Finally a Classroom

From the time we started homeschooling I so wanted a place to call a classroom. We first started out working at the dining room table, with all our supplies stored in plastic bins. It worked just fine, but I longed for something that just felt more like our area.

Selena was given a desk, and we quickly turned a corner of my office area into a small quaint place we did school work. As I am getting busier with more work, I longed for more office space and still wanted an area we would just consider our learning area.

Christmas came and Selena received some really cool science kits. She informed us that she wanted a science table, somewhere to work on her science kits without having them spread out all over the dining room table. She also received a new tablet for Christmas, so we offered her the opportunity to sell her Nabi. Within one day of listing it we were delivering the Nabi for $50.00. Selena was a little hesitant at first seeing that much money in her hand but she really wanted an area to work in and quickly gave me the money to buy a table. We settled on a nice table, and though she did not have enough money for it Papa and I helped her with the rest needed to purchase it.

While we were waiting for the table to come in Selena started making plans and said it would be nice if the table would be perfect for all her school. One of her greatest complaints about our other set up is that it does get chilly in that corner of our house. I didn’t see any reason we could not move our classroom. Sure it meant I had some work to do, I had to purge and move things around to empty two cupboards and two drawers for Selena.

As you can see her table offers plenty of room for any project she wants to do, and wow look at that view she has to look at everyday. She loves nature, so I think being able to just stop and watch the birds, or whatever other nature events will be refreshing for her.

Just another view of her table and our little classroom. With a few different changes we added a calendar to her desk, and a little drawer for pens,  pencils, and erasers.

Her two cupboards with games, art supplies, manipulates, science kits and still an empty shelf for new items.

Perfect counter space for books. Yes, I admit there is still a full counter here and I would love to fill it up with work boxes, and a filing system. It will come.

What will we do with the old area? Well that will become mostly my office space, which I badly need, but we will also still use the old desk and that area for a computer lab for Selena. We will set up our old computer and she will have the ability to enjoy educational games, and maybe even try her hand at some coding.

Selena woke first thing this morning and went straight to her table, wiped her hand across it and with a huge smile announced how much she liked the table and that it was perfect for school. When I pointed out that it was indeed her table, she paid for it, she was a little surprise, “You mean this table is mine and not yours?” That’s right it is all hers! She dreamed it, she did what she had to do to get the money, she picked it out, and now has a new sense of pride that she has just furnished her own little classroom.

Enjoying the Outdoors When We Can

Our weather has not been real cooperative for being outdoors a lot this Spring. We try to take advantage when we can. Today was very pleasant, the sun was shining, with some clouds, but the temperature was not extremely hot and humid, nor too cold to consider taking a walk. I really had no idea how far we would walk when we began, but was surprised when we got a full 2 miles in. I will say as we neared the one mile mark, Selena was feeling a bit more anxious and unsure as to why we had come so far.

First things first we just had to stop along this row of rhododendrons and pick out our favorite color, and get our pictures taken in front of them.

 Selena was not sure about this ivy, she was fearful it was poison ivy. Even after I assured her that it wasn't she still refused to touch it. I told her that was a good fear, as we would not want her touching the wrong type ivy. I guess we will have to do a little research.

We drive through this area all the time, it is beautiful, and the High School is just through all the trees. Selena was so amazed over it's beauty, I guess walking near it really made her appreciate it more, not only that she could hear the hidden creek running through, one that she didn't even know existed.

Being very textile, Selena stopped in her tracks here as our sidewalk texture changed. She announced it felt rough under her feet. We had to take a little bit to discuss and ponder why it felt different.

We finally made it one mile, to discover the first home Selena remembers, well the first home she ever lived in. She got weepy, as truly for as much as she loves our home, she does miss this little house. We always remind her, that her memories of this house will always be there, since it was her very first home.

We had to stop many times for her to remove rocks or anything that seemed to be in her sandals.

We found this tree to be very interesting!

Selena loved how these trees hung over the sidewalk like a canopy over our heads. She also had to go feel the moss on growing on the tree. It was quite funny, just as she was feeling the tree, and I was taking the picture, a detective drove up, he slowed way down with a very concerned look on his face. I believe he finally figured out that we truly were not trespassing, as a big smile appeared on his face, and with a little wave he drove on. I couldn't help but think, now what?

 Of course we had to take some time for some selfies!

Then we had to victory dance at the end of the walk! YAY! We made it, now to tackle the hill up to our house!

I know this was a picture overload, but come on how better to show our neighborhood, our little town, and just how much fun we had on this walk! Looking forward to more walks weather permitting.

During My Absence

 

I have struggled as to what to say and how much to share, but I also know at the same time many of my followers have also followed along as we have moved forward with understanding Selena. I am not going to share everything since much of it is very private, and that would in no way be fair to Selena.

We have had many concerns about different things with Selena since she was 3 years old. Some things could be considered age appropriate, though at times these concerns went beyond age appropriate. As she has grown and gotten older some concerns faded to be nothing, while some have become more problematic. Over the past couple weeks things escalated to a fearful state and it was time for reevaluations to be done. I must say it has been a rough time traveling upwards toward 3 times a week to specialists and doctors. We have come along way and understand this will be a life time battle for her.

So here is what we know so far:

1. ODD (Oppositional Defiance Disorder)
2. Anxiety Disorder
3. OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)
4. ADD
5. Mood Disorder (Bipolar)

It has been a rollercoaster in our home from and very scary at times. While I do not promote the use of certain medications in children this age, I also know sometimes we just have to weigh the risks and benefits. Things here got so intense that we had to give in and allow the psychiatrist to prescribe a mood stabilizer.

Thank you to all who have been supportive.

Our Week

What would Halloween be without our pumpkin? Of course this year Selena was insistent she was going to do it all by herself. We didn’t allow her to use the knives to cut the pumpkin, but she did manage to scrape every single piece of gunk and seeds out all by herself. This year however, we did things a little different. Instead of doing this early enough to make pumpkin pie, we waited until evening to carve the pumpkin. We had a power outage early that morning, and since it was out for several hours, Selena and I actually drove to Lacey and spent the day with friends. She wanted to make a Jack-O- Lantern anyway so after she cleaned it all out I asked her what type of Jack-O-Lantern she wanted. She was pretty surprised, but gladly described the Jack-O-Lantern of her choice.

After we finished up with our Pumpkin fun we cleaned up and Selena got to put her costume on. Now her costume came from our friends in Lacey. Both her girl’s wore this when they were Selena’s age. It is so pretty and I still can’t believe she loaned it to Selena. It is velvet, has pearls around the neck line like a necklace. Came complete with the hoop to give it the full skirt affect.

She played Queen Selena all night long. If you have followed our blog for long you know that we do not celebrate Halloween in the traditional fashion of going trick or treating. We did have fun having such beautiful royalty in our home for the evening though.

School has been going well, while a little slow since it does require so much more writing on Selena’s part. We usually can get through 3 subjects a day depending on how much writing there is to do. Some pages might take us a couple of days to complete when it asks her to write every number from 1 to 100. Not that she isn’t able to do it, but being only 6 and working on such intense material does make it a little more difficult for her to complete it all. We will get through all this beginning review and move on to new concepts soon, and then I believe things will smooth out for her.

She has also been having fun helping me in the kitchen of late. She took her lesson on how to peel a potato pretty serious, and actually peeled two potatoes all by herself.

Off topic here, many of us blog to share with family, some blog to have a way to remember the fun moments with our children, and other’s blog to share information or fun activities with whoever may come by their blog. When I first started this blog I truly had no direction for it. One of my first posts was in part to my memories of my family and their homestead, which you can read more about here.  This week to my surprise I had someone leave a comment on this post. As we dug a little bit, shuffling back and forth information we discovered that we are actually cousins. We never really know who will come across our blog. We’ve had so much fun sharing so much information about this place, our families homestead. It has been especially interesting for me, since she grew up not far from this homestead, something I always dreamed of doing. Two cousins who have never met, didn’t even know each other existed has now been united by one simple blog post.

Great Friday

Yesterday my son called and said they were on their way to our house. They were over this way and thought they would stop in to say hi. I hadn’t said much to Selena about them being over here, so she was pretty excited to hear they would be over in a few hours. She actually decided the house needed to be spruced up, (the nice thing about a child with OCD) she dusted, put things away and even vacuumed for me.

When they got here of course you know she was excited to see them, she was however taken a little back when his girl friend’s mom was with them. Selena has now decided she doesn’t like strangers in our home. Selena was friendly toward her but definitely kept her distance. They of course brought her a gift, a very cute pink t-shirt from the Tillamook Cheese Factory. They had fudge for Papa and gave me a package of scones mix.

After they left we got word that Selena’s new glasses were ready. After only 6 months her eye sight had improved enough that she complained the other glasses made her vision blurry and refused to wear them. A couple of weeks ago we went in and had her vision re checked and she got to pick out a new pair of glasses. After we picked up her glasses I took her shopping for a small tent. She either builds a fort or sits under the dining room table when she gets too worked up and needs to calm down from her anxieties, so we thought maybe a small tent would work as well.

We are preparing to head off on vacation in a couple of weeks. We are headed to Spokane, well the first part of the trip we will find ourselves way up in Northern Washington on Priest River. All of us siblings are getting together on my brother’s river property for a much needed family reunion. We will then drive back down to Spokane, where we will get to meet Selena’s little brother for the first time, and spend an entire day with our son before coming home.

Selena isn’t sure about the camping trip at the river, but I know once she gets up there she will discover it is a lot of fun and will enjoy being outdoors the whole time.

Winding down

While Selena is not in the above picture this is her softball team. She wasn’t in it as it was a drizzly rain all day long, she chose to not go out in the rain to get a team picture, something I think she regretted very much after. I had hoped to make her a photo book from all her games but then we ended up helping the coaching staff, so instead I will get prints of the pictures I do have and ask other parents for copies of any pictures they may have and put her together a nice framed collage to go with the trophy she will receive on Saturday.

As we come to a close though it has been a tough one for Selena. We had a two week break around Memorial Day, no games and no practices. Coming back from that break has taken it’s toll on all the kids, but Selena really seemed to take it hard. Not only had she fell out of sink from the break she came back to discover that her coach was missing. He his in Hawaii on vacation, so they are finishing out the end of the season without him. As I type this we have two more games to get through, then Papa and I are throwing the team a pizza party and awards will be given out.

We are also winding down a bit in school. Selena still has a few booklets to finish up over the summer before moving on to second grade, but I want to incorporate a lot more fun reading, not that we don’t read enough as is. I am helping Selena pick out a few books that will be read with activities through out the day.

Today one of the books I chose was “Here Comes Silent e!” By Anna Jame Hays. We enjoyed reading the book, well, Selena read the entire book to me. I then wrote many of the root words on the board, then had Selena add the silent e and write the new words. I am so proud of the progress she has made this year in her writing, to think when we first started Selena struggled with many of the letters, and chose to not use a curriculum to learn how to write.

Now if only we can get some beautiful sunny weather to go out and really feel that Summer is here.

Finding Time to Blog

Remember this post when I finally came open with the many sides of Selena. Well, we discovered that the melatonin they tried her on to help her sleep actually ended up making her OCD and anxieties worse. The Pediatrician we were going to didn’t have any answers that I could absolutely except. After have a couple nights this week where Selena didn’t sleep as well as she should have which made for two very trying days we decided it was time to get a second opinion.

Today we met with a Pediatrician that we had seen when Selena was just a baby, but due to the drive we had switched to one that was easier to drive to. Anyway I was very pleased to drive the hard drive to take Selena back to Chehalis to see this pediatrician. She spent about an hour with us, asking many questions and observing Selena the entire time.

Instead of telling us to just put Selena in more sports and get her more active in things that seem to make her anxieties worse, she suggested taking her to their psychologist that they use as well as taking her to University of Washington for further screening. She dismissed the need for an IQ test just like we did, as well as didn’t like the idea of having to wait until Selena is 8 before trying to do something to give her some help with all these anxieties.

I like the fact that she wants to make sure that we are not dealing with ADHD, Autism Spectrum, or Aspergers. While I feel we are not, well maybe a little ADHD, it is comforting to know that this pediatrician is going to look into everything and totally come to understand Selena for who she is before suggesting any type of treatment.

I am always reminded when I am graced with the struggles of raising a little girl who can rob herself of so much richness due to so much stress and anxiety that she will grow to be just fine. That so long as we don’t just except what we are told and keep looking for better answers and better solutions, somehow we always have someone placed in our path to do just that.

I know my blog has suffered a bit during all of this, but I know my time with Selena is exactly what I am suppose to be doing. I also know that things will get back on track and I will again be blogging and sharing just like before. I remind myself that once again I am just in another season of life raising a bright, healthy little girl.

Homeschooling and Living with OCD

We have suspected for many years that Selena suffered from OCD. We would see times of habit, ritual, rigid schedules, perfectionism, and anxieties. Selena had a very hard time adjusting to our move to our new home, and we really began to see even more signs of OCD tendencies in her. At times it got to the point that it was hard to take drives in the car, as we would wind up with a little girl so stressed out she would be screaming at the top of her lungs. She has finally learned to take a few deep breaths, and while she complains of an upset tummy she will fall to sleep allowing us a pleasant drive. She didn’t like to be out after dark and would complain that it was way past her bedtime and have a complete melt down from not being home.

The past few months have revealed even more evidence towards these OCD tendencies. Our sweet Selena suddenly started waking many times through the night and very early in the morning. She was getting to where she never wanted to leave home or not much anyway unless she knew exactly where we were going and when we would be home. She had to know exactly what we were going to do, what we were going to get and how long it would take. This also led to issues of having to use public restrooms, as well as would we be home in time for her to eat her meals.

The stress from her OCD was getting the best of her, the once little girl who could be consoled was becoming less consolable. Sleep was getting to be a rarity in our home as well. We finally made an appointment with our Pediatrician who after observing Selena playing with some paper cups, and listening to our concerns recommended putting Selena on Melatonin for sleep at night. She also pointed out what observations she was making that led her to believe Selena was OCD. (Now keep in mind this will not be totally an absolute diagnosis until she is between 7 and 8 years old)

Our first week on the Melatonin was a dream come true. Selena was sleeping, had more energy during the day and seemed to be doing fine. After the second week, we began to see things we did not like, aggression, heightened OCD symptoms, and a lack for self safety. We had to adjust the amount of Melatonin we were giving her. We feel we have found a healthy balance, while it doesn’t always take care of all the sleep issues it does allow Selena enough rest to cope through the day.

So what things do we see with her? The list below is just a few of the things we deal with on a daily basis:

1. Bedtime ritual of having a specific time for bed, no exceptions. Pillow has to be fluffed just right and positioned just right. The covers have to be straitened at least twice even though the bed was made that morning. Bedtime story, so many kisses and hugs, and the same ritual of goodnight words must be said.
2. Meals are another challenge in it self. New foods must be on a separate plate from her normal food. Her food can not touch, so we have to be careful to keep everything separated with enough space in between foods. Do not even think of reaching over into her space to help her with anything, that all has to be done before the plate is given to her. Don’t let her watch too closely to food preparations as if she sees foods being cooked together she won’t eat them. If her food touches or something she doesn’t like ends up on her plate, she is automatically done eating.
3. Fear of using a public restroom or a bathroom outside of ours in the home. This seems to be connected with how will the toilet sound when it flushes, will it be loud or echo. She tries to plug her ears and flush at the same time. She shakes from anxiety, or gives up and won’t flush at all.
4. Fear of getting her clothes wet.
5. Having to have everything in a pattern that meets to her reasoning. Sorting, the way she puts things away, arranges things, and nothing in between. Her books and toys have a place, and there is no changing that at all.

An example of what an outing looks like for her and I. We went out today to buy her a new bat and a batting helmet for softball. She knew this meant we would go to Big 5. We arrived 10 minutes before the store opened. She started to stress, her anxieties rose, and she just knew she would not get a bat and batting helmet that day. While I assured her we were just early and she would indeed get her things, it wasn’t enough. I told her let’s go see if we can get your hair cut first, when they couldn’t get her in for over an hour, I decided to schedule that for the next day. Now this really threw Selena over the top, “I can’t get my hair cut, I can’t get my bat or my batting helmet. What am I to do?” I could hear the tears just surfacing. To take her mind off the wait we drove to Safeways and picked up what we needed for dinner. Upon returning to Big 5 she discovered they were open, she could indeed get her bat and batting helmet. We also got her a pair of shoes, but by this point she was too worried about getting home in time for lunch. Knowing she had been under so much anxiety we didn’t stop to do anything else but came home and fixed lunch. The afternoon should be pretty quiet until it comes close to dinner time. I will have to fix her something totally different from what we are having, because she refuses to eat red meat now, but I will still have to offer her a little bit of our food on a separate plate, even when I know she won’t touch it.

Homeschooling is just as exciting. We must start our day at the same time 8:00 a.m. She gets upset easily if she is having a sloppy day and her writing doesn’t look as nice as she wants it too. Since we have been working on subtraction, she does not appreciate having addition problems thrown in the loop. I do have to say though that homeschooling so far has not been as affected like other areas of her life.

Outings, she is always worried we will be late, even though we have never been late to anything. She worries about where we are going, who will be there, what the bathroom will be like, what the noise level will be, will she have fun, what will there be to eat, (did grandma pack a brown lunch?) as well as what happens should she spill a drop of water on her clothes.

My heart breaks to see her go through this, I wish I could just take it all away from her. Though knowing and understanding it more is the power to have less stress in our home and for her. I have found a lot of great information on line, and have a good friend who has a daughter just like Selena which helps to get ideas and just talk to. When I discover some great sites that I find to be very helpful in dealing with a child with OCD, I will share a post of resources, but right now I am still just researching.

Signs of Spring

Our rains let up and the skies actually were blue today. We definitely had to head outside to have some fun and try to take in all the signs of Spring we could find.

The first thing that Selena found was an empty robins egg. She looked hard to see if she could find the nest, but no nest could be found. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the nest isn’t in the tree behind her swing set since that is where we found the egg, but the tree is getting thick enough with leaves that we could not find it.

Selena wondered if the egg came from the nest above her bedroom, but I explained that those are not robins but sparrows. It won’t be long though that we might find broken eggs and hear the peeps of the baby birds. It is funny though as I take the dog out every morning and we round the corner of the house here, these sparrows swoop out of the nest. I know they are there and so does the dog, but it still makes us jump and of course Pal has to bark.

The cherry trees are very pretty with their white blossoms. We found many more signs of Spring through out the yard.

Then of course we just had to take some fun time taking pictures and playing. It sure was nice to be able to venture outside, and we sure hope that the nice weather sticks around awhile so we can have much more outside time.

Our Week

We started our week out with Selena loosing her first top tooth. It was so loose we kept telling her it would just pop out, well sure enough she hopped and out popped the tooth. It was funny to listen to her talk with a lisp for a day or two while she got use to not having that tooth there. She is just growing way too fast.

She got her softball uniform, I hope to get some pictures of her in it here soon. I’ve been trying to get pictures at practice but it seems like Papa and I have been recruited on as team assistants, so I am way too busy to be fussing with the camera. Selena is doing great though and loves first base. She is really the best first base player on the team, so the coach loves having her there. Her skills continue to improve and she is learning quickly all the new techniques that they are teaching her for throwing and batting.

We’ve had quite a few thunder storms come rolling in. This is just one of the rainbows that we have enjoyed after one of the storms. It is amazing how bright they can be and how close they can truly seem.

On another note, I will be doing reviews for Mosaic Reviews. I look forward to this opportunity. I am sure we will be sharing some great items and curriculum for all of you.

We’ve also been awaiting news on a possible promotion for Papa. He interviewed for it last Friday. There were only two applicants for the position. The way this will work is either Papa will get this position he interviewed for or should the other applicant get it there will be another upper management position opening up, which Papa would then slide into that one. It is one of those win win situations, we know he will have one of the upper management positions just not sure which one yet. This will of course mean change in our home as there will be longer hours and he will go back to working 5 days a week again, also there will be travel involved. As I figure though Selena and I will enjoy the possibilities of travel with him on occasion.

Princess Selena

As I mentioned during our Spring Break Selena was invited to a Disney Princess party. I just love the above picture of her. The evening was so much fun for all the girls. I just truly wanted to share some of Selena’s highlights of the evening.

To think when we first arrived Selena seemed a little reserved. I think she was truly just over joyed that she was going to be a part of this exciting evening, and I know she had many questions as to what they would do at this party.

All the Princesses before the fun began. I think you can tell they were all pretty excited for this evening.

Can you tell they were all pretty excited to dig into the makeup? Selena did her own makeup with no assistance from anyone, she wanted to be like the older girls, don’t you know? After she got her makeup on I was helping her pick out her fancy jewelry.

 

It is kind of hard to see in the above picture but Selena was not sure about ear rings. She really thought we meant we were going to put holes in her ears. She has talked about getting her ears pierced, but she definitely is no where ready for that one. It took me several attempts to prove to her that these ear rings definitely would not put holes in here ears.

Then Sunday Selena was presented with this photo all framed by the minister’s wife, so she can always remember the fun she had the evening she got to be a little Princess.

Tid Bits of Our Week

Nothing to really report as for actual homeschooling, though you know we are learning all the time. This has been a crazy week with an emergency trip to the dentist on Monday. We’ve been waiting for sometime for one of Selena’s baby teeth to fall out. It kept getting looser and looser but would not come out. On Sunday during church her tooth started bleeding, it wouldn’t stop and bled all day long. We tried everything, first to get the tooth out which wasn’t going to happen, to packing it with ice and gauze. Monday I called the dentist and off to Olympia we headed. They took a quick x-ray and we could see that the permanent tooth was pushing all the way through the skin, but that baby tooth was not going to budge. The dentist finally got it worked loose and twisted the baby tooth un lodging it from the permanent tooth.

Monday evening started softball practice. We couldn’t ask for a better evening to begin either. It was warm enough that we could be out there with out our heavy coats. I think Selena is really going to enjoy this year, her team consists of 9 girls instead of so many trying to take turns at bat, and positions. Just enough girls that every position is covered, and then they can rotate from there. Not only that but we have three wonderful coaches. She also is very familiar with many of the girls from within the community. Saturday will be her next practice and she is truly looking forward to it.

Yesterday we had to go to Tumwater for Selena’s one month follow up with her eye doctor. We got the best news there. Selena no longer has to patch her eye, we now have 20/20 vision in both eyes with the glasses! We will go back in 4 months to check and see that this continues to be the case. He did recommend that sometime between the age of 8 to 11 years old that we get contacts for her. He said it would be better for her brain instead of looking through the glasses, since one lens has to be so thick, it makes things look so much larger, where the other lens doesn’t do that. He explained that at that critical age the brain can once again have trouble reading what is being seen through the glasses, and contacts would prevent this.

Starting today we will begin our Easter tradition with coloring eggs. The weekend is suppose to be really warm and sunny so we will enjoy Saturday outside. If the weather continues, we might actually have our Easter egg hunt outside for the first time ever. Now to me that would be the best Easter for Selena to get up and run around looking for eggs outside! We will see and keep you posted. 

Spring in the Air

After a cold morning on Saturday, it didn’t take long before the sun warmed us up enough that we could venture outside, get this without our coats! That morning Selena had her first team meeting for Softball, to meet her coach and meet the team. What a difference this year is going to be from last year, her team consists of 9 girls, that is it only 9. I truly think we will see a huge difference in how the game is played from last year. Of course one can only guess what Selena had to pull out the minute we turned her loose outside.

It is TBall Season!

Of course she had to check every corner of the yard for signs of Spring. I think she had to know where Nibbles was going to hibernate, it didn’t take her long to find him/her.

I love the way that Selena just admires her Papa. They took a long walk together, then came home to sit and just relax and enjoy the warm sun.

What would the first very nice day be without Selena taking over the camera for a look at the world through her eyes?

He most interesting find, which we have yet to determine what it is, all we know is that it is attached to the stump as if it grew there, it is sticky but look how bright yellow it is. If you have any ideas of what this might be we would sure appreciate help identifying it.

We hope this is the beginning of some much desired warmer and dryer weather headed our way. It was so fun to get out and begin to explore our world after what seemed like such a long Winter, though we really had a mild Winter, we just had so much sickness. Our Motto right now is Bring On Spring!