Again, this is a continuation from my post about homemade Christmas gifts. This post highlights the book Abbey made for JoJo, who was into Indians at the time, and particularly, his bow and arrow. My creative daughter is SO clever.
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Posted in Family, Interests, Reading, Unschooling, Writing
As a continuation from my previous post about homemade Christmas gifts, here is the complete book that Abbey gave to William when he was really into being a knight (click on each to get larger, I think). How she does these is to ask the boys to pose in different ways with different faces that she directs, but she doesn’t tell them what it will be for, though they know the subject, obviously. Then, she finds images online and cuts out the photos and superimposes them and/or glues them onto the page. She then puts each page into a page saver and binds it.
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Posted in Family, Interests, Reading, Unschooling, Writing
Several homeschool bloggers have been talking about what Christmas gifts to get their children, including homemade ones, such as at Magic and Mayhem and at Tricotomania. So, I decided to share a great idea from my creative daughter for her brothers for Christmas pasts that have been true favorites from each boy who has received it.
Adam is her brother with autism who loves alphabet books and numbers. So, here are three that have been made and a glimpse inside:
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Another brother with autism loves our cats, and even has created personalities for each one: Socks is the patriarch and wise one, Xena is the tough warrier female cat (yes, her name fits perfectly), Sunflash is the large, fluffy wimp and Momma’s boy, Belle is the prissy female that loves to be beautiful, and Toby is the young rogue thinking he’s all that. This brother was just into reading short chapter books, so she put her great writing skills to work and created one for each cat with a moral to the story. Alex still references the lessons learned in these books as he grows within his (literal) outlook on life.
Last, Abbey made books for her younger brothers who love to pretend all sorts of things. I will make two more posts highlighting in detail two of the more recent books where she really got good at this particular style. In the meantime, here are a few more in the same genre:
Our family decided to wait to vote on the “official day” of voting; the first Tuesday of November. That’s because our two oldest children were able to cast their first votes in a presidential election. Abbey went with her father this morning at 7:00 a.m.; a five-minute wait. Eric and I went at 9:30 a.m. with no wait. This was the first time I was able to use a computerized voting system; it was pretty cool. WeTo understand the actual mode of action of this amino acid, L-Arginine facilitates the body cheap viagra to produce nitric oxide which relaxes the blood vessels in the reproductive organ and allows more blood supply to cause an erection. all wore our “I Voted” stickers and will be eagerly watching the results.
I feel each candidate for President has his pros and cons. I went with what I felt was most important overall. Whoever wins, I look to hope for what that person brings for the positive and hope for the best with his negatives. I am proud to live in the promised land of America and pray that Heavenly Father continues to bless us.
Posted in Family, Uncategorized
Abbey laughed when she saw my previous post with the words “senior pictures” in quotes. That’s because our “senior picture” timing is quite different from the mainstream tradition. First, it seems to happen around 19 some time because that’s when the shift seems to occur for my children in moving away from the home-based lifestyle.
Let me back it up a bit more than that. It goes back to that age-old question we hear all the time as parents of school-aged children, “What grade are you in?” My children have never known how to answer that question; heck, I’ve never known how to answer that question. Just yesterday, I took my 17-year-old son, Eli, and my 7-year-old son, Joseph, to get their medical physicals done. One of the questions: “What grade are you in?” Joseph immediately said, “kindergarten.” He has said that for three years now . . . LOL! Because he heard that “Oh, are you going to kindergarten, question, so often at 5, it has stuck with him as the answer to the question. It works for now 🙂 For Eli, we looked at each other, and said, “I don’t know, are you a senior? Are you a college student? Put, first year college student.” He’s taking community college classes this year as he has been my child that has desired college since he was probably 14. We have mapped out “a plan” that should work very well for him with his strengths and weaknesses. He’s excited. But, we both still consider him a home-based learner, though he takes community college classes . . .
. . . he isn’t ready to transition yet out of the home. And that is what seems to constitute my idea of “senior picture” time and/or “graduation time”. Because I don’t have “criteria” for them to pass in order to be out of our homeschool, because we don’t grade or test, because we don’t sift and sort, we have allowed life to let us know when we feel a desire to celebrate a new beginning. And that seems to be when each child is ready to transition away from home, whether short-term or long-term.
For instance, Eli was more than ready to take community college classes, but he views it as the next step of his learning path from home. Abbey was tentatively ready to work full time last January, but also viewed it as the next step of her life journey living and learning from home. Neither of these indicated a “transition” from their home-based life learning path.
This past summer, Abbey decided suddenly that she was ready to pursue a college track and desired to leave home to seek her adult path. Her eyes were set for leaving in January. So, that prompted me to schedule her “senior pictures”. Because I set a precedent with her older brother, I went all out with a local professional photographer where she could change outfits and bring in “props” that represented her personality and style. Here is the pictorial result:
This is the pose she chose as the picture she will send to everyone. She has always been a casual-type of gal, so she loved the color and being outdoors; both of which reflect her personality.It is estimated that sex health dysfunction affects more than 40% of men appalachianmagazine.com viagra price ignore consulting doctor for impotence treatment, and most of the affected individuals are above 40 years may encounter this problem and it may increase the risk of drug reactions.
This is the pose, obviously, with her guitar, but she thought her particular style of jewelry, which she doesn’t wear often (neither do I), would go well together. Though she says she looks like a “rocker chick”, she and I know it is actually reflective of a different style altogether that is all “Abbey”.
These are two of her bestest friends: Precious (on the left) and Spencer (on the right). This was at the end of the shoot, and the dogs weren’t that thrilled (Precious was highly suspicious of the photographer!), we were able to capture this moment that Abbey liked the most, though her smile was not typical, it still reflected a natural moment from her perspective. I chose a different pose that had it’s pros and cons. There were also a couple other outfit/poses that we chose for various reasons. Overall, she had a lot of fun and found shots that we could be excited about as reflective of who she is.
Because she didn’t make the October 1 deadline, she has been postponed to enter college in the spring (though she’s looking now to postpone to summer for logical reasons) (more on this in another post). So, we may postpone sending out the transition/graduation announcement until closer to her time to leave. As always, Abbey took the postponement with grace and optimism. Everything happens for a reason!
Posted in Adulthood, Beginnings, College, Family, Unschooling
Abbey chose to have me as one of her “special things” as part of her “senior pictures” portfolio. I’m so blessed to have a daughter who is my best friend. I believe it is because of both how I parented her and the relationship I put first and foremost, as well as the beautiful spirit she is inside. I believe my choice to homeschool was one of the reasons my relationship with each of my children is so incredible. The other is my choice to be a respectful and gentle parent as much as I could create. I wasn’t afraid to say sorry, and I consistently shared my own weaknesses with my children as they were learning and growing on their own journeys. It seemed to give them strength and courage.
As much as I did my part, it was also easy to do with my birth children because of the sensitive and natural compassion they were born with. In other words, they were really naturally respectful children. I have had to struggle more with my adopted children as they have more “normal” tendencies toward bickering, fighting, teasing, and destruction. They have allowed me the opportunity to heal more of my own negative past experiences as well as develop deeper strength in areas in order to be the respectful and gentle parent they deserve. There has been need of many more apologies from me to them.But has anyone considered why that remains the case? In today’s world most women are perennially over worked as they try to find a right balance between successful career and a happy order cialis icks.org married life.
But, I digress. My mother gave me “the curse”: that I might have a daughter just like me. I’m sorry she and I never had the environment and relationship in order to have something more than we did. However, my daughter and I do have a lot of similarities, and because of different choices I have made, and the amazing person Abbey is and has chosen to develop, I absolutely adore my daughter. May everyone have the opportunity for this same “blessing”
Posted in Adulthood, Family, Homeschooling, Unschooling
While in my 20s and younger, whenever I got a headache, I could sleep it off. It was my preference as for some reason, I was not too keen on medication for the most part. But, if I used it, I could use Tylenol and it would knock it out. Well, some time in my 30s and since then, Tylenol and sleeping it off no longer worked on my headaches. Somehow, I found that Extra Strength Excedrin was the only medicine that could take care of my headaches.
Well, around that same time, I would have periodic insomnia. Interestingly, it always seemed to coincide with headaches and an edginess with dizziness. Believe it or not, after all these years (I’m 43 years old now), only in the past couple months did I figure out that it all probably has to do with the caffeine in Excedrin! What a DUH moment that was . . . LOL! Obviously, my body is really sensitive to added caffeine and it immediately makes me wide awake as well as “wired”. Now, the side effect, as I mentioned a while ago here, it can be a great source of inspiration in my writing as well as just plain good brainstorming happening about the needs of my family as I lie there.
On the flip side, I have also noticed that my reaction to chocolate, one of my favorite “needs” over the years, has shifted in the past year. I’m not sure it has to do with the natural caffeine in it or not, since the reaction is different from the man-added caffeine as mentioned above, or if its the sugar I’m more senstive to. But, now within the hour of eating a Dove chocolate, I’ll crash and burn if I slow down at all. The sleep it induces, though, leaves me in quite the stuper throughout, though, so it’s certainly not restful. So, now I’m looking to decide how important my chocolate need is to my sanity versus the sleep stuper it induces 🙂All the Erectile Dysfunction Drugs work in a http://appalachianmagazine.com/category/news-headlines/?filter_by=review_high discount viagra similar combination.
I’m looking forward to having another burst at my blog again. Each stretch of time differs, so time will tell with this one. I hope by writing in this style versus my seasons for being active on my e-mail lists it will encourage my completion of my book about right-brained learners. I have four chapters done to some level on that one and look forward to reaching my goal of December 31 to have it done.
I already shared about our fabulous connecting time with my Grandma Draney and all the Draney siblings this past Saturday, but now it’s time to share about the Friday before and the opportunity we had to connect with my hubby’s brothers and their families.
While dropping off our oldest son on his mission last year, we were able to visit one of Weston’s brothers out in Utah, Ben, and meet his new wife and children for the first time. They were able to come this past weekend as well. We were able to get together with Weston’s other brother, David, though, after not seeing them since 1996! (They were being expatriates in Malaysia last year when we were there.) We had been able to meet up with one of their daughter’s, Malaina, during the mission drop-off trip, and meet their youngest daughter, Christina, on a trip she took out here to see her grandparents, but it had been too long for everyone else (including their first daughter, Jordan).
Here are the three (of the five total) Gaddis brothers (Ben/fifth born, David/first born, Weston/second born):
Here are the brothers and we sisters-in-law (two of us are Cindy’s!):
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Now, what’s interesting about the next picture is that the Gaddis reproduction gene tends to favor the male species. In total, there are 5 Gaddis brothers and 2 Gaddis sisters. So far, they have produced 11 boy cousins and 6 girl cousins (plus, by adoption/marriage, another 2 boy cousins and 1 girl cousin). In this picture of cousins visiting this past weekend, they are all girls (we were only missing my daughter and a Gaddis girl daughter). Here they are in all their beauty:
It was the first day of the weekend that kicked off incredibly. Amazing days of connection with long-lost family! I hope it won’t be that far apart again. We’re intending to not let that happen 🙂
Posted in Family
I’ve not done a post like this, but have had some fun and/or informative reading choices lately, so thought I would share. The book series I’m reading aloud to the littles is this:
I’m one of those people who don’t like to reread things, and during the season of my two older children and their read aloud focus time, I had fun going crazy through tons of classic children’s literature. Now, I find myself having a harder time getting motivated finding good read alouds. To me, a good read aloud holds the children’s interest, but also MY interest. I just love how these authors wove their story about how “Peter Pan” and all the players, stories, relationships, locations, and personalities came to be. I find myself rushing to read aloud time again. I highly recommend it!
As for the reading I’m doing in order to benefit from it as it pertains to applying to a child circumstance, I’m reading this:
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I have several children on the autism spectrum and/or shadow syndrome level in the teen/young adult stage, and learning the social skills necessary to find their place in the world has been at the forefront for several of them. So, I’ve been buying social skill type of books up a storm. And, as we all know, there are more “no goods” than “goods”. I will highly recommend this book! It is not exactly a how-to, but it is real, hands-on, discussion about what life is really like living it and trying to understand it. It is broken down into ten “must know” social “rules”, but more what I would call social attributes.
I’ll try to go through a few of the chapters on my blog in the near future and share how it pertains to some of my children, the conversations we’ve had, and the ideas we’ve come up with in integrating the awareness created. I think “social skills” as it pertains to the “real and important aspects of it” is harder to teach, but is more a discussion point in talking over all the scenarios that have been lived, and may continue to come up, and the perspective the child has on it and/or needs to have with it, and creating enough history with each attribute in order to feel either proficient with it or at least enough awareness and strategies created to make it work for you.
Clear as mud?
A great site called Free Range Kids helps me feel right at home in how I think about raising my children. I found this link at The Learning Umbrella from her post called Do Your Children Get Enough Danger.
Here is a quote from the site:
Another mom castigated me for my irresponsibility and proudly said that she doesn’t even let her daughter go to the mailbox in her upscale Atlanta neighborhood. There’s just too much “opportunity” for the girl to be snatched and killed. To her, I’m the crazy mom.
I just moved from a neighborhood like the one described here in Atlanta. Here’s a general picture of it with its nicely manicured lawns and matching Bartlett pear trees and white mailboxes. (Funny story: When we first moved in, we were “required” to purchase the matching mailbox signage at the price of $75. I refused for several months because of the overpriced conformity. They didn’t know what to do with me. Good thing I didn’t require the whole mailbox; that would have been $300!)
Anyway, a few months prior to us finding the perfect country home to move to, we were officially complained against by an anonymous neighbor. The charges:
She lets her children go barefoot; sometimes even in the winter. Guilty.
She lets her children climb dangerous things. Guilty.
She lets her children ride their bikes in the road. Guilty.
She lets her children near the pond. Guilty.
She lets her autistic children near the road. Guilty.
It’s crazy it even had to be investigated. My sin? Not being a “helicopter mother”, hovering over her children at all times, like everyone else does in the neighborhood.
The dangerous things referred to were maybe our tall front tree, but probably the idea that we let them climb into any construction equipment that is nearby under our supervision. We feel it is better to let them do these things with us then sneak and do them without us.
Tractor boys:
Sometimes, they get lucky:
Taking the controls:
Going up:
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The road they ride their bikes on and that my children with autism (yep, I don’t keep them caged!) are near is a cul-de-sac in front of our house. When I discussed this with one neighbor, she felt that I should always be watching them. I do keep tabs out the window, but it wasn’t good enough from her perspective. Of course, she admitted to not knowing how to parent seven children . . . ah, yeah.
Needless to say, moving to 15 acres in the country has been a freeing experience for all of us! No more neighbors deciding what is right for my children (considering none of the things listed above was illegal), and letting my boys grow up free range. I don’t want fear to dictate their childhoods. Here’s a picture of what our view is out our front door:
To take people back to when I first made a conscientious decision about raising my children free range, as I was raised, I share these quotes from the above site:
Not that facts make any difference. Somehow, a whole lot of parents are just convinced that nothing outside the home is safe. At the same time, they’re also convinced that their children are helpless to fend for themselves. While most of these parents walked to school as kids, or hiked the woods — or even took public transportation — they can’t imagine their own offspring doing the same thing.
I noticed this especially when we moved to the neighborhood I referenced above eight years ago. There was such fear and for a moment, I was going to get sucked into it. I remember when the actual decision came for me to make. My only daughter came to me and let me know that she was going to take her dog and explore in the woods across the neighborhood, and she would be back. She wasn’t asking, but letting me know because it never occurred to her that it wouldn’t be okay. But I hesitated and asked her to hold on a minute. She had justed turned 11 years old.
Fear told me to say no, but as I have been known to do throughout my parenting and unschooling life, I questioned that reaction. And, it was a reaction. I recalled my carefree days as a child. I knew I had equipped my children with intelligent wariness, but not fear. Was there a middle ground with this? So, I decided right then and there that I wanted my children to have fun and adventurous childhoods, without fear, but equipped with awareness. I asked her for two things: One was to always let me know where she would be and about when she would be home. The other was to be aware of any non-resident people (there were a lot of houses being built with many construction vehicles and other personnel all the time) being aware of her comings and goings and simply take another route into the woods if she saw this type of “stranger”.
She did this exploring for several years without incident, without fear, but with awareness. She has EXTREMELY fond memories of that time insomuch that when we were going to leave the area, she documented the area she called “Mye Creek”.
Now, we have 15 acres, 10 in woods, creeks, critters, etc. that beckon my two youngest. Do I limit them, or equip them with awareness and enjoy their adventures related each day? I say the latter. I ask that they stay within calling distance, but if they want to venture further out, to take walkie talkies, leaving one with me. Admittedly, these two are still learning, and they tend to act in the moment and disappear for an hour or two at a time. But, if we can’t enjoy our own chosen “relatively safe” property, then where can we?
I end with this quote:
They have lost confidence in everything: Their neighborhood. Their kids. And their own ability to teach their children how to get by in the world. As a result, they batten down the hatches.
I understand there are always risks, but they are calculated. I won’t raise my children in fear. I chose the educational method I use because I wanted to continue the trust and respect we enjoy as a family, and I raise my children in the same vein; because I DO have confidence in our ability to collaborate in learning what is needed to get by in this world.
Oh, oh, driving cars may have to go on the sin roll . . . LOL!:
Posted in Family, My Opinions