The Lake

The reward for enduring the long dark, grey days is summer. I won't say that it is a hot summer but the sky is blue and the sun is shining for so late that the kids go to bed before the sun does and we hope that they sleep longer than the sunrise which is around 5:00 right now.

Currently we are enjoying living near one of the lakes here. J enjoys going to the dock and sitting there. He has been given that privilege.

It just seems like a summer thing to go and sit at the water or to eat dinner next to the lake. The other night we went to a local Fish and Chips place for dinner. J was camping and we thought Miss K wouldn't eat that much. She fooled us. I ordered a shrimp cocktail, ate one shrimp and asked her if she wanted some. The next thing I knew she was handing it back to me because she didn't want the celery that was at the bottom. I ate it after all it is good diet food. We also had fish and chips and I think she ate quite a bit.

Well, after dinner we walked to the beach. At this beach is was sand though it seemed to be a dusty grey sand. Miss K was happy to play.

The beach has a walkway around the swimming area. You can see the city from there.

I walked the loop. The walkway was concrete and didn't move which interested as you were walking and seeing the waves but the bridge walkway wasn't moving.  I saw this as I walked. I wish I had my good camera. This was the best photo I could get with my little camera.

I did see the family of ducks as I came near the swimming area which was closed.

We have enjoyed the lake while we are here.

Beth

British Children's Author - Michael Bond

Who doesn't love the bear from Darkest Peru? We had to read some of the Paddington books in our study of British Children's Authors.

I also have to add in here that one of my personal Paddington memories is the sweater that my aunt made for my brother with Paddington on the front. I think he wore it to church for many weeks. I am sure that my brother is glad I don't have a photo of that.

Michael Bond wrote the Paddington series after buying a lonely bear for his wife that was still on the shelves on Christmas Eve in 1956. They named the bear Paddington as they lived near Paddington station. Michael began writing stories about the bear and it didn't take long and he had a book. Michael worked for the BBC and after the success of Paddington books quit his job there.

The Official Website of Paddington Bearhttp://www.paddingtonbear.com/ has various information, coloring pages (or as they write colouring pages and even a Paddington Bear quiz.

We colored a page and had to have a marmalade sandwich (which didn't happen yet as we need to get some marmalade).

We read A Bear called Paddington. Everybody enjoyed that book even Daddy. Currently we are reading Paddington at Work and I found More About Paddington in a thrift store this week. The books do have a British feel to them just in words chosen or the way things are said.

One thing I learned recently is that Michael Bond also wrote some books about a guinea pig named Olga da Polga. I found one of the Olga da Polga books at a thrift store so we will have to add that to our reading list.


Don't miss the other authors.

Graham Oakley
J.R.R. Toilkien
C.S. Lewis
A.A. Milne
Beatrix Potter

I have one or two more to read about. Any suggestions for other British Children's Authors?


Beth

Potty Training Update

This is one of those life skills that with special needs kids might just take a bit more time and that was the case with Miss K. This has also been a goal for learning under life skills.  I think I am almost at the point of saying she is daytime trained. For about nine months she was staying dry but you had to remind her to go. Now she is beginning to initiate on her own. 

Here you can see Miss K was beginning to train baby. That picture was taken about six years ago when we were beginning to try this. Maybe I should have tried harder, maybe I should have pushed more at that time, maybe I should have tried again sooner but those are all maybes and life was being lived.

I did try when she was 3 and that didn't take. We did often put her on the toilet before a bath. Life is a blur as far as what efforts were made until a year ago. I did try once when J was at camp. Then a year ago I decided we needed to work on it. I put her in underwear and reminded her and took her. Most mornings it was a battle to get her into underwear as she much preferred diapers. We had many wet accidents and she didn't even care but would continue playing. Now if she has an accident she will go and change herself. It was lots of mama taking her even when she said she didn't need to go. I tried to do it when she go dressed, around 10:00, after lunch, 2:00, 4:00, after dinner and before bed. One of the reasons for the times is it helped me to have a time and I would also say, "it is 10:00 time to go to the bathroom."

There were times that I wonder if she had a problem and could not sense but now she is beginning to initiate and has even come in from playing outside to go.

Night time is our next goal. The other night she said she wanted to wear underwear. I took her before I went to bed and then when I woke up in the middle of the night. She did stay dry. It is good to know that she can do this now we need to work on that.

Treats worked a bit when we were training but I don't think it encouraged her to try that much. I even bought a potty watch but she didn't like that. I used the timer but she really didn't like it. We used lots of praise and telling her about all the people she knew who wore underwear. She is just now beginning to understand that she is too big for diapers.

It can be a long process but the rewards are huge. It can be slow at times but it is wonderful to have this closer to done. I think it was slow as mentally she didn't understand and care and physically to learn to control and know her body.

I am thankful that we have made this much progress.

Now we can go back to other topics like chores, books, lakes, and other things we enjoy.


Beth

Classical Education and Special Needs

As we are finishing this year, I was thinking a bit about the things that Miss K has learned and the plans for next year. I have moved to a more classical approach for both of the children. I was impressed with the things that a friend's son learned in Classical Conversations(CC) and so I looked into that thinking it would be good for J. Two years ago I signed the kids up for CC. After the year with CC and more reading and researching I have decided this is our approach.

When I signed up for CC I thought Miss K might learn a bit but honestly I didn't think she would do that much. She was in a class with 8 other 5-8 year old girls. She loved CC and was able to follow along with the class except for the review time which moved a bit too fast for her. She would sit quietly, answer some of the questions, each week she was eager to give her presentation even though we didn't always understand. It was also good for the girls in her class. There was one girl that was always so sweet to include Miss K in lunchtime games. I remind myself that it is good for other children to learn how to relate to children with special needs.

Miss K exceeded my expectations that year. She mastered the timeline and learned quite a bit of other facts as well. Even today at lunch she was able to name of a few of the state capitals.  I learned to raise my expectations.

Here she is giving a presentation.

What is our classical approach at this time? We are doing history in a chronological format. We are working on Latin and some of the other classics. We emphasize memory work (or at least attempt to).

What does that mean for Miss K and her educational needs? She does not want to be left out which is good. She listens to history with us. I would say that more than half the time she knows what we are reading and will remember it. We work to review our timeline on a regular basis so we all will remember it. Her brother has Latin and she has Latin. I purchased Songschool Latin. She loves having her own Latin and will often ask to do Latin.

Will she use it in the future? I don't know but then again I took quite a number of classes in high school and college that I don't use. So she might not use it but at the same time she is exercising her brain and learning to think.

I have raised my standards and I do expect that she will be able to learn this using this approach.

Adding this note -- As we were driving home from dinner, Miss K asked where we were. We told her and then I asked her, "who was the first president?" She replied, Washington, next Adams, next Jefferson." That was as far as she could remember and I will confess I couldn't help her much. I need to review it along with her. It has been a good year since we worked on learning the presidents.

Beth

The Puget Sound

We are at that point in our work that various people will invite us for dinner. The kids will often ask if they have kids. It is about 50/50 on kids their age or kids grown and out of the house. Today we went to some friends that don't have kids at home but have a telescope and some old cool toys. J was playing with the boats that Mr. S used to play with when he was a kid. They were 70-80 years old.

The telescope is set up in the room so you can look out at the Puget Sound. We watched a crabbing boat and saw the ferry as well as a cargo ship. On the weekends you can see the cruise ships going through. J will stand for a long time and just look at the boats, the mountains, and the trains.

Miss K's memory is incredible. She asked if we were going to the beach after lunch. She remembers that we will often go down to the beach after our visit there. It is one of my favorite places from when I lived here. I would come and just sit and look at the water. We went down for a bit.

It was hot and Miss K just squatted down in the sand and started to dig.

J on the other hand ran down to the water. He did have to pause to roll up his pants. He found some seaweed that was unique. It made a great whip.

It is fun to be living near the water and be able to dig in the sand and splash in the water through the water is cold here.

That was our fun day.
Beth

Ballet

Today was Miss K's ballet recital. We have spent the previous two weekends having rehearsal and this afternoon was the big performance. I even had a session on hair and make-up which was not needed as she was just to have pigtails.

Ballet is Miss K's favorite thing along with pink, Barney, and mint chocolate chip ice cream. She loves ballet.

About three years ago Miss K went to Dainty Dancers at the YMCA. The class met the same time as J's swim lesson. At that time she was more interested in riding the tricycles in the room. Okay, we tried that.

Then she went to Classical Conversations and was in a class with other girls her age. A number of these girls were taking ballet and often their demonstration speech would include ballet. That sparked her interest in ballet.

For her birthday and Christmas she got the Garden ballet DVD. She would watch those and dance around the house.

Last fall we again tried Dainty Dancers. She enjoyed it but was ready for more than sitting on the floor stretching and then dancing or running in circles with a scarf.

When we came to the Northwest, we looked for a ballet class for her. That was the one thing that she wanted. We found a local school and she was able to join in March. Wednesday mornings she would be up and ready for ballet but she had to wait until 2:30. She was in a Ballet 1 class and was able to keep up with the other girls in her class. It was a small class just four girls.

The year-end performance was Hansel and Gretel. Miss K was a bunny. Her hair was in pigtails to help keep the bunny ears in place. We gave her flowers at the end and she was so excited, "for me, oh, I love roses." I guess in her book all flowers are roses.

We couldn't take photos and I am now eagerly waiting for the link so I can order some photos from today.

I really don't know what we will do on Wednesdays now that we don't have ballet.

Ballet has been very good for her. I have seen her core strength improve. She is a good observer and that does help in this in learning.

I am thankful that she has had this opportunity. I have a feeling that ballet will be a part of our life for some time to come. She is talking about going to ballet in England.

Beth

A German Town and Cherries

Yes, the two really do go together. Since it is cherry season then it is time to drive east but not 2800 miles east.

First we stopped at a German like town. It really was created to become a tourist destination. Since it was a Saturday the tourists were out in large numbers. I think they succeeded in making it a tourist destination. We even saw a Chinese tour bus there which brought back memories of Chinese tour groups.

We enjoyed lunch there and then walked through some of the shops. Miss K can find something in every shop that she loves. The kids were given some chocolate button samples in one shop and we had a cheese sample in another shop. We didn't buy anything.

Miss K thought they were ballerinas up at the clock. She got all excited. I think it reminded her of her jewelry box ballerina which she loves.

We stopped and listened to the music. My husband said the last time he heard polka was when he was in Germany. I know we have some German music CD's but maybe they are all German march music and no polka.

Miss K wanted ice cream. That really is not new. She wants ice cream most of the time. Her favorite kind of ice cream is mint chocolate chip.

We are not far from civilization meaning there is coffee there. I love how Starbucks blends in with the look there. I should start a collection of Starbucks pictures from around the world.

As we walked into town, we saw this little statue.  Miss K posed for a picture.

After wandering around a bit, we drove to get cherries. This is a memory of something that we did with my in-laws years ago when they lived here. We drove and found a roadside stand. I love shopping at those places as it seems that the people working their love what they are doing. The bing cherries had been picked within the last three days. The Rainier cherries were just picked that day. Bing cherries are our favorite.

The man gave us some paper towels and we stood at the back of the car eating cherries. They were so good we went in and bought another box. We decided that next year we would not be able to get cherries this fresh or at this price so we might as well enjoy them.

J loves cherries. I think they are his favorite fruit. He was and still is loving eating all the cherries. There are no limits put on how many cherries you can eat.

Miss K doesn't know how to spit out the seeds so we have to help her with that. She does like the cherries. She found these and wanted a picture taken -- cherry checks.

Beth