St Augustine Tour

Today we went down into historic downtown and did a trolley tour (turn off volume or it might scare you) and visited the old jail house. I found an ad last night that said all residents of St Johns county received free three day pass for the trolley and entrance to the old jail during the month of November. So being the last day of November, today was the day. The girls loved it. Savannah wasn't sure about the sherriff in one part (the actual picture on the website) as it was a fake guy that moved and talked.... She though he was real enough and actually going to lock her up I think. We were the only people on our particular tour too. Then we hopped on the trolley. We only stopped once along the way at an old historic church that Henry Flagler built (Flagler Memorial Pryesbeterian Church), other than that we just rode. Zoe actually fell asleep riding the last leg of the trip.... I still can't figure out how. A horse and buggy on a road full of potholes would still be a smother ride than those trolleys!

It did give me a few more ideas on how to explore St Augustine with the kids, some of the attractions that are free to get in like some of the old churches and old drug stores, that kind of stuff. Also learned some fun facts I didn't know before. When you live in a city, sometimes it is hard to remember the cool stuff about it. Other times you just stop taking advantage of it cause the kids are too hard to travel with.... but now that Zoe is old enough we really got to get out more!

Check it out!

I don't know if everyone knows about the other blog I have, or if it ever gets checked (cause it isn't updated much), but I just posted our Thanksgiving countdown calendar. Go check it out at The Learning Lindbergs.

First Day of VPK

Savannah started Voluntary Pre Kindergarten this past week. Mike remembered to take a picture of her on her first day, standing outside the school. Yes, I will admit I intentionally made him take her for her first day as I wasn't sure I could make it without crying. I can't say the day ran real smooth, but she had fun, we weren't in a hurry to get out of school (which was good cause it was a traffic jam) and she likes being "in school"

Her teachers names are Ms Ashley and Ms Kristen. Both of the teachers you can tell have never had kids cause they just are not very authoritative and have NOT mastered the mom evil eye. Luckily for me, Savannah okay with that- she tends to see suggestions as good ideas. She also doesn't like the idea of getting in trouble at all!

She isn't wearing her glasses here, but she has some cool new glasses for school.... We picked them up Monday night, and I already am taking them in to get fixed. Just this afternoon (Friday) Savannah left them on the floor somewhere and the dog chewed on them.... Guess it is a good thing that the frames are replaced free for up to one year! Looks like we will be getting our use out of that guarantee.

Paint Chip Folder Game

A little while ago I posted about the paint chips activities that I was doing. There were questions about it and I tried to explain and I am not sure I did a good job of it. Well, I never do a good job with posting pictures, so I am going to let Takako's blog do the talking again as there is a great video of Jude being the example. So head on over to Hey Jude.

For those who are wondering, this is a great, easy project for two and three year olds or those learning it in multiple languages. It was too easy for Savannah who is four. To make it harder, keep the Mickey mouse heads as playing cards but have them match it to the words pasted or written in the folder so they have to match the colors to the letters. If they aren't quite read to "read" the words, write the words in the color that they represent as a clue.

Paint Chip Games

So I was asked what we were using paint chips for. Well, for a younger kid, the two year old range, we have been making color matching games. Home Depot has Mickey Mouse color swatches, and if you grab two of any of them you can make a color matching game by gluing one side to a file folder and then the child places the other card on the matching color. It helps with color discrimination and you can do contrasting colors or make it harder by staying in one group of colors and using different shades. You can also increase it even more by making the child match the color to the words, or the words to the color swatches. Before adding the words though they have to know the beginning sounds of the colors at least.

The second one we have been doing it using paint chips to make phonics cards. Savannah wants to read so bad that I have started looking into phonics programs and activities. Over on Snail's Tail (link was in two posts ago.) the author used the Valspar paint chips with the cut out holes and the strip paint chips to make a word family game. She explains it a lot better, so click the link in the Phonics post.

I am determined to find more things to do with the paint chips. I will. Just wait.

Phonics start

Have you seen this blog, The Snail's Trail? I love this idea and am soooooo going to do this for Savannah. I knew there was a good use for all those paint chips, I just hadn't come up with this one. Wish I had though!

Starting School

It is back to school for me in a few weeks. I mentioned that I signed up to start braille classes? Well, I was approved and they are mailing out the information packet to me already. I probably will not start till we get back form Minnesota, as we are probably going to be pretty busy up through then, but you never know.... It depends on how time consuming the eight lessons are. If it is something I can do after I put Zoe to bed, then maybe I will start it before then. Then again, maybe I will wait and finish getting Savannah's school stuff sorted out. Decisions..... decisions.....

Preschool Lite

So, As of right now I have decided not to enroll Savannah in a preschool type program, but to have a preschool lite program at home this year. Lots of reasons, but one being that we will be out of the house enough as it is that we don't need to be out more.

So this year we are going to go through the alphabet and do what I call folder books. There is a home school idea out there called lap booking, and basically it is the same, except that I plan to only do one or two items per book so we are not going to do the special folder folds. We aren't at this time planing on doing any high tech mini books either, just use the folder as a place to collect all the things we do. At least that is the plan as of now, plans don't always go according to plan when a kid is involved.

Almost all of the projects we are planning on doing come off of a blog that I found called No time for Flash Cards and 1+1+1=1 with extra books added from another sites book suggestions list. But we are going to use the library for all books so if they don't have the particular book then oh well.

In the end the week will definitely be full, even if I only do school two days a week, like I plan. Cause, we have vision class two mornings a week, school two mornings a week and then either home school coop through our church (if we decide to sign up.... they don't really have real classes till kids start Kindergarten I think) or plan on doing story and art classes through the public libraries in Jacksonville. Either one would be a fine addition to our weeks. One is closer to home but the other is free.... Its a toss up.

That right there though is our entire week planned. Then at the end of the year, Savannah may be reading easy words (I am loosely following a phonics program) and will have a book of activities that we do for all the letters of the alphabet.... By the end of the year she may even be more advanced then the average kid her age.... and on a good start for the home school trek.

Schooling

Mike and I agree that we need to introduce braille into Savannah's schoolwork, not necessarily for now, but for easier transition into braille when the need arises later in life. (Since the docs don't seem to be able to control her eye pressures, it may unfortunately be sooner than later.)

So I asked around and found the Hadley School for the Blind. It is a distance learning school for the blind that provides courses free of charge to the family of blind students during the child's early years and high school and above coursework for the blind. (Though they do recommend supplementing the high school coursework if college is a possibility.) Either way though, it is a beginning on the long journey ahead of us.

I went ahead and submitted an application. I have to start learning braille myself if I am going to start teaching it to Savannah. For this school year, I am only planning on introducing her to the alphabet and so forth, make it fun. We are going through the alphabet and doing activities phonics style, and adding the braille letter codes to the mix isn't going to be that difficult.... I don't foresee anyway. When we start reading words, well we will start adding it with Braille I guess.

I read online (MSNBC Article) though that statistics show only about ten percent of the blind or low vision population utilize any braille skills..... which probably accounts for the high percentage of unemployed vision impaired individuals (77%). When braille skills are factored in, the unemployment statistics drop significantly (44%). Savannah will at least know braille, whether or not she ever needs to use it, is another matter.

Write My Name

savannah - I wrote it all myself!

Lessons in Home Learning

What I have come to realize is home learning really is an anything goes type of thing. If one wants to do lapbooks, or notebooks, or textbooks, or whatever.... It's all okay. It gets the job done. You pick one style or way of doing things and you go with it.

Sort of. In reality, every homeschooler, and public school teacher for that matter, seems to do a little of all the types of homeschooling. Unless one strickly follows just textbooks (read selection and answer questions), any thing that a kid makes can be posted in a lapbook or a notebook for organization or pasted in a notebook / three ring binder. The Classical Education style can also be thrown into the mix by using the classical works as the subject of the lapbook....

The subjects I don't see as being too compatible with different methods of presentations is math. Math tends to only be able to be actually taught as math traditionally is taught.... though you certainly could use basic aspects of math in lapbooks or whatnot. Lapbooks and so forth doesn't make much sense for learning basic mathmatical calculations.

School days

We are finishing out the second week of school at Mill Creek. Since she is only going three days a week though, it is only technically her 6th day.

We had a rough first three to four days.

Then i found out that Savannah's teacher is a lot like me. She loves to use email.

FYI, ask for email addresses...... and if others don't ask for your email, give it to them anyways.

After the email situation was worked out, we have done wonderfully. Savannah is getting used to naping at school, and we are now getting the daily reports from Ms Todd, Savannah's teacher, so we know what Savannah has done that day at school.

We are starting to get used to school though, and the longer we go, the better it gets.

Letting go

There are a lot of different schools of thought out there about schools.

There are movements in the christian groups that the children should be home schooled. All the moms of these home school children have their reasons for wanting to home school and they are all very valid reasons. I also had been tossing around the idea, but for right now, we are a public school family..... and here is why.

Savannah has eyesight issues. The public school can afford and has access to different visual "aids" that Savannah can try out without mom and dad putting forth the financial commitment to it only to find out that it doesn't really help Savannah.

The other thing is that I don't feel that homeschooling should be the easy way out. Now don't get me wrong, homeschooling is not easy to do, and I find that the moms who do it are the greatest group of women I have met. But for me, homeschooling would be the easy way out because it would allow me to not have to grow as much..... I would not have to deal with all the other issues as a parent - I would not have to acknowledge the fears current or future, rational or irrational- that goes along with growing children. Homeschooling. at least at this age and time, would keep me as a mom from growing, from staying my own person with thoughts and feelings of my own, from continuing to learn personable skills....(I would literally be a hermit if I could).

I have also come to realize that the last three years have been very intense. Savannah just requires more that a normal child her age..... whatever age that might be. She requires more time, more attention, more whatever. It is probably due to the eye stuff...... The two weeks I have gotten a crash course in what is really meant by Savannah's "Special needs" and what really is meant by that. It isn't just a medical diagnosis...... It is more than that..... and when I finally figure out what it really means, I will let you know..... just be warned that it may take several years to be able to really express what I mean.....

That said though, in a lot of ways, good and bad, my life completely revolved around Savannah and her needs. Though we were doing well with it, it did lead to quite a bit of drain.....

But it is like the big let down after a big event..... you are so used to doing _________ that now that its over you don't know what to do anymore, and don't always feel as needed. I didn't say it was rational.

Further talk about Savannah's Eyes

"After reading a bit about the Blind services, does Savannah have a bilateral impairment? Her left eye is what - 20/200? What's her right? Their site says she has to have a bilateral impairment. Regarding the latter two FSDB criteria, I think she definitely meets the first one. Re: the 2nd one - when you're teaching her, does she seem to need any modifications? I know she has a certain way about her when she walks around that she kind of protects her face somewhat, undoubtedly because she has run into a few things. Just how much she can see with each eye you would know much better than I. Just some input for ya." -Grandma Karen

Savannah has bilateral vision loss simply because the eyesight has been affected in both eyes to at least some degree, otherwise we wouldn't have had to do surgeries and stuff to help correct the pressure in both eyes. Plus, glaucoma is a progressive vision loss so her future eyesight will be worse than her current eyesight, almost guaranteed. As far as the left eye, I am not sure what the eye chart really reads, but they have determined that glasses and so forth will not help correct her vision loss at this point. The right eye is the one that there seems to be enough vision that I believe may disqualify her from receiving any type of aid, as they always test by the better of the two eyes. However, if it is technically supposed to be patched all day then the better is the left eye right?

As far as making modifications during teaching times.... well I don't make her wear the patch so I don't know the answer. Trying to get her to keep the patch on during those times with me is like trying to keep the Titanic from sinking.... it just doesn't happen. So the better eye takes over and requires little aid.

At this point I am still optimistic, sort of. I decided that if I apply to all of these programs for her and they test her and if she gets turned down then at least I tried and I can't look back ten years from now and say, I wish we had at least tried to get her into the programs....

Honestly, though, right now I am just not in an optimistic frame of mind overall..... Not Savannah eye related but about the economy and the nation in general.

The School Trip

So the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind trip was a lot like I expected it to be. There isn't too much difference between the blind and the deaf departments at the school other than the fact that they treat the different sensory loss. Since I spent so much time in the deaf side, I didn't find much to report about it.

One thing I will say is that it seems too extreme for Savannah's current vision issues although she would definitely benefit from the program. The other three children that would be in her class are either completely blind or legally blind and are reading full Braille, with the help of the teacher and the full time aide. That said, she would run circles around the other students, and that could possibly cause some major issues in the classroom. They would also start her in learning braille, which could be a good thing in case she ever did need it in the future, whether by choice (IE career field) or as a way to read personally.

So right now we are not filling out any paperwork or anything.... in part because I wonder if she really is eligible for attending.... she does meet at least part of the enrollment criteria (A progressive loss of vision which may affect the applicant's ability to function in an academic setting), but I am not convinced that she meets the criteria that states that there is documented functional vision loss which;
• Inhibits optimal processing of information through the vision channel, and,
• Requires the use of specialized techniques, textbooks, materials or equipment.
In order to attend she has to meet both sets of criteria.

What we are doing right now is looking into the public school system and what they have to offer at this time or in the future to accommodate Savannah. We are also trying to get her set up with the Division of Blind Services, specifically the Childhood area, so that we can find out more of the programs offered in the local area, including the parent support groups etc.

All in all, if it wasn't for the fighting over the silly patch, I still think that I could teach my kid a whole lot better than anyone else.... but that patch just causes so much tension and it is too easy to let it get to me and then carry it over to the non-school, non-patch time.

Oh and Karen, Rick Coleman said to tell you hi. He was our tour guide, and though I recognized him he didn't really remember me. He did remember you and reiterated several times how grateful he always was that you would explain the lab to the parents when he brought them around. When I told him you were in Hawaii though he didn't feel too sorry for you.

F

So it is only Monday, but because I have been slacking the last few weeks, I felt like maybe I should get an early start this week... especially since Halloween stuff might take over the end of the week. So

We glued Fabric Flowers

Twice.

Then we painted the eggshell carton.... sort of....

and made them into pretty flowers!

E

Our one eared elephant....

We ate eggs for breakfast and then we
Dyed Eggshells...


Our Eggshell E

Again our week has been cut short by a busy schedule. We had a visit to the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind on Wednesday, so the only day we really did school at home was on Friday.... and I was tired out from running around all week that I can't say I was all that patient. But school starts again tomorrow, so hopefully I can wipe the slate clean and try again...

D

Well, we didn't do much worthy of posting for D. For school they ate Donuts with Dad, though Mike didn't actually go. They painted Dinosaurs with watercolors, and colored lots of pictures... at home we just did Dotty D... D with a bunch of dot stickers on it. The week was just super busy, I was prepping for Mike's Birthday and trying to debug the pantry and time just escaped. If it wasn't for the fact that the school just keeps on going I probably would have just did D this week, but alas, it is on to E.

E is for Egg, Elephants, exercise....

C is for

Confetti and Cars...





Colorful Caterpillar's ...

Cotton Ball painting ...




Church...

Cats....













and Caterpillars.





















And then there is actually the letter C. We did a newspaper C search and this is what we found.... and then there were some c's in our alphabet letter stickers.

Between mommy and school, we seem to come up with a lot of examples of c's. We aren't doing nearly the full curriculum, but I figure there is plenty of time for Savannah to get the full curriculum in the next year.... especially since the curriculum is geared more towards a three and a half year old rather than a almost three year old. Maybe by the time she gets a little older I will be more prepared for school too.

It's B

This week was the B week....

B is for


Brown Bag B's ...

Bears, Baskets, Bees, and Butterflies ...

Teddy Bear Picnics ...



Babies ...

Boats...

and Bubbles Galore....

and Don't forget to sing the Bubbles Song:
"Bubbles, Bubbles in the air,
Bubbles Bubbles everywhere.
Bubbles Here,
Bubbles there,
There's even bubbles in my hair!"
..... and yes I made that up, especially for bubble making day!