Cate's Spelling Homework (Day 7 of 31/21)

A couple days ago I detailed Cate's school schedule so it seemed right to follow that up with a post on homework.  Homework is both the bane of my existence and an excellent tool to help Cate.  The difference is completely up to Cate.  Some nights the 15 minutes of 1st grade homework take 20 minutes, some nights it take an hour, some night it falls in the middle somewhere.  Our routine on the nights we don't have a therapy or an activity after school is to come home after picking up both girls, do chores, let the girls watch 15 minutes of TV while eating a snack, then do homework and play outside before dinner.  On the nights with an after school commitment we try to do homework as soon as we get home.  For Cate it is important that we have a dedicated place to do homework so my parents refinished and painted the old desk set that I had as a kid and we put it the kitchen. 

 

I took some of Ric's old baseball card holders and made them into sleeves to put spelling word flash cards in.  I did Velcro attachments to the wall behind her desk so we can move them around. 
The ability to move the flash cards around adds a motion to her homework that can help keep the fidgeting down.  Normally when we do the writing spelling words multiple times I will take them all down from the wall then have her choose one to write by putting it in the center spot.  Then after she writes it 3 times she moves it down the line and puts up her next one.  It think for Cate this process works much better then just trying to get her to sit still and write a word 3 times. 

Cate's spelling word cards - one is pink because it was a hold over from the previous week.

Normally the nightly homework fall into a pattern - a spelling activity, a math activity, and reading a book.  The teacher allows me to modify the homework assignment to fit Cate's level.  Like for the spelling portion, we modify to included only the 5 words she has been assigned (from the 10 the rest of the class is tested on).  So for example the spelling portion for the whole class Wednesday & Thursday was 5 scrambled spelling words each night.  I modified that to one night of writing each of her 5 words 3 times and one night of scrambles for her 5 words.  Last night was the scrambles which was fun because it was a new activity for us.  I left the word cards up and then gave her a little nudge like "look there is w and a th, which word has both", but she had to actually pick the correct word and write it on the line.  She was so proud when she finished the scramble portion.  So this was definitely a learning opportunity because not only was she working on the spelling words, I was able to help her with some strategy for that type of activity. 

Since that portion went so well, we did a little extra spelling - a practice spelling test.  The words this week have been a huge struggle for us because when Cate sees a "th" she says "they, regardless of what the word should be.  She is jumping to a conclusion on that combination for some reason. So a spelling list that includes this, that, and then was not easy for either of us.  I would get very frustrated because every time I showed her a card she'd say "they", then I'd say "no it is this, see the is at the end", then I'd show her the card again immediately and she'd say "they".  You get the picture.  The first night we normally work on reading the spelling words and writing them, she normally can read all 5 the next night.  This week come Tuesday she couldn't read any of them consistently, I was truly worried she might get a zero on this weeks test.  But to my surprise after the scramble assignment the practice test went great.  She got all 5 right with very little hesitation!!!  That doesn't not necessarily mean she will do well on the test but it is at least hope she can.

Cate is turning on her brain!

I'll update when I find out about the spelling test later today!

*** update - Cate got an 80% on the spelling test that week - she missed "then" by spelling it "thin"!! so all our work is not for nothing!

Just so you won't be too bored I'll do math and reward system in a separate post!!

Outside Playhouses (Day 6 of 31/21)

A couple pictures of the girls playing outside in the fabulous weather!  They were pretending to be neighbors.  I didn't think the houses would keep them occupied for very long but I was suprised and an hour later they were still outside.  Of course when I told them they could take baby doll and a couple toys outside then loaded up their backpacks with all kinds of randome items.   I put their lunches in their school lunch boxes and let them have picnics in their new homes.  Super cute sister action that day!!!

 

 

Have a great weekend!!!

The Blog Hop - A Defining Moment (Day 5 of 31/21)

If you are coming here via the blog hop - Hello and Welcome!  My name is Lisa and I am the proud mother of Cate, age 6 who was blessed with an extra chromosome and Lucy, age 3 who gets to struggle with food allergies.  This  blog is mostly dedicated to showing others how normal our life with a special needs child is on a day to day basis.   OK so I can't tell a lie the real reason is I can't stop bragging about my amazing daughter.  Cate changed my life when she was born.  I entered the world of special needs totally unprepared and she lead the way without missing a beat.  I've learned so much from her and continue to every day.

If you are one of my regular readers let me explain "The Blog Hop".
The Blog Hop is hosted by a fellow DS Blogger Momma from "With A Little Moxie".  This description is an except from her:

First things first: What is a Blog Hop?

A blog hop is when bloggers enter their url and blog name in a “linky”, which comes up as a collected list. From there, bloggers click and follow other members on the list to read their posts.

  A blog hop is a pretty fantastic way of meeting new bloggers, connecting with friends from your niche.

 

Each time she hosts a blog hop she provides an optional prompt to get other bloggers thinking.  For this first blog hop for October she suggested two options - re-post a favorite from the first week of 31 for 21 or think about the topic "A Defining Moment".  The minute I read the second option I thought of my post from Cate's kindergarten graduation so I'm going to re-post that here for this blog hop.  This was a defining moment for me because it was the first time I'd truly shared Cate's gift of love with a large group of strangers.  Cate had been making her own way in the kindergarten world and on this day she showed all of us that she had truly started growing up but that it wasn't going to change her loving nature.  Take a look!  Hope you come back to see me again soon!

"when did I become a crier?"  re post from 5/22/12

The title should probably be "Kindergarten Graduation of a child with Down Syndrome" so I'd fall into the blog search land and get more hits but the fact that Cate has DS had absolutely nothing to do with today. She graduated kindergarten with a regular class just like all the other 5/6 year olds. Not one of them cared she was born with a diagnosis - they only care she is their friend Cate. Don't you love that???

I guess I shouldn't ask a question I know the answer to - I became a crier on 12/22/2005. I never cried in public much before Cate was born. Not at weddings, even my own wedding, barely at the very few funerals I'd been too - I guess tears were just not me. Then came Cate and a diagnosis of Down Syndrome. Those first days included a lot of tears, but ones of sorrow I hate to admit. I had no idea then that I was opening the flood gates to so many episodes of happy tears. I still don't think of myself as a crier so today I went to Cate's kindergarten graduation without a Kleenex or even a napkin. Of course Cate had to show me - she had me all but sobbing! I promise photos & maybe some more video tomorrow but I can't wait to show you a tiny bit of the video right now.

Cate's school is amazing! I have no idea how those kindergarten teachers did it but they had a perfect performance of 100 kids. Not one ran off the stage, no one cried, everyone seemed to know the words & motions. Now this isn't just for one song - it was 5 songs, like I said AMAZING. The kids were so adorable as they sang "I will Survive", "Kindergarten Rap" & "1st Grade Here I come". These brave teachers even did something very special. All the kindergartners walk across a little bridge to symbolized their crossing to 1st grade. As they got to the middle each one stopped at a microphone, said their name and what they learned in kindergarten before finishing the crossing - and they did it, every single one of them. They said things like "I learned to read", "I learned math", "I learned to make friends". Cate never did it once in practice over the last month. Her para-pro, Ms L, said she was still refusing when they were lined up on stage today, saying "I'm not talking". So when it was Cate's turn, Ms L walked with Cate to the microphone prepared to say her name when she froze. Cate of course changed her mind as usual - instead of freezing she turned to Ms. L and said "I don't need you" and pointed to the side of the stage. Well, I'll let you see the rest for yourself - turn up the volume on this one and I'll get my tissue ready this time.

Cate's speech was perfectly clear in person but in case you had trouble on the recording she said "Hello, my name is Cate and I love my family, my mommy, my daddy, my grandma, my grandpa and my sister. I love them and my grandparents."
OK so she didn't do what she was suppose to and say what she learned in kindergarten but as she always does - she spoke from her heart. I am not ashamed to admit I had tears streaming down my face (thank you to the lady next to me who handed me a napkin - bless you) but our family wasn't the only one shedding a tear, there were many misty eyes in that room.

How can you not love this girl? She is just the BEST!!!
 

Cate's school day (Day 4 - 31/21)

I hear it over and over when talking to moms about kindergarten or now 1st grade - school is a completely different thing now then when we were kids.  Seriously, I went to a half day kindergarten that included a snack and nap time.  We learned colors, ABC's, numbers.  Cate went to kindergarten from 8:15 - 3:10, 5 days a weeks.  She was expected to know colors, count to 10, say her ABC's and know basic shapes before she even started.  Her kindergarten standards included reading 50 sight words, identifying coins by value and name, patterns, three dimensional shapes, and so much more.  I'm not sure if I wish I had been introduced to this foreign land before Cate entered it with special needs or if I'm lucky I get some extra guidance in the process - it pretty much a toss up.    As I've mentioned before we were incredibly lucky to have a special needs pre-K teacher, Ms. Beth, that not only did an amazing job of teaching Cate things way beyond our expectations but who stood up for Cate and insisted she belonged in a general ed classroom.  We were lucky that kindergarten went relatively well, outside some minor behavioural issues and the necessary adjustments to make it a good situation for all involved.  So before this year Cate's excellent situation included a lot of luck and pressure from me who didn't really understand how much more intense kindergarten is in today's world.  First grade is a different story because now I know more, understand more and the school knows Cate so they better understand her potential.   Cate's current classroom situation was not pure luck, it took several people a lot of time and care to perfect the perfect balance of a general education experience to challenge her while giving her social opportunities with typical peers and making sure she learns enough at an appropriate pace without too much frustration.  I've answered the question about Cate's school situation a hundred times to both special needs parents who are looking at options themselves and typical parents who are just curious so I thought I'd detail her day here.

 First a couple definitions: 
.. "general education" or "gen ed" means a regular old first grade classroom with a teacher who is not certified to work with special needs (although ours happens to be by coincidence)
.. Ms B is Cate's general ed teacher so when you see this Cate is participating in a typical classroom
.. "with Ms. L" means that there is a special needs para-professional in the classroom with the teacher who can modify work for Cate as necessary, refocus her if she is having trouble staying on task, and pull her aside for special instruction if she is having issues or for testing. 
.. "Small Group" means that Cate leaves the general education classroom to go to a different room where a group of 5-6 other children who are below the 1st grade norm are learning.  Most of these kids have special needs of some kind but are in general education for part of their day.
.. "Specials" are the non-academic classes -  Music, Art, PE and in our school Drama & Dance
.. "Guided Reading" what it sounds like, it takes place in the regular classroom but the kids are broken down into smaller groups by reading level and they work on targeted books individually and as a group

Cate's Schedule
7:45 - 8:30    Breakfast, morning work (Ms. B)
8:30 - 9:20    Math (Ms. B)
9:20 - 10:10  Reading (Ms. B with Ms. L support)
10:10 - 10:55 Specials
11:05 - 11:35  Lunch
11:30 - 12:20  Small Group Math
           11:50 - 12:35  Dance (Monday)
12:20 - 1:00  Writing (Ms. B with Ms. L support)
            12:00 - 12:45  Computer Lab (Thursday)
1:00 - 1:45  Guided Reading (Ms. B with Ms L support)
1:45 - 2:15  Snack/Recess
2:15 - 3:00  Small Group Reading
Speech Therapy  Monday, Weds, Friday for 30 minutes  (out of classroom in a group of 2 or 3)

So what this basically shows is that Cate's day pretty intense.  She spends almost 80% of the day in a typical classroom with her peers.  We are not naive - this will not always be the case.  As Cate progresses in school at a slower rate than her peers she will spend less time in a gen ed setting and more time in a small group or self contained special education class.  And you  know what - that is OK.  If you would have asked me two years ago I would have been horrified at the idea of Cate having to be in a special education class.  Now after a year plus I have seen how amazing special education teacher can be and how many options are out there.  Cate is going to be fine - we are going to keep her in a balanced situation and try to provide an environment that allows her to meet academic and social goals that are appropriate for her.
The only way to close this post is - Thank God for awesome teachers!

Cate and Reading (Day 3 of 31/21)

For those of you that read yesterday's post - the Daisy meeting was not a great success.  The problem was as expected, all the talk and coloring did not hold her attention but overall she was pretty good except for some whining that she was done and wanted to go home.  We'll try again at the next meeting in two weeks and follow through until the holidays then I'll give her a choice of whether to stay or move on from this activity.

I love to read and I always have.  Actually with me it can get to obsession levels, when I am reading a great book (or even a good trashy one) I can't think about anything else until its done so I stay up way too late and let the chores go.   I have been really lucky because Cate has been fascinated with books since she was an infant.  We have read to hear every night since she was born and she still gravitated to books even if she is stacking them instead of reading them. 

To me reading is one of the most important things in our lives right now.  We love Cate being in a typical classroom, I think it is so important for her future to keep her there as long as possible.   Reading is the key for her now, if she can't read at grade level even next year in second grade she can't easily be in general ed for so many subjects like science, social studies, even health.  I did not start sight words with Cate early, she started with 15 words in her pre-K classroom at 4 years old.  We continued working hard on sight words with her kindergarten learning all 50 words from their list by the end of last year.  Right now Cate is way above 80 but quite a few of those aren't on the official sight words list.  We've let sight words slip as we focus on actual reading, as most kids in her class are doing.  The teacher did an evaluation of all the kids in her class and rated them based on an A to Z system they are using.  Cate rated at a solid "A" while the 1st grade norm is a "D".  But even in the few weeks since then I've seen her get better and better.  She is still in the memorization & decoding with pictures stage but she is gaining confidence all the time.  I have great hopes she will continue to improve and get mostly caught up this year.  Every night the kids bring home a book from their reading group, so for Cate either an "A" or "B" level book.  Sometimes she might have read this in class with her reading group so it could be some memorization but I never know that for sure so when I saw this a couple nights ago, I grabbed my phone and caught a few seconds of her reading.  This was the first time I'd seen her read this book (if you are getting this in an email you might need to go to the site to see it - its only about 30 seconds since was already reading when I started recording and the face at the end is priceless):

 

I'm don't remember the level on this book but it was either a harder A or a B.  I have to assume at some point she had seen this book before to get words like "hop" correctly on the first try when it could have been jump or leap but a lot of that could come from our extensive reading on animals  given these are the common actions associated with them.  I'm not surprised she is getting the animal names correct because of the picture - what did surprise me is that she read every word correctly.  She frequently does great decoding but in those situations you can often see her miss words.  So even if this was part memorization, I'm pretty happy about it!  She has been doing so great with Level A books that I asked the teacher to direct her choices to B books.  She is doing pretty good at those too, although we have to sound out more stuff because there are less words you can use the picture to help figure out.   We are making progress, we'll keep up the extra reading practice until its mastered!!!

Typical activites and my special child (Day 2 of 31/21)

Today Cate & I start a new adventure, Girl Scouts!  Well actually Daisies I guess, but either way this is an adventure for both of us.  This is one of those things I know will be great for Cate but scares me to leave her alone to do so I volunteered myself as a helper.  Do I worry that she won't be accepted or won't be able to handle it?  NOPE, not for one second.  Our elementary school has been nothing but accepting to Cate and the teacher who is leading the group is as nice as she can be and she is excited Cate is joining them.  The reason I am volunteering for Girl Scouts is that I'm afraid Cate will get away with too much.   I know absolutely that every child with a special need is different and will react to the same situation differently so the generalizations I am about to make are true for Cate but not necessarily for any other kids with DS.  But here is its - Cate is stubborn and manipulative.  OK before you think I am a horrible mom, I don't actually think those are terrible traits for her to have.  The 'stubborn' is a necessary evil because without it how does she make it through the long processes to learn things that just happen with other kids as they grow?  The 22 months and a hundred hours of therapy before she walked, 3 years before she talked and still does therapy to perfect, half an hour a night to do a 15 minute homework assignment.  OK so that last one is not a great example because half of the extra time is me fighting her stubbornness to not work,  the point is that Cate needs to be stubborn to succeed in a lot to things.  Now the manipulative trait - the first time I remember Cate manipulating a situation to get what she wanted from a therapist, the therapist was over the moon excited.  Why?  Because manipulation in Cate's form, take a lot of mental processing, memory, and ability to read a social situation.  In dance class last year it was a month before we realized that she was telling her helper she had to go potty every session during a certain period, going into the potty by herself, staying inside for 5 minutes, then coming out and back to class.  Seems legitimate doesn't it?, unless you know that she can't take off her own leotard and definitely couldn't get it back on by herself so she was really using this easy excuse to take a break by herself.  This happened over and over again last summer as Cate did many different summer camps & activities which you may remember from some of my posts.  In every situation she was in a typical camp, typical peers, a new group leader and she did great.  She also got some special treatment in each one.  For the most part it was small stuff that really did matter and the showed how much the groups like her.  Like in vacation bible school - every day I walked in to the end of day wrap up session to find the huge group all standing in front of their chairs singing.  Well the group except for Cate - she was dancing in the aisle by herself.  Then on the final day when I walked in - she was dancing on the stage behind the group directors.  Just up there twirling with joy as she sang a song thanking god for blessings.  How do these things happen and would those camp counselors let any kid get away with it?  I have no idea how she maneuvers herself into these special exceptions and the counselors probably couldn't specifically tell you either but I doubt most kids would be allowed to break these tiny rules, otherwise it would be chaos.  People are just taken with Cate - she can be so sweet and loving that people want to please her.  Sometimes it frustrates me because in the back of my mind I don't want her experience to be different than the other kids because doesn't that mean she isn't being included fully?  That fear of Cate's being different may never totally leave me but it doesn't mean that I don't worship my daughter for exactly the person she is right now.  I truly wouldn't change a thing about her except maybe the 30 minute homework fight because she really is my sunshine but sometimes my first reactions can be tinged with that hidden fear.  In reality her experience is no less normal because of small amounts of special treatment, it is just something I have to try to look at objectively and monitor for excess. 

So back to Girl Scouts and why I feel the need to volunteer for this group.  Part of me is thinking she will hate it because in my mind I worry it won't keep her attention.  I guess the things I remember from Brownies what feels like 100 years ago, are doing crafts and listening to stories.  Those things are not really up Cate's alley.  She hates crafts and can only stand to color for about 5 minutes on a directed project.  (Now give her a doddle board in the car and she will draw for an hour as she talks out her scenario, but tell her what to draw and she is done.)  And if the activities don't keep her attention the result could be anything.  The meetings are at her school where she is comfortable so she might just walk out of the room when the leader isn't looking.    Or the opposite, she might attach to the leader and bug her with a 100 questions that aren't relative to the activity of the group, causing frustration and taking attention from the other kids.  I couldn't guess what Cate will do if she doesn't like Daisies.  So your next question is probably - so why are we doing Daisies if I'm that worried about it?  Because if Cate didn't do activities because I was worried then she'd be a couch potato!  Plus this is a great situation for her to grow socially with other little girls.  She needs that because she gravitates to boys in class.  So tonight together Cate and I will be begin the girl scout journey.  I'm excited and scared, while Cate is ambivalent about the whole thing.   Our first Daisy activity was success though so maybe that is a good omen.  The girls are suppose to earn the $1 they have to pay for dues.  I forgot until bath time last night, too late to give Cate a chore so I created a checklist for the morning and told her if she checked everything off without getting help from daddy she would earn her dollar today.  Ric said by the time he got out of the shower, she had gotten dressed, hung up her PJ's, made the bed, washed her face and brushed her teeth.  She earned her dollar and might just have created a new morning technique for him to use!  I hope everything goes great and she loves Daisies and that I'm not a fish out of water!  Wish us luck!

I promise a picture tomorrow, at the very least I'll take a shot with my phone at Daisies!!!

#1 - Here we go on 31 for 21

You might have noticed the new little badge over there that says "31 for 21".  I added it last week but haven't gotten around to explaining it yet.

31-for-21 is a DS mommy-blogger event that has been going on for 7 years.   Bloggers who join the challenge attempt to write a blog post every day in October to raise awareness for Down Syndrome.  The badge to the right will lead you to a list of DS Mom blogs participating in this challenge.  Check out there stories too - its amazing how alike and how different they are in so many ways.  In reality it is part of the reason I started blogging.  Over two years ago I stumbled across a great blog by way of the Babycenter DS Message board called "A Perfect Lily".  I read every post for a couple months then she had a guest blogger post one day, I checked out her blog then started following her as well.  But it wasn't until October 2 years ago that I found out the extent of the DS mommy-blogger world.  One of the blogs I was reading lead me to the list of all these blogs that are relevant to my life.  This event leads me to more blogs every year.  Just like every child with DS is unique and amazing all these moms have stories to tell - some that I read and say 'I could have written that yesterday' or 'I could have written that exact post when Cate was that age", some that are completely unlike anything I have dealt with yet.  I love both kinds of posts, the familiar ones remind me that I'm not along in my challenges and I am part of something bigger, the unexpected ones give me insight into things to come as Cate get older or remind me of just how individual Cate.

So this year I'm giving it the 31-for-21 challenge a try.  And my few but faithful followers know exactly what a challenge this will be for me!  Not every post will be about Down Syndrome because it is really something I notice as part of my everyday life.  Therapy sessions and the extra push in the learning process are so much ingrained into my life I really couldn't tell you what we do because Cate has DS and what we do because Cate is an active first grader with a big personality.  Mostly I am hoping to use this month to show how "normal" our life is, how in love I am with both of my amazing daughters, and give some opinions on topics related to DS that many bloggers have already touched on.  I can't promise pictures everyday - I'm not that good a photographer, I have to take 20 just to get 2 that are blog worthy - but I'll try as much as possible to add some beauty with Cate pictures to my boring writing!