Decisions and Change!

Emotions surge through me. Questions fill my mind.

Is this what I want for my baby?
Is this what he wants?
Does he understand what challenges he will face?
Will the other kids be nice to him?
Will he be getting a quality education?
Will the interpreter be qualified? 

For the last two months, my son had been at home with me. Field trips, nature observations, projects, sensory activities, sibling teaching sessions, planning, reading, filming, viewing, etc etc.

Not that it was all fun and games and went just the way I wanted it to. Quite the opposite. But, it became clear to me that what my boy needed was a period of time to heal, to discover himself again, to gain confidence once more; to discover learning again. 

Then one day, he decided that that  time had come to an end. After a particularly hard day, I looked at him and signed, "You're not happy. You miss school, don't you?" 

We then launched into a conversation of what options he had for school: a local deaf program with part mainstreaming and part resource classroom with a teacher of the deaf, home, or the local elementary school where his brother goes. 

Perfect, I thought, it's time to teach him how to make good decisions in his life. If he can learn this now, it will benefit him greatly in his future!

Being a faithful Christian family, I brought in the scriptures. In the Doctrine and Covenants (scriptures from the LDS faith), these verses are found. They guide anyone seeking answer to finding a decision based on answers from the Holy Ghost:

"Study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.
But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong" (D&C 9:8-9)

We sat down, Mom, Dad, son, and brother for support. We listed and discussed all pros and con's to each decision. We asked others who may know more. We talked to deaf adults who went to school in their local schools (mainstreamed) growing up, including Dad. 

He made a decision.

Then he prayed. And our whole family prayed with him. 

He felt he had an answer... Attend the local school with his brother. He was excited. 

And here's the condition we discussed, "Since this is your decision, and your Father in Heaven has said it is a good choice, whatever happens, we face it together. There will be challenges. You may find you hate it. You may love it. No matter what, you stick it out until the end of the year. Then we'll reevaluate and see what to do."

It's been 4 weeks now. Not without challenges, but with motivation to learn, to grow, and to do his best. He has made friends and figured out ways to communicate with them. He has come home sad, frustrated, excited, concerned, happy, calm, and angry. There have been bullies and really great friends. In other words, he's having a normal experience. 

Is this what I want for my baby?
     I want him to be happy, engaged, leaning and growing... All of that is happening. Could there be a better place for him out there? Maybe, but for now...he's doing ok.

Is this what he wants?
    Yes...he explored all the options. He decided this for himself. For him, that was really important.

Does he understand what challenges he will face? He does now, and is facing them bravely! 

Will the other kids be nice to him?
Some will, some won't...isn't that true for most kids? We've dealt with that before (Dealing with Bullying) and I love how this little guy responded to the bullies! Stay tuned for my next post for that!

Will he be getting a quality education?
    With 20% of content lost through interpretation even with the best interpreters, some educational value is sacrificed. However, this local school and teacher are using many of the effective strategies that I talked about earlier, and they are challenging and engaging my boy, pushing him on. For 3rd grade, with added support of reading and writing at home, he'll be alright for now. The best answer for every deaf child? I would say, emphatically, no! Those arguments will make this post too long, I'll add it to my list! 

And what of next year? And the year after? I don't know those answers. I guess we have more decisions yet to make. Thank goodness we know the steps to do so.

Our Reading Nook

Have you had a hard time getting your children to read? We decided to arrange our corner into an area where our kids could get away and read. We packed library books into bins and put them next to the couch and purchased some fun chairs to add some excitement. It has also become sort of a 'cool down' space when someone is needing it. Reading has become 'cool' again! 


 

Closed reading nook

   

Open reading nook

Here's what our 10 year old had to say about it: 

Reading in the reading nook

"Having a reading nook is fun. Before we made this reading nook, our family was obsessed with electronics. All day, we would play on Minecraft forever! But, luckily, Mom and Dad intervened. We looked on Pinterest for ideas and we found one:  Reading Nook!!!!!!  "                                                                      

 You could even make your own Reading Nook!

For ALL ages!

**Tips: 

• We used hooks that can stick to the ceiling rather than drilling holes.
•  We used matching top sheets that my kids don't really use.
• We attached the sheet to the hooks with simple clasps,
• I secured the sheets to the middle hook with some quick hand stitches, needle and thread.
• We display children's art in the corner.
• It helps for Mom or Dad to go into the Nook and read too!

Happy Reading!

Our Sensory Table

"Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood." - Fred Rogers

In classic 3rd grade classrooms, you probably would not find a sensory table, but for our home school that we share with a toddler and a 4 year old, we have decided it is a necessity!

Sensory activities allow creative and open-ended play. They allow for problem solving, pretend play, investigation, exploration and experiments. It's also great for a break between activities that require more focus, transition times, and times of stress and anger. For more information on sensory processing and aiding kids with anxiety and anger you can click here: Lemon Lime Adventures

A great resource for more activities (and where I found some of these below): FunAtHomeWithKids.com

Making Color Beans and Pasta

Materials:

jar with a lid or seal-able container

food coloring (we used neon)

beans (pinto or white worked best)

Macaroni or other pasta

wax paper

Procedure:

1. Drop the food color into the jar with the pasta. 

(15 drops to 1 cup pasta/beans)

2. Make sure the lid is on tight and SHAKE!!

3. Pour out onto the wax paper and spread out to dry.

Enjoy!

Add Educational Activities:

Sorting and Labeling: add objects related to your activity, or sort and label the different colors, beans and pasta, etc.

Language Arts: vocabulary and spelling practice, letter identification. Adjectives: make a list of words that describe what is in your sensory table.

Math: count the beans and noodles, group and compare, hide flash cards with math operations.

Science: create a habitat or world inside your sensory table. We're going to use the materials below for a pond/swamp world. We will learn about the animal groups that live there. 

Another great sensory table activity: Kinetic Sand.

Also known as "indoor sand," this is sand that holds together more than natural sand. It is very therapeutic. Adults love playing in it just as much as kids. We've already made sand castles and shapes and messes. Luckily, it's a lot easier to clean up than real sand too!

 

Wait! We're not finished! One more! These are water marbles.        

You can purchase them at Time to Play

They start out tiny!

Put them in a bin and pour water over them.

We had fun watching them grow!

Here they are at full size!

This is one of our FAVORITE sensory activities!***

                                            ***just make sure the little ones don't eat them!

Effective Instructional Strategies Explained... These are the Good Ones!

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted the more ineffective strategies... NOW! For the good ones! Again, as I said in my first post, a BALANCE of the different approaches is needed! Here's the link to the strategies to limit (more Ineffective Strategies)

Whole Language approach: Also called, the “Top to bottom approach,” and is contrasted to a phonics or skills based approach to decoding and spelling. The philosophy here is to focus on meaning and strategy instruction, literature-based or integrated instruction. Many of the next strategies are a part of a whole language philosophy. When looking at second language learners, including Deaf children, this philosophy and approach to language is critical! This one will get its own post…for now this link shows a very basic overview.

A Writing Activity

Readers and Writer’s workshop: Writers engage in reading and writing for their own purposes. Led by the teacher through ‘mini lessons’ the students learning reading and writing strategies while choosing their own reading and writing topics. This is a great explanation! 

 You can also see how I did a mini writer's workshop lesson with my son during the writing of our recent vacation blog. In it I note how I picked two grammar principles to teach during that writing session. After we had done the writing together, he felt confident to write on his own.

Cooperative learning: More than just working in groups, cooperative learning gives each student a chance to fulfill a different role in a group: a leader, a secretary, a moderator, etc. while completing the assigned task. More here

Visuals (SMART boards, pictures, tables, graphs): Visuals are so important for deaf children, it is their primary learning style (even if they are using Auditory Listening Devices (ALDs)). Teachers who use visuals will have an easier time of keeping students’ attention while increasing performance.

Bi-lingual/Tri- modal instruction (English/ASL/speech and listening as needed): Using American Sign Language (ASL) to teach English. More than just using sign language as the ‘mode of communication’ in the classroom, these strategies connect and bridge ASL and English while developing both. The goal is for your child to truly become bilingual in ASL and English. This one needs its own post… and you can find basic explanation here for now. This is one article of how a preschool approach might look.

This is our Sensory table - with spelling words!

Balanced Literacy Approach – Children need read in different ways every day. The teacher should be reading aloud to the class daily in ASL following the 15 principles of Read Alouds . Shared reading happens as the same book, or book type, is read repeatedly and the reading shared between student and teacher, with the teacher modeling and supporting the students as they read. Finally, the students read the SAME book on their own, with confidence.

Hands on Activities: Math manipulatives, science projects, field trips, art, constructing reports on research, creating artifacts. As part of integrated units, hands on activities give the students a way to discover new knowledge or to put their learning into action. Our LegoFraction lesson is one example.

Painting a house as part of our Fire unit.

Integrated Thematic Units: Teachers select a theme around which to base all subjects around. In the Fall math, science and language arts can all relate to the Autumn Season. Basic skills instruction is still built into the daily routine, but the main teaching revolves around the theme. Focus is on depth and world knowledge through whole language learning. Check it out more here.

Development of child’s Native Language (ASL): ASL should be focused on and developed. When bilinguals strengthen their native language, the second language is also strengthened (reference here). Easily added to thematic units, ASL can enrich the learning of any subject. We’ll have some fun examples of this!

Always Reading!

Differentiated Assessments: Rubrics, portfolios, testing on content only (using ASL and oral exams), presentations, projects, writing samples, etc. While standard testing is still required, grades can be determined based on a variety of assessments that not only allow the students to shine in different ways, but also develop a variety of different skills. Find a great explanation here.

Structured routines with strong classroom management: All students thrive off of structured routines and strong classroom management. Class meetings and rules can engage the students in the governing of their own class, encouraging more cooperation. Positive reinforcement for following routines and being engaged in learning is a must.

While this list is extensive and feels overwhelming, as you learn more about a Whole Language approach, you will see how so many of these strategies fall into place. It is my goal to provide you with examples of these strategies and how they might look both in the classroom, and at  home.I'll update this post with links to those examples as they come!

Will a Cut Worm Live?

An impromptu Worm experiment. See what happens when you cut a worm in two!

On our investigation trip to the river, we found a worm!

Effective Instructional Strategies for Deaf Students (and really all students)

I received a message from a reader the other day. He is the father of a deaf son, and he was heartbroken from my post. "So you had him in a Deaf school and it didn't work? And here I'm thinking a Deaf school is what my son needs!" 

Another question from a phone conversation a month back, "What do you look for in a good program or a school for your deaf child? How do I know if it's a good school?" 

This post is my answer. 

No matter what kind of program you decide to place your child:a residential school for the Deaf, a day program, a magnet school, there are some basic strategies that will make or break any program. A classroom teacher that implements effective strategies and an administration that encourages and requires such strategies will be a more successful program.

When we told the IEP team we were bringing my son home, the comments we got were supportive: “My grandsons were all homeschooled.” And this one I love, “School is not for everyone.” Well. My son did great in school until last year. Unfortunately, effective strategies were not used consistently in his classroom. Maybe ‘school’ in the traditional sense of skill and drill isn’t for everyone, but school COULD and SHOULD be for everyone. If we would change a few instructional practices, children would be able to thrive no matter what their ‘special need.’ And all children would benefit. How many 3^rd graders do you know like to sit and do work sheets and independent work all day?

In my work as a teacher of the deaf, and now even more as a parent of deaf children; I have seen what strategies will really engage your students/children, and others that will cause behavior problems, boredom and poor overall achievement. The table below shows ineffective instructional strategies and effective instructional strategies. Keep in mind, the ineffective strategies can be used in instruction; it’s how often they are used and to what extent. We all need a little skill and drill to practice and retain information, but too much is too much! Each Strategy will be summarized in my next post (this one is getting too long). I’ll be including posts on examples of many as we do activities here at home that match the strategies. 

The overuse of strategies found in the left column and the absence of strategies in the right, and the effect it was having on my child, is what finally caused me to take him out of school and start home school. 

My advice for parents looking for a good program for their child? 

1. Tour the school while school is in session, observing the teachers and the students during instructional time.
2. Review the school's language policy and philosophy. Use this, but don't base everything on it. For example, Utah's language policy is decades old, and their actual classroom practices in the elementary grades are much better then their language policy implies.
3. Interview the administration, teachers and staff. Question the use of the effective strategies listed on the right. What is the administration's commitment to making sure these are carried out in the classroom?
4. Try to find another parent in the area that has a child attending the school. (This might be tricky) - or review the school's website and reviews online.
5. Search for videos the school may have produced. I know some great schools are out there because of the videos they have published on YouTube. Check out these! Animals in ASL by California School for the Deaf Riverside.      Wizard of Oz by Florida School for the Deaf,  

 I'd be happy to be a "sounding board" for your questions concerning programs you are considering! Leave me a comment or email me: oilsempowerparents@gmail.com

Lego Fractions!

While on Facebook one day, we saw the idea of teaching fractions with Legos. Awesome! Here is our take on it! By the way, this is a fabulous way to do a math journal! He was way motivated to share his learning with someone! Thanks for watching!

One Lego block equals one whole and has 8 dots. It can also be written as 8 or 4  . 
                                                                                                               8      4
A half block has 4 dots and can be written as 4 or 1.
                                                                8     2
All together it is 1 1.
                         2

1 whole when cut in half vertical is same horizontal because both have 4 dots, and equals 1/2 or  4/8.
                                                                                                                               
A block with two dots equals 1/4 or 2/8.
                                      
Add both parts together: 4/8+ 2/8 = 6/8 so 2/4 +1/4  = 6/8 or 3/4.
                               

You can count your fractions with Legos too:

the blue is 1/4, the green 2/4 or 1/2, the gray + red is 3/4  and the pink is 4/4 or 1 whole.
              

Thanks for watching me! I hope you have fun with fractions! Have a good day!

Starting Home School!

If you've followed my blog: Powerful Parents, you'll know that I am a teacher of the deaf and am passionate about teaching deaf children. I am also the parent of 4 amazing, beautiful, smart children. One can hear (is hearing) and the other 3 are deaf.

After a year and a half of struggling in school, I did it, I brought him home. Read about how that journey started here.

Here's what happened. Christmas break ended and he went back to school. Everyday was a fight to get homework done. He started missing privileges, then started acting out more at home. Martin Luther King day - no school. Then Tuesday he came home a wreck. He was out of control and I knew something was wrong. I just looked at him and asked, "What happened?"  He actually let me hug him and replied, "It's been an awful day."

When I finally got the chance to sit down with him, after all the hustle and bustle of the afternoon, I simply asked him to tell me how he was feeling. He answered, "panicked." We had recently discussed different emotions and the idea of "panic" and "paranoia." It was an emotion we had recently identified and that he knew he had felt before. He was telling me, "I'm stressed out. I don't feel safe." Other emotions we identified as we talked: frustration, boredom, feeling restricted (creatively).

Future blog posts are going to explore some of these emotions and what in his school environment could have attributed to that. I've been asked what to look for in a good school/classroom for a deaf child. That will be a post later this week.

SO.... I finally said enough, is enough. Today started day 1 of home-school and it's going to be an adjustment. However, he is excited and I guess that's saying something. At the moment he is leading a language arts activity with my pre-schooler. The classic activity labeling items in the house. You might hear from other sources that this isn't the best activity to do, however I have found it extremely useful in my house. It's a fabulous literacy activity. He is spelling words and learning some root words, while my pre-schooler is doing letter recognition, as well as object identification and pre-literacy.


Make your labels with your child, instead of doing it and then just placing them around.

 Labels for items in your house.

Simple steps to maximize the benefit of Labels in your house!

1. Pick which objects to label.
2. Sign and fingerspell the objects with your child.
3. Type or print them on durable paper. My over achiever laminated them with clear contact paper.
4. Fingerspell the word again as you place your labels.
5. If your child is already in the word recognition phase, you could put out two words, fingerspell the correct word and have them choose the correct label.
6. Refer back to the labels during daily routines, fingerspelling and signing the name of the objects frequently.

What else do we have in store today?

A Science project that I found in my fridge this morning: we will be investigating mold. Since he's never been involved with a Science Fair, we are going to do the whole big bang project and take it to other home-schooled students in our neighborhood.

Other great ideas I have: Lego fractions!

Our reading workshop and language arts theme will be all around Harry Potter and Heroes. We are reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets right now. So in light of this new adventure and the many ideas that I have been asked for, I'm starting a new blog featuring my 3 deaf children, homeschool, language and literacy activities as well as parenting tips and great support ideas for parents of deaf children & even health and wellness! Put your email in to follow and join our journey!