every trial in my life has brought me to THIS place.....a place where nothing is perfect but everything is great. i wouldn't change a thing. OK MAYBE A FEW THINGS!!!!
Thursday, October 24, 2013
More Pumpkin Patch fun in Orting
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| Playing in the corn maze |
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| Isabella loved the pony! |
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| Isabella pulling Zach |
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| Our friends! |
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| Zach with his coat off! |
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| I love this photo! |
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| Isabella and Haily. I teach Hailey at Church |
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Gaining her Confidence!
This is Isabella on her first day of Kindergarten. She was so excited! Then two weeks later she became sick again and that is when we dived into having all of the blood tests done and the barium enema. Since her last bout of this and also since she got sick in Kindergarten Isabella has cried a lot in Kindergarten and has not wanted to me to leave. This past week I finally did "the tough love" and dropped her off and left the classroom until she was done with school. This past Friday I picked her up from school and she was very happy! I asked her how her day went and she said, "Mom I cried for one minute and then I remembered Heavenly Father is always with me and I was ok." I thought she really does know and understand at the young age of 5 that she is never alone and above all that she is loved more than she can ever comprehend. This also triggered a flashback two weeks prior to my brain bleed Zachary and I sitting in the car up in Renton on our way to Lake Washington. I remember we were discussing the upcoming school year and I shared with him that I always wanted him to remember that he was never alone and that his Father in Heaven was always with him. Who would have ever thought two weeks later I would be in ICU wondering if I was going live or die, but yet having the comfort in knowing that my son was not alone on his first day of first grade, and I had shared with him that day in the car that I knew he was never alone.
"Nice to Meet You, I'm Heidi Walker Zach's Mom"
That is right I'm Mrs. Walker Zach's mother who has taught special ed, who wrote an email earlier in the week to your new Principal outlining characteristics that I believe a teacher should have in order to teach a child with ADHD, who also last Saturday when I found out Zach's teacher was leaving at a dinner frantically emailed her and the special ed teacher inquiring about what is going on,?, who has also been dealing with a child who has had a couple of outbursts this week because change is very hard for him and he loved Mrs. Bone, who has emailed Mr. Dunn about a transition plan for Zach, who has also requested from you that you use the same homework policy classroom management plan, and the same type of communication with parents, and oh by the way I really apologize that my child threw up all over you, in your new classroom, down the hall, and into the boy's restroom, and by the way I learned today that I can trust that the Principal truly takes hiring seriously because you demonstrated to me today that you truly care because you made sure that my son was safe, cleaned up by the time arrived to the school, had all of his things organized and ready to go home, and after having a really terrible puke day you still want to return on Monday and conference with Kirk and I next week about Zach's transition and his IEP, which you probably have guessed will be lengthy and who knows what these parents will ask for next?????? Thank You Mrs. Rothman for caring for our son today!
Sometimes it's wonderful to have family members in certain professions! My cousin who is a Psyochologist shared this article it's a good read on Learning Disabilities
“We want to see what your child can really do,” the teachers tell us in the eighth-grade parent orientation meeting.
“Middle school is a safe time to let your child fail.”
And yes, of course, I agree. Aidan is no longer in elementary school after all, and he is not far from high school. Better to fail and learn from it now rather than later.
And yet, on many a night, I still sit with my sensitive, hard-working son who deeply wants to succeed, and help him with his homework when he asks. He’s dyslexic, meaning that his brain must work as much as five times harder to decipher symbols, translate them into sounds and then string those sounds into meaningful words. While the rest of us see a word like “comprehend,” and can sound it out and automatically pull the meaning from our auditory memory banks, it’s not so straightforward for Aidan. Dr. Sally Shaywitz of the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity estimates that one in five children in the United States share Aidan’s diagnosis. Sometimes all the stars align and he decodes the unfamiliar words correctly and sometimes he does not. When several key words are misread, so, too, is the sentence, paragraph or story entirely. And this all relates to reading. Writing provides additional challenges, especially when it must be done — as most standardized tests require — without the aid of a keyboard, screen reader or spell-checker. (These tools can help level the playing field for dyslexics today.)
All that said, we are very fortunate to live in the time we do with technological aids like these and scientifically validated teaching methods for dyslexics. Furthermore, newer technologies, like functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or fMRI, enable us to see the dyslexic brain in action as it attempts to read, which in turn gives more credence to “invisible” diagnoses like this one.
Aidan’s grandfather and great-grandmother also had dyslexia, but didn’t have the benefit of a diagnosis or services. We count our blessings, indeed.
And yet there are some critical parts of our education system, like standardized tests, which are beyond our control. Often the accommodations of extra time and a quiet environment are simply not enough for dyslexics. If middle school is a safe time to see Aidan’s true performance on these, do we let him fail? Yes and no.
As working parents of three children, we must choose how best to spend our limited hours each day. When Aidan began to fail in the early grades — specifically, when there was a striking gap between his verbal intelligence and his ability to learn to read — we stepped in. We took him for testing. He received a diagnosis. For four of the last six years, we have spent a significant portion of our time and resources enabling Aidan to get private instruction, some of it partially supported through health insurance and state tax breaks. Unfortunately, unlike Britain, most states — including North Carolina, where we live — do not provide this time-intensive instruction in public schools.
We also identified those technologies and accommodations that would help him to not only not fail, but also work to his potential. But in the case of standardized tests, while he practices as best as he can, he sometimes comes close to failing. When this happens, I emphasize that standardized tests will never reflect a dyslexic’s true abilities.
Most importantly, with the remaining slivers of time, we’ve focused our sights on Aidan’s interests and strengths. Aidan is an extremely warm, creative, social, disciplined and motivated young man. Last spring in The New York Times, the physician-writer Blake Charlton, who is dyslexic, cited new research that claims that dyslexia may impart exceptional strengths in three-dimensional and spatial reasoning, as well as in creativity and big-picture thinking. Had we let Aidan fail in the early grades, we find it hard to imagine that he would be in a position now to recognize and exercise the strengths and abilities that his dyslexia may also impart.
If you see your child struggling to read and write during those early elementary years, get in there and investigate. We know so much more today about how the brain works. And soon we may also better understand how dyslexics like Thomas Edison, Charles Schwab, Albert Einstein and many others, exercised the strengths conferred by their seeming disability.
Recognize when it’s O.K. to let your child fail, and when it’s not.
“Middle school is a safe time to let your child fail.”
And yes, of course, I agree. Aidan is no longer in elementary school after all, and he is not far from high school. Better to fail and learn from it now rather than later.
And yet, on many a night, I still sit with my sensitive, hard-working son who deeply wants to succeed, and help him with his homework when he asks. He’s dyslexic, meaning that his brain must work as much as five times harder to decipher symbols, translate them into sounds and then string those sounds into meaningful words. While the rest of us see a word like “comprehend,” and can sound it out and automatically pull the meaning from our auditory memory banks, it’s not so straightforward for Aidan. Dr. Sally Shaywitz of the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity estimates that one in five children in the United States share Aidan’s diagnosis. Sometimes all the stars align and he decodes the unfamiliar words correctly and sometimes he does not. When several key words are misread, so, too, is the sentence, paragraph or story entirely. And this all relates to reading. Writing provides additional challenges, especially when it must be done — as most standardized tests require — without the aid of a keyboard, screen reader or spell-checker. (These tools can help level the playing field for dyslexics today.)
All that said, we are very fortunate to live in the time we do with technological aids like these and scientifically validated teaching methods for dyslexics. Furthermore, newer technologies, like functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or fMRI, enable us to see the dyslexic brain in action as it attempts to read, which in turn gives more credence to “invisible” diagnoses like this one.
Aidan’s grandfather and great-grandmother also had dyslexia, but didn’t have the benefit of a diagnosis or services. We count our blessings, indeed.
And yet there are some critical parts of our education system, like standardized tests, which are beyond our control. Often the accommodations of extra time and a quiet environment are simply not enough for dyslexics. If middle school is a safe time to see Aidan’s true performance on these, do we let him fail? Yes and no.
As working parents of three children, we must choose how best to spend our limited hours each day. When Aidan began to fail in the early grades — specifically, when there was a striking gap between his verbal intelligence and his ability to learn to read — we stepped in. We took him for testing. He received a diagnosis. For four of the last six years, we have spent a significant portion of our time and resources enabling Aidan to get private instruction, some of it partially supported through health insurance and state tax breaks. Unfortunately, unlike Britain, most states — including North Carolina, where we live — do not provide this time-intensive instruction in public schools.
We also identified those technologies and accommodations that would help him to not only not fail, but also work to his potential. But in the case of standardized tests, while he practices as best as he can, he sometimes comes close to failing. When this happens, I emphasize that standardized tests will never reflect a dyslexic’s true abilities.
Most importantly, with the remaining slivers of time, we’ve focused our sights on Aidan’s interests and strengths. Aidan is an extremely warm, creative, social, disciplined and motivated young man. Last spring in The New York Times, the physician-writer Blake Charlton, who is dyslexic, cited new research that claims that dyslexia may impart exceptional strengths in three-dimensional and spatial reasoning, as well as in creativity and big-picture thinking. Had we let Aidan fail in the early grades, we find it hard to imagine that he would be in a position now to recognize and exercise the strengths and abilities that his dyslexia may also impart.
If you see your child struggling to read and write during those early elementary years, get in there and investigate. We know so much more today about how the brain works. And soon we may also better understand how dyslexics like Thomas Edison, Charles Schwab, Albert Einstein and many others, exercised the strengths conferred by their seeming disability.
Recognize when it’s O.K. to let your child fail, and when it’s not.
Liisa Ogburn teaches documentaries at Duke University. She and Aidan share the lessons they’ve learned over the last eight years on their Web site: Dyslexic Kids.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
What's new in Seattle????
We have had a busy couple of months. We are enjoying Puyallup and our new home. We have meant several friends and really like it here it is a good family centered place. The kids started school a month ago. Isabella is in Kindergarten. She likes it for the most part and she goes half day. Zach is in the third grade and he really enjoyed his teacher, however, the other day we discovered that his teacher took another position within the school so Zach will have a new teacher. This has been a hard change. He meant the new teacher yesterday, but I think he still wishes he had his old one. However, we have an excellent special ed teacher who is very supportive so I think everything will work out. We also discovered that Isabella is allergic to cow's milk so since dairy has been removed she has been doing a lot better. Kirk and I have been really busy with the kids. My recovery is still going well but I'm ready to slow down a bit.
Nascars in Yelm, WA
Since we moved to Puyallup we live by lots small towns such as Graham, Orting, Roy, and Yelm. The other day we decided to go to Olympia and we took the back roads from our house so we could avoid I-5 traffic. When we were going through Yelm in the Safeway parking lot they were having a car show so of course we had to stop.
I made Grandma's Bread
Since Bella has her cow's milk allergy I now make homemade bread. The other day I used my Grandmother's recipe and it actually turned out! I loved smelling the aroma it reminded of my Grandma's house when I was child.
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Sea Glass
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Spooner Farm in Puyallup
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| This farm is pretty close to our house. They have large spiders!!! |
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| Isabella sitting on top |
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| Zach picking out his pumpkin |
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| The whole family behind the large pumpkin |
Zach's Photos
Zach has been into editing photos. I know I maybe partial, but I think they look very professional. It is fun watching your kids develop their talents!!!!
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| These two are not only siblings but are the best of friends!!!!! |
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| This photo will be going in my living room |
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| Look at that smile! |
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| Kirk is taking this photo to work |
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| They love the wagon! |
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
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