Scooter Time!

Levi has been interested in the neighborhood kids' scooters lately so I thought it might be a new way for him to learn and grow. He did a pretty good job! I'm glad he has something else to play with that will help keep him active. With all of the extra oral stimulation that he needs and the way that he loves to cook, we have really had to work with him to keep his weight in check. He was just way too large last fall so we started being very intentional about which foods he has access to. We hiked through the winter and spring, started keeping ice in the house for him to drink lots of ice water, began taking evening walks in our neighborhood, and eventually installed locks on our chest freezer. After eight months of hard work he has grown taller and lost seven or eight pounds!

Fine Motor Skills Work With Perler Beads

 

We have been trying to use up some of our craft supplies and Levi became curious about what the kids were making with perler beads. He decided to give it a go for himself since he loves to mimic what others are doing. These beads are pretty tiny, but he didn't fumble nearly as much as I expected. It took much concentration, but he was able to stay with the activity for a good while. I'm sharing his final project to help document his fine motor skills progress in the future.

 

Learning with Weather

 

Look who's no longer afraid of the rain! Seriously, getting caught in the rain used to be a very dreaded occurrence for us. For whatever reason Levi was very freaked out by both rain and snow. As he ages he is learning how to take appropriate measures for different weather conditions. He has recently learned that an umbrella can shield you from unwanted raindrops. He learned over the summer that all shirts are not the same. There are short sleeve shirts to keep you cool when it is hot out and long sleeve shirts when it's chilly out. It is exciting to watch him as he figures out the world around him.

More Size Comparison

This is the second time I've used this circle activity with Levi. I had noticed that he struggled a bit with differentiating between the small and medium circles. A friend had given this to us and I didn't think there was enough of a disparity between those two. I decided to trim the "small" circle to make its difference more pronounced. Levi did much better after I made this small modification. I just love his smiley face.

Cutting Skills and Naturalist Notebook Progress

I am feeling so proud of my Levi boy these days as I reflect upon all of the progress he has made over this school year. He has nearly completed the pages for his naturalist notebook. His latest additions were pages for mammals and reptiles.

The top picture shows how he is now able to manipulate the paper and cut around the image. I remember how I had to painstakingly take the paper out of his hand, re-position it, and show him where he needed to concentrate for every new cut. I am talking hundreds and hundreds of times here. He now recognizes what needs trimmed and can turn the paper as needed totally on his own. He used to only be able to cut straight lines, but now moves both the paper and the hand he is cutting with to change direction. He also used to begin a cut and follow it through to completion with no exception. Sometimes he was not properly lined up and would cut straight through a picture, totally ruining it. If you look at the second picture you will see that he has gotten quite good at determining where borders are located. At the beginning of the year he would have struggled tremendously to steady the scissors enough to make such a clean cut between those two small pictures.

You'll notice in the final picture that I trimmed his pages and put them in page protectors. (FYI: there are pages on the back of each of the ones shown. His addition of mammals and reptiles brings him to ten pages in all.) I showed Levi about five different 3-prong folders and let him take his pick. His choice? Very fittingly, he chose a green one. I don't suppose there's a color that better symbolizes nature than green. Good  job, Levi! He is not happy with this latest change to his year-long science project, but I am trying to get it presentable for his assessment. I also thought that it might make it sort of like a book for him to thumb through. I won't have to worry about him losing or damaging pages and it seems like he should be able to enjoy it better this way. Maybe it will grow on him?

New Kitchen Experiences

Levi adores doing anything in the kitchen. I had forgotten to share a few of his newer experiences such as learning what boiling means and flouring a cake pan.

More Learning at the Library

 I've been sharing Levi's progress at the library for over a year now! These photos are from a recent trip where a lot of learning occurred. First off, Levi has discovered that there are baskets available to tote your selections around in! I can't help but wonder if this reminds him of one of his beloved trips to the grocery store. He was able to get some heavy work in as he added a few things into the basket here and there. I had enough presence of mind to take a picture of the things he chose: a travel book about Florence, a video about the Trail of Tears, and a culinary arts DVD about food pairings. In case you're wondering, I did not actually bring them home with us... not this time. I must say that he looked rather comical at times as he struggled to lug his treasures (as well as ours) from place to place and up and down the stairs.

The bottom picture was taken in the elevator. I had never introduced Levi to the interior elevators at the library. Up to this point he had always taken the steps up and down between floors inside the building. I was a goner as soon as I decided to take him in this elevator! He quickly discovered that he could run ahead of me up the stairs to the third floor and push the elevator button at the top to ride down. And then do the whole thing over and over and over. I was able to stay with him enough that he never got on the elevator alone and we took probably a dozen trips exploring and taking in every little detail. I have a feeling that he was memorizing the layout of the library, but I have no way of knowing this for sure.

It was finally time to leave and Levi became aware of yet another elevator on our way out. Having had enough, I successfully navigated him away from it only to have him run noisily ahead of me across the bridge, out the doors, and to the parking deck elevators. He pushed the button, the doors quickly opened, he hopped on, the doors closed, and he was gone just like that. One of us went down the stairwell while another of us headed up. I found him one floor up standing in front of the elevator waiting for the door to open for him. I was not a happy mama and let him know as much.

I suppose this is all part of the learning process for him, however exhausting it is for me both physically and mentally. Life is always an adventure with this little guy of mine.

Thanks, Lord, for Your protection. Let my strength always be sufficient for whatever each day brings. It's only because of You that I could ever dream of doing this. You are so good!

Swimming Revisited

Our local Metro Parks had a free swim event recently and a friend invited us to join them. I wavered back and forth about whether I should bring my Levi boy. It was so hot and I hoped he'd have a nice time. But I anticipated large crowds with the event being free and the temps being as they were. Keeping an eye on Levi is already a bit tricky even without a crush of people and a body of water. In the end, I decided to bring him, but not without a bit of anxiety inviting itself along.

You see, I was in an emotional state. We had recently gotten word that the body of a twelve year old boy had been recovered not far from where we live. He had either slipped or jumped into a flood-swollen creek which had carried him away. I do not know many of the details, but I have read that the mom and sister were present, the creek is normally only ankle deep, and the boy had autism.

It just so happens that two of my Facebook friends had personally worked with this youth... and that is how I got myself into trouble. One of them had posted and asked for prayers for the family. In preparing to write a response to her request, I was horrified to find the following comment: " I'm sorry too, but he should NOT have been anywhere near that creek." I was filled with indignation. How dare she say such a thing! This was not the time or place. How could she show such little compassion? Did she possibly know what the last twelve years had been like for this family? Before I could stop myself, my fingers typed up a biting response and hit send.

After the heat of the moment had passed, I regretted my decision. I realized that I was passing judgment on this woman in the same way that I had felt she was doing to the grieving mom. I was no better than her. I realized (again!) that we are all in process and that it is wrong of us to be impatient with anybody else's journey. I had been angry that she did not know the family or details, yet I did not know her or her details either. Ironically, I had ended my response to her with, "You should be ashamed of yourself." Now it was I who was feeling ashamed of myself! Not to mention that I had shown disrespect to my FB friend by bringing such things to her page. I quietly deleted my comment.

But not before the woman saw it and sent me a scathing personal message. You would have thought after my humbling that I would have taken it better, but my flesh was giving me a run for my money. I responded honestly and somewhat graciously, though I was not successful in keeping all emotion or sarcasm out of my reply. I basically wanted her to know that, "Yes, a little bit of common sense goes a long way, especially with a special needs kid (part of her reply to me). I know ALL about that. But mistakes happen and I really do hope that if a tragedy ever befalls my family that people will have compassion rather than discuss how wrong I was on Facebook. I am sure that mother already feels badly enough without hearing others basically say that her son is dead because she wasn't cautious enough." Oh, it was a hard conversation. And it was with all of these things in mind that I decided to take my boy swimming.

The similarities did not escape my notice: both boys had special needs and both boys had a mom and sister present with them. Fear is something that I struggle with, but I do not want it to box me in and render me or my children paralyzed. I want us to be able to enjoy life to the fullest. Fear did color our entire evening, but not enough to seriously hinder us. It was more of an annoyance and, yes, perhaps a bit draining. I watched my little guy like crazy and felt thankful that it was not crowded. I felt a tug of anxiety as he became braver and submerged more of his body. What if I lost sight of him for just a few seconds and he scooted into water that was too deep? I second guessed myself when I asked him if he wanted to jump off the one foot edge into the shallow water. I thought of young Nic Shaffer and the creek that was normally not very deep. What if I taught Levi how to jump in shallow water and he ended up jumping into deep water at some point? What if I wasn't right there to help him? I knew from my recent experience that there would be those who would harshly judge me... and that knowledge weighed on me. But we made it with God's help and protection - and a great time was had by all.

I am reminding myself of all of the things the Lord knows. He knows the number of hairs on my head and the number of stars in the sky. He knows what is too much for me to bear and will never give me more than He and I can handle together. Most importantly, He knows how many days I will have here on this earth... and He knows how many days my Levi will have. I need not live in fear that every little thing I allow or do not allow could end tragically for my boy, taking him out of our lives before God intended. No, that will not happen. He knows what He's doing and I'm going to choose to rest in Him rather than stress about all of the "what ifs?"

Dot to Dot Progress

 

Levi worked on this for math today and I was pleased with his progress. I just took the time to look up the date and details of the dot to dot that I had previous posted about it. It was nine months ago.

 

Here's a comparison:

THEN - 3 or 4 sessions to complete it     NOW - 1 session to complete it

THEN - numbers 1-15      NOW - numbers 1-20

THEN - mostly hand over hand   NOW - more independent with some hand over hand

 

He really is coming along! I am so glad that I took the time to dig up those details. Thank You, Lord, for the encouragement.

Growing Naturalist Notebook

Levi's naturalist notebook is growing! I am tickled to notice so much improvement in his cutting skills. Writing is still not very easy for him, but I know that he'll get stronger in that area also. He is doing pretty well categorizing the pictures and putting them where they go.

He is working hard and is so very proud of these pages. He keeps getting them out and carrying them around the house today. I fear that I may have nothing to show for his assessment if he gets his hands on them when I am not around and ruins them.

The Wonder of the Cart Caddy

 

This picture is so precious to me. It was taken on a late night outing to Target. There were hardly any cars in the parking lot when we came out - it was pretty much a wide open space. You may not know this, but Levi is fascinated with shopping carts. He pushes them in the store, which can be interesting with him bumping things from time to time. Upon arriving at a store we have to prepare him in the car or, in his excitement to get a cart, he will jump out before we're ready to be right with him. His favorite part is probably the returning of the cart. He loves taking them back to the designated areas and straightening them all up.

 

On this night he took the cart back and noticed an employee with a machine gathering up carts. It was such a crazy busy day, but we all stood there watching with him in an unhurried sort of way. We were giving him the opportunity to take in what was happening, enjoy himself, and learn in the process. The light blinked on and off as the employee made stop after stop in the parking lot to gather the carts. Levi was mesmerized as he watched what was happening. The train of carts grew after each stop and finally passed right by us on the way back into the store. What a blessing to bring everything to a screeching halt and enjoy the moment.  

Hot Dogs and Drinking Fountains

 

We went to see the Oscar Mayer wienermobile this day - can you see the sticker on his shirt? Much to my surprise, he wasn't very into a hot dog-shaped vehicle. He loves hot dogs and he loves cars, which made me figure that he'd be fascinated. Nope. It was at a local supermarket and he was much happier to go inside and shop. We were in a rush and didn't have money besides, so it was more of a pretend shop. I breathed a sigh of relief when we were able to exit the store empty handed and without a scene from being disappointed.

 

We next visited Quail Hollow's rock and herb garden. He enjoyed walking around, but especially loved the things that involved water. There was a neat fountain where the water came out of a creature's mouth. He thought that was pretty cool and sat watching it for a bit. We passed this drinking fountain on the way back to the car and he loved it. It also had a faucet that he thoroughly explored by filling a container, splashing his hands in it, and dumping its contents down the drain. I watched him drinking and remembered how much of a struggle it used to be for him to keep the water going when he leaned forward to drink.

 

 

Size Comparison

Levi and I made peanut butter cookies yesterday and I took the opportunity to introduce some size comparison to him for math. I showed him the differing containers of peanut butter and told him that they were "small, bigger, and biggest." He didn't grasp it like I hoped he would, but he did better understand the measuring cup comparisons. We used 1/2 cup and 1 cup. I called them by their measurement and also by their size (small and big). I quizzed him a bit and he did much better correctly pointing to the correct size. It's a start and I look forward to seeing how he grows in this area.

Plus One

Levi had been struggling with the concept of adding one to a number. I thought that maybe a big number line like this would help him to "see" what it meant. He loved walking along it and counting the numbers, but the light bulb did not go off in his head that adding one was the same as going to the number after. We'll have to try it again after a while and see if he gets it any better.

Round and Round It Goes

Levi was absolutely fascinated with this marble ramp on our visit to the mall. It was a blessing for me to be able to use up some time with him in one contained area. Usually he runs from here to there and back again... non-stop... in an exhausting fashion. Not when we visited this store! I'd say he stayed with this activity for about half an hour. He was totally into it. It's almost like I could see the little wheels turning around in his head. What a mind he has! One of the store employees told me that he was a future engineer. Hmmm.... Can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for him.

Tekkie

I had some time to burn recently and ended up at the mall. Much to my delight, I discovered that they had an Apple store! Levi was in his element. He tried an iPhone, iPod, laptop, and iPad. At home he is very proficient in using the Kindle Fire and his siblings' iPods when he can sneak away with them. He loves technology and has a definite mind for it. He has always been able to memorize passwords with great ease. And he can hook up the DVD player for his tech challenged mama - and even put the TV on video 2 so that the movie can be played. I'm so grateful for the strengths with which God has blessed him.

Steady Does It!

Aren't these blocks the cutest? Levi had the opportunity to play with them at a local nature center and I was so impressed with the steadiness with which he was able to stack and balance the blocks. He has definitely gotten stronger in his fine motor skills. I noticed the last time we made peanut butter cookies that he was able to criss-cross the tops of them with the fork without smooshing the living daylights out of them like usual.

Drying off

Levi is aware of his sweat now and grabs leaves on our hikes to try to dry off his sweaty head! Oh, I hope he never gets a hold of any poison ivy.

What is it?

These photos were taken right after we finished climbing a very steep hill during a hike. As my heart hammered around in my chest, I realized it'd be a great opportunity to help Levi become aware of the thumping in his chest. I placed his hand on his chest and had him feel the beating of his heart. I love his look in the second picture! He was really taking in something new.

New Discoveries

We finally had a "warm" day to get out for a hike. We were pleasantly surprised that the ground has firmed up since our last few hikes. No slipping and sliding at all! Towards the end of the hike we paused to give the kids some time to explore at water's edge. I noticed Levi squatted down very intently doing something. As I got closer I noticed that he was rubbing water on rocks. After a bit more observation, it dawned on me that he had noticed that the rocks change color when you "paint" them with water. I was thrilled with this new discovery on his part! I wet my finger and began tracing his name on a rock near me. He stood watching, totally enthralled and with the tiniest hint of a smile on his face before deciding to try his hand at writing the letters of his name also. I felt so blessed to share in this neat moment with my sweet Levi.  

Thank You, Lord, for times like this that make my heart feel so very full. 

Xtramath

I don't know what took me so long to sign Levi up for a free Xtramath account! Afterall, he always ran to the computer to watch his sister when he saw that she was doing her lesson. He routinely jumped excitedly around and cheered for her. Very cute. After a few months of this, I wondered how he'd do if I signed him up as well. I figured it certainly couldn't hurt. And it'd help me gauge his readiness in this area of math. I thought that his first scores would be pretty low and they were. But this little guy of mine is pretty smart and very good at adapting and memorizing things. This picture shows him getting seven smiley faces after getting only one the very first time he tried. It only took him a few days to start sorting it out. This math program is proving to be just the thing we needed! I truly see it as a gift from the Lord and His way of providing for Levi's education.

Making it Personal

I had the perfect idea for a Christmas gift for Levi. The idea was to buy him his very own set of wooden spoons and personalize them with his name. Seemed like a great plan since he loves to cook as much as he does. Unfortunately, I did not find them for him in time for Christmas. Who knew that it could be so hard to find the right spoons? The quality ones I found had extremely bulky handles that I thought would hinder Levi. The ones that had the right kind of handles were too cheaply made and had chips or splintered areas on them. I finally came across the ones I had in mind for him... more than a week after Christmas. I got the wood burning tool out and attempted to burn his simple name on each handle. Boy did my hand wobble! It definitely doesn't look very professional. But he liked them and his smile filled my heart to overflowing. How I love him!

Learning Through Pizza

Who knew that making pizza would be so rich in OT? Levi really had to grasp those tiny, slippery pepperoni. They were cold, which meant that they did not easily peel apart from one another. If you could see his face here, you would see oodles and oodles of concentration. He dotted the entire surface of our lunch just like he'd done it a million times. Another step forward (and a tasty one at that!) in Levi's learning adventure.

Feeding Geese

We made tree-shaped pizza snacks with our guests, which means that we had a lot of bread scraps left over. What better way to use them than to go find some waterfowl to feed! We were cutting it close as far as leftover daylight went, but we were blessed to have just enough time to accomplish what we came for. The geese and a few ducks eagerly greeted us as we approached this local lake. I hoped that Levi would get into this experience, but there really is no telling beforehand. He was not in the least bit afraid of the geese and threw handful after handful of bread to them. It was hard to get a decent shot of him because he was in constant, happy motion! My mother's heart smiles every time I get to do something "normal" like this with my Levi boy.

Cookie Decorator Extraordinaire

We had friends over the week before Christmas for an annual get together where we decorate tree-shaped cut-out cookies. It was very apparent to our guests that Levi has a lot of experience in this department. I set him up in his own "decorating station" with some of his own cookies, a small dish of the glaze, and a bottle of green sprinkles. I asked my oldest son to watch over him, giving instructions that he allow him total freedom to create. He was just there to make sure Levi did not do anything dangerous. I was so proud of my big guy! He handled that tricky glaze beautifully and sprinkled each cookie with flair. He was in his element for sure.