an update on implementing our new schedule/routine...

[TheReader]

You all had a ton of great ideas for tweaking my schedule/routine for DS, helping me make it manageable for everyone, etc. and so I thought I'd update now that all of his materials have arrived to Brazil, we've started working the new schedule, and I have a wee bit of progress to report.

 

What I ended up doing is this:

 

-he does a Scribbles coloring page while I read his Bible, History & Science to him (very short bits, and he likes it)

-we do a therapy activity pulled from his "therapy drawer" (this is things like RAN exercise with flash cards, digit span work, story telling with Rory Story Cubes, directions games, etc...)(one 5 min activity)

-we do math -- Singapore math, with manipulatives

-we do a 2nd therapy activity from the drawer

-we do his handwriting/phonemic awareness -- for now, we're just working through HWT PreK, introducing the letters, how they are formed, and the sound they make

-he takes a break to play a fun game (stuff that plays to his strengths), have a snack, etc.

-he does "Computer School" --- 1 session on Earobics and 1 session on Edmark Reading (sight words/matching)

 

So far, it's going well. Edmark bores him, but the sessions are super short so it works. He LOVES Earobics. I got lucky in that we have a super old laptop to use the super old software, as I didn't know to look for a newer version before I bought it. Oops. Thank goodness we still have a computer that can play it. (I did see it was for XP, and knew we had it, so it wasn't total luck.....but still). His favorite is the chicken egg catching thing, discriminating between matching sounds vs. different sounds. I'll have to work out a routine so that he is forced to do a different activity some of the time, or he'll pick that one every day.

 

I dropped the ABC stuff and extra story time, since HWT covers it. We will not start the reading stuff until he's made some more progress in phonemic awareness, but this routine is so far, so good. Lots of hands-on, as he colors & then plays with manipulatives while we do the other stuff and then he likes the computer parts as well. We also do some Highlights Kids after the Earobics; he and I did a hidden picture together and he listened to an animated story.

 

I have the No-Glamour Memory book on CD and a few websites which I print worksheets from, too, and those go in the therapy drawer (directions worksheets, visual discrimination stuff, etc....). All in all, the plan is not as overwhelming as I thought, thanks to the feedback here.

 

Progress.......slow and steady. DH has been home this week and observing; he was not impressed with our day yesterday (first real day back after Christmas break) and asked later what he could do to help. He was shocked when I said it had gone well. Apparently his idea of acceptable amounts of fussing/attitude/push-back and my acceptance of reality are different. To me, it was a small amount, all things considered. Some fussing/arguing over things, but while he was verbally fussing/pushing back, he was also complying and doing the things I was asking. So, to me, not so bad. Then once engaged in the activity, he settled and it was fine. Poor DH, who never witnesses this part, was shocked; he thought the amount of attitude was terrible. I had to break it to DH that what he witnessed was a good day......

 

Thanks again for all the feedback earlier; I'm sure I'll continue having questions as I work on processing all of what is going on with him. Debating posting his scores so you guys can weigh in.....good idea? Bad idea? He has such an all over the place thing, maybe some of you would have other ideas or thoughts........

[Tokyomarie]

It sounds like you had a great start. And, yes, I totally get the difference "a little fussing" vs. major all out dig your heels in "fussing". I'll take the first anyday as I have lots of experience with the second!

 

As for posting scores: I'm always reticent to post specfic test scores on a Google-searchable board like this. However, if there are a few who think they could take a stab at providing some feedback (always recognizing we are parents and not professionals), it might be helpful to post them in a PM to those folks. Others feel differently, and I recognize that it tends to depend on how desperate one is for specific support. In earlier years, I posted more of that info than I do now. I was more desperate and way back when, with the internet not being as developed, fewer people (myself included) were aware of just how long this stuff floats around in cyberspace.

[PeterPan]

Well congrats on a good day! Love those! And I LOVE the way you've organized it. Fabulous, fabulous. It flows, it's age and attention-appropriate. Great job!!! :hurray:

 

As far as scores, doesn't seem like you even need feedback. You're doing what you need to do. You could post them and delete, if what you're really wanting to do is talk. You could pick just a couple scores if there were discrepancies and discuss just those couple. Seems to me like you're on track though.

 

As far as the behavior, what I was thinking of as I read your post was the adage that fathers are harder on sons and mothers are harder on daughters. I don't know if that's true across the board, but I've read it's a sort of inherent "suck up and be like me because I know what it takes to be a man/woman successfully" sort of thing, gender identification and gender-nurturing. So my advice is to give heed to it and ponder how much of that carries over. Maybe your dh shouldn't be around ALL the time holding the boy to that standard, but maybe the boy needs an hour a day or 4 hours each Saturday where he IS interacting with that way. And that "suck up cuz this is how men do things" might *carry over* to your school time. My dh puts our ds to bed, and they do something for several hours each Saturday (gather and take out the trash, repair things around the house, build things outside, whatever). There DEFINITELY is a different way he has of interacting with ds. He makes him suck up and hold to this absolutism, because men need to have that. You're not trying to raise a sissy boy, and discipline is not androgenous.

 

So if I were you, I'd not only make some time slots for father/son time, but I'd encourage your dh with the idea that he can instruct his boy during that time on the right way to teach his mother, that his father EXPECTS him to be a gentleman toward his mother, that there are ways you treat your woman, etc. etc. He just doesn't need to do that every day during school. If he happens to be there, absolutely. In general though, that's a separate time and discussion. For us though the Dad card is the ultimo, the thing of last resort. You want to keep it that way.

 

Great job!! :001_smile:

[TheReader]

thanks, guys!

 

on the scores, I don't feel a huge need to share them but there are some definite.....uniquenesses. His gaps are unique, for sure. In particular, the gap between how high he scored on perceptual reasoning vs. how low he scored on processing speed is such a gap as only seen in 0.3% of kids his age. So. But, Elizabeth is right, at the moment, we're doing good and probably there is not much to be gained by chatting about the specifics, and Marie is definitely right -- I really don't want his private scores all over the searchable world wide web. So, I'll stick to popping in with specific questions as needed.

 

On the behavior, he does spend a good deal of time with his dad, they have games only they play together, we take turns with bedtime, and DH has been, always since day 1 with our oldest, the authority on How To Treat Mom, so I have no complaints there. I just thought it was ironic/funny/cute that DH was seeing school in action for the first time since we started all this and he felt it was a TON of attitude, disrespect, fussing, etc. whereas I have seen it be much worse so to me, it was not a big deal. Like Marie said, compliance while griping vs. digging heels in, not going to do a thing you ask, have to scrap the whole day b/c of the attitude. But, yes, DH talked to him later about how the attitude made me sad and that DS's job during school is not just to do the work, but also to be nice to mom (me) while doing it, and DH plans to repeat that before he goes to work next week (vacation is over) and if need be, to call and remind him every day for a while and see if that improves things. I think it's overkill, but I'll let him do it because it's important to him that we work on that, too, and not just the literacy stuff.

 

I hadn't ever heard that, about fathers harder on sons/mothers harder on daughters, maybe since I only have boys. But that's a good point about fathers knowing what their sons will need to learn before manhood; DH is pretty good about those kinds of things with the older boys and I know will be the same way with this one as well. He's a very hands-on dad, and I couldn't ask for better in that department.