Wacky Week!

Click here for previous installment of the Princess Dress Diaries.

This week was one of those weeks in which I simply could not get any traction on the
homeschooling front:

• David is getting over a head cold, which means there were some fuzzy headed math days for him.
• Pamela is coming down with David's head cold, which means she is a drippy, miserable mess.
• I am taking Vitamin C, Zicam, and lots of soup and juice to fight a mild sore throat and two singing nights in a row (choir and praise band).
• I had the phone repaired on Tuesday on the phone company's dime: the phone shorted out every time it rained hard or Steve got crazy with the sprinklers. The ADT guy paid us a visit today because the radio transmitter stopped working.
• Switching to the third hard drive in the past three weeks put me behind in doing my year in review and plans for the new year, due to my third option homeschooling association this week. I spent all weekend plus Monday and Tuesday going through the kids' papers and pounding the keyboard, leaving my head pounding.
• David had soccer practice Tuesday and Thursday night. I had rehearsal for choir and band Wednesday and Thursday night.
• Yesterday, Pamela and I spent three hours at the dealership getting an oil change and typical service (fortunately, she does not mind doing schoolwork in the waiting room). Then, we hit the health food store.
• Steve left on an unexpected trip Tuesday and arrived home late, LATE, L-A-T-E last night.
• Today, we cleaned house, just in case someone might stop by after the block front porch party next door. We have spent the past two years renovating this 100-year-old house and, let's just say, people are curious. Steve and I went to the block party before I headed to rehearsal. (BTW, nobody stopped by . . .)
• My husband, zonked out on the couch, just asked me, "What did the state attorney general tell you to do with the fuel tanks?" Huh? I think he is watching too much politics! David wants to know if he is on the dark side of the moon . . .
• We will spend the weekend buying clothes for us my niece's wedding next week. In reality, we will probably only squeeze out three days of homeschooling next week since I will have to kennel the dogs on Thursday (and pack) and we leave for New Orleans on Friday.
• Speaking of which, here is a peek of the Princess Dress, which we ordered last July! The dress is in the shop getting the straps adjusted and a bolero jacket made with the same material.

Click here for next installment of the Princess Dress Diaries.

Dead Black Swallowtail Butterfly

In early August, Steve found this beautifully formed dead butterfly in our yard. I thought it would make a great kick-off to our nature notebooks. Pamela made her entry at the beginning of the school year, but spilling coffee all over my laptop last month got in the way of editing the video clips. OOPS! My bad!

Natural Lighting:


Unnatural Indoor Lighting:


Pamela's Nature Notebook Entry:


What the Dobbins Taught Me:



Nature notebooks are a great way to work on dynamic intelligence because they are rich in opportunities for dialog and inter-subjectivity (the fancy word for one person relating to another). Not only that, nature study is good for the brain and, if you don't believe me, listen to what Dr. Carroll Smith has to say on the topic (one of my favorite talks at the 2007 Charlotte Mason Conference). I am grateful to people like Jeannette Tulis and Deborah and Holly Anne Dobbins who have guided me in learning more about how to paint with watercolors (check out their article on nature study).

I am going to share with you clips that show you step by step how I guided Pamela in painting her butterfly. We spent fifteen minutes on one day and fifteen minutes on another day doing this watercolor. I wanted to spotlight a couple of points:

• Cardstock paper works well: you can cut one sheet into four mini-paintings. That is the perfect size for beginners. The picture I painted of the lantana leaf was on a sheet of cardstock of that size!
• Most people recommend Prang watercolors. I think they are great!
• You need more variety of brushes: thick ones are for mixing colors and wide expanses, the thin ones are for details and outlining.
• Never use the green in the tray. Nature has a wide variety of green. If you use the prefabricated one in your tray, your paintings will get boring before long.
• Have a paper towel available to blot mistakes and dry your brush. Too much water will cause your paper to wrinkle.
• Outline in yellow before you start painting. If you mess up, it will be less obvious!
• Think of ways to scaffold your child: I help Pamela with mixing. She has a tendency to use the colors in the tray and not make her own.
• Here is a cheat for white. There is no way I can scaffold the idea of leaving white space, so I bought a set of thick watercolor paints that includes a tube of white!
• Talk about what you see before doing anything! Spend a couple of minutes observing and sharing perspectives.
• If you have never done this before, try making your own watercolor attempts first. It is hard to guide someone in something you have never done. It can be fun!
• Do not paint while your child is painting. It is hard to be a guide when you are trying to be the next Van Gogh!

Talking about the Nature Specimen


Outlining in Yellow


Painting the Black Base


Painting Orange Spots


Adding Brown to the Base


Adding White Spots


Adding Blue Spots


Finishing Up


One tip I got from the 2007 Charlotte Mason is to take advantage of technology. If that butterfly is flitting around too fast to draw, take a picture, transfer it to your computer, and zoom in for a closer look! Here are two memories Pamela and I made from pictures taken on a visit to Cypress Gardens.

Pamela's Cypress Gardens Entry


My Cypress Gardens Entry

The First Commandment of Chemistry Class

David, who just turned sixteen and is over six feet tall, is acting more mature and taking on more responsibility. He actively seeks chores to make a few bucks. He goes on all-day work days with the youth group and has done mission projects in which they repair houses. He is teaching himself the electric guitar (my poor ears). His abstract thinking skills have finally kicked in so Latin, logic, grammar, and math is finally clicking. Instead of waiting around for us to get a cell phone (I don't have one by choice, why should he?), he got a track phone and purchased minutes for it. He is very proud of the fact that he pays for his own cell phone. Maybe if I wait long enough, he'll buy his own car.

Just when I finally started sleeping at night . . . David violates the first rule of chemistry.

No, he did not start a fire with the alcohol burner.

I didn't even need to use the fire extinguisher that I had on standby.

He didn't even kill the parakeet with toxic fumes.

And, what is the first commandment?

Thou shalt not wield thy thermometer liketh a lightsaber!

At least, a brand-spanking new Celsius thermometer is fairly cheap with inexpensive shipping.

I assume the broken one contained alcohol, not mercury, as there was no warning label . . . I don't think I saw any quicksilver on my kitchen floor. . .

Working on Dynamic Thinking in Math

A fellow blogger recommended
Greg Tang's series of living math books that target dynamic thinking. I got a copy of Math Appeal: Mind-Stretching Math Riddles (for free at Paperbackswap--if you sign up, my email address is tammyglaser798 at earthlink dot net). Pamela blew me away today with how quickly she figured out that she could count the peas in groups of eleven! While she has an eye for patterns, she cannot count a box of toothpicks spilled onto the floor a la Rainman. I love how quickly her mind works as you can see in the video.


Pamela surprised me greatly today. She handed me this postcard mailed to us to generate donations for victims of Hurricane Gustav. She said to me in a meaningful way, "It's the Gulf Coast."

I was curious if she knew where the Gulf Coast was because it is not something I have explicitly taught her. I asked, "What states are on the Gulf Coast?"

She quickly answered, "Louisiana" (where many of our relatives live).

Why Teach Latin?

David and I are learning Latin together through the North American Cambridge Latin Course. We are half of the way through the first book, which focuses on a family who lived in Pompeii when Vesuvius blew its top. I prefer this program to others because it is about as close to a Charlotte Mason approach as you can get. They even offer an audio CD for those of us who do not know any Latin native speakers (wink, wink). From the very first lesson, you are reading stories and deducing the grammar and syntax before the book explains it. Of course, one great reason to teach Latin is to enrich one's vocabulary. Plus, the stories in this course are entertaining with the bonus of learning more about Roman culture. We look forward to reading about Britannia and Egypt (Unit 2), Britannia and Imperial Rome (Unit 3), and Emperor Domitian and an anthology of ancient prose and poetry (Unit 4).

That all sounds great, but here is the REAL reason to teach Latin. Whenever we expect upsetting news, we prefer not to share it with Pamela until it is a known fact. Steve just called from an airplane, in which he has sat on the ground for the past few hours, and told me he might come home. Ordinarily, that would thrill Pamela, except for the fact that he will have to leave tomorrow, which adds one more day to the trauma of him going on a business trip. You see, she loves her daddy and misses him terribly when he travels.

David overheard my conversation on the phone and asked me what happened. If I say too much, Pamela, who has bionic ears, might get upset over nothing, for the plane may very well leave tonight. So, I told David that something might happen because Steve is getting "Jet-Blued." Then, I added, "pater ad villam venit." Later, Steve called again to let me know where he was staying overnight (a change in plans which Pamela hates), so I told David, "pater in Atlantam dormit." And, he got it without "big ears" having an unscheduled meltdown!

That may not convince you to learn Latin, but it works for me!

Getting Ready for Hanna

One element of RDI is building episodic memory. Autistic children often excel at procedural memory (memorizing facts, learning verbal scripts, standard responses and phrasing, etc.). Procedural memory focuses on the predictable: factual details, procedures, scripts, and formulas. Episodic memory (recalling a vacation, describing a visit, sharing a funny story that happened at the store, etc.) focuses on the intangible: big picture, meaningful details, and narrative nature of what happened. Since we are in election fever right now, think of politician reading off the teleprompter and what happens when the teleprompter breaks. Some politicians hem and haw and fumble or even come to a screeching stop. The same thing happens when something unexpected throws off our children. Others politicians with the gift of gab fly by the seat of their pants, share the gist and emotion of the canned script, and throw in a couple of ad-libs and touching moments.

Tropical storms and hurricanes are a fact of life when you live in the Carolinas (like my family) or Louisiana (like Steve's family). We do not live in an area prone to flooding. The last devastating hurricane that tore this part of South Carolina was Hugo. I decided it might be a good idea to build memories on how to prepare for the severe weather we have the potential to face this time of the year.

On Friday, I checked out the weather forecast and, except for the tornado watch, I knew Hanna would be a pussycat in our county (the highest winds predicted were 22 mph). Why not show Pamela how we stow FOD--Foreign Object Damage--Navy for stuff that can blow away in strong wind--in preparation for tropical storm winds? Not only can she help us prepare, but she can store memories of a positive outcome so that she will stay calm for a major storm that heads our way.

What may interest you in this clip is how I handled Pamela's frustration once we transitioned to the front porch. There was too much uncertainty for her and, just as we discovered recently, Pamela used her meltdown alert cue "I don't think it's a good idea." You see, my consultant thought she scripted a lot on the "good idea" phrasing too much. I spent a day analyzing Pamela's phrasing when something goes wrong and she uses a wide variety of sentences, except when her anxiety levels begin to rise. When I hear her say the "good idea" line, then I know she is getting overwhelmed. So, I made a point to try to reassure her because I now recognize her automatic response when heading into fight or flight mode.

Here is the analysis of what happened that I sent to my consultant with the video clip:

Objective:
Pamela is the teller using imperative gestures. The activity is putting things away that might get wet or blown away in a tropical storm.

Overall impression:
Pamela is comfortable thinking through a new process, figuring out the right signs, and adding words when necessary. She notices when I am unsure and gives me more direction. Switching to directing David threw her off her game, but she recovered when we switched back to me.

What worked:
Pamela knows what needs to be put away in a situation we have never practiced. She figures out what to put away, where things should go, and when my arms are too full. She conveys instructions on what to pick up nonverbally--she has signals for "pick up," "pull," "open," and "close." She points me in the right direction and combines hand signals with head nods and shakes. When she used words only, I tried to do the wrong thing so she could come up with signs for me.

What did not work:
Pamela does not like getting wet and her anxiety increased when we felt sprinkles. I did not help matters because I felt rushed (David and I had more to put away that was beyond the scope of what I needed Pamela to do). I think she was unsure about the front porch which increased her anxiety. She understood we needed to move the ferns, but my lack of stature and the need to throw David into the equation frustrated her. He was not as responsive as I was. While she was at ease in the backyard, the transition to the front and all of the uncertainties rattled her enough to fall back into her "I don't think this is a very good idea" cue. The good thing is that, after we switched roles from David to me, Pamela got right back on track in directing me calmly and finished on a positive note. I always try to finish on a positive note.

Questions and comments:
How frustrating was this for her on a 1-10 scale? The back porch was a three, and the front porch was about an eight.


The neat thing is what happened the morning after Hanna whimpered. Pamela noticed the overcast skies and gentle rain and said to me, "Tropical storm freeze. Soft rain. No strong wind." (She uses the word "freeze" for "stop.") Pamela used declarative language to tell me what she observed. Then, I said to her, "I bet you are glad the storm wasn't bad." She agreed. Now she has a memory of a positive outcome from disaster preparedness upon which we can build.

Don't Worry! We'll Live!

Before explaining what we are doing in RDI land right now, I thought I would share a couple of neat declarative comments Pamela has made recently!

Since Hanna is heading our way, we have been making preparations for tropical storm force winds: stocking up on liquids and food requiring minimal cooking and storage, having back-up lighting, inspecting the yard for FOD (Foreign Object Damage)--i.e., Navy for stuff that will fly in a strong wind, etc. I explained to Pamela that tomorrow we may have some strong winds and we have to get ready. She told me she was going to watch Twister and The Wizard of Oz and spend the whole day in bed! We live inland and are not in any danger of floods. Tomorrow, we expect 20 mph winds and lots of much needed rain; however, we are in a tornado watch until five in the morning!

This morning, David was complaining about shows taking up too much space on the DVR. Steve and I have spent the past two weeks watching convention coverage. Pamela told him, "Don't worry! We'll live!" Not only can she self-regulate and co-regulate, she can other-regulate!

The other day, David and I were being pests in the car. We were listening to Tchaikovsky and gently grabbing her at certain predictable moments in the music. She blustered for a few seconds and finally poked me. When I turned to look at her, she said very deliberately, "Don't do that!" I loved how effectively she stopped me in my tracks.

Last week, Pamela made some neat comments to me. She did her written narration for the association method perfectly. She grabbed the paper and gleefully announced, "Finally! Zero mistakes! I DID IT!" Later, I asked her a question. Instead of guessing whatever just to make me happy, she told me, "I don't know." I spotlighted how happy I was to learn that she didn't know. We just started a new book, The Ark (an out-of-print book), which introduces the setting in the first chapter: 13 Parsley Street in an unnamed city in West Germany. Pamela thought for a moment and asked me, "What city?" All of these vignettes add up to two things for me: Pamela thinks and she cares!

Throughout the summer, we have worked very hard on one of the objectives for gestures that stumps some RDI families. My consultant broke it down in the following way: imperative gestures (at which Pamela excelled) and declarative gestures. We started off with spotlighting receptive declarative gestures in which Pamela lets me know she is receiving and understands (head nod or shake and pointing). Then, we worked on her ability to recognize when I am listening (or not listening) so that she can make sure her body language matches when she is listening.

Now, we are transitioning to the world of expressive nonverbal language, starting off with what comes naturally: imperative gestures. We are hoping to help Pamela develop a set of natural gestures she can use to emphasize her words. The framework is any activity in which Pamela can be the boss and show me what to do. To avoid the habit of purely pointing, I play stupid quite often so that she can learn to refine her gestures.

Fortunately, Pamela is quite adept at thinking up signs on the fly. From what I understand, some autistic children find this difficult because they have to conceptualize the action they want taken and communicate a meaningful sign for it. At Walmart, Pamela told me to swipe the credit card by running her index finger down the credit card scanner and to sign the signature pad by wagging her finger like a pen along a horizontal line.

I have already practiced this objective with baking, so this time, we took apart the panda puzzle and started a new one: a dolphin puzzle with hidden images. The objective was for Pamela to be the teller by using gestures. You can see Pamela's wheels turning as she conveys instructions to me nonverbally. She also uses multiple parts of her body: head, hands, and fingers. She did quite well at repairing the situation when I made mistakes.


We did make a little bit of progress in getting this 750-pieced puzzle started. My consultant wanted to know how frustrating this was for her. So, I asked Pamela to rate the puzzle building out of five stars. She told me it was four stars. Then, I reviewed the entire session, which lasted for twenty-three minutes, and she showed me only very minor moments of frustration without any extreme emotion:

• Pamela made one minor grimace.
• When she tried to take a step, I said, "I'm the worker." She told me, "Change it," to which I replied, "Not today." Pamela asked, "Tomorrow?"
• After 19 minutes, Pamela said, "I want to stop." She did not get upset when I told her we would work a little longer.
• About 22 minutes into it, she told me, "Later! I said later."

Studied Dictation

Before I launch into the joys of studied dictation, I thought I'd share two pictures of Pamela during her break. Below, you see her watching television. And to the left are the babies (NOT DOLLS) watching television with her. She put them there!










Charlotte Mason's method for teaching language arts is based upon child development. Rather than forcing paper skills on children at younger and younger ages, desperately hoping to give them a head start, she believed in laying a foundation for writing through oral language. In her first book, Home Education, her recommendations for children under the age of six are vastly different from that of older children because she believed in the outdoor life for the little ones. She required NO formal lessons for preschool and kindergarten. Zero. Zip. NADA!

In those tender years, she focused on oral language. She believed children ought to sharpen their speaking abilities by telling what they see in their explorations outside. An educator broadens vocabulary by supplying unfamiliar names for and parts of objects found by children and improves listening skills by sharing what she sees and asks thoughtful (not gotcha) questions. To hone articulation, she encouraged reciting sing-songs in English and another language. Those of you with children who struggle with fine motor skills or visual discrimination take note! There are no worksheets and no required reading. Those of you with kids who treat carpet squares like trampolines, there are no prolonged periods of sedentary boredom!

Charlotte recognized that some children under the age of six have a keen interest in letters and reading. She did not see anything wrong with teaching letters and their sounds to kids who were ready as long as it seemed like play and stopped when the child tired of it. She outlined reading lessons combining both phonics and sight words for children once they turned six. Six was not a hard and fast rule for some children bloom later (the appendix of School Education includes a narration by a child of age 7 3/4 in the lowest level class in her school). She also worked on the written expression of six-year olds through penmanship and, once they knew all of their letters, copywork from living books that they read. Copywork focuses attention on spelling, grammar, and punctuation and builds the foundation for learning the mechanics of writing. Here is an example of Pamela's copywork right now:



And, now, finally, I reach the topic of today's post: studied dictation. Charlotte Mason scaffolded the teaching of composition by introducing studied dictation only after children had nailed down copywork. Most children started when they turned eight. Early in my blog, I described how to do studied dictation and a sample spelling lesson. I love studied dictation because it is a fast, efficient way to teach writing mechanics! The following three-minute shows you how quickly you can do studied dictation (which we try to do daily).


When Pamela requested doing Eric Carle books this year, I agreed because some contain quite challenging words. We started off with The Very Hungry Caterpillar two weeks ago. I decided to have an English notebook to store Pamela's copywork, poems for recitation, and studied dictation. Here is the sheet Pamela studies, which doubles as a record of how she fared.

You can see in the page on the left the first eight days of writing were perfect! She made several mistakes on the ninth day, which contained many challenging words. I wrote a lesson focused on three errors: changing y to i when adding a suffix, listening to vowels in the middle of a multi-syllabic word, and contrasting long e at the end of English words versus Italian words. I wrap up the lesson with application of what was covered in the form of a caterpillar story as you can see below.



Clearly, my lesson was effective for Pamela did not make those mistakes again in her second attempt at this sentence. The next lesson covered the mistakes made on the tenth day: capitalizing words derived from the names of countries, listening to the ending of words, and placing a space between adjectives and nouns.

As you can see, both lessons worked. Her third attempt was perfect!

Teddy Bear Recitation

Last March, my parents gave Pamela, a stuffed animal lover, this cute teddy bear. She figured out really quickly that the bear will recite prayers and poems if you press its paws. Pamela loved the added bonus of the bear that had verbal stims like her! LOL! I noticed that she learned these poems and prayers and, when she recites, she sounds exactly like the bear. The same voice. The same cadence. The same pitch! Here are comparisons of the bear and Pamela reciting the same poem:

Teddy Bear


Pamela


When I first got into Charlotte Mason homeschooling, all efforts to teach Pamela to recite poems failed. Two years ago, I figured out that blending copywork and studied dictation with recitaiton enabled her to recite poems correctly! We worked through lots of poetry by A. A. Milne and other beloved poets. We started school on August 18 and I decided to see if she could handle recitating without the scaffolding of visual and written work. I picked a poem called Singing Time by Rose Fyleman (a lover of all things faerie) from the book Poems and Prayers for the Very Young. I deliberately choose a very easy poem from a very easy book to build a sense of confidence in Pamela.

Singing Time
I wake in the morning early
And always, the very first thing,
I poke out my head and I sit up in bed
And I sing and I sing and I sing.

Here is how I scaffolded this:

• I had Pamela read it aloud a few times each session.
• We backchained the learning of this poem by starting off with the last two lines.
• I said the end and then she said the end. We went back and forth a few times every session.
• Sometimes we practiced while rocking so that she can learn to feel the rhythm of poetry.

In the following clip is the very first time we practiced going back and forth with the poem on August 18. Then you see us ten days later doing a rocking session and Pamela's final recitation. At the end, all I did was smile and you can see how she reads my face at the end and then smiles brightly too!

First Day/Rockin' Recitation
Ten Days Later

Panda Puzzle!

We are praying for Pamela's grandma and grandpa, who live in Lousiana and are facing Gustav (as well as other members of the family who live there and in Mississippi). They gave this beautiful 500-piece panda puzzle to Pamela for Christmas, and she just finished it this week! The puzzle was quite a challenge (for both of us) because it only had three basic colors: white, black, and green and combinations of them. I had to scaffold puzzle building in the early stages! If you look at where we started with puzzles back in March 2007, you might think I am excited about how far Pamela has come in this ability. You see, she finished the puzzle while I was cooking dinner. The last fourteen pieces were black and could only be placed by shape and the number of knobs and holes. Being able to do this shows how far she has come because, when we first started, she did not even know the difference between a corner, edge, or inner piece, much less what to do with them.

But, improvement in this static, procedural skill is NOT why I am so excited! I have always loved to build puzzles: my grandmother from Germany always bought me the most beautiful and intricate jigsaw puzzles for Christmas. I remember buying one of those round single color puzzles with my babysitting money. I imagined passing on this love of puzzles to my children, envisioning sitting around a table set aside for puzzles and chatting while we worked on a puzzle. Because Pamela had no interest in them because she had no clue how to put them together, I let go of that vision! But, here we were this week finishing up a very complicated one!

I try to keep relationship in mind by spotlighting working together and refining my ability to guide and her ability to relate to me. In this process, she has learned to borrow my perspective on how to build puzzles. Sometimes, we come up with fun creative ways to build a puzzle. And, even when I am not there when she finishes one, she Snoopy dances to see me and shares her joy with me! This morning, two days after finishing the panda, Pamela was looking at it and said to me, "It's so beautiful."

Pickles and Olives and Broth, Oh My!

What does this seemingly unrelated odd collection of objects have in common? You'll see. . .

Our RDI consultant wanted to get to know Pamela better, so they spent two and a half hours together, out and about town. They had lots of fun and laughs. Our consultant thinks Pamela is hilarious, sweet, and gentle. How wonderful that a professional likes Pamela and enjoys her company!

First, they drove to a lake. Pamela became the iPod navigator in the car and found nothing she recognized. She turned it off because it seems our taste in music is different from that of our consultant. Pamela did not want to go walking, so she told our consultant that it's "not a very good idea," "a bad idea," and "too danger." They sat in the car and negotiated for a bit.

The suggestion of the Dollar Tree triggered another "not a great idea" semi-automatic response until Pamela realized it was a store, not a tree. Pamela picked out a really cool bright pink and blue sensory bracelet for herself. She could not find a gift for David. LOL.

They headed to Wally World, and our consultant told Pamela she would be happy to buy her a toy. Pamela suggested DVD but that was out for many reasons. They checked out the DVD’s and moved onto the toys. One surprising toy that caught her eye was a cupcake baker, probably because all of the baking we do. Pamela then insisted it was time for me to get food and helped pick up item's our consultant's grocery list. To my surprise, Pamela became a food Nazi and would not let her buy Lucky Charms, even though we buy gluten, casein, and junk-laced cereal at home! She explained that Lucky Charms would make you sick. One thing was clear to the consultant: Pamela's got referencing skills nailed!

Pamela finally picked out her momentos from our consultant in her favorite grocery aisle.

Was it candy? NOPE!

Was it soy ice cream? NOPE, not even chocolate soy ice cream.

What about potato chips or tortilla chips? NOPE!

She went down the condiment aisle! She probably picked the oddest things of all the kids our consultant has seen . . .

• pickles
• green olives
• beef broth (she even pointed out the "gluten-free" description on the label to convince her it was okay).

After Wal-Mart, they had lunch. Our consultant already knew about the gf/cf thing and ordered the burger without then bun. I told her about the drink with no ice, but I forgot to mention the extra small fries. So, when Pamela saw only two fries, she kept saying, "There's a mistake." Our consultant could not figure out what, so Pamela did what we always do. I usually take a couple of fries and give her mine to avoid starting Chernobyl. Since our consultant did not know about my sacrificial tendencies, Pamela kept "stealing" her fries and our consultant would laugh and say, "You're a French Fry thief!" Pamela thought that was hilarious. That weird-looking, big-headed Star Wars bobble-head was the toy from her kid's meal. I guess Pamela got a toy after all!

When our consultant told Pamela they were going back, Pamela said, "We are at the end of our tape." When our consultant said, "Our date," she insisted, "No! Our cassette tape . . . Comedy!" and cracked up at her joke. Her great smile made it clear that Pamela was deliberately telling a joke.

There are two things I appreciated from this visit:

(1) Our consultant sees my description of Pamela as accurate sketches of her character: "Pamela is really easy to be around, and a very funny girl. We had some honest moments of connection that were invaluable to me. . . I think your descriptions are right on, and I really like your kid."

(2) Our consultant sees that Pamela is ready to move onto more gestures because she has the whole listening posture down! I am doing another language assessment on how she expresses not wanting to do something to see if we can expand her phrases and body gestures for this.

In fact, here is an excerpt of our last submission to the consultant and I have to "catch" Pamela at not listening. In 34 minutes of film, she has only three lapses in listening posture! At the end, I tacked on a blip of Pamela and her budding interest in comedy.

Focus on Chipmunks

We are wrapping up the end of our first official week of school, and I have to say Pamela is awesome. I made up a schedule in Excel (by the way, if you do not already have it, homeschoolers and other educators and students can buy the home and student edition of Microsoft Office for a great price--I enjoy thinking in Excel and find it indispensible for planning! Like her daddy, Pamela loves accomplishing and swiping things of her to-do list. We have accomplished nearly everything on the plan, and what is not done is due to things I need to figure out! She even adjusted it for me when we got behind in the association method because I got too ambition one day this week and we got a day behind!

The highlight of the week for me was one of Pamela's ideas. Throughout the summer, Pamela has been dropping little hints about what she would like to do differently. She requested that we read her beloved Getting to Know Nature's Children series of books. I do not believe these books are truly living books, they are not dry like encyclopedia articles either. I thought she might enjoy making entries in her nature notebook and writing her narrations there. As you can see, we started off with chipmunks.

Even though the soil in our area is too swampy and full of clay for chipmunks, we know them very well from our time in Colorado. We fed and watched the ground squirrels and Western chipmunks in our backyard. The baby chipmunks were so adorable, and Pamela enjoyed watching them scamper about. David spent hours trying to tame those things and could not contain his joy when one touched his shoe. One day, he ran into the house bawling, "Loa [our dog] broke a rule! She ate a chipmunk!" Yes, that day our dear dog shattered David's innocence, but he forgave her anyway.

During the week, Pamela read through page 11 and recorded her thoughts on graphic organizers posted below.





When it came time to write her narrations today, I put away her graphic organizers and she wrote from memory. I enjoyed seeing what she took away from her reading and what she found important. I loved her illustrations, too!

The Neighborhood Shoe Thief

This morning I was working in the kitchen when Pamela burst into the house from the back porch.

She said, "Somebody stole it. Wicked thief!"

I asked, "What did they steal?"

Pamela said, "The shoe! I searched everywhere."



I walked to the porch with her and, sure enough, her shoe was missing. Only one shoe of the myriad of shoes sitting on our porch had disappeared! Of course, it was Pamela's favorite well-worn shoe.

I turned to her and said, "A human would steal two shoes."

Pamela did not follow my thought process, so I added, "I think it was an animal."

She still did not understand, so I said, "I think it was a dog."

I went back in the kitchen, and Pamela burst back into the house. "I found it!"

I joined her on the porch, and she pointed to a spot behind the car. We walked together to retrieve the missing shoe and were relieved to see no teeth marks.



The funniest thing happened on our walk to the playground where she pretends to be a superhero on the climbing equipment. Around the corner from our house, we both spotted someone else's lone shoe. I gasped and pointed and said, "A shoe!"

Pamela laughed and said, "Comedy!" Then she pointed to her shoe and said, "Just like this one!"

Then, I added, "The shoe thief is a dog!"

It was one of those sweet moments I will always cherish! Why? Because she has come a long way from screaming meltdowns when things went wrong.

P.S. Now, if only I could solve the mystery of the pumpkin pie thief. Pamela and I baked one yesterday; I left the house for a few hours and someone inhaled it. Steve was out of town for the night. I do not think I can pin it on the dogs because they are unable to jump on the stove. Somehow, I have a feeling the thief (or thieves) walk upright . . .

Musings on the Association Method and RDI

I love interacting with other people online because they give me wonderful insights. A few months ago, some parents and professionals interested in RDI, whether are not they have or are consultants. For one reason or another, RDI is out of reach for some families, and this list, called Autism Remediation for Our Children, is a place where people can connect and learn relational ways of remediating autism from each other.

This week, we were talking about verbal behavior (VB), a form of speech therapy that is based on the principles of ABA, and I know very little about VB. I did share what is working very well with Pamela, the association method, which can dovetail nicely with RDI, depending upon how you implement it. One person pointed out that verbal behavior focuses on imperative language (right or wrong questions, commands, prompts). RDI, which focuses on declarative language (sharing what you experience), does not mesh well with VB because of the kind of language taught. That comment inspired me to think about the association method in a new light!

Of the he first six sentences and questions taught, five are declarative and only one is imperative.

This is a/an _______. What is this?
I see a/an ______. What do you see?
I have a/an ______. What do you have?
I want a/an _______. What do you want?
______ has a/an _______. What does _______ have?
This is ________. Who is this?

I never thought of this, but much of what the association method teaches is for children to describe what they see in the form of stories, stories about animals, inanimate objects, people, rooms, etc. Slowly, you add on to the basic structure with adjectives, prepositions, other articles, etc. Then, you introduce past tense and future tense to work on experience stories. EXPERIENCE STORIES! That sure sounds like opportunities for experience sharing to me!

We did get back to the Yellow Books (syntax-controlled readers) which we are using to supplement what we do with the association method. I will share more later about our first day of school (I have to edit and process the footage first). Pamela was fabulous as always and enjoyed eating a sandwich (made with gf/cf cheese and bread), soy pudding, and fresh berries from her lunch box. She is so sweet and hard-working!

Baking David's GF/CF Birthday Cake from Scratch

Yesterday, David turned sixteen! Saturday, we are taking David, three of his friends, and Pamela to Carowinds. He requested a carrot cake, which I plan to bake today. Pamela wanted to bake a cake for him, and we went gf/cf so that we can keep a piece for her for Saturday's celebration. She pulled out a gf/cf baking mix and pointed to a chocolate cake recipe for us to make from scratch! The baking mix we used includes fava and garbanzo bean flours, and even my picky Dad scarfed it down with gusto! We slightly adjusted the recipe:

GF/CF Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose GF Baking Flour
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon xanthum gum (a little bit goes a long way)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/3 stick Buttery Sticks
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup soy milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two round cake pans. Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix with an electric mixer. Pour into the cake pans and bake for 30 minutes (or until the toothpick inserted in the cake's center comes out clean). Servings: 12.

I used the same frosting recipe as before, except we used Buttery Sticks instead of coconut milk.

One thing that struck me about watching these video clips is how much more comfortable Pamela is in the kitchen. When we first started baking in March 2007, I scaffolded by getting all the ingredients and utensils out. Now, she finds the ingredients on her own and searches the drawers for utensils. She can crack an egg with one hand! She can put a pan into a hot oven (although I am still pulling them out for her). She knows how to turn on the oven and set either timer (the oven or microwave). She is even starting to read the recipes and decide the next step to take!

Here is what I wrote about the cake baking clip:

Objective: To spotlight when I am not listening and when I am listening so Pamela learns to spot the differences in my body language.

What Worked: I was much more subtle today in my non-listening spells. Pamela did very well. She responded well when I complained about her jabs. She has had a lighter touch since then.

What Frustrated Pamela: I had to be careful to reassure Pamela when she got frustrated at glitches: a mom who doesn't listen, a pesky can opener, a mixer that spewed, etc. She did recover without melting down and finished all of the steps in baking a cake. I have to walk a fine line of working on the objective without pushing her off the cliff.

Comment: I loved when she cracked an egg one handed and make a pun on the word can. Her confidence in the kitchen is soaring!


We had a minor glitch between making the cake and the frosting. Pamela and her consultant were going to spend three hours doing things together like eating lunch, browsing at Wal-Mart or the store, and playing at the park. Something came up and our consultant had to postpone their visit by a week. Pamela cried and talked about being broken-hearted. I soothed her with stim phrases to help change her thoughts, rubbed her arm, and spoke to her gently. I also promised a trip to the health food store in Columbia today to make up for it.

As you can see in the clip, she is back to normal. Last night, we all went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. While I was telling Steve about the altered plans, I mentioned that Pamela was broken-hearted. She said loudly, "I'm not broken-hearted." So, her heart is healed! :-)

Another interesting thing was that Steve was being silly and nearly knocked over the salsa. Pamela laughed loudly and laughed with us. Then, she said, "Comedy!"

My objective was again to demonstrate non-listening body language, more subtly. This time I gave different reasons for it. Pamela does recognize when I am not listening, so I think I will start pointing out when "I can't tell if you're listening."


Finally, we have the birthday boy being serenaded. We took him out to eat at the local Mexican restaurant and threatened to alert the waiters about his birthday, so they could pull out the silly sombrero and serenade him. But, we did not. Why he is embarrassed at our singing, I cannot fathom. But, he recovered sufficiently to blow out all the candles in one breath.

Washing Cars: Give Her Time

Last month, Pamela and Steve washed the car so Steve could try his hand at guided participation. They did this before Steve's week-long trip to Santiago and other busy-ness. The point of making videos is to watch them so that you can learn more about your relationship dynamics. This week, I pinned him down long enough to watch the two clips and make observations! We first read over the Powerpoint presentation about making videos that our consultant emailed last week. It is important to focus on the objective and make sure you edit it down to less than five minutes of all of the key points in the interaction. I tend to go over five minutes being the long-winded person I am!

Steve is your typical, type A, complete-everything-on-my-to-do-list guy. He runs circles around everyone and my dad calls him Whirlwind. He loves running so much that he even finishes marathons! So, when our consultant tells him to slow down to Pamela's pace, it requires a monumental effort.

Steve's Phrase: "Give her time!"

His Objective: I need to slow down in an activity that she could follow me successfully.

Overall Impression: Pamela is a great follower! She did really well.

Mastery: I did slow down more than usual. I could have been more nonverbal. I spent too much time describing. I need to say what the problem is and not tell her what to do. Rather than say, "Get more soap," I could say, "Your rag isn't very soapy anymore."

What Worked: I found ways to help her be more successful in the moment (switching hoses, giving her rags to carry instead of the bucket, etc.). The water fight was great!

What did not work: I am better about avoiding questions and prompts. But, I need to work on the commands.

Comments: I can see how watching the video reveals more detail than I recall from the interaction.

Back to School!

Pamela's greater interest in people has spilled over into launching our homeschool program this year. About three weeks ago, she picked out a pink lunch bag with the Disney princesses and told me it was for school. Two weeks ago, she put in special requests for our homeschooling program like using Eric Carle books for studied dictation and Nature's Children books for science. Then, she told me we should not start up on August 4 (my plan) because school starts on August 18 for the public schooled children in the area.

I decided to combine her fascination with being like other kids going back to school with working on my RDI objective of Pamela learning to recognize listening body language. I bought typical school supplies like a pink zippered notebook, Disney princess spiral notebooks, all kinds of school goodies, etc. Then, without Pamela noticing, I set up a book bag (Barbie collection book club one that she got ten years ago) with her books, put papers and goodies in the notebook, etc. I filmed us going through all of the school stuff--she just loved it!



To frame this activity around my objective, I told Pamela that I would sometimes pretend I was not listening. At first, I was really obvious with my unlistening body language but I got more subtle as we went along. She found her finger quite effective in letting me know to straighten up and pay attention to her. Once I caught her in the act of not listening!

Crocheting and Knitting Kick!

Where have I been, you ask?

I took a sabbatical from blogging to catch up in needlework projects for friends and family with precious ones one the way. Last month, Jamberry gave birth to short boy #3, and I had nothing to show for it! I bought a one-pound cone cone of pure cotton yarn in a shaded denim ombre colors and whipped out one project after another until I had just enough left for baby doll clothes. I decided to concentrate crocheted items since Jamberry, not a crocheter, knitted many projects for her wee one. I made a hat, booties, burp cloth, and bib plus a lovable pair of baby socks made out of Baroque Crochet Cotton white thread that proved irresistible to me. Aren't you amazed at how much you can squeeze out of 787 yards of yarn (not including the baby doll clothes to follow)?



Last month, Pamela's Tia Patty bought her a baby wearing a pink bath robe, whom Pamela insisted was a boy named Baby David! Since the poor babe has been touring South Carolina with nothing but a diaper, I decided to clothe him in some proper boy clothes. I could not find any baby doll patterns that I liked, so I picked out ones for premies and used a hook two sizes too small: a going-home outfit (which I slightly adapted) and booties.

As you can see, the shirt and pants turned out adorable and so easy to crochet! The booties were a bit trickier. I made one bootie from a pattern. The result was too large, even with a much smaller hook, so I unraveled it and invented my own pattern, very loosely based on the one already tried. With a bit of tinkering, the first bootie turned out great.

However, I did not know how many rows I could spare to make the cuff for there was very little yard left. So, I pulled the yarn off the cone and made a ball with the center near the end of the first bootie (not cut yet since I might have enough yarn for a row or two of cuff). You can see the end of the cone trailing the ball. In essence, I made the first bootie from one end of the yarn and the second bootie from the other end of the yarn. That way I could keep lengthening the cuffs of each bootie until I ran out of thread. Pretty cool, huh?



As you can imagine, I have been getting burnt out with crocheting, so I chose to knit a dress for another cyber friend whose baby was born a couple of months ago. She does not know I am doing this, but, as (a) she has many children, (b) she has a newborn, and (c) she homeschools, she is probably too exhausted to read my blog. So, I know my secret is safe with you! I picked up a cone in the color shaded pastels ombre. Anyway, I found this adorable Cotton Candy dress that I am knitting in I have finished the skirt and am working on the right back. The back, front, and sleeves should go fairly quickly. The first ten rows were a nightmare--I relished the challenge of making the row of triangles, but I felt like I did when I was trying to get through the first level of Crash Bandicoot and kept dying and starting from scratch! Honestly, it took me a week to get through the triangle obstacle course! Apparently, I'm not the only one who has trouble with counting on this dress, LOL . . .

Finally, I just started a baby blanket using the same stitch as the blanket I made for baby Leilani last year. Steve's parents are going to be great- grandparents for the first time, so I have until November--when Steve's niece in Guatemala is due--to work on a gift. I picked up four cones of daisy ombre cotton yarn, which I think will yield a 40 inch by 48 inch blanket plus doll clothes and potholders.