Trucking along in First Grade

My camera has been circling the drain, so thanks to Target's Deal of the Day, I was able to get a new one this week!  Yea!  And it's been a while since I got pictures of David doing his school work, so I spent some of my time today playing with the new camera while David was doing his work.

Working on his Handwriting Without Tears...

I thought it was kinda funny that me taking close up pictures of him at strange angles didn't phase him at all.  Guess he's used to it by now!  Next, he's doing his Math-U-See review sheet.

 

He really loves those Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils!  (and I love how much stress they save us!)

I am really happy with how school has been going this week.   We finally had a week that is not riddled with doctor's appointments and we're on week two of a new non-stimulant ADHD medication that seems to really be making a difference in his concentration.  He's staying no task much better and able to do much more work in a shorter amount of time. 

We've also started using Explode the Code Online. After getting the hang of it, David is doing really well and has made it through 3/4 of the exercises for Book 1 in just three weeks.  It has really improved his reading skills & confidence in reading other school work and reading to Rebekah, so I am very happy with the program.

And I'm pretty happy with the natural light photos I'm getting from my new camera, too!  : )

The Joys of Homeschooling

We had another week of messed up scheduling thanks to appointments, errands and Dad being away from home most of the week for a hazmat class.  In spite of everything, we still got school done.  And that is one of the joys of homeschooling.

Another is sharing the excitement of learning.  Sure, any parent could have gone out to witness the Super Harvest Moon and Jupiter this week with their kids.  But it's something else to know that in a few months we'll be studying Jupiter and I can say, "Remember that night when we stayed up late and saw the moons of Jupiter? or when we saw it right under the big full moon?"

We're currently on Mercury.  It's an interesting planet.  We've gone outside before sunrise several times in the last week to try to spot it, but there have been too many low clouds on the horizon.  Still, it's bonding to be on a quest together.

David's favorite new word of the week is ziggurat, which we've been learning about in Ancient Civilizations.

While we've been schooling since August, we just started our math curriculum.  Those manipulatives are almost as fun as Legos!  And I have to admit that I was amazed (and grateful!) that the explanation of place value in Math-U-See was so easy for the kids to grasp.  I read it straight out of the teacher's manual & drew it on the board.  Later in the day, Elizabeth walked by the board and asked, "Mama, why is there only one hundred in the castle?"  I didn't even realize she was listening while I was doing math with David!

(Looking back at this photo makes me realize how right-handed our world is and how challenging it must be to be left-handed.)

I've already been able to incorporate some of the tips I got out of The Homeschooler's Guide to Attentional Difficulties.  I love how practical this booklet is.  And I love that I can at least try - do my best - to keep David interested in learning by altering the presentation, the subject matter, the environment, and even the time of day we have school.

And all this is where I found joy in homeschooling this week.

1000 Gifts: Relief, Books, Prayer

(Counting my way to 1000 Gifts from God.)  I haven't gotten many pictures of David smiling lately.  Sunday we had the best day that we've had in weeks.  A new doctor (psychiatrist) thought David was reacting to the stimulant medication and pulled him off of it, effective on Friday.  She replaced it with a mood stabilizer and left him on the non-stimulant ADHD medication.  I am beginning to see my child back.

 

5)  Aaahhhh... relief.  

 

So far we've been two days without any major blow-ups, angry fits, or physical attacks from him.  More of the attention-span problems and hyperactivity are back, but I'd rather have ADHD than anger.  And I am thankful that all that anger was medicine-induced. 

 

He's also been sleeping for the last 2 nights, so the insomnia was also induced by the same medication, as was the loss in appetite.  We will continue working on the authority issues, social skills, and the separation anxiety with the counselor. 

 

 

I read recently, ironically, that when you have a child with ADHD you should continually be reading and learning more.  Two of my latest reads have been a wonderful addition to my ADHD library and I highly suggest them to any other parent going through this.

 

6)  Books:

 

- The Power of God with an AD/HD Child by Krista Hain

- The Homeschooler's Guide to Attentional Difficulties: Practical Tips for Daily Success by Jill J. Dixon

 

Both of these have provided encouragement and practical help beyond my expectations, leaving me in tears that these women understand and are sharing their help with me!  I found both at ChristianBook.com.  If you want more information on either book, I would be happy to share more about them!

 

7)  Prayer

 

David's great-grandmother said to me the other day, "I don't know what else I can do but pray."  What an understatement.  I am so thankful for the people who have been keeping us in their prayers and there have been so many people who have told me they've been praying for us.  I am blessed!

Today's Busy Day

Looking at my calendar for the week, it seemed that today - Monday, of all days - would be my hump day!  We started out with Elizabeth's dance class in the morning and David's first night of Cub Scouts this evening.

Dad was working today, so David had to go with us to dance.  I was afraid of how that would turn out, so I asked Grandpa to come along for back-up.  Turns out we lost some of the little ballerinas from her class (and school back in session took out the siblings), so the waiting room wasn't as crowded as it was last week.  Plus having the novelty of Grandpa falling asleep & waking up every few minutes, David handled the hour pretty well.  It was lunch where he didn't handle himself so well.

Elizabeth enjoyed another day of class and I remembered to take a picture while they were doing their gymnastics, but didn't get any dance pictures this week.  There she is on the low balance beam with Miss Toya waiting at the bars.

She was scared to do the bars, though, even with Miss Toya's help.

While the girls napped back at home, we got a little school work done, including this interesting comparison of the sizes of the sun and Earth (the little blue dot!).

Cub Scouts turned out to be a flop.  He was just not able to handle the group setting, or peer interaction... at all.  We left early... both in tears.  From the book I quoted last time:

...having a child with ADHD places great stress on the parents, particularly mothers.

(and surely pregnancy hormones and missing my Momma doesn't help either.)  I've also started reading another book, on defiant behavior, while I'm still finishing the book on ADHD:

Your child acts this way because he doesn't know how else to handle his difficult thoughts and feelings.

And that's mostly a reminder to myself, but still no excuse for horrible behavior.  We're just trying to figure out what's wrong with him and how we can help him.  It's very hard for me to remain patient and keep my own self-control when he's attacking me.  We've made counseling appointments to get some help.

The Stigma

I haven't said much about it on the blog because I'm fully aware of the stigma.  Before it was my own child, I used to think, "Why can't those parents control their child better than that?"  I was judgemental.  Now it's me.

I have decided, in an effort to help family and friends understand what's going on, I should include this on my blog.  After all, that's why this blog was started almost 6 years ago.

David started out with some developmental delays.  He was late walking and late talking.  He banged his head a lot.  Lots of people suggested a certain disorder without coming right out & saying it.  We resisted.  He did not have the hallmark signs of that.  We did speech therapy and slowly he started talking and suddenly he started walking.

By the age of 5, I was beginning to realize that once again, there was something different.  David just didn't seem to function the same as other kids his age.  Although extremely smart, he did not do well in a group setting like Sunday school and our home school co-op classes.

We home schooled Kindergarten and again he proved very smart.  When I discovered he was left handed, we made some adjustments and fine motor skills improved.  We still didn't want to label him, so "off the books" we had my sister-in-law test him for ADHD, although she was skeptical.  But we had seen more, and the test showed a high likelihood that he had the disorder.

We changed our diet, avoiding artificial colors, artificial flavors, and certain preservatives.  We joined the Feingold Association and learned a lot about all natural & whole foods.  I need to re-read all of their information again and make sure I haven't let anything slip back into our diet, too.  We tried several homeopathic remedies to help with the ADHD.

In the spring of this year, things started getting worse again.  By summer, we finally decided it was time to talk to the pediatrician about it and consider using medication.  We did another test which showed an even stronger likelihood of ADHD and ODD.   The day we went to the doctor with our test results in hand, I was in tears.  It had gotten that bad.  It is not just a problem with attention-span and hyperactivity.  It's much more complex.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is a developmental disorder of self-control.  It consists of problems with attention span, impulse control and activity level.  But, as you will discover here, it is much more.  These problems are reflected in impairment in a child's will, or capacity, to control his own behavior relative to the passage of time - to keep future goals and consequences in mind.  It is not, as other books will tell you, just a matter of being inattentive and overactive.  It is not just a temporary state that will be outgrown, a trying but normal phase of childhood.  It is not caused by parental failure to discipline or control the child, and is not a sign of some sort of inherent "badness" in the child.  ADHD is real - a real disorder, a real problem, and often a real obstacle.  It can be heartbreaking and nerve-wracking.

Quote from the book, Taking Charge of ADHD: The Complete, Authoritative Guide for Parents (Revised Edition) by Russell A. Barkley, PhD, also referenced below.

The first week, we started on a low dose of a stimulant medication in the morning and saw an improvement in David's behavior for 6 hours after taking it.  The next week, we added a low dose of a non-stimulant medication in the afternoon, which has now been increased twice.  He does better most of the day with random episodes of anger and defiance.  Sitting through an almost 2-hour church service today was a stretch of his capacity, though. (The same could be said of adults also, but at least we have the ability to control how we act about it!)


I am reading this book to help me understand ADHD and how to handle him because the "normal stuff" just doesn't work with him.  Taking Charge of ADHD: The Complete, Authoritative Guide for Parents (Revised Edition) has been a huge eye-opener and help to me in the last few weeks.  We have implemented a token system for rewards and consequences, which seems to be working with him better than other discipline we've tried.  We'll also be trying some other ideas from the book.

Here's something I read today that I wanted to share about the nature of ADHD.  I'm on the chapter about the possible causes.  Remember that I mentioned before that it's not just a problem with attention-span and hyperactivity.  A study in Denmark had the following findings:

...ADHD children had less blood flow to the frontal area (of the brain), particularly in the caudate nucleus - an important structure in the pathway between the most frontal portion of the brain and the structures in the middle of the brain known as the limbic system.  The caudate nucleus is made up of several bundles of nerve fibers, one region of which is known as the straitum.  This region is important in inhibiting behavior and sustaining attention.  The limbic system, to which it is connected is responsible for a variety of human activities, chief among which are controlling emotions, motivation, and memory.

Other studies have shown lower brain activity in the frontal area of the brain in cases of ADHD across the board - in children, adolescents, and adults.

I hope that by starting to share some of our journey here, more people will be able to understand what it's really like and not just have the judgemental attitude I held for so long.