Why I Want to be Homeschooled by Caroline Trotter

Caroline was home sick last Friday.  Ever since she has been begging me to homeschool her.  As a way to defer these irritating pleas, I told her to write me an essay detailing why she wanted to be homeschooled. I told her it was due by the end of the week and that we were not to speak about it again until then. She gave it to Paul and I last night.  I asked her if I could share it with you all because I think it offers an honest look at a traditional school environment from a 4th graders perspective.  It does not compel me to homeschool her at this point, but it does give me insight into the type of education she craves and makes me ask myself if I could provide that for her someday.

I think I should be homeschooled for many reasons, but I'm going to limit it to only four.


If you homeschool me, I wouldn't be late to school everyday.  We wouldn't need to rush to school, giving me three pieces of cereal for breakfast.  I could actually take my time, eat a healthy breakfast and be ready to start learning.

Another reason you should homeschool me is because I would get more work done.  In public schools, the teacher needs to wait on her or his other students if they don't understand something.  Since it would only be me (doing the work I am doing), we could spend only a few days or weeks on a topic and I could keep moving forward in school.  


A good thing about homeschooling is you don't need to deal with drama.  Drama as in, "she said I was stupid!" or even worse, "did you know he likes you?"  It is so annoying, to the point where people start crying.  I've heard so many problems from other people that it seems like they're more focused on their problems than school work.  It's really irritating and can hurt other people's feelings.

Finally, my last reason is I would be more free.  Every 10 year old kid can't stand being trapped in a room except for specials, recess and lunch.  It is boring and makes you want to just hate school just because the environment you're in.  I personally don't like being yelled at either.  It makes me feel stupid.  I also don't like sitting at hard, old, wooden desks that have been used for years.  They're uncomfortable and can be distracting.  At least at home I would be comfortable and happy in my bed or anywhere in the house.

I think it would be cool to be homeschooled and see Jackson all the time.  There are plenty more advantages at home than at school.  For example, I could do Bible study or do 6th grade math.  Think about it...it could be a cool experience!  




All she is really saying is that she wants to be able to work hard and play hard in a respectful and harmonious environment.  She observed that last Friday with Jackson and I, but obviously does not feel that way during her school day.  So will I homeschool her next year?  I doubt it...but I will remain open to the Lord's will and pray for her education everyday in the meantime.


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Get on Twitter, People!

Unless you are a teenage girl, Twitter is not the mindless social media wasteland that many have come to believe.  As a 37 year-old wife and mother of two, you might not think I'd be a big fan of consolidating my random thoughts into 140 characters and sharing them with the world multiple times a day...and you'd be right. Because that is not why I use Twitter.  I use it to listen, not to be heard.  


Everyone is passionate about something.  Whether it is photography, cooking, finance, cancer awareness, global politics, travel, tech, writing, baseball, film, music, or design, you can create a whole feed of information dedicated to that area.  I am on Twitter to learn from people who are passionate about educating special needs children in a way that has never been done before.

I am a Twitter novice.  I've only been on there since November.  But in that time, I have found some amazing people all over the world that are homeschooling special needs children with tremendous success.  Their ideas and encouragement are priceless to me as I am just beginning this journey.  I have found more than just educational resources, I have found people who can answer quick questions or concerns within minutes.  I have found links to articles, research, and events by industry experts that I never knew existed.  The scope of Twitter is staggering, yet it is easy to navigate and manage.

I am not going to pretend to understand it all.  I am just learning how to use hashtags (#) and ow.ly and I am still not exactly sure why people feel the need to track their stats or use specific software to follow/unfollow/message people automatically...and I probably never will.  I also know that there are a ton of people and organizations on there just to promote or market something.  But the beauty of how Twitter is organized is that you choose to follow who you want, no one has to "accept" your request (unless they are a locked account) and you can unfollow as easily if someone tweets stuff you don't care about.

I've heard people describe Twitter as Facebook if you had cool friends.  For me, it is like a Facebook page full of really smart and compassionate people fighting for the same things I am.  For Paul, it is like a Facebook page full of people as insanely into basketball as he is.  He follows his favorite coaches, teams, players and sports journalists. That is the beauty of Twitter, it is what you make of it.  It allows you the control to filter out all the nonsense and garbage you often have to sift through on other sites to get to the handful of valuable information you crave.

So what is keeping you off of Twitter?  See it as a pointless waste of time?  Don't know who you'd follow? Don't think you have anything valuable to offer the world in return? Whatever your reason, just ask yourself one question...What are you passionate about? Figure it out and then jump on Twitter and see if there are others who you can learn from or even encourage others with your wisdom and experience.  The more of you on there, the better for me since I find value in what you have to say.

Check out my Twitter page:  https://twitter.com/#!/hometeachautism

iPad App Review of Shake-A-Phrase

As many of you know, I am in love with using the iPad with Jackson. We have found so many brilliant apps that have worked seamlessly with our homeschooling programs.  I typically use the iPad to reinforce concepts because a big part of Jackson's learning style is massive repetition!  He simply needs time to go over and over and over and over a single bit of information to absorb and process it successfully.

That is why I was thrown a bit the app Shake-A-Phrase.  I was searching for good language arts apps that did more than ABC's, phonics and early reading.  Jackson is a good reader but lacks chunks of basic language arts understanding, which makes his comprehension terrible.  I was introduced to Shake-A-Phrase and was immediately intrigued by the iTunes description:


Shake-a-Phrase is a fun language app that teaches vocabulary and parts of speech for ages 8+.


The addictive language fun in Shake-a-Phrase will encourage children to:
• Read the silly, entertaining sentences
• Discover the meanings of unfamiliar words
• Create their own writing projects
• Test their knowledge of verbs, adjectives and nouns
• Share language arts fun with friends and family

How this app works is fairly straight forward.  You simply open it to find 3 choices: Shake It!, Quiz Me!, and Story Starter.  Each is a variant on learning basic sentence structure with a focus in nouns, verbs and adjectives.  It allows you to teach, quiz, and create for yourself silly sentences about animals, fairytales, monsters or sports.  


All of this sounded perfect!  I had high hopes for this app, but as soon as I downloaded it, I was immediately nervous and doubtful that Jackson would be able to play with it at all.  The vocabulary was way over his head.  There is no way he would be able to pronounce or understand half of the words on there.  I knew he'd go crazy for the shaking feature...it feeds into his love of all things that move around and wiggle, but other than that, I assumed this app would be a dud:(  

Boy, was I wrong!  Don't misunderstand me, just as I expected, the vocabulary was way too hard for him and he could barley pronounce most of the words...but in true Jackson fashion, he took the intended purpose of an item and recreated it to suit his needs.  He used the app to teach himself sentence structure by repetition.  He went to the Shake It! part first and just tapped on each word over and over until he decoded the way nouns, verbs and adjectives intermingled in a sentence.  He quickly figured out that that even though he had no idea what jubilant meant, he knew adjectives always came before nouns, and he knows enough nouns to make those kinds of leaps.  And similarly, he couldn't pronounce admired, but knew verbs always followed nouns.  From there he went on the the QuizMe! section and breezed through all the levels.  He was not interested in the Story Starter part at all which didn't surprise me because he struggles with comprehension so he didn't know how to elaborate on a given thought.  


Jackson's mind is so fascinating that I constantly underestimate what he is capable of learning.  I love to just sit back and watch him deconstruct something, tilt his head to the side and then rebuild it so it makes sense to him and him alone! So what if the app was full of difficult words he had never seen before, that was not going to stop him from earning those trophies for passing the quizzes!  That boy is committed to winning prizes and not much can stop him when he is on a mission.


I've included a video of Jackson trying, failing and ultimately succeeding in using Shake-A-Phrase: 




I am excited to introduce this app to Caroline as well, since she has a passion for creative writing and is addicted to her thesaurus these days.  I think this app will provide her with some fun and unique vocabulary to incorporate into her next great story.  

My only recommendation to improve the app would be to add a lower level vocabulary option as "training" so kids don't get discouraged right off the bat because they don't know what anything means.   Build some confidence and excitement so they will want to move onto the apps real brilliance which is its fun use of diverse and high level vocabulary that stimulates their young, eager minds! 

In my opinion, this is a great language arts app for older kids with special needs who learn primarily through decoding and repetition with a healthy does of fun! 

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Public School PTSD

Oh My Gosh!!!!  I usually spend hours thinking about and writing my blogs but I had to get this down ASAP, so forgive the brevity and poor composition!

I just got back from Glasgow Middle School (J's new home-base school) to sign a form giving them consent to do an OT evaluation on Jackson.  Even though he is homeschooled, J still has access to any services that are in his current IEP and/or any services that are recommended by a teacher.  Before leaving the autism program in October at Poe Middle School, he was referred for OT because his handwriting was poor...not because he has massive sensory issue...which is a whole other blog...

Anyway, so I brought J with me for what was supposed to be a quick trip in and out.  The minute he set foot into that building he lost his mind.  It was like watching Jekyll turn into Hyde right before my eyes as he passed through the doors.  You could see all his senses spike and his anxiety soar!  He whipped his head around like a caged animal and even crawled down the hallway on all fours barking - I am NOT KIDDING!

We made it into the woman's office after this bizarre episode and he immediately began spinning around wildly saying, "no detention, no follow your rules, no bad day, no Mr. Beret, etc..."  It was heartbreaking to watch.  I could barely comprehend what I was seeing.  He started kicking the desk and refused to even sit down in the chair.  We eventually made our way out and the second he passed back through those doors into the fresh air, he smiled and said to me, "Phew, that was close."

I began to cry in the car as I felt so guilty for not realizing sooner how bad the public middle school program was for him.  How could I not know and let him stay there for so long - 8 weeks of that is enough to create a powerful anxiety disorder for him that might last years.  We couldn't get him within 100 feet of a dentist for 5 years after they strapped him to a board when he was only 4 to do a routine cleaning.  This kid never forgets and harbors anxiety on a deep level that I never understood until today.

I promise not to expose him to that again until he has recovered from his experiences at Poe Middle School...it might be awhile and I am OK with that!

Making 2012 as Awesome as 2011

Halloween: J as Harry Potter and C as a USA Soccer Player

Out of the 365 days of 2011, 330 of them were awesome!  Let's be honest, October was terrible. We watched Jackson regress academically and behaviorally in a way that was heartbreaking to everyone who cared about him. But, if we could erase that whole month, except for Paul's amazing Halloween Extravaganza, 2011 was our best year as a family ever!

We are committed to making 2012 as awesome!  Paul and I thought up some cool stuff to do this year as a family and I have also brainstormed some ideas for J's homeschooling that I am excited about.  So in the spirit of sharing, I wanted write down some thoughts that might seem a bit unconventional, but I think the best way to teach Jackson is to throw out the special education rule book and let him lead me into 2012! 

1.  New Understanding:

The first thing I asked myself was, "What does Jackson like?" The answer to that was simple - to make people laugh.  So then I asked myself, "Why does he thrive on that?" Over the break, I read a hilarious book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me, by Mindy Kaling, one of the writer's of The Office.  She articulated the answer perfectly for me...it is just who he is and he can't change that, EVER!  Comedy is just a part of some people like athleticism or musicality.  Humor is more than just a way to "cut-up" or amuse other people to get attention (as some teachers like to think), it is a form of expression that is critical to their development as a whole person. 

This realization has helped drive all of my plans for this year.  I want to let in as much of J's humor and personality into our homeschooling as possible.  A quick way to do that is to switch our out-loud reading from standard fictional chapter books, to more fun and quirky books like Shel Silverstein or even Ronald Dahl.  It makes perfect sense now that for the first 10 years of his life, all he wanted to read was Dr. Seuss! He understood and identified with his humorous stories in a way we only saw as mildly entertaining and a bit annoying!

With this new perspective on Jackson always at the forefront of my mind, I plan to make a few other changes to his homeschooling which I hope will help make 2012 as awesome as 2011.

2.  New Schedule

Our current schedule looks similar to the one that I posted back in Novemeber when we began homeschooling.  Since Jackson is quickly coming up on 13yr old (yikes!), I want his daily school schedule to begin to look more like what his life schedule will look like as he becomes an adult.  So I created a few blocks of time and instruction between 8 - 10am that are a stretched out version of what an adult would do before beginning their workday.

8:00-8:30     Watch News and Eat Breakfast
8:30-9:00     Take a Shower, Get Dressed, Take Vitamins, Brush Teeth 
9:00-10:00   Yoga, Devotional, Reading

I want him to get in the habit of doing his devotional and reading time on the couch or in a comfy chair instead of at his "school desk" because I'd love to see him independently incorporate those activities into his adult life someday.  I see all of the above items as life skills not as academic skills, and with autism, these things need to be intentionally taught and practiced over and over. But in the spirit of my new understanding of his personality, they will all be done with much laughter!!

In addition to our new and improved morning routine, I plan to add a whole block of time at the end of our school day that is dedicated to playing board games as well as a dedicated block for the Wii Fit.  Both of these activities incorporate his need for fun and humor but help teach valuable skills such as following specific, and often restrictive directions which can be a challenge for him.  The Wii Fit has some wonderful games that require body control and calm movements which help him slow his mind down and focus for long periods of time. And while board games have always been a favorite of his, he  has never been interested in actually playing by the established rules.  A goal of mine is to get him to read and actually follow the stated rules...I'm not confident this is going to go well, but I am certainly going to try!!


3.  New Apps/iPad Use

Since my last post on The Awesome iPad, I have learned a lot of valuable lessons.  The most important one is to change to placement of his iPad use on the schedule.  I had it at the end of each instructional block - for example:

1:00-2:00  Math

1. Morning and Homework: 2 worksheets
2. Review 3 Digit Addition and Subtraction: 2 worksheets
3. Lesson on Fractions and Decimals: 2 worksheets and Pizza Game
4. Evaluation on Multiplication 1-6: 50 question speed test
5. iPad: Baseball Multiplication, iFractions, Sticker Sudoku

What I found was that over time he discovered that if he rushed through all his work he could get the iPad during any extra time left over before our 2:00 block finished.  He would get short tempered if I asked him to redo something or do try another problem, because in his mind it only ate into his iPad time.  I switched up his schedule during the week before break and it made a huge difference. Now we begin each block with 15 min of iPad activities and leave the remaining 45 min for his lessons. Not surprisingly, he is much more amicable to my instruction because he has no ulterior motives to rushing through.  

I also am excited to try a whole new crop of iPad apps in 2012. I have found that there is a weird gap in apps for his age and developmental disability.   There are tons of cool options for younger kids with autism and tons of great options for neurotypical adolescents, but for a 12yr old with his unique strengths and weaknesses, I am having a hard time finding apps that fit his needs.  I have been asked to review a promising app about sentence structure this week, so hopefully I can add that to his list soon! Here is a list of a few I have tried and liked recently:

Language Arts:

Anaolgies 4 Kids

Bluster

Reading Monster 1-4

Frankenstein Matchmaker

Big Nate Comix

Math:

Baseball Multiplication 1-12
Sticker Sudoku
iMazing

Fractions

iGraphs

Social Studies:

Stack the Countries
Presidents vs. Aliens
Spell USA States
TapQuiz Maps

4.  New Behavioral Approach 

I recently tweeted my 2012 Motto: "Behavior is Communication and I Promise to Listen" to much retweeting excitement!  Apparently this is a well-understood mantra by parents of special needs kids, but not very well understood by special needs professionals.  I included this amazing blog post entitled, Quiet Hands, by an adult woman with autism that was eye-opening (and heart breaking) to me and it also struck a Twitter nerve. I took every word of it to heart and have decided to be 100% committed to listening to Jackson's behavior as much as I would my daughter's words as his primary form of communication.  While Jackson is predominately verbal, his words don't always connect into clear thoughts and ideas. He uses chunks of language he has memorized and he does not always use them correctly, so trusting his words to accurately express his feelings is not ideal.  I need to watch and listen to his behavior for clues to his true thoughts and concerns.  

So as we head into 2012, we have a lot to be thankful for from 2011, and a lot to look forward to in the upcoming year.  My hope is that we can all agree that homeschooling autism has been a blessing to our whole family and that God has been good to the Trotters!  

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Unexpected Reading Breakthroughs

I am going to be a guest blogger on Hip Homeschool Moms this week and I decided to write about a minor-miracle we had with Jackson's reading last week.  In addition to that big breakthrough, we also had another big "ah-ha" moment.  I wanted to write about it here also and just link the 2 blog posts together so you could get the big picture.  So, if you've already read Part 1 of this blog on Hip Homeschool Moms, just skip over it to Part 2.

Part 1

My son Jackson, has always struggled with reading.  He does not like to read independently nor does he always understand what he is reading.  Comprehension has been the biggest road block to his advancement in a number of areas.  His special education teachers spent hours on the who, what, when, where, why questions with limited success.  They communicated that he refused to read out loud and when asked to answer simple questions about a passage, he would often have an outburst of some kind that involved kicking, spitting or yelling which led to an overemphasis on behavioral interventions and resulted in the side lining of his reading education.

From the minute we began our homeschooling adventure, I knew reading had to be a priority.  I started slowly with simply reading out loud, followed by basic comprehension activities.  I quickly discovered that he did in fact get very upset when asked these questions.  It did not take me long to figure out that my voice had power.  I could sooth or irritate, teach or torment.  I quickly learned when to speak and when to remain silent based on his needs at any particular moment.  I knew I had to change my approach to his reading challenges, I just had no idea where to begin.  

Then I listened to him.  I stopped berating him with The Five Ws worksheets, I stopped making charts of setting, character, problem, solution, etc... I gave him a book, asked him to read and watched him.  I did not correct his pronunciation errors or redirect him when he got distracted.   I was silent for a solid month.  I just observed and smiled a lot as he read to me.  And I noticed something peculiar.  Everytime he began to read out loud, within 30 seconds he would begin yawning and put his head on my shoulder.  I had never noticed it before, probably because I was too busy correcting him or telling him to pay attention.  So I jumped on my BFF, Google and found this article by HSLDA entitled Visual Processing Dysfunction Characteristics.  It mentioned that one of the signs of this learning issues was yawning shortly after reading begins.  This was a huge lightbulb moment for me!  

They suggested a few things to try to see if a visual processing dysfunction was the culprit behind a child's reading problems.  One idea caught my eye immediately because it had been suggested to me a few years earlier by our developmental pediatrician, but I dismissed it as unnecessary because Jackson's reading seemed fine at that time...Colored Overlays.  I ordered a pack of multi-colored transparencies from Amazon.com that day.  From the get-go that he preferred the darker colors that reduced the contrast between the white page and the black letters.

I decided to take a video of Jackson reading before and after using the dark blue colored overlay.  I can not stress enough how profound the change was in a 30 second time period.  Note that this video clip is of him reading from the same page - only a few seconds elapsed between the clips.  The only change that occurred was the addition of the overlay.   For those of you who have a child with ADD/ADHD/Dyslexia/ASD or any other learning disabilities, you will appreciate the "before" clip and laugh at how distracted and spacey Jackson is while he is reading.  It makes the "after" clip seem like a totally different child!


 

The most valuable lesson I learned through this process was that Jackson has great reading skills and comprehension ability, the challenge is figuring out how to get it out of him!  It's all in there, he just has a number of peculiar roadblocks that have prevent him from "succeeding" academically in this area.  Whether it is a visual processing dysfunction or even a speech and language delay, learning differences need to be addressed with patience and with an open mind to a new and unexpected technique.  I'm excited to tackle the next challenge in Jackson's education...since we've only been homeschooling for 6 weeks!

Part 2


After this discovery, I decided to push him a little farther in his reading comprehension. The hope was that this increase reading fluency and focus would translate into better comprehension.  Again, I was surprised by what I discovered.

I started with a new workbook that I picked because of its use of multiple activities for a single story.  Most comprehension materials I had used up until that point were all short passages coupled with a few questions and the information just went in one ear and out the other.  I wanted to find slightly longer passages with 6-10 activities that I could stretch out over a full week.  I finally found a good starter book at the 2nd grade level, which is about where Jackson's comprehension falls.  What I love about this book is that he can read the same story everyday for a week and be challenged to remember more and more details as time passes.  He is like a sponge that needs time to absorb the information and then process it before he can give it back to you.

Here is a video clip of him trying to answer a who question after reading the story only 1 time (and yes, we are using the blue overlay for his reading at this point, and yes, he is obviously distracted by the video camera:)

Now here is a clip of him on the 3rd day of reading the same story.  This time he was asked to do a sequencing activity, which has been impossible up until this point, even with basic concepts like how to build a snowman or get dressed.

 

I was genuinely surprised at how easily he ordered the parts of the story.  He was still a bit distracted by the video camera - he is a bit of a ham after all, but never the less, he knew the sequence of events in the story!  There was no yelling, kicking or spitting out of frustration!  This was a big moment for him and it will hopefully translate into more comprehension success in the future.

These 2 big discoveries illustrate why I am so excited about homeschooling autism.  The one-on-one attention that Jackson clearly needs is just not available in a big public middle school special needs program.  His 6th grade classroom had 7 students, all with completely different learning disabilities.  There was no way his teacher could spend this much time and thought on his reading.  We were told that during his morning Independent Reading Time, which was 20 min of silent reading at their desks, that he would just spin the book around and play with it and when the teacher would eventually come over to him and try to read with him, he would blow in her face and kick the desk. She tried to "focus his attention" and employ "behavior modification" to get him to do his work, but he simply refused to cooperate, therefore he was labeled as unmanageable and too difficult to teach.

It saddens me that those teachers have missed out on the experience of breaking through to an autistic student in such a profound way.  As a professional teacher myself, it is these moments that make a career of educating worth every challenging minute.  I am so blessed to be the one who gets to experience all of his victories and rejoice with him because he is clearly proud of himself as well!

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Yoga + Autism = Natural Calm

Jackson was diagnosed with PDD-NOS (autism) in October of 2002, in Fayetteville, NC while Paul was stationed at Ft. Bragg.  He left for Afghanistan 6 weeks later.  I have a very vivid memory of a moment between Caroline and I in the kitchen of our home.  I was loading the dishwasher while Jackson was running around, screaming and destroying the house and Caroline, who was only 14 months at the time, was promptly unloading all the dirty utensils I had just finished putting into the dishwasher.  I turned to her with a dead serious face and said, "if we are going to survive the next year, you have got to help me." Sweet thing looked right back at me, slowly put the forks back into the rack and sat on the floor quietly until I was finished.  I was at my breaking point and we clearly both knew it.  The next day, I ordered a yoga DVD and set off on a journey to learn to manage my stress during this very challenging time in my life.  Now, I am bringing Jackson on that journey with me, hoping that yoga will help him experience the same peacefulness and calm that I have through the simple practice of slowing my body and mind down to focus on the present and leave the worries about the future behind.

As a former gymnast, I was naturally drawn to yoga, in particular, its combination of balance and flexibility.  I had no previous experience with yoga, so I just went online and bought the first DVD that looked approachable to a novice, and what I discovered was, Yoga for Dummies by Sara Ivanhoe.  I absolutely loved it!  It was simple and clear, not too "out-there" from a spiritual perspective.  It slowly built up my confidence and in no time I felt much more peaceful and in control of my anxiety and emotions.  I learned very quickly that I could not let my young children derail my yoga practice time.  They would crawl under and on top of me while I worked out, but I was determined not to give up, so I did most of my early yoga with my eyes closed and this helped both Jackson and Caroline understand that I was not going to give them the attention they were seeking, so they both eventually wandered off and gave me the 20 minutes I needed to do a complete routine.

Overtime, I noticed that Jackson started to randomly do downward dogs and other yoga poses around the house.  He always liked being upside down, so yoga probably made a lot of sense to him from the very beginning.  I found the best DVD for him called, YogaKids ABCs that he must have watched a hundred times.  He memorized every pose within a few days and I eventually had to hide the movie because I was getting so sick of hearing that woman's overly soothing voice sing the alphabet song.   But to this day, he remembers a lot of the poses from that video that I can add to our morning practice and he knows exactly what I am talking about!

As of today, we do Yoga every morning at 8:45 to kick off our "Morning Work" block of instruction.  I used to have it at the end of this segment of time, but it seemed more logical to start off our school day with a calming and focused activity.  We follow up our yoga time with a Bible devotion and then do some outloud reading before finishing up with some quick "Daily Math" and handwriting practice.  All these activities are meant to kick start his brain and body so he is ready for the rest of the day.  It takes us about 45 min to do everything.

Here is our current yoga routine in both pictures and words, I think he really enjoys it and I can tell that he is getting better everyday!

We begin with Jackson setting up both our mats

The first series of poses we do are called "Sun Salutations" and they include the Downward Dog

Each Sun Salutation includes poses like the Warrior 2,  Triangle, Side Angle, Twists, Plank, and Updog

The cobra pose is done in the middle of this "Vinyasa" which the style of Yoga that we do.

We end our Sun Salutations with Child's Pose - a favorite of  his!

Next we do some mat work that includes Cat, Cow, Peacock, Table and other fun poses  

We both enjoy rolling our backs out after all this work!

I try to make sure each yoga session includes some stretching because he is pretty inflexible at this point.

I finish each practice with a balancing pose like Tree or Eagle.  He needs to hold it for 30 sec without falling.  This ensures he settles his mind and mouth long enough to focus.  This more than anything helps create calm for him. 

Traditional closing yoga pose, Namaste: May the light in me salute the light in you.

Jackson always puts both our mats away when we are finished.  Such an awesome helper! 

Homeschooling Jackson has opened up so many new and exciting doors for not just his education, but for all his developmental areas.  Yoga provides him with more than just physical exercise, it helps him connect himself to the world in a way that nothing else can.  It provides him with the framework in which to learn and practice being calm and still.  I enjoy listening to his deep breathing, watching him find his center of balance, and seeing him beam with pride when we say Namaste and he knows he has done something challenging and he has done it well.  Then he typically tackles me and knocks me over because he is a young man now, and no longer my little J-man who used to climb under my downward dog all those years ago at Ft. Bragg.  

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Freedom from Four White Walls

The best part about homeschooling Jackson has been the freedom we have regarding "out of the classroom" activities. We are not limited to 2 field trips a year or 1 CBI (Community Based Instruction) per month. We go out and about every single day. We go shopping, walk the dog, visit parks, libraries, and monuments. We meet all kinds of interesting people and ask a zillion random questions. We learn new life skills and practice, practice, practice social interactions.

Children with special needs have many developmental obstacles to overcome. Being stuck inside a classroom all day limits their ability to practice many of the critical life skills that they will need once they become adults and are expected to integrate into a "neurotypical" society. So Jackson and I take every opportunity to head outside of our dining room table-top classroom and explore the world around us. I categorize our excursions into 3 main groups with each one having it's own set of rules so he knows what to expect and can mentally prepare for each trip. This minimizes behavioral outbursts that are usually a result of confusion over expectations on his part.

1. Shopping - Every day, after we do our Morning Work, we head out to run errands. We typically leave the house around 10:00 and come home by 11:00. This is our time to practice everyday social and communication skills such as asking store employees for help, paying for items, counting money, waiting in line, talking with a quiet voice, using lists to buy only a few items, making hard choices about wants verses needs, etc... During these outings, he is allowed to have his iPod. This is important because the iPod gives him a tremendous amount of comfort and security that allows me to challenge him with harder social and communication tasks because he is already at ease and calm. Our favorite errands are grocery stores, coffee shops, big box stores, and anywhere that has enough people and commotion that any of his verbal or behavioral miscues go generally unnoticed.

2. CBI - Community Based Instruction A few times a week we try to do a CBI trip. CBI stands for "Community Based Instruction" which is a well known part of most special needs curriculum around the country. While it has always been a favorite activity of Jackson's, the public schools have decreased the number of outings to only a few a year due to decreased funding, transportation issues, behavioral concerns, and rapidly increasing numbers of special needs students per classroom. This has been a big disappointment for us since the community is such a critical part of his learning environment. The purpose of a CBI trip is not as much social/comunication skills practice as it is life experience gathering. It is our opportunity to show Jackson how many cool and exciting things are out there to see and do, so when he gets discouraged or frustrated with his limitations, we can remind him of all that is possible and not just what is impossible for him. So, thankfully, now that we homeschool, I can do as many CBIs as I want! We have already gone to the library, movie theater, mall, restaurants, lakes, parks, sporting events, and a college campus in the last 2 weeks. And there are so many more places try, such as farms, train stations, local museums, military bases, nature centers...the list goes on and on! I often allow the iPod on these trips, unless I think it will be disruptive or distracting. I want Jackson to take in the big picture during these activities and the iPod helps him focus and tune out any irritating sensory things that might derail the experience. These trips typically last an hour or so, and that can be a long period of time for him to "hold it together".

3. Field Trip At least once a month, I would like to take Jackson on a full day field trip. These outings are much more planned out and academic in nature. This month, we went to The White House. We spent a week learning all about it here at home before we ventured downtown to check out the real thing. I try to give Jackson a very detailed schedule of the day so he knows exactly what we will be doing and when. He is not allowed to have an iPod during these trips because I want him to be more actively involved in the learning process. I do allow him to take pictures which helps me guide him to certain objects of interest for us to discuss or highlight topics we learned about previously. I asked him to make a movie of our White House field trip using my iPhone, thinking it would be a cool way for him to capture the day and help him remember the important parts. But the craziest thing happened, he immediately switched my phone from video to camera and began taking pictures of all the protestors. He was fascinated with them all. He took pictures of their faces, their signs, their megaphones, their tents...He was drawn to the people around The White House, not the actual building itself.
It was a remarkable moment for me as I watched him study these people and show such a genuine interest in their emotions and faces. As we proceeded to walk around Lafayette Square and down towards the Washington Monument, he must have taken over 100 pictures of random people. What struck me about his desired subjects, was that he did not take one single picture of a man or woman in a business suit. Here we are, standing smack dab in the middle to the most powerful city on Earth, with very important people swirling all around us on their Blackberries, drinking their Starbucks, and he completely ignored them. He only took pictures of everyday people. It was neat for me to see humanity through his eyes and see what he values, not what the world tells me I should value in a person. I am excited to see what both Jackson and I learn on these adventures! Some of my other field trip ideas are the Newseum, Library of Congress, Great Falls, Mount Vernon, Baltimore Aquarium, Bull Run Battlefield, the list just goes on and on.

I had a lightbulb moment when we were sitting in our public school IEP meeting a few weeks ago to discuss Jackson's behavioral outbursts since beginning middle school. When Paul and I were discussing some of the techniques we use to manage Jackson's behavior, we talked a lot about how we do it while out and about in the community. The head administrator of the autism program looked at us with a shocked expression on his face, and said, "you take him out?" It hit me at that very moment that this man and that entire program would never "get it" in regards to not just Jackson but to developmentally disabled individuals in general. It broke my heart that this man did not believe in Jackson and never would. We pulled him out of that school the next day. So yes, "I take him out" and I love every glorious moment of seeing him discover the world around him and all of his potential in that world.


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Team Teaching Autism with Caroline

One of the unexpected benefits of homeschooling Jackson has been the educational collaboration I've been able to do with Caroline. She has taken a keen interest not only in what I am teaching Jackson, but in how his actual academic progress is coming along. This has spilled over into non-school related situations as well. While opening her birthday presents on Saturday, she asked Jackson to read all of her cards and encouraged him to cut all the ribbons.  This was a sweet moment for Paul and I as parents of both these remarkable children.

Caroline is an unusual child in many ways, but it is her heart that makes her the most unique 10 year old I have ever met. She is extremely selfless and more intuitive than any adult I know. She is very aware of Jackson's strengths and weaknesses and knows how and when to challenge him or support him as the situation dictates.  Likewise, Jackson responds to her amazingly well.  He trusts her and looks to her for encouragement and reinforcement if he is confused or frustrated.

Recently, I was showing her Jackson's latest math work and explaining that I was having trouble explaining the concept of subtraction regrouping to him, and she suggested a different approach.  I tried it the next day, and sure enough, Jackson got it right away.  Similarly, I was struggling to find a good science unit to do with him, and she encouraged me to do the Solar System, since that it what she is doing in school and thought it would be cool for them to learn about it together.  So now, everyday after school, she comes home to look through his science lesson and talks to him about it.

This interest in his development is nothing new, but there is definitely a new fascination with his school work.  Even though he is in 6th grade, most of his academics are at the 4th grade level, so they are learning a lot of the same things.  His spelling lists look similar to hers and his math is identical.  Caroline has no shortage of self-confidence and she knows she is a bright child, so seeing Jackson doing the same level of work, gives her a new perspective into what he is capable of learning.  It is neat to see her so proud of him.

One of the things I have come to realize in the last few weeks is that homeschooling is not a one-woman job.  I am not Jackson's teacher.  I am just one of many educators that he comes into contact with on any given day.  I see myself as more of a guide or facilitator.  I arrange interactions with countless people that I believe have something to offer Jackson.  I introduce him to situations that he can gain understanding from.  I stand back and let him lead me to the people, places and things that he is interested in exploring.  He is a highly curious and engaging young man that people are drawn to and forever changed because of their interaction with him.

Caroline is one of these people.  She is a better person because of her relationship with Jackson, and she knows it.  She is thankful for him and that attitude shines through her everyday.  She is a founding member of a special needs sibling support group at her school, and the school psychologist and social worker tell me every week how her participation in that group is vital because she has so much wisdom to offer the other members.

I am beyond blessed to have her as a partner in this homeschooling adventure. Here is a sweet message that she wrote on the wall in Jackson's room last week (we gave her permission ahead of time):



And after I finished writing this blog, I let her read it before I posted it and she said, "you make me sound perfect". To which I quickly responded, "notice how I only talked about your response to me homeschooling Jackson, not about how clean your room is or how well you listen when asked to help around the house or take a shower."...To which she said, "touche, mama."

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The Awesome iPad

Jackson has always been a techno geek. By age 2, he was adding Spanish subtitles to every TV he could get his sticky little fingers on. When Paul was in Afghanistan, it was a 3 yr old Jackson, who could barely talk, that had to help me set up Skype so we could video chat. He taught himself to read at age 4 so he could hack into our computer and access Veggie Tales websites. I could spend hours listing all the crazy ways this kid has been years ahead of his peers in his understanding and use of technology. He's had an ear bud hanging out of his head since he could walk, using those old school MP3 and portable CD players to access audio stimulation on the go. Many people thought we were crazy to buy a young and irresponsible autistic child an expensive iPod and give him the freedom to use it however and whenever he desired. But it wasn't until the iPad that his use of technology radically changed.


Before iPad: For the past 10 years, Jackson has used his knowledge of technology for evil. His brilliance for all things electronic has caused some major issues both behaviorally and financially. His love of technology can cause behavioral issues because, if overused, Jackson will begin to stim on certain items. For those of you with some understanding of autism, you surely know the concept of stimming. It is the term used to describe the repetitive action made during periods of sensory overload. It is a type of coping mechanism used to manage overstimulation. We know Jackson is stimming on something when he wiggles his knees in and out and jumps up and down. We call it "shakey-shakey". When Jackson is exposed to too much technology, he begins to stim and this usually leads to behavioral outbursts. We have found that the quickest way to help him manage his emotions is to take all technology away for long periods of time. Technology has also caused some major financial hardships. He burns through iPods like they are disposable cameras. He disregards common rules like not eating/drinking near keyboards which has led to multiple laptop crashes. He changes setting on things and we can never figure out how to change them back. He loses chargers and adaptors rendering items useless.

You might think this is all parental negligence, and you are partially correct. But what you fail to understand is that we permit these lapses in judgement because the greater good is so much greater. We have always allowed Jackson to use the latest gadget with little oversight because it has always given him a radical boost in communication and emotional understanding. He discovered YouTube a few years ago and he has used it to search for scenes from TV shows that mimic what he is feeling. He then acts them out for us when he is trying to express his emotions. Even though all this technology has provided some benefit for him, it was never exactly the right fit for his needs. We just kind of took what we could get and dealt with the unpleasant side-effects because the medication was so beneficial.

After iPad: But then came the iPad! It was finally the perfect marriage of technology and education that eliminated the unwanted stimming and had such a simple interface that even Jackson has not been able to damage, lose or crack off an essential part (knock on wood). It is more than just the amazing array of apps available that make it so perfect for Jackson. It is the intuitive nature of the touchscreen, the ideal size and weight to be able to have great visual impact without being too small to lose or too big to be impractical...even the coolness factor makes it ideal. He can carry it around and his peers think it is awesome - that he is awesome for having his own iPad!

The iPad is an integral part of our homeschooling curriculum as well. It is not used as a form of entertainment but strictly as part of a lesson. I find apps that support the day's lesson and I use them as reinforcers at the end of each block of instruction. For example, if I am doing a lesson on multiplication, I will create a quiz on MathBoard using the number set that we worked on that day. If we are working on nouns/verbs then he will complete 20 questions on the Sentence Builder app. There really is an app for everything! And many of them are free. I can pinpoint exactly what he needs to work on and find a very specific app that focuses his attention on an isolated task or skill. He does all his iPad lessons independently because they are meant to serve as confidence boosting tools. Most of the apps have the coolest encouragements built in so when a child successfully completes a task, there is always clapping, cheering or even confetti..which is amazing for Jackson's academic self-esteem.

So here is a short list of my favorite apps that we are currently using. This list grows daily, so I will try to post new lists often.

Language Arts:

Brain Pop
Story Builder
Question Builder
Language Builder
Sentence Builder
Montessori Words
Build a Word
Frankenstein
Toontastic

Math & Science:

Math Board
Splash Math
Rocket Math
Solar System HD
Bluster
TinkerBox
Jungle Coins

Behavior:

Calm Counter
Model Me Kids
ABA Flashcards
Autism Xpress
Autism Apps

By far the best iPad resource for homeschooling autism is AutismApps. It is a comprehensive database of over 150 apps that serve people with developmental disabilities and other special needs. It is truly a life saver! It has everything organized by categories that make it super user friendly. While many of the apps are geared towards younger children, I have been able to find so many helpful tools that have made homeschooling much more effective and successful.

At the end of the day, technology is a blessing and a curse in this house. Jackson has thrived because of it, but it has also caused a lot of anxiety (and not just for him). But when we weigh these pros and cons against each other, we can't help but agree that the pain we occasionally endure is no comparison to the elation we feel when Jackson connects with us on a linguistic and emotional level we only dreamed of a decade ago.

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