Missa is giving me difficulties lately. She is using her own personal learning challenges as an excuse to not do ANYTHING. Chores, schoolwork, being nice to her sisters, all of it she is incapable of doing because she has dyslexia. I remember my father going through the same struggles with me growing up when I was older than she is (in case you don't already know, I also am dyslexic). I now understand his frustration and anger toward me whenever I would shut down and refuse to do anything or even try. So, we are proving a point to her now.
Scott gave her a GEM of insight that is just beyond brilliant. He is as tired of her excuses as I am, and dislikes her insistence that she's stupid as much as I do. So, in the middle of her normal whining and complaining that dyslexia makes her stupid he says.....
"Kid, dyslexia doesn't make you stupid; giving up makes you stupid."
Stopped her cold in her tracks. She had no clue how to respond to that one, and just sat there staring at him. I then took that silence as an opportunity to point out how much smarter she is than I was at her age, and how she lets things stop her because she doesn't TRY. I then decided to prove a point to her.
I got out the next level math book I've had waiting for her since the Cincinatti homeschool convention back in tthe Spring and handed it to her. Now, I know she can do the work if she stops and just TRIES, but we bumped her down a level to make sure she had a solid foundation first. She looked at the first lesson pages, and got excited because she knows how to do the work. I then showed her the final test in her test book for this level, and she got nervous and said that she can't do that work. Well guess what kid, by the time you get to that test you will be able to do the work.
She starts Math-U-See Beta tomorrow, just to prove my point. She also has attempted to give up on her chapter book halfway through chapter 3, but I am refusing to let her stop. I told her I don't care if it takes her a year to read it, she WILL finish that book because I know she can do it. I am all about making a point here with her, and right now she needs me to push her like she's never been pushed before. I know it sounds mean to push a child with learning disabilities to do harder work like I am and to be so heartless about it, but I know she's capable. Its all a confidence issue with her.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
oh baby!
Not quite sure what to call this one, but its all about the pregnancy.
We had a few rough days early this week. I have a 4 year old with a cold, and my mother-in-law refused to watch any of the kids at all for us so that Scott and I could go to my anatomy scan appointment without the kids. So I spent several hours frantically calling everyone that I thought I'd have a small shot at getting to watch 3 healthy older kids while we took the sick one with us to the appointment. With 14 hours before the appointment, my aunt and cousin (who live a half hour away) came to the rescue and said we could bring the girls over to hang out while we went to my appointment. Disaster #1 averted.
So, forward to scan. Now, I have 2 friends with special needs children, one who is still waiting for her little man to come, so I was just a little anxious at this scan. If you scan through my list of blogs, you will see Miss Charlie's blog and the Our Busy Homeschool blog. These are the two I am referring to. Both families are incredible and inspirational to me, showing me the amazing love that comes with having a special child or having a large family expecting a special child. So, at the scan I was anxious and wanted to see everything. I asked that we look extra closely at the spine, placenta, cord, and a couple extra areas that I know are common for defects. Everything is 100% healthy and normal. So now we know that its a healthy baby, and I have some amazing pictures from it too.
But that isn't the only thing that we found out. We have a healthy baby, but also we learned that our sweet healthy baby is a boy. Yes, that is right, after having four daughters and figuring we'd never have a son, God blessed us with one. All the girls have wanted a little brother, and now they will have one. I still have no clue what I'm going to do with a boy after so long with just girls, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. I was looking forward to early March already because I couldn't wait to meet our newest family member, but now ALL of us are beyond excited about meeting the new little boy joining our family!!!! (I'll not share the money shot to prove its a boy, I have 5 different angles of it because we couldn't believe it).
And to add to our great day, just as I pulled into my aunt's driveway to pick up the girls I got a call saying that my excusal from jury duty was approved, so I didn't have to spend today sitting in a courtroom. I'll have to go in later, but hopefully I'll have healthy kids so I can do it. I don't mind jury duty at all, but I do have issues sometimes with getting a sitter when I have anyone with any kind of runny nose or cough. Hopefully I can get it done before the baby comes so that I'm not forced to ask for an excusal due to having a breastfed infant.
We had a few rough days early this week. I have a 4 year old with a cold, and my mother-in-law refused to watch any of the kids at all for us so that Scott and I could go to my anatomy scan appointment without the kids. So I spent several hours frantically calling everyone that I thought I'd have a small shot at getting to watch 3 healthy older kids while we took the sick one with us to the appointment. With 14 hours before the appointment, my aunt and cousin (who live a half hour away) came to the rescue and said we could bring the girls over to hang out while we went to my appointment. Disaster #1 averted.
So, forward to scan. Now, I have 2 friends with special needs children, one who is still waiting for her little man to come, so I was just a little anxious at this scan. If you scan through my list of blogs, you will see Miss Charlie's blog and the Our Busy Homeschool blog. These are the two I am referring to. Both families are incredible and inspirational to me, showing me the amazing love that comes with having a special child or having a large family expecting a special child. So, at the scan I was anxious and wanted to see everything. I asked that we look extra closely at the spine, placenta, cord, and a couple extra areas that I know are common for defects. Everything is 100% healthy and normal. So now we know that its a healthy baby, and I have some amazing pictures from it too.
But that isn't the only thing that we found out. We have a healthy baby, but also we learned that our sweet healthy baby is a boy. Yes, that is right, after having four daughters and figuring we'd never have a son, God blessed us with one. All the girls have wanted a little brother, and now they will have one. I still have no clue what I'm going to do with a boy after so long with just girls, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. I was looking forward to early March already because I couldn't wait to meet our newest family member, but now ALL of us are beyond excited about meeting the new little boy joining our family!!!! (I'll not share the money shot to prove its a boy, I have 5 different angles of it because we couldn't believe it).
And to add to our great day, just as I pulled into my aunt's driveway to pick up the girls I got a call saying that my excusal from jury duty was approved, so I didn't have to spend today sitting in a courtroom. I'll have to go in later, but hopefully I'll have healthy kids so I can do it. I don't mind jury duty at all, but I do have issues sometimes with getting a sitter when I have anyone with any kind of runny nose or cough. Hopefully I can get it done before the baby comes so that I'm not forced to ask for an excusal due to having a breastfed infant.
Monday, October 17, 2011
halfway there! and this week's plans
OK double purpose for this post. So stay with me please lol This could get scattered.
On the pregnancy, today is the OFFICIAL halfway point for us. I am 20 weeks today!!!! My ultrasound is Wednesday, and Scott got time off work to be able to come. Now if only I didn't have sick kids, I don't know if his mom will watch them for us now. Its just a cold, but she's paranoid about any kind of illness and refuses to watch them even if we have allergies acting up out of fear that she may get sick. Soooooo it looks like he may be stuck staying home with the kids while I go alone to my ultrasound and appointment unless I can get them up early enough to load up on Dimetapp so it kicks in before we get them to his mom's so she doesn't know they are sick. Yes, I know its sneaky, but I do NOT want to miss having him there for my scan and I have a suspicion they wouldn't allow the kids in too if we have a full round of runny noses and coughing. It also messes me up for jury duty on Thursday, if she won't watch them Wednesday she will refuse Thursday as well just to be safe (even if they are ok by then). *sigh* Yup, this week is going to be interesting for me.
On the homeschool front, we're just plugging away with stuff. I got the big 2 doing math right now, and Jojo is complaining and whining about some electronic toy she wants us to buy while also cuddling up to me. Kimi, she's somewhere around here, most likely playing or making a mess. Since we have sick kids right now, we're just going to do a bit of math and such as they are interested to keep their brains working a little bit. The sickest one of the bunch is Jojo, she's all stuffed up and yucky sounding. Poor kid sounds like Kimi because of how stuffy she is.
In reading, Missa is still plugging away at her chapter book. I do believe she is close to halfway done with it. She's discovered that being sick means that she's stuck laying down resting a lot more, and reading a book helps to pass the time. Yeah, she's going to finish her book I think. I need to make out a request list at the library soon so I can pick up a few more books for her, anyone got suggestions for some good books for her to try out next? We're quite liberal in what we allow them to read, and yesterday they watched part 1 of the last Harry Potter on tv with Scott (told ya we're liberal!). She's not *too* girly typically, and I know she'd really like to read the Harry Potter books but she's just not quite there yet in her ability. Oh, and she hates Magic Treehouse, we've already tried that one (maybe it overwhelmed her at the times we've tried it, but we own a few books in that series and she's never even liked them when I read them out loud to the kids)
Hopefully we can get through this week without too much, I really don't like having sick kids and now I think I'm coming down with it too. Yuck!
On the pregnancy, today is the OFFICIAL halfway point for us. I am 20 weeks today!!!! My ultrasound is Wednesday, and Scott got time off work to be able to come. Now if only I didn't have sick kids, I don't know if his mom will watch them for us now. Its just a cold, but she's paranoid about any kind of illness and refuses to watch them even if we have allergies acting up out of fear that she may get sick. Soooooo it looks like he may be stuck staying home with the kids while I go alone to my ultrasound and appointment unless I can get them up early enough to load up on Dimetapp so it kicks in before we get them to his mom's so she doesn't know they are sick. Yes, I know its sneaky, but I do NOT want to miss having him there for my scan and I have a suspicion they wouldn't allow the kids in too if we have a full round of runny noses and coughing. It also messes me up for jury duty on Thursday, if she won't watch them Wednesday she will refuse Thursday as well just to be safe (even if they are ok by then). *sigh* Yup, this week is going to be interesting for me.
On the homeschool front, we're just plugging away with stuff. I got the big 2 doing math right now, and Jojo is complaining and whining about some electronic toy she wants us to buy while also cuddling up to me. Kimi, she's somewhere around here, most likely playing or making a mess. Since we have sick kids right now, we're just going to do a bit of math and such as they are interested to keep their brains working a little bit. The sickest one of the bunch is Jojo, she's all stuffed up and yucky sounding. Poor kid sounds like Kimi because of how stuffy she is.
In reading, Missa is still plugging away at her chapter book. I do believe she is close to halfway done with it. She's discovered that being sick means that she's stuck laying down resting a lot more, and reading a book helps to pass the time. Yeah, she's going to finish her book I think. I need to make out a request list at the library soon so I can pick up a few more books for her, anyone got suggestions for some good books for her to try out next? We're quite liberal in what we allow them to read, and yesterday they watched part 1 of the last Harry Potter on tv with Scott (told ya we're liberal!). She's not *too* girly typically, and I know she'd really like to read the Harry Potter books but she's just not quite there yet in her ability. Oh, and she hates Magic Treehouse, we've already tried that one (maybe it overwhelmed her at the times we've tried it, but we own a few books in that series and she's never even liked them when I read them out loud to the kids)
Hopefully we can get through this week without too much, I really don't like having sick kids and now I think I'm coming down with it too. Yuck!
Friday, October 14, 2011
reading with Missa
I am dedicating this entire post to my oldest today. She hasn't had an easy time with lessons, and I wanted to just note here how she's progressed over the past few years with her reading.
She started off in K not even knowing her letters by sight, let alone the sounds they make. We got her to at least know the sounds halfway through the year, but it took a half year of public school to get her started trying to read. Their method of doing sight words WORKED with her somehow and she started.
1st grade, she was backed up in phonics with the k12 school into K level because of gaps she had in her reading. She finished K phonics in 1st grade, and moved to phonics 1 for 2nd grade before we withdrew from the virtual academy. It was a smart move for us, and we spent 2nd grade just reading and enjoying books.
Now here we are in 3rd grade. A few weeks ago she decided she is GOING to read the NIV bible she has, and she's slowly and painfully working through it. Then this morning, she was checking out the books on our shelf (I told the oldest 2 girls to get a book each and spend some time reading) and she brought me a CHAPTER BOOK and asked me if she could read it. So, she's sitting in a chair now, slowly reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle out loud quietly so she can hear it and see it at the same time. She definitely has moved up in her reading ability I think if she's taking on books like that during her free "ok go read for a bit" time during school. I am now thinking up a reward to give her when she finishes that book, so she has an incentive to actually follow through and finish instead of just giving up. Its her first attempt at reading an entire chapter book, and I don't care how long it takes her but I want her to have something GREAT as a reward. I was thinking maybe going to a movie with me and Scott? I do have free passes to the movie theater at Easton mall, and I'm sure that Scott would be more than willing to get a sitter for the other three so we can take Missa to a movie. Or maybe a special toy? I know she's been wanting a real American Girl doll.
She started off in K not even knowing her letters by sight, let alone the sounds they make. We got her to at least know the sounds halfway through the year, but it took a half year of public school to get her started trying to read. Their method of doing sight words WORKED with her somehow and she started.
1st grade, she was backed up in phonics with the k12 school into K level because of gaps she had in her reading. She finished K phonics in 1st grade, and moved to phonics 1 for 2nd grade before we withdrew from the virtual academy. It was a smart move for us, and we spent 2nd grade just reading and enjoying books.
Now here we are in 3rd grade. A few weeks ago she decided she is GOING to read the NIV bible she has, and she's slowly and painfully working through it. Then this morning, she was checking out the books on our shelf (I told the oldest 2 girls to get a book each and spend some time reading) and she brought me a CHAPTER BOOK and asked me if she could read it. So, she's sitting in a chair now, slowly reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle out loud quietly so she can hear it and see it at the same time. She definitely has moved up in her reading ability I think if she's taking on books like that during her free "ok go read for a bit" time during school. I am now thinking up a reward to give her when she finishes that book, so she has an incentive to actually follow through and finish instead of just giving up. Its her first attempt at reading an entire chapter book, and I don't care how long it takes her but I want her to have something GREAT as a reward. I was thinking maybe going to a movie with me and Scott? I do have free passes to the movie theater at Easton mall, and I'm sure that Scott would be more than willing to get a sitter for the other three so we can take Missa to a movie. Or maybe a special toy? I know she's been wanting a real American Girl doll.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
19 weeks and disappointment
I'm 19 weeks, we have 8 days until that big anatomy scan when they can tell us what this baby will be. Yet, for some reason I am really not looking forward to it. I feel just empty over all this right now. Yes it is our fifth baby, but is it really too much to ask that people try to at least FAKE happiness and excitement for us? I'm so tired of being pushed off like its no big deal, its just another baby in my home. Yes I understand that its important and special that the 14 year old granddaughter of Scott's cousin just had her first baby, and I'm happy for her that she has a supportive family who is there to help and that her baby boy will be fine, but when is it MY turn for a little notice? I act like I don't care that people aren't even acknowledging for the fifth time that we're having another blessed addition to our family, but in reality I am devastated by this. Why can't people at least fake it for me?
I'm not asking for the baby shower I never got or the fawning and "worship me NOW" that most pregnant women get that I never really had. I'm just asking that family at least act like they are happy for us. I'm not asking you to buy all the things we gave away as our youngest no longer needed them, or to go buy anything off my baby registry (which I set up as nothing more than a checklist of what we need to buy still). I'm asking that you smile and say congratulations instead of asking me what birth control we're going to use after this one. I'm asking that you not make "no more babies!" comments before we even announced our pregnancy that we had just found out about. I don't want you to buy us a new minivan or a house, or pay our bills for us. I want acceptance, support, and at least fake smiles and excitement.
Is that really too much to ask for? I don't even WANT to go to my ultrasound next week at this point. I feel like Scott and I are totally alone in our happiness for this baby. I know that I've always been alone doing things and I've never had much support in the past, but that doesn't mean that we should be forced to do it alone all the time. We don't ask for help usually, but we have our moments where we NEED it and we almost never turn down an offer for help. Well, now I need support and encouragement from family, and I'm not getting it at all. Thanks, that shows me how you really see my family.
I'm not asking for the baby shower I never got or the fawning and "worship me NOW" that most pregnant women get that I never really had. I'm just asking that family at least act like they are happy for us. I'm not asking you to buy all the things we gave away as our youngest no longer needed them, or to go buy anything off my baby registry (which I set up as nothing more than a checklist of what we need to buy still). I'm asking that you smile and say congratulations instead of asking me what birth control we're going to use after this one. I'm asking that you not make "no more babies!" comments before we even announced our pregnancy that we had just found out about. I don't want you to buy us a new minivan or a house, or pay our bills for us. I want acceptance, support, and at least fake smiles and excitement.
Is that really too much to ask for? I don't even WANT to go to my ultrasound next week at this point. I feel like Scott and I are totally alone in our happiness for this baby. I know that I've always been alone doing things and I've never had much support in the past, but that doesn't mean that we should be forced to do it alone all the time. We don't ask for help usually, but we have our moments where we NEED it and we almost never turn down an offer for help. Well, now I need support and encouragement from family, and I'm not getting it at all. Thanks, that shows me how you really see my family.
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