Saturday, November 03, 2007

A Potpourri of Pictures and People

The antidote to yesterday's rant is something positive. Here are the obligatory Halloween photos. Pamela and I made her wizard cap (plus the fairy wand we made six weeks ago) and adapted the costume of a senator to that of a wizard. If you click on the photos, you will see larger versions of them. David reprised his role as the hippie, except that this year he decided he was too mature for candy. He was there to look out for Pamela . . . sigh . . . my baby is too old to beg for candy. . . sniff.

Yesterday reminded me of the positive impact of the Internet upon our life as a homeschooling family. Queen Mum over at Growing Fruit turned me onto the Hearing Journey, which has FREE weekly activities to promote language. Pamela and I read together a cute story about making a witch's house. We really needed construction paper, but I did not feel like going shopping. When Mom is lazy, we improvise! We took a sheet of the 24lb paper Steve keeps for special occasions and painted both sides orange (waiting for it to dry in between sides, of course). While reading the story, Pamela folded and cut the orange paper as instructed. This activity afforded many opportunities for referencing to resolve uncertainty. When finished, Pamela opened up the "house" and realized she had made a pumpkin!

Robyn reminded me in her recent post of the pecan trees in our yard and what a wonderful activity it would be for Pamela and I to harvest some home-grown pecans. We will be busy for at least a week, or two, just picking them. Next, we will have to work together to shell them. Then, we will have the opportunity to do something with the like bake a pecan pie or pumpkin pie, just in time for Thanksgiving.

I cannot remember who turned me onto paper toys, but I thank that anonymous blogger anyway. To date, we have made fairy wand, secret windows as thank-you cards, the animal menagerie (pictured below), and Pamela's best thoughts (on the right--her collection of poems and memories is still in the works until she fills up all sixteen cards).

A friendly email exchange back in February 2007 with Sonya from Simply Charlotte Mason, also the mother of an autism spectrum daughter, led me to consider experimenting with RDI. Then, I learned that my longtime cyber fellow blogger and friend Mary was working with an RDI consultant.

Since then, I have gotten to know blogging and non-blogging Moms doing RDI: Nifferco, Jamberry, Poohder, and others I am getting to know. In the photos below, Pamela and I talked about the animals in her menagerie. We had a delightful conversation in which she communicated verbally and nonverbally. What RDI did for her was to help understand why looking at someone's face is useful: because people send additional messages throught body language and that she can learn to decode it.

Email exchanges with other homeschooling friends inspired me with a story about the importance of thinking out loud with my children and the beauty of adoption. Then there is the FREE curriculum I use at Ambleside Online and the email lists to which I subscribe, especially Aut-2B-Home with people there that I have "known" for years! And, how can I forget the kindred spirits I met at the Childlight Conferences: Amber, Bonnie, Carroll and Andy, Cheri (listmom of AOwithLDKids), Dawn, Leslie, and Megan.

If I have forgotten anyone worthy of recognition, I am so sorry for having developed a premature case of Momheimers (when the gray stuff inside the brain leaks and alters your hair color).

12 comments:

Prince Andrew and the Queen Mum said...

do you think we will all live together on the same street in heaven?? i'd love to meet all the internet friends I have!

poohder said...

Tammy, it is a privilege to know you as well. Thanks for the reminders
about the good things in life!
poohder

Mary said...

Tammy,
I am thrilled to be in your potpourri of recognition. You and Pamela have been inspiration for me for probably ten years or more. How long has Aut-2B-home been in existence? I wonder if you know when I joined? You are so resourceful in challenging Pamela and I am glad to see you doing RDI.
Mary

walking said...

Mary,

The earliest post in the Aut-2B-Home archives was Tuesday, Jan 13, 2008 and you were welcoming a new member. Before St. John's Maelstrom, we used Hyanna's Linux machine and before that we were just an email loop.

I don't have exact dates, but we can narrow it down if you remember the list's configuration: St. John's, Hyanna's Linux, or the loop. We started the original loop back in the fall of 1996!

Anonymous said...

Tammy, you are such an encouragement to me -- especially as I look ahead at the next nine years with Hannah!

(BTW, did you mean "2008" in the reply to Mary?"

Unknown said...

So Tammy, how did it go with you and Pamela picking pecans? LOL, we ended up with 6 gallon bags full. Does Pamela like to help you cook? My autie loves to help me bake...I was going to make a cream cheese pumpkin pecan roll. I also plan to give some of them for gifts.
We have 6 pecan trees, so we will be busy for a while. I love Pamela's Halloween outfit..so cute!!!

walking said...

Oopss. . . Sonya and Mary . . . Momheimers strikes again! It was Jan 13, 1998. What's a decade here and there!!! :-)

Yes, Robyn, Pamela enjoys baking with me. We plan to spread out our pecan picking sprees during the week. One of our trees has very small pecans. I'm not sure if they are worth the effort.

JamBerry said...

Wow!! I got mentioned in Tammy's blog!! How amazing!
I feel SOOOO blessed to know you, and so humbled to be mentioned by you! Thanks for being my friend, and my guide, too! What an honor and a privilege!

Prince Andrew and the Queen Mum said...

by the way...just wanted you to know..it's hearing journey...not healing journey. I'm sure the link still works:0

Unknown said...

Hey Tammy,
Thanks for the prayers....we just got home from north GA last week and came back sick...I sure miss the colder weather and the mountains. The boys had to go to the dr and both are on asthma meds, how are you doing? I loe Pamela's outfit. Im reading " For the Family's Sake" by Susan Shaeffer Macaulay - what an awesome book..Have a good week!!!

walking said...

Jamberry, how many boat schoolers do what we do every day?

Thanks, Queen Mum! Two senior moments in one post!

GodsGirl, I just love that book by Susan McAulay. I got to me her husband Ranald at the CM conference in 2006, who was such a humble and kind person. She was not feeling up to making the trip to America unfortunately.

Unknown said...

Momheimers

Hilarious... I'm getting it -- just didn't know what it was called! Do you have that printed on a t-shirt.. that one I would probably wear. LOL