Special Connection Homeschool

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Gess was going to attend her first Valentine exchange party this year since it is our first year in a Co-op. However, it was not to be. Gess had a cold and had to stay home and now she has shared it with me. Gess had actually made all of her Valentine's but didn't get a box. I bought one to wing it since it was a crazy week but while she was getting better I think all the drainage bothered her tummy and she was too ill to go. However, we are still very blessed that Gess has only had two colds all winter and neither of them turned into anything worse. She hasn't had to take antibiotics all winter, so that is certainly worth missing one party! A friend texted me a couple of weeks ago to show me that Gess' health was on her prayer list exactly 4 years ago. That was when she was hospitalized with pnemonia. I will never forget that year and do my best to keep Gess healthy, but a human can only do so much. That was a great reminder to me that God hears and answers prayers! ...

I have found that timers have been a great way for Gess to transition from one activity to another without any complaint or stress. When we have a break from school (sometimes called recess) I set an alarm. When that time is up, she has to return to her work. Gess has been great about actually doing it. When the timer goes off, she stops and gets right back to work! We also use it to keep track of the amount of time she uses media. If she is on the computer or playing a video game we set it for about 30 minutes and when the timer goes off, she immediately turns the game off. There are exceptions like when she is about to finish a race, lap, or other significant event in the game. I do let her finish that off, but usually she is just done. Well, the last few years I have found that Gess has been more difficult to wake up. I am sure this is pretty typical of teens, but Gess has started ignoring me and hiding under the covers and doing whatever she can to stay in bed. She used to wake...

I was told from the beginning that people who have Down syndrome are shorter than the average person. In fact, at well child visits we always had a different growth chart to compare their growth to. Gess was usually on the upper end of the DS growth chart and sometimes on the lower end of the average growth chart so I figured she would be pretty tall. However, what they failed to tell me was that not only are people who have DS shorter, they stop growing before everyone else too. It wasn't until the last few years that I noticed a difference in Gess' height. Her peers have really taken off in growth and she has remained stagnant. This week we visited a specialist to find that this is absolutely normal for a person with DS. Gess is 13 and has been through puberty. A female generally stops growing within 2 years of starting their cycle and for Gess it was probably more like one. They took x-rays of her growth plates and they showed an age of 15 although she had just turned 13...