Aha! Moment

My job is to teach kids. I actually specialize in teaching young children to read. Helping children become literate has been the focus of my career for the last ten years. You can imagine my frustration with my inability to help Jackson learn to read.

The past 3 days, I've been in some teacher training. Today, (for the fifth or sixth time) the leader reminded us how closely oral language is tied to literacy. Yeah, I'm thinking, I get that. I frequently work with English as a new language students and it totally makes sense with them. For the first time today, it hit me. Jackson oral language is delayed. He's just starting to make sense of print. He's always liked books and enjoyed listening to them, but he's just starting to take notice of print.

You can imagine how freeing this was for me; encouraging at the same time. I am certain that Jax will gain literacy as his language continues to develop.

Hope survives...

Arthur Live!

Can you tell me why on earth, they would be advertising for this show [which is in February] 3 months in advance? Jackson is obsessed with seeing this show. He goes to the website and every time he sees the promo for it, he has a mini-meltdown. I've shown him February on the calendar, but it's way too abstract.

Maybe I'll see where else it'll be playing in the near future...

Chuck Taylor's

Dan intended to take Jackson to Science Central today. Jax wanted to take several of his stuffed toys with him; usually he packs these in a sling back-pack, but today they couldn't find it (hmmm....)

Problem Solved: stop at the store to buy another sling back-pack....

Detoured instead to the shoe department (can you see where this is going?) Jackson evidently knew exactly what he wanted because he headed straight for the Chuck Taylor's, put them on and began to march around the shoe aisle "march, march, march, march". Just like he watches 'Jack' do on 'Jack's Big Music Show'.

Do I really need to tell you that he is now the proud owner (wearer) of a pair of shoes similar to the one pictured above? Maybe (hesitation so great here), just maybe, he'll learn to tie his shoes! [This is a life skill, I have intentionally avoided: check in your closet: how many pairs of your shoes do you actually tie?]

Never a dull moment!

Lazy Morning

Jackson is having a fabulous time this morning watching Sesame Street and Super Why on PBS. He is so easily thrilled and excited.

Can I just say again that I love Super Why. I truly credit this show with sparking Jackson's interest in words, reading and writing...I've only been struggling to do so for six years!

So, this morning anyway, I'm thankful for PBS...how about you?

Tornado

Perhaps I have written of this before, it wouldn't surprise me as this happens almost daily.

Jackson is like a tornado. He goes from room to room in our house destroying any sense of order. He'll dump out his tote full of stuffed animals in the kitchen (so they can "watch" him play on the computer). Then he'll scatter the dvd's all over the floor in the living room looking for just the one he wants to watch. Next, he'll take a shower in the back bathroom and get the floor all wet and dump all his bathtub toys out in the shower. When he decides he wants something to eat he's apt to pop popcorn in the microwave or make a peanut butter sandwich. If I'm really lucky he'll cook his own mac and cheese. Of course all this happens one right after the other and I'm in the constant state of clearing up one mess or another.

It really hit home this weekend when Dan was out raking leaves. He left a relatively clean house with Cal asleep and Jax on the computer. After raking, he comes in to total destruction!

He'll clean up his own messes with prompting, but he's less than crazy about it and needs monitoring to get it done. Oh, the life!

Bubbly

Jackson is currently jamming to Colbie Cailet's new(ish) cd. It's funny how quickly he picks up lyrics and how much he enjoys instrumental beginnings for songs. :)

It's been a BUSY week! Monday afternoon we swam at the Y with a group of kids from church. Jack enjoyed riding in the back of the church van with the other 'big' boys. Tuesday evening we were at Crazy Pinz for another birthday party until 7:30. Wednesday night we had an activity and dinner at church and last night was boy scouts. Tonight we're all just chillin' at home. Actually, he adapted very well to the hectic schedule. Maybe that's a sign he's maturing.

Tonight, our local high school football team plays in a semi-state game. There was a pep rally for them at the school. Jackson had great fun cheering for them as the players paraded through the halls of the elementary. The thought of it warms my heart.

Progress

Here is an example of some writing Jackson did last week at school. He loves to use the "SmartBoard" and is really starting to take off in reading and writing.
Translation:
Jackson
Boy
Girl Zoo* The A
Jackson Ostrowski

*Zoo would be underlined because it has become Jackson's habit to underline a word as he reads it.

He also wrote "knor" for kipper and "rxnd" for Arnold. He told his teacher what he had written giving meaning to his writing which was a total breakthrough! [For the first time, he wrote his own 'story', he's dictated stories in the past, but never truly written one.]

Friday Night Lights

The Churubusco high school football team won sectionals; Friday night the regional game was held at the stadium, just a block away. Jackson really enjoys taking our fold-away chairs down the block to watch the game from "our side" of the fence. We all hiked down to settle in for a cold night of football. Cal was over it before the first quarter ended...

Jackson stayed huddled in his chair, under a couple of blankets (without a coat b/c he refused to wear it) and watched the entire game. Which the Eagles won, by the way, 28 to 14. Nearly the whole town was there rooting on our team and it was a great night of football.

It always warms my heart to hear Jackson cheering "Let's Go Busco!". He's all about it, bless his heart. I'm not sure he understands the first thing about football, but he wasn't gonna leave until the game was over...

Mainstreaming

For some, this topic is right up there with religion and politics.

I started this post yesterday and couldn't get my head around my thoughts. I'm thinking more clearly now and feel confident to put it out there today....

I'm right now struggling with the issue. Specifically, I'm wondering if I've done the right thing having Jackson so involved with his peers: t-ball, soccer, basketball camp, boy scouts. In every instance, I've just pushed him out there and supported his involvement. But I've started to question whether it's been the very best thing for him to be only exposed to his NT peers. Maybe he needs some time around and involved with 'special needs' peers.

In my heart, I believe God has given me instincts to trust. I've followed them and included Jackson in every possible way with his peers. It's the only way of life he's ever known and I really don't think he's aggravated by it. Truly, I think his peers gain as much from his participation as he does, but I could be kidding myself.

I guess I don't have the answer for every other kid, but I've come to the conclusion for mine that I'll stick with my fight to keep him mainstreamed. After all, the world isn't separated into handicap/non-handicap is it?

Trick or Treat

Here's the update on Halloween:

Jackson didn't want to trick or treat at all, until his dad came home. Dan convinced him he wanted to go get candy. After an initial snafu with wanting to take ALL his stuffed toys with him [translate: he'd need a bigger wagon to hold them all] he put on his Kermit the Frog costume [yes for the 3rd year in a row] and went off with his brother and grandma to trick or treat.

Cal was loving it, but after about a dozen houses, he announced that he "had enough candy to last him a week" and was ready to go home. At this point, Jackson was really enjoying getting all the candy, so dad took him to a few more houses.

It's great that he actually enjoys this now...thinking back to how Halloween used to go, this is victory!

Borrowing Iris

Tonight on the way home from Crazy Pins we discussed how our new baby cousin Iris is doing. Jackson repeated his standard line: "Baby Iris is crying" b/c his favorite picture of this precious baby is the one of her crying [which maybe is a good thing; he's able to read this facial expression and know she's unhappy, so maybe that's why he connects with this particular photo]. I told the boys I'd like to bring baby Iris to our house, to which Cal promptly told me, "We can't just take her, mom, we can only borrow her, right Jackson?" I then tried to get Jax to answer the question, but he just answered, "go see baby Iris. Let's go see baby Iris."

Cal wasn't satisfied with this answer. He told me that we weren't going to borrow baby Iris because babies "get on my nerves, because they always chew on my toys. And I can't stand it when they get all slobbery." Then Jax asked, "Can we go see baby Iris?" Cal: "NO!"


Crazy Pins was tons of fun. Jackson really has fun playing in the climbing structure and waiting for the basket of soft foam balls to empty into the middle. It was nice to have him handle all the stimulation so well.