happy being trevy

Standardized testing is hard... Swinging between sections helps! I've decided to administer the California Achievement Test with Trevor this year to give me a good snapshot of his skills. Though he's entering 5th grade, I've opted to use the 2nd grade testing. It's a good representation of his abilities and I'm a big believer in setting him up for success. We're using the online version and I'm providing support by operating the computer and reading as needed. He's really required minimal support and could probably do the computer himself as well, but being an entirely new format for him I've decided it's best for me to manage. He was tired, but in an excellent mood! I think he actually kinda likes doing the testing with mom. It's something different and he's feeling proud of himself because he knows he's answering a lot of the questions correctly. Especially in the math section. He even blew me away with some...

This Trileptal increase has been so hard on him. He's exhausted and cognitively sluggish. I gave him a pass on his school work last week, which is to be expected when one spends their days in bed. Sigh.  I am determined to push through this week, starting with today. There were tears, and not just his either. Oh how my heart aches for him. He just wants to be a little boy. There was much dissenting discussion around the topic of school work. He impressed me with his ability to articulate how he was feeling, and thereby self advocate. The sentence structure might have been imperfect, but I fully understood that he felt tired, sluggish, and frustrated. I fully understood that he feels writing and reading are particularly difficult for him, especially when he feels medicine tired. I listened to his heart. It was really the sweetest thing the way he spoke, tears wavering, and sighed, and looked relieved that I was really letting him vent.  After hearing him out, I opt...

The sunlight. The sweet face. The concentration oozing from his pores. The joy I could see brewing in his soul at a job well done. All these ingredients swirled together to fill my heart with an "I love homeschooling" moment this afternoon. Which was much needed after the birthday angst he gave me this morning. The beast! He didn't even wait until I'd finished my coffee before he began with the whining and emmy worthy tears over wanting his birthday present TODAY. For a minute there I wasn't sure we were going to survive. But he rallied and I captured proof that requiring patience will not actually kill him. Though I'm pretty sure I noticed a few more gray hairs winking at me as I passed the mirror. Now to make it through until Sunday. We're planning to surprise him with an April Fool's birthday rather than making him wait until the 3rd.

He's always exhausted after his longer complex partials. An irony is how the tonics look so much more violent on the surface. Sometimes they hit with such force that he, literally, is spun around in a circle. Yet, for some reason, perhaps it's because they self resolve in less than a minute, he's able to carry on with just a yawn or two. He even told me the other night that he'd had a good day because his seizures didn't make him tired. He had over five tonics that day, but no complex partials. Yesterday morning a three minute complex partial left him down for the count for hours. It was the first time he actually fell asleep during the recovery. In a sweetly heart breaking way, his four legged best friend curled up on him while he sleep off the fatigue. I often consider how thankful I am that we can home school him. I'm not sure my heart could endure knowing he felt like this away from home and those who love him most. Later...

Our day started with a two minute seizure.  A seizure which stole energy and joy from him for hours and destroyed my well-laid plans for the day. His short seizures don't physically phase him much. He has one. He moves on. These longer (anything over a minute) events lay us all flat, even when they only two minutes in length. Thankfully I caught this one on camera for his neurologist. She hasn't observed this presentation yet and asked us over the weekend if we could try to catch one. We only caught 10ish seconds of the seizure event itself, which is noted right at the beginning of the video. But also his postical period of slurred speech and confusion is important information to have and see.   After the seizure passed, and I caught my breath again, I proceeded to finish the interrupted math lesson with his sister.  I let him lay on the couch watching Curious George. Honestly, I would have let him watch all day long if he needed to, but after ...

I incorporate a massage into Trevor's daily schedule. Not only is it a calming time, it also provides us with speech expansion opportunity. I'm all about infusing therapeutic goals into daily life, as opposed to having specific blocks of time set aside. He's very thoughtful and chatty when he's relaxed. So we talk.  One of his favorite topics of conversation is whatever book I happen to be pleasure reading at the moment. He's noticed me reading my Kindle each night and once asked what book. It was At the Back of the North Wind. Ever since, it's been a thing for us during his massage time. He loves my re-tellings and is surprisingly capable of digesting some of the more complex elements of the story-line. His thoughts will often take me by surprise. They are not articulated with grammatical perfection, but they are whole, rich insights which prove the miracle that we are more than the sum of our physical parts.  Currently we're discussing Les Mis...

I'm about halfway through this seminar and it has me all "I LOVE homeschoolers!" How awesome is it that we can access "in service" podcasts designed to educate and grow home educators for free from the comfort of our home?!  Rita Cevasco is a Speech and Language Pathologist.  I'm a bit obsessed with people who are passionate about speech and language development.  I wouldn't know why, though?  In this podcast Rita discusses the role copywork plays in the language growth process. It's validating and beautiful so far. Which reminds me, you know who was a huge advocate of copywork? Only my favorite educational philosopher, Miss. Charlotte Mason . I am often staggered by how far beyond her time she was. I appreciate that she had a keen interest in brain science. I do too. Refer to above image for my inspiration. I am persuaded that Charlotte was before her time because she believed deeply in the power of personal observatio...

He's been super competitive lately. Which is cute.  Even still, I'm not sure how I feel about the sassy nature of his words towards his sister this morning...  Let's have a competition. See whose bird best!  I know I'm mom, but I adore her drawing style.  She declined, having inherited her mother's competition averse nature. It didn't stop him from later assessing both of their entries and declaring his the winner.  His drawing includes an Eastern Bluebird, a nest, and mistletoe berries. I do wholeheartedly agree with him that his bird is "sooooo cute" but his sister's is equally adorable.  Nature journaling never fails to provide me with an *I heart homeschooling* moment.  For the curious, once a week-ish we'll read from Birds Every Child Should Know while they add a sketch into their nature journal. We also use the Audubon iPad app to learn more about the bird, listen to their ...

Around 7:30 this morning Trevor had one of his scary seizures. His big brother was giving him a shower. Trevor had just stepped out when I heard the call. I sensed immediately by Toby's tone that it was a big one and he was scared. The trouble with the big seizures is that Trevor is completely non-responsive and , at times, combative. I wrapped my arms around his dripping, little body and held the Frankincense to his nose. His lips weren't blue, but he didn't appear to be breathing. He was frozen. Eyes wide, blank orbs. Mouth agape. Drool beginning to pool on his lower lip. He was a statue. When he's completely gone like this it seems to take longer for the Frankincense to work. I've wondered if perhaps it's because he's not actively smelling. I hope that's the case and not that the benefit we were seeing was a honeymoon period. Suddenly he was pushing my arms away. Still not responding, but at least moving again. Thankful that he's still small of...

I've been feeling very defeated by epilepsy lately.  In addition to his daily 4-5 seizures, Trevor has had two of his larger events in the past two weeks. One of them resulted in calling rescue. Thankfully, the seizure broke before they arrived and we could decline a ride to the hospital. Even still. There are no words in our language to describe the groanings of our hearts during his big seizures and the aftermath is so very difficult to navigate emotionally.  I spent the weekend fighting off the frost of heart-numbness by revamping our school system. He's been so fatigued that focusing on specific subjects daily just isn't working. I've heard of and used loop schedules before but have never tried to loop everything . I decided that's what we needed to do. Just keep a looping list of every.single.thing and work through whatever we can each day. I needed to take the pressure off of both of us, while still pushing forward.  the loop list represe...

Today has been one of those sweet, validating homeschool days. The weather is heavenly. The kids are getting along, or at least were at the time of this post. Studies have been flowing smoothly. Including Trevor doing a terrific job reading a new book! I can't helping thinking "I taught him that!" as I noticed his improved fluency. He adores the Billy and Blaze series, which is helpful. Pretzels, however, are distracting.  We were having such a lovely day that I couldn't resist catching another video, this time of our fine motor rock stacking workbox. I try to think of tasks that are practical and meaningful. Rock stacking is a thing in our neck of the woods. My hope is that working on this at home will allow him to participate with friends in a meaningful activity when we're out and about. He loves this task and was doing great. Until about the 7 second timecode, at which point you can hear him intake his breath, see him pause from his task, h...

Trevor was having a particularly rough morning. He'd logged two seizures already and was hyper focusing on how to get money to buy new Wii games. It was making him miserable and I had him lay down on the couch until he was ready to move on to lessons. He usually helps me with laundry as part of his daily routine, but he was in no position to be helpful this morning. Toby was needing a mental break from his studies and offered to sit with his brother while I ran to the basement to finish the load I was working on.  When I came back upstairs I found Tobin holding Trevor in his arms telling him how much he loves him. It wasn't just words. Evident from his tone of voice and his body language was the passion flowing form him. As if he were trying to make sure Trevor never forgets his words. As if he were trying to sink those words down into his brother's marrow. It was incredibly, movingly sweet.  This has been a year of soul growth for Tobin. The borders ...

The longer we walk with Charlotte , the richer and more beautiful this method grows for all three of my children. It's been about a year and a half since I brought Trevy home for school. I still remember the angst I felt as my heart moved towards that (brave) decision. He has so many layered and complex considerations both medical and educational/developmental. It was terrifying.   And certainly, it isn't easy. But at least once a day, he takes my breath away with a "moment" of validation.  Bristel captured the magic of yesterday's... Experiment from A Drop of Water which is part of the Ambleside Online curriculum

What peer modeling (or inclusion) looks like homeschool style!  Side-by-side timeline work with a friend who not only helps him learn, but desires his company after school hours too! She's upstairs watching MineCraft YouTubes with him as I type.  I've decided to combine Bristel and Trevor's history this year as we learn about the Renaissance, Reformation, and Growth of Nations with Mystery of History. I don't dumb down the learning, but rather allow Trevor to absorb what he can, which is surprisingly more than one might imagine. He really loved beginning to build a timeline and just this afternoon he said, "Mom, me have great idea! Me draw all the characters from Mystery of History. Like Henry the 8th!" We haven't even covered Henry VIII in detail yet, but he found all the Henrys hilarious during the War of the Roses. The concern most often raised by medical professionals is "what about peer models and socialization" rega...

Our morning work was interrupted by a seizure. Sometimes he's able to carry on after an episode. Bigger events leave him yawning and tired. He was yawny after this one.  I let him flip through our literature reading for the day while he recovered. Along with feeling the pages pass over his finger tips, he loves looking at the pictures and remembering the stories we've shared thus far. I consider these narrations, or signs of comprehension and growth. They are always sweet and rarely when asked for expected. A new delight is looking at the page numbers and feeling accomplished when noticing larger numbers. Evidence that he's beginning to understand the concept of time and energy spent and size differentials.  The Children's Book of Virtues is one of his favorite reads. I didn't anticipate his heart connecting so deeply, but it has. I'm sure the beautiful illustrations complementing the living stories play a role in his relationship. Sometimes I...