Yesterday was our son's 16th birthday....I know this will sound cliche', but where did the time go? He was born at 8:01 a.m. on a Saturday, weighing in under 6 pounds. Just days later the Doctor found a nickel size hole in his heart. "Lets wait to see if it closes on it's own", he said. So after many trips to the Dr. and medications given,
almost a year after he was born, our son had open heart surgery to repair the hole. "You won't believe how fast he will recover", our Dr. assured us. And he was right....it was amazing. Except for the remaining scars, one would never
know he had heart surgery at such a young age. He has grown into an incredible young man. God is good and faithful.
We don't know how or why he developed his learning difficulties, his speech apraxia and language challenges, but we know our God has a purpose for everything. Romans 8:28 assures us of this.
James has a love of the outdoors...and is the only one in our immediate family who likes to fish and is interested in hunting and target shooting.
His wish for his birthday was to go fishing...thankfully the weather cooperated and we went to a nearby park with a pond....he fished while his brother and I watched. No fish were caught...not even a nibble, but it was fun.
With turning 16 most teens look forward to getting their driver's license...we have discussed with our son that he will probably need to wait until 18.....
He did get his fishing license though yesterday. He and his Dad went together before supper and got his license....that made his day.
The Lord has given my husband and me many wonderful blessings, 3 of which are our children. Each unique and special. God is good.
It was an easy first day back after our Easter break. We started with Religion. Our son is doing an on-line Bible study course on the book of John, http://www.whataboutjesus.com/gospel-john/gospel-john
Then it was off to the blood center so I could donate.
Afterward we stopped at Walmart...his idea. He recently earned some money taking care of a dog and he wanted to spend it. I would rather he save it, but I took this opportunity at the store for our impromptu math class. We compared prices, looked at what was the best deal, etc. I even used the calculator on my phone to show him how one item was priced better than another. He then found something else he asked to buy..."do I have enough money?"....another opportunity to show how math skills are used in every day life.
Local book store was next...always nice to peruse the shelves.
After lunch, it was time to read....currently reading through a book telling tales of our soldiers' personal stories while in Afghanistan, Battle Heroes- Voices From Afghanistan. He finished his school day by gathering more information for his power point on North Dakota for geography/social studies.
Tomorrow we'll be back to our 'regular' schedule.....
Ok, here it goes....this blogging thing is very new to me and I'm not 100% sure of what I'm doing...but I'll give it a shot.
I wanted to start a blog because my husband and I decided to homeschool our youngest child, who will be starting high school in the fall. I am hoping this blog will help me organize my thoughts and to hopefully engage others in homeschooling discussions and/or disussions regarding education in the regular school system....especially as it pertains to special ed.
Our son has been in special ed since he began our county's birth to 3 program. He was officially tested in 2006. His spec. ed teacher thought for sure he had ADD and wanted us to put him on medication. We thought there was something else going on so we had him tested at our Children's Hospital in Milwaukee, WI. We were so happy we had that done! Not only did it show he did not have ADD, it answered our concerns about our son.
He was diagonosed with a language processing disorder affecting both his comprehension and production of the spoken language and childhood apraxia of speech. (http://www.apraxia-kids.org/) It was thought that what appeared to be ADD was due to the fact that his listening skills were/are due to this language impairment.
This diagnosis helped us plan his IEPs (www.ldonline.org/indepth/iep) better and also the way we helped him at home. I know there are some parents who are opposed to having a label put on their child, but in many ways having the "problem" named aids us to know how to help our child better, it also opens the door to therapies which might be helpful.
In future posts I will discuss some of the challenges as well as the highlights of our son's school years to present. For now, I will end my first post in saying that in spite of all the good things that have helped our son in the regular public school setting, we are hoping to tackle the issues that a regular school cannot address, through no fault of their own.
Thank you for reading my first post, and I would appreciate any feedback, especially from those who have children with special learning needs.
