Week in Review: July 1-7, 2012

Our first week back to school is complete!  We wound up doing school every day except Independence Day.  Four school days of 70 minutes each gave us a grand total of 280 minutes of instruction time or seat work.  Here's what Henry got done:

• Saxon Math 1: Lessons 1-4 (identifying today's date; making towers for the numbers 1-5; writing the numbers 1, 4, and 5; making towers for the numbers 1-9, ordering the numbers 0-9)
• The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading: Lessons 42-49 (the CK combination; the ending blends LK, LB, LP, ST, NT, FT, LT, CT, PT, MP, SP, LF, LM, ND, SK, XT, and NK; adding the letter S to words)
• Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read First Grade Level 1: Lessons 1-3 (ch-, sh-; th-; wh-)
• Zaner-Bloser Handwriting Kindergarten: Pages 1-36 (Basic strokes: vertical lines, horizontal lines, backward circle lines, slant lines, forward circle lines)

The vast majority of this was done during quiet time while Jane napped.  She is at that delightful stage of insisting on doing everything.  The only issue is that she gets a little overexcited and starts trying to do all of Henry's work too.  So, for now, it's a little easier to wait until she's unconscious to do school, especially since Peter has been taking a nice long nap in the afternoons also.

Oliver seems to have tired of Starfall somewhat.  I pulled out the old Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read Pre-K DVD, though, and he's entranced by all of the little clips. He's actually watching it right now on half of the computer monitor while I write this on the other half.  He just signed "more" at the end of the alphabet song, too.  Works for me!

Last week's appointments were fruitful.  The pediatrician prescribed a minuscule dose of clonidine for Oliver to see if it would help with his sleep disturbances.  While he's still waking up at night, the time that he's up is about a quarter of what it was.  We may increase the dosage slightly and see if he'll stay asleep all night, but we need to speak to the doctor first.  He also recommended that we try a GABA supplement.  We can give that to him concurrently since the mechanisms of action are different.  I ordered a bottle of the powder and it should be here next week.  We'll see if it helps.

Finally, I've kind of struggled with this decision.  Like I posted last week, we're interviewing ABA therapy providers for Oliver.  All along, I've been hoping to have in-home therapy.  With all these little kids, I thought it would be a little easier to deal with and would also provide the most intense therapy experience.  However, our visit to a center-based provider convinced me otherwise, at least in my head.  In my heart?  It's gut-wrenching for me to even consider dropping Oliver off for five hours of therapy, three times per week.  I mean, other than being at the hospital to give birth or a rare outing (with Matt home with the kids), I've never been away from any of them for that long.

But, it's not about me.  I need to make choices for Ollie that are in his best interest and I know that this level of therapy will give him the best shot at making significant progress.  It helps that he had an absolute blast the entire time we were visiting the center.  The therapists were great, the regimen is sound with a logical progression of measurable goals, and they're supportive of homeschooling. 

We have one more interview with an in-home provider, but I think our minds are made up.  This one would only be able to come twice a week for two hours per day and that's not going to be enough. Sigh.