I have a serious urge to simplify the holidays this year, as well as make them more quiet and family-oriented.  Last year was a chaotic mess, and I didn’t really feel like we were any closer to having that peaceful, faith-filled holiday experience about which I’ve been idealizing for so long, so this year, knock on wood, will be different.  I know I say that every year, but this year, I have an actual game plan!

Instead of purchasing a huge, dazzlingly blinding Christmas tree this year, we are instead getting a small 3′ or 4′ tree and decorating it as a Jesse tree.  I have always wanted to celebrate Advent, but because the holiday season usually marks an upswing in freelance business for me (clients seem to feel more productive and urgent, as well), I always miss/ forget it. This year, Advent begins on December 2, so I haven’t missed it yet!

A Jesse Tree, for those who don’t know and don’t want to read the link above, can be either a poster of a tree or an actual tree or tree branch on which symbols of the Advent season are hung daily until Christmas itself, usually accompanied by a family devotional and Scripture reading. What better way to create a daily space in which to reflect on the meaning of the season? 

I love this idea and have ALWAYS wanted to do it – this year is our chance! Shortie is bound to love it, as well, since it involves him making and then displaying his own artwork. We are going to print out the templates provided here. Shortie will color them and cut them out, and glue them onto larger construction paper shapes.  Shortie has small motor function delays and difficulty with tying small knots, so instead of yarn or fishing line for hanging the ornaments, we are simply going to use pipe cleaners that he can twist himself, which is also good fine-motor practice

Pictures are sure to be forthcoming! I’m very excited.  Oh, and we had a REALLY lovely Thanksgiving with Heather and her family; she took pictures of that, too, so watch this space!

On Thursday, Shortie and friends (and moms) visited Miami International Airport for a grand tour. I suspect since 9/11 the tour is significantly less grand, but it’s okay. It was still a real blast.  We got a bus tour of the actual airfield, wherein the children got to see three separate airplanes taking off and landing just a few dozen yards in front of them, as well as being mere feet away from MIA’s collection of propeller jets. And there was much oohing and ahhing!

The tour guide gave the children brief, non-boring descriptions of various airport-related professions – I had no idea, for example, that air traffic controllers were the second highest-paid career in the industry - and tossed out impressive numbers about MIA’s capacities and population (approximately 142,000 people per day, including employees!)  She discussed future plans for two-story planes with gyms, mini-malls, movie theaters and food courts. Movie theaters, I can understand. But why anyone would want to work out while in the middle of a 12-hour flight, I have no idea.  It seems rather neurotic to me, but I wasn’t remotely fazed by the mention of a mini-mall, so perhaps it’s me that’s neurotic!

We got behind-the-scenes looks at the airport’s security and emergency response units, including the separate chamber where airplanes suspected of contaminants or sabotage are safely housed, analyzed, de-loused, de-bombed, etc.  We were not allowed on to the actual airplanes due to security reasons – the kids were a little bummed at that – but they did get to ride around in the GIANT firetruck, which by law must be able to get to the farthest point of the airport in 2 minutes’ time in case of an emergency.  That was a huge hit. The fireman doing the tour MUST have had kids of his own. He was so great and so patient and funny. Except for the part where he sprayed all of us with the giant firehose.  There went my good hair day, dude.

It’s always nice to hang out with this group, anyway.  It’s such a lively, diverse and positive group of people; I really feel like we’re blessed to have them and they ALWAYS crack me up. While waiting for the tour bus, I regaled my friends Soly, Tracy and Lisa with the story of the 13-year-old girl who had gotten detention for hugging her 2 friends.   A conversation ensued about how stressful and mentally unhealthy so many school environments are for so many kids. General assent was murmured.

“I swear, I’m going to talk every single one of my children into becoming psychiatrists,” Soly exclaimed.  “Because when they’re adults, and the kids in school today are adults, they’re going to be RICH from all the people needing shrinks. They should all become shrinks!”

“Mmm,” Lisa, ever sanguine, agreed.  “Shrinks… and tattoo removers.”

Hee!

My son, age 9, has multiple learning disabilities and developmental delays, chief among them being a severe fine motor delay that causes, among other learning challenges, dysgraphia, or difficulty writing. The gap between his reading ability and his writing ability is a marked one. Five months ago, he tested at a late 10th grade level at decoding words, late 7th/ early 8th grade level at reading comprehension… and early 1st grade in handwriting.   I suppose that is an improvement, because he was at Pre-K/K level all through last year of 3rd grade, no matter how much we practiced, but when we started 4th grade this year, he was still not anywhere near age-appropriate in his handwriting.

Read more: Our Dysgraphia/Dyslexia Resources and Progress Made…

MASCOUTAH, Ill. – Two hugs equals two days of detention for 13-year-old Megan Coulter.

The eighth-grader was punished for violating a school policy banning public displays of affection when she hugged two friends Friday[...]

[Melissa] Coulter[, Megan's mother,] said she and her husband told their daughter to go ahead and serve her detentions because the only other option was a day of suspension for each skipped detention.

“We don’t agree with it, but I certainly don’t want her to get in more trouble,” Coulter said[...]

 source

Um.

 So.

 Fairly regularly these days, I come across news articles that make me go, “Wow, I sure am glad I homeschool and my kid doesn’t have to deal with that.”  I don’t particularly have a problem with school administrators’ desire to minimize the potential for harassment and intimidation. But because what constitutes as “harassment” both varies widely and is entirely subjective, institutional schools do what they do best – cater to the lowest common denominator – and make these sweeping, general and ambiguous policies that literally throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I think I’m becoming cynical because these kinds of articles just don’t outrage or disturb me anymore.  I basically just think,”Oh, look, just another cog in this social experiment disaster.”

Today in our Story of the World reading, we read about the French Canadian heroine, Marie-Madeleine Jarret de Verchères.  Madeleine was a 14-year-old girl who, in the late 17th century, defended her home and fort for 8 days from a raid of 50 Iroquois, with only the aid of her two little brothers, ages 12 and 10, and an 80-year-old gentleman who defended the forth corner of their fort.   The most amazing part is that they were SUCCESSFUL.  Shortie and I thought it was an extremely rousing and inspiring story.  The book mentioned that as an honor to her, Montreal erected a statue of her in 1911 and it was declared “Canada’s Statue of Liberty.”

So of course we had to look it up to see what it looked like, and somehow, we were both even more moved upon seeing the statue.

Click to see a picture!

We are no longer using MEP Math as a main math spine.  I personally love the program and think it’s incredibly impressive; however, it is a program that requires a great deal of mental math and switching around modalities, and I think that is very difficult for a child with Asperger’s. He never knew what to expect and every lesson was totally unpredictable and different from the last. After six weeks of trying this and only getting through lesson 12, it’s time to admit this is not the right fit for Shortie. I am disappointed because it is a wonderful program; we’ll keep using it sporadically as a supplement, perhaps only doing 1 or 2 exercises from each day insead of all 9 or 10, and maybe we’ll return to it in the future.

Read more: So what are we going to do for math now?