not extremely optimistic. Had any hope of Sticky ever trusting Little G been too damaged to repair?

Imagine my complete and utter shock the other night when I saw the scene I captured in the photo above with my cell phone. It's blurry from my quick movements, grainy from the poor lighting, but still one of the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed; my son, my sweet cat-loving little boy, finally got to pet his beloved pet cat. She didn't shrug and shimmy away, she didn't run, she didn't swat; she simply nuzzled up to his hand and enjoyed the attention.

These are the moments that bring me the greatest joy in life.

Europe

Tonight, my 5 year-old son randomly comes up and holds up his magnetic drawing board and says, "Hey mom, look! These are some places in Europe."

Uh...wow. I realized by some of the misspellings, one of which he caught and corrected before showing me, that he had done this from memory. I guess he is really paying attention to the History lessons!

Something else my Little G did today that melted my heart was quoting his current favorite book (This Plus That, Life's Little Equations), "Did you know that every star in the sky plus the sun plus the moon times my heart equals love you to the infinite power?" Yes, little dude. I did know that. Because I feel exactly the same way about you.

Art, Math...and Chicken Dancing

Today is brought to you by the letter M. M is for Math, and my son is now officially in 1st grade Math. You'd have thought Santa had just stopped by if you had been here this morning. We logged into the online school (OLS) and voila! there it was: Math+ Green. He jumped, he danced, he was all yeaaaauhh! Kudos to anyone who catches that reference.

It's funny, because I have a 5 year-old who comes out of his room each morning and either asks if his Math book has arrived yet, or wants to know if he can do Math first. Convincing him it is time to stop writing numbers and mathematical problems for the night when it is bedtime is no easy feat. You won't hear me complaining; it's not a video game controller and a bag of Cheetos I'm trying to get him to part with. If he really wants to sleep with the Sudoku puzzle book under his pillow so no one "messes with [his] puzzles", I'm cool with that.

I love this kid, and his cool, number-focused brain.

As promised, I have more Reezle art to share with you. Though I know her ability is impressive, she continues to amaze me with the things she comes up with. Here is a sampling of her work from the past week:




I love these. Her art brings me joy. It always has. I believe there is something of who a person is in everything they create, like a little fingerprint on the world. Maybe that sounds silly, but, I don't know. When she was about 4 years old, I bought her a really big 3-ring binder and a bunch of clear sheets to tuck her art safely into. We keep adding to it, and it has grown so much over time. I love that she has this little personal portfolio, but honestly, I can't bear to part with most of her art. They are personal expressions of who she is, of what she is thinking, of what touches her heart.

The weather this week is amazing. It is everything I love about autumn, from the warm and sunny days to the cool nights that beg for chili to be made and breads to be baked. They make me think of family, of my babies. My daughter will celebrate her 8th birthday this month. Our beautiful weather is also perfect for PE class. In addition to playing outside and doing some good old-fashioned being-a-kid stuff, we have been learning The Chicken Dance, The Electric Slide, and the Hokey Pokey. Maybe I'm just getting old, but the Chicken Dance is quite a workout! A fun one, though. Our living room was full of sweet little laughter this morning as we wiggled and flapped our wings and danced in circles. And in case I have forgotten to mention how much I love being with my children and homeschooling - I know, I know. But I do. So much. And I count my blessings daily.

The Cats of Mirikitani

Tonight, thanks to a recommendation by a friend, I watched a documentary film (I love documentaries) called The Cats of Mirikitani. It was beautiful. I shared it with my daughter, who wasn't about to let me watch it without her anyhow.

The story chronicles a Japanese-American man, Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani, who spent time in an internment camp here in the United States during WWII. He becomes homeless on the streets of NYC, and in the wake of September 11th, a woman who was following his story as a homeless artist takes him into her home. My comments and thoughts on it don't really do it justice; it's such an incredible story about people and history. Really, I can't put words to it.

Netflix has The Cats of Mirikitani available via their Instant watching option, so if you have a membership you can watch it right now from your computer. You won't regret it.

Art and Organization

I had these great plans for a homeschool space in the kitchen. First, I decided on a shelving unit I thought would go well with my decor. Once it was all together, I hated it. It was taller than advertised (I ordered online) and looked every bit the small price I paid for it. For someone already having to make peace with non-kitchen items in the kitchen, this was not going to do. Yes, yes, I have issues. No worries, though; it will make the perfect organizer for our outdoor toys in the garage.

My second option was to buy some paint and transform my daughter's old 9-cubby bookshelf into our homeschooling kitchen storage area. My husband picked up the paint and sandpaper, and I set out to get it done before school started.

I'm ashamed to admit I never even got to the sanding part, though I still have good intentions. However, I did find that the shelf in our living room had just the right amount of space for all of our books and the printer, and the extra cabinet in the kitchen holds all of the manipulatives, shapes, DVDs, CDs, Art supplies and Music items perfectly. Little G approves.

In other news, it seems my little artist girl took us very seriously when we said she would be a famous artist selling her works someday; note the little price tags in the bottom right corners of both of the creations below!


For the record, I got a great discount because I'm mommy. I paid 3 warm and fuzzies for the pair of them! They are now proudly displayed on the fridge for all to enjoy.

There is much more art to show, but our weekend became full of other things and I am currently helping R reorganize her drawers and bedroom and sorting through clothes to determine what will still fit the kids for the cooler weather. We seem to be jumping right into cooler weather here! We're also going to work on R's giant art binder, which we've been adding to since she was a toddler. Projects, projects. Home is always full of them.