School Work

I have had this 'school' post in my draft folder for a while.

A little while ago Nick didn't want to go to school anymore. He said that it was too hard.
We talked about what was hard. And he was saying that everything was hard. This was a couple of months after his recess was limited to indoors for the short recess. But once the nice weather has returned he comes home with stories about who he played with all day. And while he isn't excited to go to school in the morning, he isn't upset about going anymore.

School is almost done for the year and with his surgery booked in June I think there is a good chance he will miss the last 2 weeks of grade one.

At Easter, Nick got a Star Wars Grade 1 Reading workbook. He was so excited and very interested in it. I wanted to get him the math version, but we couldn't find the grade 1 (but we got a grade 2 one for next year). If there is something he is interested in (and he loves Star Wars) then I want to work on that with him.

Nick has improved his reading over the last couple of months. He is more comfortable and confident in his ability to read. Instead of getting upset and saying that he 'can't' he is trying. He is sounding out words he doesn't know. He still gets frustrated and says he doesn't know. But he does know, and he does read the word.

He brings home a book every night to read at home, some nights the house is too hectic and we aren't able to do it, but most nights we get it read.

He is reading a level 10 (and ready to move up to 11 soon) and has worked so hard to get there! Now that he is progressing in his reading, he is excited to read his book!

Writing has to be the area that Nick has made the most progress. At the end of kindergarten writing was still very difficult for him and took a lot of time and energy. Nick has made incredible progress and his writing is better than Katheryn's!

The subject that Nickolas struggles with most, is math. This doesn't come as a surprise to us as math difficulties is very common in kids with spina bifida. He gives up and says that he can't do it. Nick is learning about coins this month, so I collected all of our coins and we talked about them and he could touch them and feel them and try to learn their names.
We also sing the Bubble Gum  song we learned in camp, to help him to learn names of the coins (only we need to update it with the Toonie and Loonie)

We also got a math game that we can play at night. He tried it in the store and liked it. It is adding numbers from 1-9 with a dice. The object of the game was to roll the dice and count to put your peg at the right number and it is a 2-4 person game. Whoever gets 3 in a row wins. it is a fun way to help to memorize and learn addition. (And on the back is the same thing with multiplication 12x12, with larger dice)

We started on his workbook at the beginning to review the year. We have moved onto subtraction in his workbook and he is having a really hard time. He is having a hard time understanding the concept of taking away without counting anything. So I was thinking, what is small that he can count that won't fall off of his table. Lego is the easy answer.

I think that Nick has gotten better as we've been working on everything.
We have an hour of one-on-one time most nights as we do his bathroom routine. Instead of watching movies, we've been trying to off-set it with working on school work, especially if we can make it fun work. Over the last month or so I have seen improvements and gain more confidence.

How is school going?

School is going well. Nickolas is very social and talks about all of the kids that he played with a recess. (All girls). And Katheryn talks about all of the kids that she plays with  (all boys). But they have a lot of the same friends.

Nick doesn't talk as much about what he has actually learned at school.
But we work on reading at home. Reading his borrow-a-book every night (during bathroom routine). It takes a lot of coaching and Nick says that he can't do it, or doesn't know the words.
He is slowly improving. He started off the year reading at a level 1 and is now at a level 4.
Nick's writing is also improving. He is slow, but he is getting there.
Math (of course) is another area that he is improving on. We are working on simple addition and counting.

I am not sure where Nick fits in with the other kids in the class. But I can see how he is improving. We got his report card earlier in the month and there wasn't really any surprises.

Katheryn is doing great at school too. Her reading is phenomenal. She can read almost anything we put in front of her. She didn't get straight A's this report card, but came very close.
Her writing is one thing she needs to pay attention too. She is in such a hurry to get her ideas across that she scribbles all up and down the page. So we work on that with her.

But both of the kids are enjoying school. They come home and tell us what they played. Usually "Boys against Girls" which seems to be some kind of hiding game. And if they went to the gym and library or had any visitors.

One of the things they have learned is different emotions and colours. If they are mad they are in the red zone and if they are happy they are in the green zone. It is good that it helps them to identify where they are.
I have been trying to use the same concept at home, when they get upset or angry.

Reading and Writing

Nick continues to work on his typing.
He has to write out at least one sentence and some sight words and then can also write out what he wants. We set up the computer when he is doing his bathroom routine.

March 13:

Four

Did

Do

Soon

With

You

Ride

Nickolas

I went on the rides.

Katheryn.

Ridding

At school he uses a program called WordQ. It cues what he is typing and he can use the mouse to hover over the word and it will read it out. If the correct word is there he can either click on it or pick the number with it.

March 14:

I want to grow up to be a ninja turtle.

Nickolas Ridding 

Ran

You

Will

This 

Saw 

We did the words a couple of different ways. The sight words he would pick which ones and copy down. That was working on his typing and learning where the keys were.

March 16:

I went to the museum with Jennifer, Devon, Lucas and Katheryn.

I liked the mummies.

But we also worked on sentences; what did Nick want to write about? What did he do today?

March 19:

I went to the movie theatre with Daddy, Austin, and Uncle Brad.

We saw Sponge Bob Squarepants.

Nick

He also liked writing his name, and Katheryn's name. Katheryn is one of his first words that he knew how to spell. One day I was bringing him downstairs and he just started naming off the letters of her name. I had to get him to repeat it before I realized what he was spelling.

March 20:

Soon 

He 

Into

Brown 

Out

I went to McDonalds 

As he got better at the typing I stopped helping him as much with the letters. Instead of asking him what he wanted to spell out and telling him the letters for him to find, we started sounding out his words.

March 22:

I went to grandma ridding apartment

I had an Easter egg hunt

Maddi and Austin came for dinner

I have noticed a huge improvement in his spelling with this. All day we work on spelling like this. And it works, of course, the other way around too. With his reading. Sounding out letters and words.

Our newest word to sound out... and Nick did it successfully... is Booyakasha

More books

 

I posted last month about some new books we were reading. I have some other ones to add to the list as well.

 

Nickolas is in a "I can't" stage, and it really bothers me that he is already thinking he can't do stuff. I can tell him he can, but I thought that reading some stories at night about characters who think they can't could be another way to give him confidence in his ability to do new things.

 



The Dot is a book I heard about from another lady who was looking at books in the bookstore. It is about a little girl who says that she can't draw. When she makes a dot, and signs it she finds that she really can.

 

My Silly Feet is about a little girl who wants to race, but she has 'silly feet' and is afraid people will laugh at her. Then she reads about Terry Fox and wants to be brave like him.

Giraffes Can't Dance was a book that was recommended a couple of years ago/about a giraffe who sees everyone else in the jungle dancing, but doesn't think he can because he will look funny.

 

 I was at a book store looking for a new chapter book for Katheryn (she is soo ready for a big book! She just breezes through all the ones she brings home from school).

And a hockey book caught my eye. With the Olympics and Paralympics over not that long ago Nickolas has been interested in hockey.

This book is all about hockey and hockey plays and tips and tricks for playing hockey. There are 6 books in the series about Puckster who is captain of his hockey team, made up of friends. But what caught my eye was that one of the players plays sledge hockey.

 

Puckster and The Hockey Sweater is the first in the book and it starts at the outdoor rink and clearing off snow and practicing and raising money to buy hockey sweaters. Everyone player is involved in the book. Manny the moose uses a sledge to play hockey and shovel snow, he uses a wheelchair or sits with everyone else when they aren't playing. There isn't anything special about Manny other than he is a defenceman.

We have 3 of the 6 Puckster books (#1,2,6) I hadn't realized they were numbered... and I have ordered the other 3. It is all Canadian

 

 

Nick loves these books.

 

I haven't talked about Manny the Moose any differently from any of the other characters, Nick likes him because he is a moose just like Tyrone (the Backyardigan).

Reading and Kids Books

I like books.

I read all the time, and I'm encouraging the kids to read as well.

Katheryn has been bringing home 'borrow a book' that she reads every night. You are supposed to read it to her the first night, but we usually just give it to her and she reads it.

Nickolas has been bringing home a book too.

He needs alot of encouragement, but he can read the book too. He cries and he says can't read it, he wants me to read it. Some days he'll read it, some days he won't.
But I know that he can.

But reading isn't all about work. I read to the kids too.

Since we have an hour of time every single night we have a whole collection of books that are in our bathroom. The 24 books we opened for our book advent gave us a really good base to start from.

But 2 weeks after Christmas when we were still reading about Santa, I needed to pull out some new books. I kept the wintery ones, but put the Christmas ones back on the shelf. This is our current collection.

I pulled out our ability books to read. Books that talk about spina bifida or hydrocephalus specifically. Nickolas really likes these ones and I'll read whatever he wants me to. Our collection has grown through the Spina Bifida and Hydocephalus Association of Ontario who give books to members. And I'm always keeping an eye out for new books.

 

Wally the Wheelchair is about a child's wheelchair and from the perspective of the wheelchair. The wheelchair has a name and the little boy is finally able to move fast in it. I had thought that this book might help Nick like his chair more. Nope he wants us to take his wheelchair back to the hospital to give to another little boy. He is not interested in naming his chair at all.

Zoom is probably the most popular book. It's about a girl who is trying out different wheelchairs and wants the fastest and biggest one there is!

Isaac's Back Adventure is about a little boy's back and all of the things that they do together, including going to the beaching and fighting an evil monster 'lipo'

Lemon the Duck is about a duckling that needs some extra help to move around, and a group of students who work together to make that happen.

 

Detour Ahead of a medical book made into a children's book. It is a about a little boy with spina bifida who has a shunt malfunction and surgery. I didn't think Nick would like it, but he does. It allows us to normalize his shunt so he is just like the boy in the story (only without the malfunction)

 

Just Like Any Other Beagle is another medical book made into a children's story (actually both are written by nurses I think). It is just about hydrocephalus, and a doctors visit to check his shunt. But he can still do everything all the other doggies do.

 

There is a whole collection of kids books. And I'm always looking for more. This is a good link http://www.sbhao.on.ca/programs-services/youth/kids-resources

 

I'm still looking for the perfect kids book! I'd love to hear of any other recommendations

Using our hands

Katheryn is exploding! She is writing, she is reading
She loves school - and she makes lists of everything that she likes (Mommy was on that list - along with flowers).

We had our parent-teacher interview and some of the things that Katheryn has to work on; writing with the correct grip, and cutting.
Perfect!
That is our homework with Nickolas from OT as well.

When we had our reassessment of OT at the beginning of the month he was still within normal range, but hadn't made any progress since he was assessed in the spring. So we started a block.

Nickolas has been working at OT - and not really realizing that he is working.

He gets to do mazes!
With his 'birdy fingers'

And cut things outs
He's made improvement staying on the lines

And at the end of the day he has his very own craft he can take home to Katheryn!
(we've  made a robot, garbage truck, penguin and now the pig this month)

So we have a bunch of fun crafts and stuff to do at home with both kids together.

At the beginning of the month I discussed applying for Cambell's school. We started our application for it as well. It is a written and video application. I'm happy with this decision. If we get in I'll be glad, if we don't I'll be fine with that decision too.
But we have our options all lined up!