Dyslexia Discovery

B has been more than frustrated with Math lately.   (If I'm honest with myself, it's been longer than "lately."  I believe I went looking for new curriculum this summer and ended up simply continuing with our current pick.)  He displayed some extreme frustration this week because he'd neglected to finish one day's assignment and therefore needed to finish it and do the current day's assignment.  He cried.  "I just have SO MUCH math to do."

But I don't think that was why he was crying.  I think he cried because it's not making sense.  And I think it's not making sense because of his dyslexia.

His curriculum utilizes spiral learning. So at the same time that he's learning to multiply and divide, he's reviewing addition and subtraction of some rather large numbers.  Every day that he has subtraction he asks me,

"Do you take the bottom out of the top, or the top out of the bottom?"

Every time.

When he has big numbers to multiply he uses the white board to write out 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 x7 x 7. Then he groups them into 14s and adds the whole thing.  I look at this and wonder why he uses the extra white board step and when I see the doodles all along the edges I assume he's spending the time unwisely.

"Not so," says his dyslexic father who encourages him to keep using that method.  He's being visual and I am reminded of some things I've read about right-brained children...using the whiteboard is easier on the hands and eyes...visualizing is powerful...

And then I get it.  Not only does dyslexia affect his reading and writing, it affects math too.  I knew it affected the way he saw the world in total, but I'd excluded math from that world somehow.

I'll be more sympathetic toward B's math struggles, to be sure.  But more importantly, I'm finally going to apologize to my bank account and do what it takes to get my boy some help.

New Year Troubles

In this new year I've had a few troubles.

1. I have a finger that keeps cracking and bleeding.  Same thing, same finger, last winter -- our first in Denver.  Dry, dry air here.  It hurts and it takes months to heal.
2. I sliced off part of a fingernail last week.  It's all healed up but it was equally painful.  
3. We slid in the snow and hit the curb, and cracked the rim of our tire. After changing the tire during the snowfall, we had to buy a new rim and now have to re-do the alignment. Stinks.

But seriously, that's nothing compared to a fellow CO homeschool mom who spends her days learning at home with her girls, is incredibly smart, has a knack for speaking and is pushing hard after the kingdom.  Her troubles for the year consist of this:

1. Out of the blue, had a major stroke. 

I'm humbled and rattled and sitting at the feet of the father today for Joanne Heim.   Won't you join me?

EH Best of 2010

Looking back over this blog for the year I find that my voice has actually been a bit quieter.  I pigeonholed myself a bit too much with the homeschooling title and as a result I found that when my thoughts were turned to other facets of life, I tended not to share them.  On the other hand, I did share a lot of reading ideas as well as preschool unit plans.  So, if you're looking for inspiration in those two areas, I hope I helped a little. Here are the 2010 posts that stuck with me longer than it took to hit "publish post."

10.  Thoughts on how we celebrate Epiphany.

9.  A little educational method from Jesus.

8.  How our homeschool group raised over $5,000 for Haiti relief.

7.  In which I reflect on how our kids take after us.

6.  A quiet little momentous occasion.

5.  The one I was afraid to publish.

4.  On teaching friendship.

3.  Doing what you think you ought.

2.  Enjoying our new reality.

1.  The same for one as for the other.

Enjoy what the new year has in store for you.
-- Debra

Christmas Break

Two nights ago I woke the older two boys up in the middle of the night and invited them outside to watch the eclipse.  We laid huddled together in hats and thick blankets and let the universe do its thing.  We joked about the cold, made up acronyms for each other, looked for constellations and just waited for the first phase to finish. It's amazing how entertaining it was.  Of course, staying up late is a fun treat for all three of us.  We let Dad and S sleep.  To each his own.

We did two days of school this week to finish up our unit study on communication.  One day was spent watching  the Doctor Dolittle musical (we just finished the book).  The next day we finished some art and a book about Helen Keller, finished up a newspaper page, plugged through math and reviewed some timeline cards. We were going to then watch the Miracle Worker, but Christmas break was calling and we wanted to be done.  So we put on Christmas music and read Christmas books and made cookies instead.

It's going to be a quiet Christmas here with just the five of us.  It will be interesting to find out what our own traditions become.  There's no snow in Denver this year but one son is getting a gift that may require a drive up to the mountains to play for a day.  Other than that, I expect to keep going through my reading list.

May you find ways to enjoy what the season has in store for you.