Hormones, the Sun, and a Cheiroscope

Last week I talked about our slow-moving progress. This week, I may need to mention the slow-moving child, or should I say young man, or is it pubescent adolescent? Sheesh. Couple that with a little mom-type PMS and what a time we've had!

Three weeks ago when we started homeschooling, I told friends who were amazed by my energy that it would last about three weeks. It's been three weeks. I know myself that well. Never fear. I will plod ahead, making grace-filled amends for the molasses moments, keeping my eye on the reason we're doing this. If he is this goofy and distracted at home, how much worse would it have been in a classroom?

If you saw my last post, you would have noted that our friend, at least my friend, the sun has arrived in force. Longer days, better weather. It's all good for us here. Not bad for business either. :-) (If you wonder what we do, visit http://espoutdoor.com.)

In a bit of bummer news, we visited our Vision Therapist, Dr. Curtis Newcomb at Shasta Professional Eyecare, where he conducted a bit of refresher testing. I want to incorporate some of his VT exercises in our daily work and wondered which would be the most effective. SJ is suppressing his left eye again when he reads--not too badly, thankfully, but still. It's never fun to move backward. So, it's back to the cheiroscope which, I have to say, is probably one of our favorite exercises. Well, at least I think it's fun.

Here is a picture of the contraption we use:

He looks through the eyeholes in the top and this is what he sees:

If you will notice in the first photo, the little drawing is clipped to the side of the cheiroscope but the image is reflected by a little mirror as you can see in the second photo. SJ folds a piece of paper in quarters, puts it under the image, tries to center the image on the paper, and has to trace what he sees with a pencil. This is one of the beginner images. They get more detailed as he improves. He has to draw this four times: left eye, right hand; left eye, left hand; (turn the chieroscope) right eye, right hand; right eye, left hand. If he is suppressing, the image will disappear and I use the tip of a colored pen to mark the spot and help him regroup his vision. I know from our first round of therapy that the drawings will go from rudimentary to neat and balanced. It's a pretty cool progression to watch.

Our final dilemma this week came as we were feeling all smug about finally disconnecting our phone land line. We realized, too late, that our Tivo relied on our phone line. We are in danger of missing important and educational shows such as American Idol and my personal favorite, Millionaire Matchmaker. :-) I know many of you would be thrilled to ditch the TV altogether but in our home, especially as we approach July (Tour de France)--not an option. Now we must decide whether to go with Dish TV or Direct TV. Really saved money by disconnecting, didn't we? Oh well. We are all pretty excited about the prospect of having Discovery Channel as we've had only the very very basic cable plan for years.

First Day Done

I'm going to have to say the first day of our homeschool was a success.

SJ sauntered out around 8 a.m. and took his time having breakfast. I wondered how he would react when the bus stopped (right in front of our house) to pick up a former schoolmate. I needn't have worried. Rather than feeling left out, he felt lucky to be home.

After getting dressed and feeding the neighbor's cat, we got started. It was 10:00 a.m. Nice. We talked for a few minutes about how this would work and then reviewed what I think we might be able to accomplish this week.

Here is what we did:

• Vision therapy. We plan to start each day with a few exercises we learned during his VT program. I can see I need a refresher on some of them.
• Math. The challenge here was to figure out where he left off in school and then find the similar section in the book we chose for home. I think we landed in the right spot but it will continue to be a searchy, learny thing to discover what he "got" and what he didn't. 
• Computer. Crash course on internet browsers and how to organize bookmarks and files. I let him choose his "headings" and we loaded them with several fun-looking (but educational) sites. We played around on a few of them, such as PBS' Nova site that has endless videos, podcasts, and activities.
• Lunch. Gotta eat.
• Reading comprehension disguised as Bible devotions. It occurred to me that SJ knows how to "look up" verses but doesn't really know how to "use" his bible. There are all kinds of great little resources in his NIV Adventure Bible so we started at the front where we looked at each icon, read what it represented, then looked for examples within the text. 
• PE. An hour and a half of no school bell telling him to stop playing. He loved this.
• Facebook set-up with Dad. Halfway done. (Don't friend him yet!)
• Reading. He will read tonight. I told him he can read anything that has real text (as in, not Calvin and Hobbes).
• Writing. Low-key end of day exercise where I asked him to write what he liked and what he did not like about his day. Here is what he said: "I enjoyed today because it was easier than school because it only took two hours instead of 6 (sic). Everything was easy and so that is why I enjoyed it so much." (Disclaimer for the sake of his teacher: It took about three hours. :-) ) 

It looks like alot of work and it looks like not enough at the same time but I'm happy with what we did. When he worked, he was engaged and what he didn't understand, I explained. So he thought it was easy, isn't that the objective? Does learning have to be hard to be good? What do you think?

A few challenges:

• S was bored by 3:00 p.m. No homework. Done with school. He was a little adrift.
• Hubbie and I have to change our Monday "dates" for awhile. That one is harder to swallow because we enjoy our bike rides and lunches but both of us realize we need to be a little more "present" for awhile before we let SJ work independently. I need to remember to schedule "our" time to make sure we get it.
• Tomorrow I have bible study which is a non-negotiable time for me. How will he do for two and half hours? How will I feel, knowing I have another responsibility while trying to enjoy my own social life?

Chronicle of a Struggling Learner

On Monday I begin my new life as a homeschooling mom. It's a midstream change, kind of sudden but really not.

Our journey with my third child began years ago, probably around his second grade year (now seventh) when I noted that he tended to skip small words while reading aloud. Eventually this translated to poor performance on tests although I didn't make the connection until much later. Teachers warned me not to compare his performance with my first two, both top of class students.

I guess I kept hoping that he would catch up but each year was the same drill. He started strong then crashed by about week seven or eight, usually around the time of the first comprehensive test. On a hunch, in fifth grade, I read aloud some questions from his "F" test. To my surprise, he answered me with 100% accuracy. The kid was not dumb.

Fortunately for us, we have an optometrist in our town who tests for a peculiar learning issue. As my son subjected himself to a battery of "games," I was shocked to discover how much he missed as I followed along. In a nutshell, he has a visual processing deficit, not correctable by lenses. It goes much deeper in the heart of his brain.

I discovered that my son had adapted to this, unconsciously, by suppressing the receiving center for one of his eyes. Think about reading a book with the type on the two facing pages overlapping, even slightly. This is how text looked to him. The brain is a marvelous organ and it does what it needs to do when taxed. Unfortunately, in this case, it staunched the dimension needed for information to make sense. Without a 3D understanding of text, my son struggled to get visual pictures, to organize information, to memorize--in short, to learn.

Schools have tests for struggling learners but they do not test for this particular issue and, I found, do not really consider this a "valid" problem. It doesn't fit their box and they do not have specialists or programs ready to address this deficit. Coupled with the fact that my son could, with my help, make passing grades, he never failed enough to get the magical IEP (nor did we particularly want him attached to the little pink folder).

I kept hoping that he would manage his learning using the sills he learned in an intensive vision therapy program (our dime) while I alerted teachers to particular hot spots. It hasn't worked despite my hopes and intentions. Denial is bliss, but truth is probably better though inconvenient.

How can I expect a teacher to buffet my son amidst a class of 35 students, some with severe learning disabilities and specifically outlined objectives, as well as top learners who regularly linger on the edge of boredom in the classroom? I couldn't do it. Teachers must teach to the masses and pray that their teaching method reaches the majority of students.

What tipped the scale for me was the dull undercurrent of concern about my son's social life. He has never been in "trouble" but he continues to disturb me with his friend choices and I see behaviors that, while small and maybe even age-appropriate (by the world standards), will grow in the wrong direction. For a kid who suffers in the classroom, there is a great desire to succeed at something. That something isn't always positive. Kids like this are grouped with underachievers, not the best friend pool. They lag schoolmates in understanding so they embellish, pose as characters to garner approval, or simply lie. It creates a disturbing social cycle.

I finally had to ask. Why am I sending my son to school for seven hours each day? He isn't gaining more than a fraction of an academic year each year and he isn't thriving socially. Why is he there? It's sobering to admit, but the honest truth is that he was there for me, to give me a break. I have subjected him to a daylong babysitter--and not really a good one.

So here we are. Starting homeschool. After the initial resistance to the idea, my son is excited and relieved that he is about to be released from the grind of school. We anticipate spending the first several weeks in a detox process, if you will, learning what learning can be outside the confines of a traditional environment.

My challenge will be to teach a right brain child from my own left and linear brain.

This will be a journey, thus the name of my blog. Regel, in Hebrew, means journey. Also tied to the word is enduring. I know I can do this but I also know my own limitations and tendencies. I figure that if I am going to suffer, I should share my suffering with others. After all, what is suffering for but that others can learn?

I hope my friends will follow my journey, but more than that, I pray that other parents with struggling learners will find their way here and that I can encourage them through our experiences, successes, failures, blunders, and joys. Our kids our worth it. My son is worth it. This could possibly be the greatest investment I have ever made as a parent.

As I read just this morning, "Rest assured that God never leaves a willing servant with nothing to do. The alternate opportunity He has in mind will yield bigger fruit, more satisfaction, and greater glory for Him." Jeremiah 10:23-24 NLT

Blessings. CS