Weekly Wrap UP

I love this idea.  A weekly summary of what we have done.  This week the biggest time consumer was J.R.'s possible diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder.  It sent me on a phone journey to find an appt with a developmental pediatrician that lasted for hours upon hours.  We did have some very good times though.  Just look below to see my posts on lacing felt flowers, crayola white board crayons and more.  We had a blast at our preschool at home.  I tried to think of a name for it this week.  No luck.  I tried calling the kiddos Gator Tots(Daddy's nickname is Gator) NO GO....JR said...I am not a gator tot,I am JR...lol so I guess we'll just keep calling it preschool at home.

See my last post for my whole review, but I give them three thumbs up!

I thought I would post a picture of the crayola white board crayons on this post as well as the review post I just finished....that's how much I love them.

Follow this link to see more people's weekly wrap up posts!
http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/search/label/Weekly%20Wrap-up

Review: Crayola Dry Erase Crayons

I was looking for some new art supplies at walmart when I noticed this box.  I did a happy dance right there in the aisle.  My kids love their white board but the markers are always drying out.  They came with the 8 crayons, a mit to wipe the white board off and a sharpener built into the box.  We have been using them for a couple of weeks now and my zealous two year old has not broken any.  I LOVE them.  I think they were about 4.50.  I don't care for the mit because I prefer to use a baby wipe followed by an old t shirt.  It does work though, just requires more rubbing.  

Lowe's build and grow

We took the kids to the Lowe's Build and Grow workshop again today and made earth day planters.  They even got tote bags with their projects today.  As soon as lunch was over they wanted to paint them.

J.R.

Jake

Justin

Caitlin worked on hers for awhile(with a little help) but she was more interested in painting her plate:)

Now we just have to get potting soil and seeds to put them to good use.  I tried to explain to them in advance that they really didn't need to paint the inside, but I guess it was too fun not to paint the inside.  The flower box comes with a little plexiglass plate that slides in the front so the kids can watch the action.  I'm curious to see if that will work or not!

I really like the way Justin did the back of his...he painted blue in between the tree trunks(didn't get a pic of that yet)....

I just now realized that it probably looks silly to have penguins on my table in April.  I have mostly bought my vinyl tablecloths at wal mart....last winter I got one at target and set it aside for this year.  It WON'T tear...I keep waiting for it to be worn out and it just won't....so now I have to fold it up and stick it away when I change it.  I'm having a hard time wanting to buy a new one when this one is still perfectly functional.  Ah well....such is life.

Our Felt Flower experience

First I would like to say that this is not my own idea....and I can't remember whose blog I saw it on.  If you know then please comment, otherwise I will link it when I find it again...and I certainly hope I do.  How do you keep track of where all these great ideas come from????

The pieces for our felt flower activity....got all the shapes cut out(please don't judge my shapes...sort of brain dead that morning, and I was just going for graduated sizes) then I realized I didn't have any pipecleaners.  Hmmm....I was sure I had some.  In my quest for pipe cleaners I did find some knitting needles in a learn to knit kit(I plan to learn someday....maybe) so I let them use those instead...

She was very proud of her flower.

I couldn't get him to hold it like a flower for anything...he was making it into a space ship or something:)

J.R.'s shape house from school

The house is the shape activity that he did at school.  I really like it....I wonder how much guidance she gave?? She seems to be really good with the kiddos. You can also see our Timmy Triangle stick puppet.  Our curriculum has you make a stick puppet for each shape and the kids loved him so much that they wanted one of their own to play with. So now we have triplet timmy triangles!!

Sissy had to have her picture taken too.  

A close up of the house.  This is how I memorialize my kiddos artwork.  I decided a long time ago to keep a few really special things and take pictures of any art or papers that I want to remember.  Four kiddos create A LOT of papers in one school year!

cutting triangles...scary stuff

Posting this so I have a record of how we're doing with our skills.  He scared me senseless trying to cut these out...he wanted his scissors to be an alligator and he was NOT paying attention....we quit with these two.  He didn't seem to have much motor control today with the scissors.

The perfect picture? I don't think so Mommy!!!

Did you ever see the potential for a really great picture and become faced with a preschooler who just wants to make goofy faces???  Sigh...never did get that picture, but I love these anyway because they show his personality.

A beautiful spring day!

I love this picture of princess Caitlin...of course she's heading directly for the street which is what I am yelling at her not to do as I snap the shot:)  Lucky we live on a cul de sac!

I took this one because I am going to work on our address with them.  I also took pictures of the mailbox up close and the street sign at the end of our lane.  I am going to make a matching game and we're gonna do all sorts of fun stuff.  We'll even sing the silly 911 song that the police woman taught my preschoolers in Blue Springs.

J.R. prefers his scooter over his bike.  Its much easier for him to handle.

Caitlin actually does better on her trike...though I ended up carrying both scooter and trike about halfway up our street!!

Our little slice of heaven...We live on a pretty long street which ends in a cul de sac so we have very little traffic.  I absolutely fell in love with it  the first time I looked at it...at least once I saw the inside of the house too:)

Our Lab(standing on her doghouse) and our schnauzer(the little black spot under her) were waiting for us to come back from our walk.

pictures of our little school area

These are actually the pictures I took to put on their picture schedule...which works wonderfully!

This is my Dollar Tree calendar.  I'm using velcro to attach the numbers

I got this table at a thrift store.  I think its supposed to be a college dorm type coffee table maybe??  It works great with these little stools that I got at Target, though they like the little wooden chair now too.  I put their names at their "spot" and also a bucket for each with supplies and an abacus that I made(our preschool curriculum recommends one for each kiddo and they actually love them)

Our Easel...bought at a garage sale and even though I wish it were magnetic I do love it...its very sturdy.

Aven's Corner

This is a great site with lots of simple games for kids.  Can't wait to try it out with my kiddos who are blissfully napping:)

note about pdd vs aspergers and what is our next step

This is a response to an email I sent a friend who counsels families with pdd, autism, aspergers and various other disorders/syndromes...he was so helpful...I'm mostly posting it here so it doesn't get lost but maybe it will help someone else too.


first I asked him if he could help me understand what it was.


PDD is an autistic disorder. In all categories in mental health there is a NOS diagnosis. Meaning Not Otherwise Specified. It basically means that in the professionals opinion that the diagnosis is in the Pervasive Development Disorder family (like Mood Disorder or Anxiety disorder is a family) but it doesn't fit any of the specific criteria of the other diagnoses. There are 4 main autistic disorders that vary in severity of functioning: Pure Autism, High Functioning Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, and PDD NOS. Aspergers Syndrome and PDD are very similar. With A.S. there can never be a speech delay which usually kicks kids out of that diagnosis entirely but still have very similar symptoms. Having said all that, I would wait til a developmental pediatrician saw him before you get too worried. This is not a neurologists area of specialty.
Nevertheless, a PDD diagnosis is not a death sentence just a package of looking at the delays. Social, language, and OCD/repetitive behaviors. These are the main areas the disorder affects.


Here I asked him if a neurologist is the right doc to diagnose this, and if JR's current level of treatment is appropriate.
The neurologist is not generally specialized in developmental delays. The treatment at this time is not different. The only time that matters is when he is enrolled in public school (which I hear is up in the air) after he turns 6 years old his diagnosis can not be "Child with Developmental Delay" for them to provide services. Even if you home school you will want them to be providing the services that you just described so you don't have to pay for it. He can have an IEP at school with a PDD diagnosis and they can pay for it and you can still home school if you want to. Children's Mercy does a great job but that is a long time to wait. Dr. Lyn Hoffman (male) does a very good job and is a bit cheaper as well. His wait list is probably more like 3-4 months.


Sometimes God puts people in your life for very specific reasons...my friend....I'll call him M....also helped me when I was struggling with the oldest son's add. 

Pervasive Developmental Disorder?

This is what the pediatric neurologist at Children's Mercy Says that JR has.  I have no clue.  He said that it is on the scale with autism.  JR doesn't have severe enough symptoms to be autistic, plus he interacts well with us...but he does have enough symptoms to have this.  Now I guess is my quest to figure out what this is.  Doc says the answer is therapy therapy and more therapy.  So we took him to the lab where they drew some blood and he got to pee in a cup(he thought that was cool)...and we scheduled him for an mri.  So we'll see.

Miss Caitlin and her jingle bells

Caitlin and I are on our own on Monday and Thursday mornings.  This is sometimes a hard time for her.."she wants her bubbies".  I have been reading quite a few Montessori blogs and decided to try one of the activities with her.  I got out a cookie sheet, put a small bowl with 12 jingle bells on it, an empty baby food jar and a toddler spoon.  She spent 40 minutes scooping the bells into the baby food jar and then pouring the bells back into the bowl.  Wow...I cleaned up the kitchen in peace and she learned...no fussing involved.

Our home made pedal adapters for J.R.'s trike

$8.00 pair of tennis shoes from Wal-mart

removed the inserts

Jim drilled two holes in the bottom of the shoes and bolted them to the pedals...pics to follow

two bolts...recessed to be flat with the surface of the shoe bed

replace the insert

He put rubber tubing over the protuding bolts that way if we have to put bigger shoes on he can use the same bolt.

Wa La...pedal adapters for $8.00.  They work great.

Marigold Science Lesson

This was Daddy's science lesson about planting Marigold seeds.  It was a fun time for Daddy and the little ones.  Caitlin chose to stand with hands on hips when it was supposed to be her turn to get her hands dirty.  That's my little diva for you!  Now I am just praying that our little marigolds actually grow.  I have such a brown thumb that I never count on growth from my plants.  That's why Daddy was in charge of this lesson.

Kaleidoscopes from the Lowe's workshop for kids

They made these great kaleidoscopes at Lowe's today.  I have already signed them up for the next two weeks projects...a planter and a bird feeder.  We made the project and then came home and painted them with our paint daubers.  Turned out really cool.

Horizons curriculm

We got our horizons curriculum in the mail on Friday.  Its full of goodness, and lots to wade through.  I could do two or three days worth of lessons from one days plans.  That's a good thing though.  We did lesson one yesterday and the kids loved it.  I'm amazed at how well J.R. is cutting now!