Transition to School

 

The transition from homeschool to school has had it's challenges but overall Selena loves school. One of our greatest challenges was transportation to and from school. We went from a two car family to only having one car after the accident. We knew she would have to ride the bus. We were fortunate that she qualified for a small bus that picks her up at the end of our driveway. It became very apparent from the get go that Selena is afraid of the larger busses and has passed on all field trips that require riding the bus. She did go on one local field trip and tried to ride the large bus but it was too much for her. 

 

She loves riding the small bus though and proudly walks to the road to wait for it. The above picture was the second day of school and her first time riding the bus. 

She is doing quite well in school and surpassed all her yearly goals within the first couple months, so we had to redo a new IEP for her. She was jumped in many subjects and is a lot more willing to work on her writing. School was really one of the best things we did. I miss having her at home but admit it's been nice to have the quiet through the day.

At times things do overwhelm her and we're working on communicating with her teachers instead of stuffing her feelings and bringing them home to dump on us. For example the thought of the Christmas program was too much for her. She decided not to participate but had a hard time telling her music teacher. She doesn't like half days or when she has a substitute teacher. I can always tell when things are too much for her because she will not want to go to school or tries to become very argumental with us. She's missed a lot of school, which we don't like but we figure she took the leap, these other things will smooth out.

Some days she misses being home and being homeschooled but when asked if she would like to come home the answer is always the same, "No, I like it at school!" 

It's been fun for me to watch her find herself, her identity and her new fashion sense. I will conclude this post with a few pictures of her fashion and show off some of the clothing she loves.

 

 

 

 

She has so many cute outfits, still loves her dresses but really has an expensive taste in clothing! I am so happy we found FabKids to buy her clothing. Laundry is different because almost everything she owns is hand wash or hang to dry. Oh well, she is growing up!

Electronic Time

I know there is a lot of different opinions floating around about electronics and how much time we should allow our children to be on them. I have read all the pros and cons, and believe me there are way more cons then there are pros. We have leaned towards a non limited electronic life in our home. The only thing that I limit is the use of my compute. First of all, Selena can do anything on her tablet that she could do on my computer. That is not to say that I won't turn my computer into a tablet and allow her to play on it. She also has her own computer loaded with games, mostly educational but it is not connected to our Internet. Why do we allow so much electronic time? Well, simply put, our daughter even with such a strong imagination is not one to play with legos, she has her "My Little Ponies" and her Barbies as well as plenty of board games and science kits, but we truly see her shine and come to life when she is playing Minecraft, listening to music on YouTube, watching certain cartoons, and YouTube videos. She is not left to go willy dilly but is monitored as to what she can watch. The only times she can not be on her tablet is when it has to be charged. We find by allowing her unlimited time on the electronics she is more conscious about the time she does spend on it. Instead of trying to fit every thing she wants to do in a time limit, she takes her time and thrives in what she is doing. If she is playing Minecraft, it is nothing to see her go split screen to find a video that will assist her in the process of building or defeating a level. The process is all about learning. She brings her "My Little Ponies" to life since so many now come with a special mark that she scans into her tablet and pulls up a full story to go with that pony, hence she is reading and learning. She also has amazon to read books, as well as TV to watch when she doesn't care for what we are watching. If she has a question I can't answer she can verbally or type her question into her tablet and get the answer to her question, many times educating me. I see our world evolving around electronics and I feel we can embrace it or fight it. We choose to embrace it.

 It is not uncommon in our home to find Selena in her bedroom with her toys, blankets, pillows and tablet. She loves Minecraft so usually that is filling in her time. It is not uncommon to hear her just singing away to her YouTube music. I encourage you to read my post on promoting reading here. We also allow her to watch cartoons on TV when we are not watching something we want to watch.

Not the best picture, but for her birthday we did give her an iPod. No it is not the newest iPod with the touch screen and ever so fancy, but she is able to download the music she enjoys and listen to it as she pleases. That is if she isn't listening to our satellite radio. I remember at her age I had my own mini stereo system and listened to my music all the time, I wasn't told what I could listen to, or what I couldn't listen to, I do not believe my choices of music had any impact on how I grew up or the person I became. We as parents can spend to much time picking songs apart and worry too much about this word or that word, when really music is all about the beat, the music, the lyrics really are just a poem or piece of poetry that goes along with the music. Most of the time kids don't even know the true words or their meaning, and neither do adults, if you ever really listen to someone trying to sing a song, it can be rather hilarious to hear how they interpret the words unless they are reading them. I do not find Selena's taste in music as a bad taste, in fact I have been known to embarrass her because I like the same music and get a little to carried away with dancing or being to dramatic to the songs in the car.

I say come on, we live in a world of the cutting edge to electronics. We have for years, from the time I was a kid and colored TV was introduced, to the Stereo and finally FM radio. We can either limit our children from the world they are growing up in or we can embrace it and help them grow in this world. Do I see it preventing Selena from being outside? No, she will gladly lay her electronics down to go play and have fun! I believe however, if I were to limit her she would probably give up playing outside just to spend that hour on her electronics.

Life During Our Abscense

So much has gone on since I blogged the last time, Selena has grown in so many areas of her life, we have learned parenting a Gifted/Autistic child challenging but rewarding and have had to look at and change many of the ways we parent along the way. This is not to say we have changed our rules but we have had to adjust our approach, and have had to get use to having a strong willed child. I can't express enough though how much I love our town, the people who we encounter everyday, and can't emphasize enough that it really does take a village to raise a child.

Selena loves to go shopping with us, something that use to stress her out so much. I love the fact that the clerks at our store who have watched her grow up and really understand her are so good with her. She assists them with scanning all the items in, and sometimes helps bagging the groceries. It is fun to watch her enthusiasm and to know that she is excepted for all her little quirks. Who knows maybe someday she will work in the same store as a cashier as she pays her way through college. We are seeing more young teens working there now. It is nice to see the new management taking an interest in the youth of our community.

We have learned not to be such helicopter parents, though inside I never considered myself a helicopter parent, but had to learn to let go, or give Selena time to want us to let go. We live in a perfect place, though at times we talk about moving, I just am not sure. Selena has made friends with some kids here in the neighborhood, and when possible she is off playing with them, or they are here playing with her. Her BFF lives across the street from us and it is not uncommon for Selena to be watching for him to come home.

Her BBF joined her for Halloween at Chuck-E-Cheese and Trick-or-Treating around the mall. They had so much fun playing games, eating pizza and just hanging out together. We were so happy that he was able to join us. When we got home, he hung out with Selena for a while and played, it was really a fun day for both of them. It is so nice to see Selena making friends. She joined him for his birthday party, and also was invited to both his brother's birthday parties. Growing from a girl who could not be out of my sight to a girl who now can go play for hours with out me, oh occasionally she has to call just to check in.

Of course her BFF was here for her birthday, along with Aunt Kelly and Tony. We had fun playing a few games, opening presents and eating cake and ice-cream. It is hard to believe that she turned 9 this year. She is sure growing up. I think the high light of her gifts though came from her brothers, they gave her a charm bracelet with a sweet note and a charm just for her:

Talking about family, this summer we had a mini family reunion with Selena's mom, brothers, their adoptive parents, our son and his family. I didn't get a lot of pictures after all it was so hot and all we could do was sit in the shade and visit. It was a lot of fun for the kids though to play in the water park.

Yes, the top picture is Selena, her mom and her brothers. The bottom picture is Uncle TJ and his family.

Of course Selena's greatest passion is horses. She loves the fact that I have started riding with her. It has been along time since I rode, but I am with Selena it is so much fun!

 Selena takes swimming lessons once a week now. She is also getting ready for braces and is wearing a retainer. My little girl is growing up, she is growing up faster then I want her too but it is such a joy watching her. She loves to help me in the kitchen, and will do the dishes or help cook.

No matter what she is doing she is a joy to have in our lives. Everyday is an adventure, she gives us lots of laughs and love. It is a joy to watch as her world expands around her.

New Years Resolution

I made a New Years Resolution to return back to blogging! I enjoyed my break from blogging but that does not mean I have not read and continued to follow my favorite blogs. We have done a lot of growing, learning, and have had many adventures since I blogged the last time. I could swamp you with pictures but I am not going to do that. I will share some highlights, and just let you know we are still here, alive, and loving life just as much as before! I will say it is going to be hard for me to get use to not being able to use LiveWriter since I have upgraded to Windows 10, but that's OK.

I have started riding with Selena. This has been very fun for both of us. The above picture was her birthday party with the horses. This day was so fun! We had a 2 hour lesson and ride. We got to dress up our horses with ribbons and tiaras. We played wall soccer with a huge ball, and then since it was sunny we went out for a fun ride around the obstacle course. I think this was a highlight to Selena's birthday! It was fun for me too, just to spend some time with my girl on her birthday!

We have spent this time unplugged working hard on the areas that Selena has fell behind or lacking in. She is doing a great job of working hard and catching up. I am very proud of her. Even this morning with everything that was going on she sat down and worked hard to get her school work done without my assistance.

We have learned that Selena works best with music. One of our Christmas presents was Satellite radio. We live in an area where we do not get a lot of channels, this gives us many choices including children's stations. Though I have to say Selena enjoys all the top artists, her favorite being Taylor Swift. She also received an Ipod for her birthday. So now she can listen to her music anywhere.

Selena loves cooking and baking and even baked my birthday cake pretty much all by herself. She did a fantastic job. We are proud of how much she is learning and all the things she is willing to try. She is sure growing up!

I know I will be catching you all up on many more things as we move forward. I will also get around and visit and comment more on my favorite blogs. I miss all of you especially if you are not on Facebook, or if I am not signed up to get Email notifications.

In the meantime I wish each and everyone of you a Happy New Year!

Summer is Coming to an End

 

We have had one of the best summers this year, not only for the weather, so sunny and warm but also in growth. Selena has sprung her wings and is now so willing to be independent. I still and always will contribute this to the horse therapy. In the above picture was her first day at VBS. She went every single day through the week, and loved it! The feed back from everyone who worked with her was excellent, and those who have worked with her in the past couldn’t get over the changes in her.

Selena has found some special friends here close to home, that she has enjoyed going and playing with or having them over for play dates. She truly had a great summer. We couldn’t be happier for her!

 

She continues to love her horse riding lessons. Has enjoyed riding different horses and at times with partners. She is learning so much as am I, and even been helping with and learning about colts and the training process. It is so much fun for me to watch as she helps move these horses from one pasture to another pasture, with such ease, or bring them into the barn. She is now even able to saddle her horse, well, fasten the saddle, come on the horses are still quite a bit taller and saddles are heavy! She however, dismounts the horse without the mounting block, now that is huge!

We started school a couple weeks ago, Selena was so happy to get back to a regular routine. We are still making some adjustments but over all she is loving learning. This year she is enjoying learning to write in cursive, and doing much more in the kitchen, from making her own pancakes to banana bread. She is sure growing before our eyes.

She is in phase 1 now on her orthodontist work, the above picture was of us having lunch after she found out that she is getting her retainer to begin preparing for her braces. Wow time has flown by, she is growing to fast!

Our summer, as I said has been great, we took a trip to Spokane for a family reunion with her Mom, brothers, my son and his family. We all had so much fun, it was hot, but we had a great day in the park.

I am not sure the direction my blog will take. One part of me still wants to blog and the other just wants to let it lay. I don’t know, I guess time will tell. I might pop in from time to time with an update, but just know that I am not sure how much I want to share anymore. Life is so special now, we are loving every minute of it, and I am just not taking as much time on the computer these days.

Busy Week

Selena continues to enjoy spending time and learning so much about Star. We go out just about everyday for her to do her chores and spend time with him. We then have classes on Tuesday evenings. Classes are fun and all the kids get the opportunity to learn all about horses as well as be up close and personal with them.

So what does her chores consist of? She helps to feed Star and cleans his stall or pen. She has to get her chores done before she can groom him or just love on him.

It is fun to watch her grow and change through this experience. Of course she still loves to visit and spend time with the horses here too.

On Friday we finished the week with a field trip to the local fire station. There were about 15 other homeschoolers who joined us. They all had so much fun and learned a lot.

We have had a down weekend with nothing really on our plate but to rest.

Christmas 2014

Christmas was so much fun here this year. Selena had asked for a scooter on numerous occasions, so we were more then happy to get her one. She is having so much fun considering J brought her scooter over and the two girls are able to go out and ride as long as it isn’t raining. This year, we agreed to let Selena go a bit so the day after Christmas she went to the local school and played with J for about an hour an a half. Tomorrow they will take their scooters down and ride their hearts out. She is growing up!

Some of her other favorite presents were:

She had outgrown most of the stuff that was on the Nabi we got her a year ago, and after numerous problems we had with it, we broke down and got Selena a brand new Verizon 4G tablet. With it being on our contract with our phones, I have all the same parental controls as if it was a phone. The other super feature is that it does not require WiFi to be online, so trips will be so much fun, she will be able to watch movies, cartoons, read books, or play games.

Selena announced her most favorite gift though was her new microscope. While it isn’t the best microscope it is a great beginner one. She has already made a few of her own slides, though it did come with some premade ones. She uses it everyday, she can always find something to explore.

Selena wasn’t real sure at first about this Circuit set, but after we sat down and started to learn the basics of electricity, she took off and has been creating all sorts of lights, whirly things, music, and horns. I loved hearing her explain to her tablet the basic concept of having positive and negative points, and how a switch works. I have a feeling it won’t be long and we will be ordering her the larger set to go with this one.

What child doesn’t like magnets? She received this from her brothers. We have played with it but have yet to really sit down and look through the little book of experiments.

She did receive so much more too from dolls, books, and board games. I am pretty sure she is happy with everything she received this year. Now we will be busy creating a science area in the house, a table to work at, and a cupboard for storing all these fun kits.

We hope each and everyone of you had a very Merry Christmas!

Happy 8th Birthday

It is hard to believe that you are now 8 years old. You have done so much growing this past year. It is unreal as to how fast you are changing before our eyes. You have gone from that little girl so unsure of herself and full of anxieties to a young lady with confidence and loving life.

You have a best friend who has taught you so much about friendship, and given you so much more confidence. I have to admit that when you were born I always dreamed of the time you, your best friend and I would go shopping, to the park, out to lunch, and many more things. We are doing these things now.

You have your favorites, and not so favorites, but you challenge yourself through your least favorites, and vocalize very appropriate when it is just too much. You are opening up again and showing others just how gifted you are, and teaching everyone something they know nothing about. Your manners are so great, and you use them very appropriate.

I am so proud of my 8 year old! You are blossoming into a very intelligent, compassionate and sweet young lady. Never lose your sense of imagination, it will take you far!

Love Mama!

A few pictures of your birthday celebration:

Gifted with Autism

I wanted to take some time here to address something that I haven't had the words to address, but after much time to think about things I feel ready. When I first announced that Selena had some problems, issues, quirks, the Autism word, I received many comments of "Poor Girl" "Why?" "Treatment Options." Many began to see Selena in a different light, feeling sorry for her, hoping her the best, hoping something would help, my inbox was swamped with questions of what now?

This diagnosis of Autism has in no way changed a thing for Selena, not one bit, it is just another piece of the puzzle of who she is. Is she Gifted or is she Autistic? The answer to that question is that she is both, yes, Autistic is not a disability that affects their learning, but it does bring about behaviors or quirks that left untreated can affect learning. What?

The best way I know how to answer this is to break it down. A true gifted child is one who comes by something naturally. For Selena it was reading and the passion for words. By the time she started talking she was using words far beyond her peers. She absorbed the English language. By age 1 she was looking at other 1 year olds, and realizing "I am different." She would surround herself with 5 year olds who had more of the same vocabulary as she did. By age 2 her language skills just continued to advance, but also her knowledge of the world around her began to explode. She knew more about things like plants, dinosaurs, and the English language then even adults knew. She had what such a deep passion for learning something new everyday, far beyond what most 2 year olds have. Play for her was more about what can I learn today then how much fun can I have. At age 3 she picked up her first book and read it to me front to cover, word for word, and she hadn't even had a single reading or phonic lesson. She chose books from the library that she could read independently. Her thirst for learning had us sitting down by 3 1/2 years old and giving her what her mind wanted, more learning. She needed that part of her brain fed, quenched, just like we need to eat or drink.

Talk to any parent raising a true gifted child, and they will all tell you about quirks, sensitivities, OCD, ADHD, anxieties, the list goes on and on. So what causes a lot of children to fall into the Spectrum? Well, the answer is so easy, it depends on the intensity of these sensitivities or quirks. Selena falls in the Spectrum of Autism because her anxieties were taking up much of her life, it affected everything from what we could read, to what she could allow herself to eat. Anxiety itself was beginning to interfere with her ability to learn.

We tried Occupational Therapy to be told that she truly was not a child with Sensory Processing Disorder, so there was not much they could help her with. We tried psychologists, but Selena would process the information differently and out think the therapist, until the therapist just did not know how to direct us to help her. We tried dietary changes, but her OCD would not allow her to eat the foods we wished her to try. Because everything was so intense for her, the diagnosis of PDD NOS was made. We chose in order to help her have a better quality of life, to medicate her. We tried several small doses of different medications until we found the right ones for her. Now her anxieties are in check, sure she still gets anxious and has her fears, but they no longer control her. She has increased her diet and will eat or at least try everything I fix and put in front of her. There are still things that she can not bring herself to do, such as read Little House on the Prairie books, as they talk about dirt floors, living in wagons, and camping on the banks of a creek. She still can not go inside the barn, and still has problems getting dirty. These things make her who she is, these are her quirks.

Back to my title: "Is Selena gifted?" Yes, very much so! "Is Selena Autistic?" Yes, very much so! Does she have a good quality of life? You bet she does. While maybe she still struggles in group activities, in no way means she doesn't have friends, doesn't run and play, it just means she is more selective to how she obtains these friendships and fulfills the need for others in her life. Truly it is no different then a person who doesn't like crowds. She handles then when necessary but it is not something she prefers to do on a daily basis.

Will she go to the extreme to educate someone on something she knows, you bet she will. Just a week ago she educated one of my Doctors all about haboobs. It wasn't long before they were kind of arguing the origin of the word. Selena grabbed my phone, looked the word up, and proved that she was 100% correct it's origin was from the Arabic Language. Of course he got an education of what a haboob is, and how it occurs. If you are feeling lost you can check out what a habood is here. Selena still has a passion to learn, she does see the world differently then her peers, but she is no different then any other child, she still plays, laughs, and enjoys the simple things.

First Day of School

We had our official first day of school today. Selena had fought going back to school, but got more excited about her first day over the past week as the rest of our new curriculum rolled in. I took a mini break and went to Spokane for my Nieces baby shower, all I heard when I called home was how we would start school first thing Monday morning. While I explained I would be too tired to do school on Monday, Selena was happy to just help me figure out our school schedule for the week, and to get her first peak into her new books.

The first thing you will notice is that Selena's hair is different, while I was gone she took the scissors and proceeded to cut herself bangs, thankfully she left them long enough that we could trim them up no problem. No we did not cut the rest of her hair, as it appears, she just has a short layer in front that has always been there but is more pronounced now with the bangs.

We worked on Math, Spelling, Phonics, Penmanship, and Science today. Then this afternoon we made a map to show Oceans, Lakes, and Rivers, we also discussed the difference in man made lakes and natural lakes. We had a very good first day of school and I am hopeful the rest of our days will be the same. Tomorrow we begin American Heritage Girls, Selena is excited and this being her first time ever, is a bit curious as to what all they do.

After school we went shopping and bought several outfits for Selena, the above is her favorite outfit she picked out. The rest of the day was spent helping me do laundry and clean house. She fell into a terrible habit of thinking she didn't have to pick up anything or put anything away, so today was getting back on track and realizing everything does indeed have a place of its own, and does not belong in the living room. She also vacuumed and helped with the dusting. She is now asking for an allowance and has her eyes on a particular toy, but she is learning in order to get paid an allowance she has to put some sort of work into chores.

I can hardly believe how big she is getting to be, but I am enjoying watching and helping her grow into a fine young lady.