Normal and New

Normal...have you ever contemplated that word? I have and I'm happy to say that a few people have recently used the term to describe my kids. Although the issues our boys are dealing with are mild compared to what others face, I was sad when I found out they would be dealing with lifelong challenges. Fortunately, we didn't stick our heads in the sand. We didn't wait for them to out grow any of it. I am so grateful for the early intervention we did and all the help we have had and continue to have along the way. So, whatever normal means, I'm happy to hear it as a term to describe the boys. I know it's a silly, silly thing, but the most important part about it is the progress they have made. For that, I am truly grateful!

On a different note, I wanted to share a great article entitled "Dyslexia: What Teachers Need to Know". I recently saw it in the "Instructor" magazine produced by Scholastic. As a teacher educator, I often subscribe to such magazines and just like the public schools, I've never seen mention of the "D" word, dyslexia. My favorite part about the article was the positive slant, particularly that "dyslexics are strong learners". Oh so true! It's amazing what Marshall can repeat. He is like a sponge, but he does have to share that knowledge with others. I also found the half page of Quick Facts About Dyslexia a great way to hit on the important aspects of dyslexia.

The article was well written and included some excellent resources. I'm not sure which website resource I like the best, but I was pretty impressed with the Kids Health site which included a way to listen to the content on the page.

The International Dyslexia Association http://interdys.org/

LD Online http://www.ldonline.org/article/Dyslexia_Basics

Kids Health http://kidshealth.org/kid/health_problems/learning_problem/dyslexia.html

Dyslexic Teaching Today http://dyslexia-teacher.co.uk/

I hope you enjoy these resources and share them with others!!!! Thanks for reading!

All In

School started yesterday and I'm amazed at how quickly we are back in the groove. I guess summer school helps to keep us on track and makes the "reentry" to a new school year much smoother. Lately, I've been thinking about how grateful I am that we stick to the school policy of low sugar - less than 3 grams. I can't imagine what it would be like if Mike and I weren't on the same page with this.

Over the summer we had some friends from school over to swim. I was a little caught off guard when one of the mom's asked me if we did the "low sugar thing" on the weekend. Of course, I said yes and we enjoyed watermelon and veggies when we took a break from swimming. The complex sugar in fruits doesn't effect the boys the way that processed sugar does.

When you spend a boat load of money on your kids' education, it's worth that investment to go all in. We try to do our best in the areas of food. I'd give us an A- for effort and implementation and an A+ for creativity. We have come up with some very creative alternatives that have been rather popular. Here's a example, the boys are in cub scouts which equates to camping trips,

camp fires and typically smores. Obviously, smores aren't on the low sugar list, but cocktail wienies are. They were quite the hit with the other scouts too as were the big bag of carrots we were eating by the camp fire. How funny is that??

The times that we have given in to the need for treats it has been nothing but disastrous. For Marshall, it takes him four days to come off a sugar high. I remember the weekend of Jensen's birthday they both had too many helpings of ice cream. The following week they both got in trouble at school and got sent to the office. I felt particularly bad because I was the one who let them have more. I felt like a mom who had given her kids crack!!!

I do have to give my mom and dad props for going all in too!!! Coco and Papa, as they are known, have been gracious enough to spend extended time with our kids for winter breaks and spring breaks. They have been wonderful about ensuring the boys are eating right. I can imagine that as a grandparent it must be hard not to give the grands "treats". They, too, have found some special alternatives that are nice treats for the kids like low sugar protein bars.

Another alternative that has been especially nice for celebrations has been Publix's sugar free cakes. I have to order the cakes in advanced, but they look great and taste great, too, as does the no sugar added Eddy's ice cream. It's much better than the alternative crazy behavior and it makes for a nice birthday party too! The other kids aren't loaded up on sugar either.

I can tell when the boys have had too much sugar even without knowing what they ate. Recently, they went on a trip and I stayed home. The night they came home, I sat down to read with Jensen and he couldn't sit still, he couldn't focus on the words, and he couldn't keep his place in the story. It was miserable! I thought about the teachers who had to deal with our kids when they had eaten too much sugar...oh how sorry I am for that.

So, we do a pretty good job when it comes to low sugar food. The times when we do goof up are teachable moments and ones we don't want to repeat. The important part is that we get back on track and go all in again!!!

Honk Your Hours

While reading a book about cars, Jensen was doing a great job until he came to a sentence that said "Honk your horns". He read it as "honk your hours". I had to keep from laughing because it just sounded funny, but it reminded me how different he sees the world and what a challenge reading is for him.

I'm happy to say that he's getting it. With lots of practice and direct instruction, his reading has improved. His fluency is better and he is remembering words when he sees them later in the story. Even though his progress is slow, it is in a positive direction....what more could a mom ask for???

Sitting on My Phone in Concrete

I'm sure the title of this blog caught your interest...it is a rather funny story! My family was in the car one day and Mike asked me if I had received a specific email response. I said, "No and I have been sitting on my Droid all day." From the back seat came, "sitting on your phone...won't you break it?" Mike and I started laughing and I said in a whisper to him, "I forgot how concrete the dyslexic mind is." From the backseat came, "why were you sitting on your phone in concrete?". I just didn't quite no how to answer that one. Anyway, it was a good laugh!

Silly Bandz Aren't So Silly

The Silly Band craze has struck the Barrett household, but in a very different way. We have learned just how motivating Silly Bands can be. As I mentioned in my last posting, Jensen is working on a 100 book challenge and building his vocabulary is part of that adventure. When we are reading, I write down words he doesn't know on index cards and then we play our favorite sight word game, called Three Strikes and You Win.

Here's how the game works, once we have a stack of cards, say 20 cards or more, I show the cards to Jensen one at a time and if he says the word correctly I place a "X" on the back of the card. Once he has three "X's" on the card, he gets the card. The Silly Bands come into play after he has earned five index cards. Then, he gets to stick his hand in the bag and grab a Silly Band. Last count he was up to 25 Silly Bands. What a fun way to build a vocabulary!!!

In case you are wondering where we got

the game, we saw this in 2007 at a reading workshop we attended at Buck Lake Elementary called Building Better Readers. The Families Building Better Readers workshop was sponsored by Just Read, Florida!

Race to the Space Police

The new challenge is on and this time it's for Jensen. Mike challenged him to read 50 books and he could have a new toy. During the trip to Toys R Us, the challenge quickly changed. Jensen talked his Daddy into a bigger Lego set, a Space Police Lunar Limo, if he read 100 books. Wow! I'm happy to hear that Jensen upped the challenge, but wow! Jensen really struggles with reading so I was REALLY surprised by his enthusiasm for this adventure.

Reading with the boys is my passion so I had to set up a process to make all of this happen and record the books. The first step was to let him pick out the books. He quickly dug around the house and came up with 50 books at a variety of levels....all his choice.

The next thing we put in place was how he would keep track of the challenge. Jensen needs some work on writing, too, so I decided to get a special notebook and have him number, write the name of each book, and a little something about the book. This didn't deter the excitement level, I think it only increased it. Jensen was excited that he would keep track of this challenge.

So, it was finally time to get down to the business of reading books. One of the issues that Jensen has with reading is learning new words. If you give him the word, he can't remember it the next time he sees it. I started writing down the words on index cards...I'll tell you more about that later...and on we went. We read Biscuit and the Baby, Biscuit's New Friend, Biscuit Goes to School and then we came to a book about Houdini, a chapter book.

Once again, Jensen surprised me. He dove into the book and began reading his first chapter book. Although, we had a pile of words to learn, night after night, we plugged away through that book. I've seen much improvement in his fluency and he started to remember the new words the next time he saw them, at least a few of them. In three weeks, he has read 20 books including the chapter book and we only counted that as one. Maybe we should have counted it as eight, but we didn't.

As Jensen was packing up for a trip to visit his grandparents, I decided that I would give him a break from the reading and not push it since he was doing so good. He came to me and asked if he could take his notebook and of course I said yes. That was worth a big smile....I think he thought I would say no. I told him that any book he read to his Papa or Coco counted.

I'm so happy that Jensen is excited about reading because I do believe that if you can read, you can do anything. I learned to juggle by reading a book! I can't was to see what Jensen learns from reading.

To the Castle...

Learning to tie shoes is one of the little, but important skills to learn in life. Marshall, who struggles with his fine motor skills, consequently finds shoe tying a challenge. Mike decided to provide some motivation to help Marshall master the art of shoe tying...what a great Dad! So, he took Marshall to Walmart and let him pick out a really cool toy.

After returning home they wrote an agreement stating that Marshall would receive the toy, which resided on top of the frig, when he had tied his shoes 100 times.

I think Mike was a little disappointed that Marshall only had two "tie" marks after a week. When Mike asked Marshall if he wanted to tie shoes Marshall said no. I was successful a few times by telling Marshall it was time to tie shoes, adding a few more tick marks. Whatever we tried, we just couldn't get him moving with this challenge.

Marshall found the turning point in his motivation the day after a family trip to the movies to watch Shrek Forever After. I told Marshall it was time to tie shoes. A significant time later he returned with a pile of shoes and proceeded with his shoe tying fest. Five minutes later he had racked up twelve successful ties. The secret to his success was a few lines from Shrek where

Fiona said, "the dragon goes under the bridge, through the tunnel and to the castle to save the princess." Can I just say that Shrek Forever After is my new favorite movie? It really was a fun movie. Regardless, I still can't believe a few lines in a movie made that much of a difference, but it did!

Marshall quickly tied his shoes many times and even enlisted the help of

his older brother. They made an assembly line. As soon as Marshall tied a shoe, he tossed it over his shoulder, yelled "shoe waiting" and Jensen untied it. Then, Jensen added it back to the line up. What a great team!

One of my favorite parts about being a mom is watching the moments when the light comes on, their brains click, and the boys learn something new. One never knows when it's going to happen, but life is pretty

amazing when it does. I have to say I am pretty proud of Marshall for his hard work. I have to give props to Jensen for being such a wonderful and supportive big brother. Finally, way to go Mike! You came up with a brilliant idea! Not only did you motivate Marshall to learn how to tie his

shoes. You taught him about setting a goal and reaching it. You also taught him about delayed gratification...something that is difficult to learn in our instant society.

The Weird Kid

When I found myself in the kitchen last weekend with two crying boys, my heart broke just a little and I had to let go just a little more. Jensen started the crying, saying that he was upset that some boys called his brother "The Weird Kid" at an event the night before. Marshall joined in with tears and I wish I could have found the parental manual with the chapter on how to protect your kids or at least the chapter on what to do when another kid makes fun of your kid.

Marshall's Asperger's does make him different from others. Most people don't notice his issues with making friends and interacting appropriately with others. At first glance, he seems very outgoing, cute and funny. We have been working with him on his approach to meeting people and learning to ask questions and interacting as opposed to bombarding his acquaintance with stories about his teeth or the latest thing he has learned. We'll keep working on this one.

I do admit that in some ways Woodland Hall Academy has us spoiled. The boys are graded on their encouragement of others. Around our house you hear comments like, "That was a nice try" or "Way to go" and the comments come from the boys....not just the parents. Wouldn't our world be a better place if we all encouraged one another?

My response in this situation was simply that the boys needed to pray for the kids who were calling Marshall names and be thankful they have parents who are trying to teach them better. Then the floodgates opened and out came more stories and questions I wasn't quite ready to answer.

Marshall told me about a boy who was "waving his finger in a circle by my head". I just told Marshall it wasn't nice and not to do it. Guess what he did to the boy who did it to him the very next day at Cub Scouts? Marshall tried out the crazy sign. I called him down immediately and reminded him of how upset he was when the boy did the same thing to him. He scooted back to his seat and hasn't tried it since.

Marshall also waved his middle finger at me and asked me if I knew what that meant. I told him I did and asked him if he knew what it meant. He said the boy that taught it to him the night before said it was a bad sign. I agreed and told him all he needed to know at this point in time is that he shouldn't be doing this.

Gee! Being a Mom is definitely interesting and I remember what it was like to be called awful names, but I will say that it brings to mind sayings like, "Smooth sailing doesn't make a skillful sailor" which brings me some comfort. So, whatever reason Marshall is supposed to experience such meanness I just hope I can help him through it if only just to listen and be a safe place where the boys can share their experiences.

In the Spotlight

It's been a long time since I have written about the boys and their experiences with Dyslexia. I will get back to this. For the most part, I'll just say that no news is good news. Although I do have some interesting stories to tell.

I'll get started with "Open House". Open House is kind of a misnomer. I think it should be called something like "Curriculum Night" or "Let's Have Fun with What We Have Learned Night".

In November, we attended Open House and what a wonderful event! The main reason I enjoyed it because of what the boys had to do. They had to:

1. Get up in front of people.

2. Say their memorized lines.

3. Speak loud enough to be heard.

For most people, that would be a butterflies-in-the-stomach experience. It appeared that most of the students, our boys especially, were excited to share what they had learned and of course each skit included some humor which made it all the more fun.

Here's the "mom" perspective. This was really impressive because I watch my kids struggle with reading every day. They mispronounce words, they lose their place when they are reading, they add words, and they get frustrated. I was nervous for them, but I didn't share that with the boys. I was so proud that they pulled it off. They memorized all of their lines and made it happen. What a wonderful way to help these boys and other students develop into confident, happy and successful people!