7 Quick Takes Friday (from 2/18/11)

1.

Frank finished the Bob Books last night! Funny thing is he accidentally started the last set of Bob Books from the end, so he did the hardest four or five books first and then went back in order. So last night he cruised through the middle five that were left. We called everyone up to listen to the last page, caught it on video, brought the bag of completed books up to the attic and then went to Culver's to celebrate. Yum!

2.

I can't believe I still haven't given a Latin Convention update. We're still missing the official transcript of scores, I just have the notes I quickly jotted down during the awards ceremony. (The awards ceremony gives the top 5 placements for each event whereas the transcript goes all the through the top 10). Our Gus had a great first year and we're really proud of him. He's always had some learning challenges (which I wrote about a bit on the old blog) and one that still lingers is that his handwriting and fine motor skills tend to be slow going. There were a total of 12 written tests he could have taken. He was only able to finish seven in the time given. Out of those seven, he placed in the top 5 on four tests! 5th place in Roman History, 4th place in Latin Derivatives, 3rd place in Greek Derivatives and 1st place in Latin Literature! He also tied with one of his teammates for 2nd place in Impromptu Oratory. This is a lovely confidence boost for all of us and has helped me to understand that what we've been doing is really working pretty well on the whole (and more of the same at this point is good)!

3.

I really enjoy watching the Oscars every year. Do you? Sure I groan at some of the speeches and other oddities, but I enjoy a lot of the "little guy" moments, I love the tributes to those who have died in the past year and things like that. Also, I simply enjoy rooting for my favorite movies. This year I've seen four of the movies nominated for best picture: The King's Speech, True Grit, Inception, and Toy Story 3. Even among those, The King's Speech is a huge favorite for me. I let my highschoolers watch the Oscars with me and then I call all of the kids (who are in earshot) in for key moments, like Pixar Movie Moments. ;)

4.

A few weeks ago I purchased Secrets of Mental Math from The Teaching Company when it was on sale (all Teaching Company courses go on sale substantially at least once per year - we purchased this set for about $40). I thought it might make a nice break from the regular routine and give the kids a more enthusiastic angle on math. The course has exceeded my expectations and the change of pace has been wonderful, especially in February. All of the kids are interested in it and are following along pretty well. They've been doing each lesson 3 or 4 times to pick up all the details (they also pause it frequently - the guy talks fast and covers a lot of stuff!). Overall an enthusiastic recommendation so far! We also picked up the Joy of Mathematics, but haven't really dug into it yet.

5.

We're having a lovely reprieve from the ultra-cold weather this week. It's been lovely and the kids have spent lots of time outside, despite all the mud from the melting snow. During the coldest weather, the kids weren't spending much time outside and the dog wasn't getting enough exercise. She has the run of a bunch of the yard, but without some stimulation from people, she tends to just go outside and bark at the neighbors. So the kids have been making a special effort to keep her busy. She LOVES the snow and will try to catch snowballs in her mouth to the great entertainment of all. They came up with a new form of entertainment this week. They took a snowball and got her attention with it and then smushed it into the top of a very large snowball (about two feet tall). The dog would get up on her hind legs and dig through the big snowball with great excitement. I have to see if I can find the video they took of it. Too funny!

6.

I've been meaning to read St. Therese's Story of a Soul for many years. I had a copy of the famous John Beevers translation on my bookshelf at least since college. Last year I ended up picking up an unedited translation from a rummage sale. After the Ron Hansen kick I've been on lately, I decided I needed something completely different (especially after Hitler's Niece, which is a VERY disturbing book). And so I thought of Story of a Soul and I did it, I finally read it. I should do a post on some quotes and thoughts from it, but just wanted to do a quick take for now. I was amazed by her confidence in understanding how God works in her life. I was also particularly moved, as I was by a description of St. Francis of Assisi on gratitude that I've quoted here in the past, at her ability to look upon sufferings, great or small, as a gift from God.

7.

I loved this piece on "The Cross of Christ for Marriage" that I read on Ana's Blog this week. It obviously applies to other friendships as well as shedding a new light on the idea of the cross. Beautiful!

Gus in Chicago

Gus tries on cousin Amy's cool research stuff
Originally uploaded by Chez VH.

The impetus for our trip to Chicago on Saturday was to meet up with John's cousin-in-law, Amy, who's does autism research at the University of Chicago (she recently accepted a position at Marquette, so will be local in the near future). She studies the brain waves of autism spectrum children to help understand "what makes them tick." So, we weren't getting an official diagnosis, but she does some basic screening to see who fits in with her study group. Not a bad place to see if further testing would be helpful - and it was free.

So Gus had some academic and social testing done at her office. The academic part is along the lines of an I.Q. test, but not quite as definitive. The social part was to see how he interacts with others (through questions and games) and to look for a number of Asperger symptoms.

I enjoyed getting to sit in on these tests - particularly the vocabulary part of the academic testing which he had a stellar performance on, thanks to our, um, unique academic environment. The other researcher, who performed this test, couldn't keep from smiling (she wasn't supposed to tell him whether his answers were right or not) when typical responses were along the lines of, "Um, this is just a guess, but is it 'tenacious'?" The overall results of this test were particularly reassuring since his tendency to work his way through things very slowly has caused us to by no means cover a full traditional academic range of subjects and yet his overall academic knowledge and competency was quite good.

The social aspect of the screening was pretty what I expected in the particulars (reluctant to answer open-ended questions or ones requiring descriptions of things like emotions).

The long and the short of it is that, though Gus exhibits some Asperger-like tendencies, he really doesn't fit the spectrum in a number of key areas (and so he didn't participate in the full research, though he got to try on some of the equipment - which he was very interested in!). Apparently shyness and awkwardness are often confused with Asperger-like social disabilities. Added to this are Gus's developmental delays in fine and gross motor skills - which certainly can be part of the Asperger picture. Having a specific cause for these (namely his difficult birth - cord around the neck and an initial Apgar score of 1) points away from an Asperger diagnosis. It also makes sense out of why these areas are all gradually improving, though they take a lot more effort than they do for most people.

These experiences have crystallized a few concepts in my mind. One is the necessity to adjust teaching methods according to each child's needs. There are some obvious potential benefits for homeschool situations here - often the parent is better able to make important distinctions in a particular child involving truths such as:

Smart doesn't always equal fast.

and

"Slow" doesn't always equal lazy.

I put slow in quotation marks because the word has certain developmental connotations that aren't intended here.

Common Sense Prevails - Hurray!

There are some conversations that I will remember for a very long time. I had one of those tonight. One of John's relatives has just accepted a teaching and research position in child development (specializing in autism) at Marquette University. Her husband and my husband both graduated from the same high school and she and I spent most of the annual reunion/party tonight chatting about education, special needs and child development. How completely fascinating and encouraging! She is very friendly and common-sense, but smart, focused and with a lot of experience and research at her fingertips. What I ended up learning was that there is a lot of scientific research that confirms a number of the more intuitive and experience-based beliefs I have about childhood development and education. (It was also simply exciting to be so much on the same page as someone else in these things AND to be able to chat with someone so enthusiastic about the subject matter).

We started with a particular connection in that I believe we have some children with special needs that fall into the autism spectrum (namely Aspergers - a highly functioning cousin of autism with some very definite challenges and frustrations) and it was very reassuring to compare notes and get some confirmation that we've been on the right track in meeting our children's needs in a common sense fashion. Society has a tendency to overwhelm, particularly those in challenging circumstances, with so much advice on what is considered "essential" that it at times feels like it is impossible to adequately meet our children's needs without truly extraordinary (and extremely expensive) intervention. It was incredibly reassuring to realize that we were on the right track and even a bit of a pat on the back for having our eyes open to our children's social, physical and emotional needs and finding reasonable ways of meeting those.

Here are a few areas that we touched upon...

Reasonable limits on electronic stimulation is a smart idea and there is no scientific evidence to support the notion that those popular educational videos for babies are essential (as is commonly believed)

Because children vary in personality, learning styles, etc. it makes sense to adjust methods according to their needs.

Neurological research supports many of the natural things that parents are inclined to do and provide for their children. For example, the connections made when we hold and rock babies for long periods of time turn out to be significant and important to their brain development.

There was a lot more to it than this, but I wanted to jot down what I could remember.

Links - Learning Styles and Special Needs

• "Introversion"


• Mercy Academy Learning Style Test


• Aspie


• O.A.S.I.S.


• Aspergers vs. Gifted


• Autism WI


• "Geek Syndrome"


• Sizzle Bop

Some Surprising Stats on Gifted Students

"between 10 percent and 20 percent of high school dropouts are intellectually gifted, and 40 percent of those who graduate in the top 5 percent of their high school class do not complete college."

The OASIS Guide to Asperger Syndrome by Patricia Romanowski Bashe and Barbara L. Kirby
(see links in sidebar for more info on Asperger's)

At the very least, I think this indicates that a. it's not only students with low IQ or who struggle in school that need encouragement and emotional support and b. many schools are failing the above average students as well as those who don't fit in because of academic weaknesses. It is hypothesized in this book that learning disabilities such as Asperger's and ADHD might help account for these surprising statistics, particularly since these conditions are less likely to be diagnosed in gifted students.

(by the way, gifted is considered an IQ of 130 or above)