Sunday, January 11, 2009

Life

My life has seemed pretty straightforward lately. With all this darkness and rain we've been having around here, I've felt a struggle to spark my own creativity and excitement about each day. Yet, we've been having good days. The girls and I got into school this week.

Rachel showed progress in her reading. I kept my work with her really short. A reader of my blog suggested that she might be a right brained reader. I read some about that and a brief synopsis is that right brain learners like to go from the big picture to the small details - or from whole to parts. Repitition turns them off. They are also often late bloomers - not really reading till 7 or 8. So I read some phonics readers with her throughout the week. This time what I did was I read them - then pointed out some phonics here and there.

Natalie faithfully did her work as always. She takes forever on her Saxon math. I like Saxon math because I think it is good and solid. I know about Math U See, I just prefer Saxon. I'm just always surprised how long she takes - because she knows the answers and she is always curious about the new steps. Part of the time she takes I think is drawing the pictures. She is totally the artist and when they ask her to draw a picture, it is a full out drawing that she makes. Then, we do copywork, we read books, she plays her violin. If we are lucky we do some science experiment she reads about or we crack open our science text. It seems a challenge to move forward what with her constant desire to play or talk to her baby sister or stare out the window, and with the activity going on in our house with a one and a five year old. Yet, Natalie is smart and is so obviously learning, that I feel I shouldn't sweat not "getting that much done".

This week we also took a trip to the E.R. Now, before you think this was a big deal...I must ask you, have you ever taken your child into the E.R. and after you've gotten there and gotten settled in - thought I shouldn't have brought her here. Yet, how did I know. She had really intense abdominal pain and she was screaming and shaking. She didn't point to her right side, but I have heard that sometimes kids are really poor self-reporters about where the pain comes from. And her sister did have a ruptured appendix two years ago - all the while I was asking myself, "should I take her to the E.R.?" In the end, Rachel just had some bowel issues and possibly a mild UTI. I have to go to the doctor this week. I'm also getting some tests run on Rachel this week. She's been back on wheat for a month. Even if the tests come back negative, I'm taking her back off of wheat. She is totally worse on wheat. This time I've tracked her symptoms on an Excel spreadsheet - and it makes it really clear to me that regardless of what the tests say, she has issues with wheat.

 

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