Special Connection Homeschool

Our Sports Camp at church was amazing.  The them was "Off the Bench" and they used BENCH as an acronym to remember their theme for each day. B - B e Prepared E - Be an E ncourager N - N arrow Your Focus C - C hange the Outcome H - H ope It was fun to watch Gess apply these principles through the week.  On Tuesday Gess had piano lessons and her instructor, who also helped out at camp, told her that she did a really good job playing.  Gess immediately responded by saying, "You are an encourager!"  It was neat to see her apply that in a way that showed she truly understood what it meant. The next day we were at the store and Gess was looking at some canned goods and she held her hands by her eyes as she looked and said "Look mom I have my focus."  OK, so she didn't quite get that lesson as well, but she was listening! Gess participated in cheer-leading and had a lot of fun.  They said she did really good in the class.  Here she is with one of ...

I was so impressed with how well Gess did at church camp this week.  Of course I was her sponsor so I was there to help teach her what to do and help others understand her if she struggled communicating her needs.  She seemed to learn the ropes rather quickly and did very well fitting in.  Her back is to you in the picture above.  She is in the bottom left hand corner.  The empty chair next to her was mine.  Below is the size of the line she had to wait in to even get to eat.  Since we homeschool church camp is Gess' only real experience in a cafeteria. While I occasionally helped her at the beginning she was good at carrying her own tray, getting her own food and drinks, helping herself to seconds and putting her tray and dishes away.  She always ate what she was served and cleaned her plate.  With all the activity she had quite the appetite!  All in all she seemed to enjoy meal time.  Gess also did fairly well in the...

My work in missions and the church has allowed me the opportunity to minister to various types of individuals and families.  I find that people who end up in poverty, at least here in America, often do so because of bad choices or decisions they have made.  These decisions are bad in the sense that they are not beneficial, not that they are actually evil.  Yes, there are those who end up in poverty because of alcoholism, drugs, and crime but often the decisions are just poor ones. A family can end up homeless simply because they rented a house or apartment that is beyond their means.  They made the wrong choice in choosing a home.  It wasn't bad to want that nicer or larger home for their family but it was a bad choice because they couldn't afford it.  After months of getting behind on their bills they ultimately can end up evicted and on the street.  That certainly is bad. There are tons of choices that families make each day that affect their lif...

Gess has been taking gymnastics for close to 5 years now.  We are actually very blessed to have a really great coach who has some real time experience on the trampoline.  This past Monday Casey Finley got to show off his stuff on the Today Show as they began counting down to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.  Apparently skiers practice their tricks on trampolines and Gess' coach Casey was there to demonstrate some of those moves.  He is the one the blue jacket. Casey has received some medals for the trampoline and I believe this next video is him when he held the world record for the double mini pass which apparently has been surpassed by now.  Still, it's pretty impressive that her coach held that record at one time. The best part is that Casey is so good with the kids and super great with Gess.  While she isn't one of those kids who has a special gift in gymnastics, she certainly loves it.  I haven't taken any video of her in a couple o...

When you have a child with special needs teaching social etiquette can be quite the struggle.  Gess has actually done really well picking up on how to act in certain settings and certain places.  I think she does a fine job in that regard.  We have also been careful to teach her the safety issues of being cautious around strangers, where not to let anyone touch her, and so on and so forth.  What we are missing is the in-between: How to make your own decisions (while being respectful) when someone wants you to do something else.  It's become an issue recently as Gess has become more independent.  There are times when she will be playing with kids who seem to want to control everything about her.  If Gess says no to something they try to compel her to change her mind and usually Gess gives in.  (This even got her in trouble one time as she was compelled to do something she was told not to do.) Now I am not saying that these children are taking adv...

I am blessed that my friends and family support our decision to homeschool.  Even those who had their reservations have come around because they have seen how well Gess has done academically, socially and emotionally.  No one who knows Gess can think she is lacking anything in her life. Still, I get the feeling that many people have the attitude that it's alright for me to homeschool only because I am really careful to make sure Gess gets all the socialization she needs.  This attitude makes the assumption that most homeschoolers are not careful to do that.  While it's true that I do go out of my way to make sure Gess gets social opportunities, (especially since she's the only young child living at home and has no siblings near her age to play with) I would say that it is also true of most homeschoolers.  For some reason though, society is still hanging onto the myth that most homeschoolers lack social skills and that really bothers me. Of course people w...

What a busy summer we are having! Since my last post about Special Olympics we have had 3 weekends of company visit our house. The first week we had some dear friends from Indiana come through on their way to a wedding. They had their grandson with them and he and Gess really seemed to hit it off. Those two played so well together that the grown ups were able to relax and visit without much interruption. We walked them downtown and took them through the Safari Museum , which is this biggest tourist attraction in our small town. Gess willingly gave up her bed and enjoyed sleeping on her "pallet." In fact, she continues to ask to sleep on one. The next weekend we had her cousins for 3 days. We love having them around as they all play really well together. Their ages are also perfectly spaced as they are all about one year apart. We pretty much had an 8, 9 and 10 year old for the weekend. For this visit we spent most of our time at the pool, which kids that age love. ...

Sorry I have not blogged recently but we have been really busy. Gess got a part in the local Community College's Production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. As a homeschooler I am really excited about Gess having an opportunity to be in a play. She did not get a speaking role as she was a bit shy around all the other children during the auditions. However, she is still in many other scenes. Her role is a church kid who sings in the angel choir. I have been very impressed at how good she does in the 4 scenes that she is on stage for, particularly after sitting through the many scenes she is not in. She is sitting fairly still, or at least as still as some of the other kids are. Gess gets to be really animated in a few scenes where she cheers for a bunch of rowdy kids or has to run out of the church screaming "fire!" She really gets into those scenes! There are some times where a few people around her have to help her out, such as making her...

Gess went to her first overnight camp this year. It was a lot of fun. I went as her sponsor and got to stay in the cabin with her and accompanied her to all of her activities. She did really well fitting in with her peers, but there are still some areas in which she lacks the independence to do on her own. Over all though, I think she had a great experience. This was only a one night camp, which was a perfect way to start. After registering and getting settled in our cabin we began our day at camp by meeting at the flagpole. Each day they stand silently as they raise the American and Christian flags. Once they are up they say the pledge of allegiance to the American flag, the Christian flag and the Holy Bible. Then we were off to the tabernacle for our first service. Our speaker was a man who starts Spanish speaking churches in our area and also travels the world sharing the gospel using a soccer ball. The ball was made of various colors which makes it appealing to the childre...

It was so exciting to get Gess on the Special Olympics team. I was not aware that they started this at such a young age. Children only need to be 8 years of age to join the Special Olympics. Around here though, they do most of the practices and organizing through the public school so I had to figure out how to get involved. I went to our state Special Olympics website and found the contact information for our area and sent out an email. I was contacted by phone and we worked out the details and Gess was on the team. Each child that participates does need to take a physical. Children with Down Syndrome also must have an Atlantoaxial Instability test to make sure there is no risk to their spinal cord through physical activity. They practiced during the school day at the High School. They were very accommodating and welcoming when we joined them there. We also practiced with Gess some on our own, mostly to make sure she understood how to stay in her own lane for the races. Since ...

Last Saturday Gess attended the party for completing the summer reading program at our local library. She read her 20 books and for that got several prizes like free candy, drinks and various other items from area merchants along with a T-shirt donated from Emprise Bank. On top of that, each child got to pick out one additional prize. Gess got a blow up swimming pool that she got to use once before the weather cooled down to fall like temperatures! Here is a copy of her certificate and a photo of her in her T-shirt. She read every book all by herself, she is such an awesome reader!

This was Gess' first year of dance and she had a really awesome year. It was an opportunity for her to grow in many ways. She got to be in a class in which mom was no where around, she got to be around a bunch of girls not far off in age and she got to learn to follow instructions as a group. Then of course there are the things she learned specifically for dance like certain exercises and dance steps. As with most things, you are always amazed to see just how far a child can come in one year and this is no exception. I have to say that she had an excellent dance studio and her teachers were absolutely amazing! They were patient, gentle and caring but you can tell they also expected her to perform for them and that she did. She has learned more than just some dance steps. She learned a complete routine! (Actually she learned 2) Since she always watches those around her it might appear as though she needs that cue to help, but I have seen her do it alone at home and believe me...

One of the biggest arguments against homeschooling is socialization. They claim that public or at least formal schooling is necessary for learning social skills. Oh really? Have you been to your supermarket lately? How about the mall, the discount store, restaurant or any other public place? It does not take long at any one of these places to realize that very few people have mastered basic social skills. If most children go to school and school is necessary for learning proper social skills, why do so few people seem to have any? I was thinking about this at the store the other day as I noticed several areas in which people seemed ill trained to be in public. Here are a few examples that I came across that day. Hygiene : You would think that since public schools spend tons of money on health and fitness classes that its graduates would at least have basic hygiene skills, unfortunately that is not the case. Don't get me wrong there are times when I run to the store and I ...