Home Schooling Aspergers.

Show Holiday

2007-07-20T10:05:00.002+10:00

We are show-offs! How bazaar that in this day and age of sky rocketing interest rates, petrol prices and immediate harm to the environment that local shows still occur and that we get a public holiday for them? I can understand the original reason for both the show and the holiday but I am thinking that in modern life, the tradition appears a bit extreme. We are not going to the show because we prefer to be show-offs.

I can only vent my thoughts though, because Boy is not here to hear them. He has gone off a day early to his Dad's place. Over the moon he is at getting a day off school (I could have lied about the holiday but kids just seem to know these things!!!). Show-off! He's gone to another town where it's not a public holiday because they had their show last week (and because he's home schooled he got to go to that show as it suited our flexible hours).

Accountant husband has gone to work (his work ethic is protestant and interest rate driven) and I intend to spend the day planning home school unschooled moments that will look natural, effortless and less educational that normal. Some time for personal reflection is also greatly needed, so I may take a coffee and sit by the pool, in the sun, to reflect upon why I get sucked into thinking that education has to look a certain way.

Oh it annoys me that I fight with Boy because I am so stringent about him reaching particular levels of assessable learning. For goodness sake - even with all the public holidays we get, Boy's learning and understanding is so much better that many kids who attend traditional school - and at times like this when he gets to be surrounded by other kids, he's a real show-off with the unusual and broad range of knowledge, skill and curiosity that home schooling has developed in him.

The Mafia Project

2007-07-19T11:12:00.000+10:00

We have dead bodies all over our lounge room floor. A Mafia hit was ordered and their handiwork is scattered like cushions and rugs on our cold hard white tiles. The red blood of the Sicilian born family has spread like tomato paste on a pizza.

The History of the Mafia project is coming along great guns. I have been amazed at Boy's ability to maintain his concentration. He has looked up sites, printed interesting snippets off, found pictures that fulfilled his need for blood and gore and learnt so much trivia about Mafia bosses that I hope he has a chance to one day correctly answer a quiz question.

Did you know that Al Capone died of syphilis? What's that, enquired Boy. Smiling wickadly, I thanked this teachable moment that had been thrown into our home school day. From Mafia to sexual health without any planning. I love this home school stuff.

Without a vehicle to go and purchase cardboard for Boy's Poster project, we improvised with an empty beer carton. The uncoloured cardboard looks fantastic as it gives a rough, ready, prohibition feel to the project. Rather than glue everything down immediately, we thumb tacked the printed information onto the cardboard while we decided upon best placement. Boy is not stuck on the idea of the thumb tacks but I love it. I think the tacks add another metaphor - a stabbing of criminal activity. Boy thinks I'm weird and has opted to await step father's advise about placement and more pictures or written information. What - he must think his step father is some kind of Don!

Mafia is bad parenting business: While we were tacking information to our poster board, a workman came in to tell me he was finished his task. He asked Boy about his project and commented that it was an interesting choice for a nice little boy. Almost embarrassed at my perceived bad parent status as intonated by Mr Workman's statement, I immediately explained why we home school and how we work through Boy's obsessions.

As I defended our choice of project, I could hear the voice in my head tell me to be quiet: I had no need to defend why we were learning about the Mafia. As it turned out, I had jumped to conclusions about Mr Workman's intonation. He was genuinely interested and he and Boy had a great chat about gambling, prohibition, and family values. More teachable moments thanks to a workman we've never even met before.

Boy and I are now going to watch The Godfather movies, just to make the learning cement in Boy's head and to hopefully rid him of any Robin Hood romantic notions he may have about the original reasons for the birth of the Mafia.

Related article: Mafia Madness

Movie Review: The Mummy Returns

2007-07-18T13:00:00.000+10:00

Today Boy and I negotiated over Math and English. Rather than do a set curricula unit of English, Boy agreed to do a movie review and write the blog himself (we are moving into setting up a simple website for technology). Below is his own review and entry into blog editor.

The Mummy Returns

by Boy age 11

''The Mummy Returns'' is about five people who set out on a adventure and came across a weird book that brings the dead back to life. Two of the people can read the Egyptian writing and the other three just help them kill the Mummy that they bring back to life.

The two people who can read the writing are a boy aged eight and his mum. His parents are archaeologists and his mum has specialised in Egyptian history.

The movie is a great movie to watch because it has history in it and other great things; the scarab beetles, mummies and golden artifacts.

It is M rated because of violence. I give it a rating of two and a half stars out of five.

Mafia Madness

2007-07-17T11:49:00.000+10:00

Boy loves guns, war stuff, crashing planes, murder, weapons and anything that produces pain and blood. I am a conscientious objector: the daughter of a decorated, three tour, now retired Army officer. I grew up in Army camps overseas. Boy grew up with me trying to minimise weaponry in our home. I lost the war against Boys with Aspergers and their obsessive interests in things that stress their parents out!

After our week of trauma and negotiations around how our new life is going to look, Boy and I have discovered that an hour of our Monday morning school time will be spent in the car, travelling. He wants to use Monday as excursion day. He wants to explore every nook and cranny between Innisfail and Cairns.

Photo by Denzani.

"Is there any like, Army stuff we can go see," he seriously asked. I seriously wanted to Court Marshall him and measure out geography lessons as more than punishment: more like sheer hell boot camp for him.

Interested only in his learning and my mental health, I delayed my gratification of forcing topography down his throat and suggested we use this particular time in the car to think about a project we could work on for the rest of the week.

"Could I do a project on the Mafia," he asked eagerly.

"Sure." My mouth looked like it was smiling but I was in fact gritting my teeth and grimacing because my last chance at raising another conscientious objector was never really a chance at all!

This morning we added Mafia type words to our spelling list and Boy searched for Mafia history on the net. The doubting Thomas and pure pragmatist in me wondered at the validity of the information but I am hardly going to condone Boy interviewing a gangster to get an insiders view of organised crime. I wouldn't know where to find a gangster anyway, nor do I wish anyone to point me in the right direction.

Boy has printed off Mafia information, family tree (just love the pun here) and photographs. Step father and I will be privy to a poster presentation on the History of the Mafia and I am sure that we will have to watch Al Capone and the Untouchables another 50,000 times. I am sure it will be madness, but, the learning will be invaluable. From Mafia Madness to modern and contemporary history: I can easily make the link and locate the teachable moments around peace and honesty. Will Boy?

When Things Go Wrong, Support Networks Grow Strong

2007-07-15T09:52:00.000+10:00

We have had a very bad week. In need of help and support, I discovered that my pride was too great to ask for help. Lucky for me, two wonderful friends recognised my need and came around to help me cope with an external situation that was tearing our family into three (or ten, or seventy).

I (we, DH says he has too) have spent many evenings in bed reflecting (again) on the importance of talking to close support networks. While I teach this stuff and understand the significance of being surrounded by supports, I found myself not calling in my supports because I didn't want to trouble them, stress them, or add more to their busy days. I was also very arrogant and thought that others would not find the situation as bad and soul destroying as I did. Therefore they wouldn't understand my inner turmoil and need.

Somebody slap me! Support networks are there to offer support - even if they don't understand the protracted and acrimonious history of an issue. I care for the people: friends, I support - I care not for a boring factual and unemotional account that leaves out impact and affect. I am always happy and eager to lend a hand, an ear or a boot up the backside (metaphorical of course). I don't need to know a chronology of events - I just need to know that somebody on my network requires my objective support.

Photo courtesy of Mirinkk at stock.xchng

So....I am sorry that I have not been around blogging and visiting this week. Personal circumstances here have taken my time away from structured teaching, recording Boy's learning and my online child safety conversation. To both Keren and Rebekah, and later in the evening my daughter Jade, who dropped everything to come to be with us, thank you. Your actions are appreciated by our entire extended family. Next time, I will not wait for so long to ask for support - especially a cup of coffee, a chat, and an airing of my fears in times on non need.

Life is back to normal as of tomorrow (is it ever normal in our house!!!!!!). Boy will be back from an extended weekend at his Dad's and suffering my home school lessons, husband will be at work and I will be holding onto my lesson - support networks are there to be used to prevent crisis times rather than to only use in crisis times!!!!!!!

And some additional good from all of this - I have met our neighbors from across the road. Both high school teachers, they were fascinated and supportive of our home schooling and related stories of where kids with special needs fall through the academic gap. They are just lovely people, have a son that Boy can play with and a pressure that I can also offer them some support around.

Life is good - I couldn't have said that on Wednesday!

Circus Goes Back to School

2007-07-10T10:33:00.000+10:00

First day back at school after the two week term break. Oh joy!!! Boy was a pleasure - he did exactly as expected: tried every excuse under the sun to get out of doing any school work!!! He was a monkey in a circus confused because no-one was clapping at his tricks!

We had a great holiday. Camping, camp fires, sleep ins, lots of kids to play with and best of all, we caught up with another home school family who live in our region. We LOVED them. We spoke their language and understood their strive toward quality of life for their children. Although our children are different ages and genders, I fully intend to link with this family and share home school treats.

But today - it was a circus. Boy morphed between sloth and lion in record breaking time. Lucky for me, one of his friends was online and it was that which dragged Boy's holiday craving body from his bed. After allowing Boy a short time of online talk, I rang the school bell.

The circus really is in town. Boy went last year and I didn't see the sense of going again this year when the money is needed for more pressing pursuits. Boy did however, begin to show some interest in alternative Circus discourse - the argumentative and demonstrative type (which in reality is animal libertarians simply pleading their case).

"Why do some people hate circuses?"

My in - thank goodness for teachable moments!

I feigned ignorance and suggested that we look it up. "People must have a reason to demonstrate. They wouldn't do it just because they're bored, would they!"

Nope - didn't work. It was school holidays and he was not going to be drawn into anything remotely educational.

So, I looked it up (lesson plans specifically) and was ready to go this morning with a nice little lesson on a circus assessment task. The completed assessment task is expected to demonstrate the following qualities:

capacity to argue a point of view relevant to a given role

use of persuasive language and techniques appropriate to audience and context

control of both verbal and non-verbal language.

Using a feature article on a local council saying no to a Circus setting up in a local park, I had Boy highlight several concept words and read me what their definitions were. I read the article and Boy followed. He had his pre prepared list of words and definitions beside him and kept saying, "slow down Mum, I can't keep up". This was evidence that Boy was at least attempting to understand and not miss any words.

Tomorrow we will build on the activity and we will take turns in debating the two sides as portrayed in the feature article. We will also keep the list of concept words as spelling words for next week (this weeks words are chosen from a 6th grade list: ache, assignment, address, again, although, Pacific, February, fourth, fuel, hemisphere) and I want to make a match the definition to the word card game.

Boy managed an english and math unit from Kinetic Education and it is official - Boy is MUCH BETTER at Math than I am. Whereas Boy got 70%, I scored a high 40%. Ummm....I may need to get accountant husband to explain the rules of change to me again!

It is incredibly cold here in tropical North Queensland. So much so that Boy has shown interest in following the rise and fall of the temperature gauge and understanding the difference between Fahrenheit and Celsius (we measure using Celsius). I found a neat website sticker (below) and I am about to show Boy how to load it to the front page of his site. Part of Boy's technology study this term is to create a very simple web site - uploading the html code for the temperature gauge is going to be the first step toward his web development career.


Plan your trip Local Radar Detailed Forecast

Christmas in July Competition

2007-07-04T15:56:00.000+10:00

Imaginif is running a Christmas in July competition.

Enter for a chance to WIN a Christmas Stocking full of Protective Play goodies from the Imaginif shop simply by posting your Favorite Christmas in July recipe.

For us in the the Southern Hemisphere, July is our cold, cold month. The time for stews, roasts and comfort foods, it is also the month that alternative Christmas dinners are celebrated with family and friends.

We need some food ideas to keep us happy, warm and full of that nice Christmassy feeling. Your recipe could be a cake, a main, an entree or a snack for when friends drop by. Whatever it is, it must be festive, suitable for the kids to eat too and represent a time of peace and goodwill (in short, something that could grace a December Christmas table).

Post your recipe in the competition section at Imaginif's Safety Talk forum between now and July 24, 2007. On July 25, 2007, I will collate the recipes into a forum poll for all to vote on (you can vote for your own recipe).

The recipe with the greatest number of votes will win the Christmas stocking. Voting will take place between July the 25th and 30th. The Christmas Stocking winner will be announced in the Safety Talk forum on Tuesday the 31st of July.

Spread the good cheer by telling a friend and helping them in a chance to win a Christmas Stocking full of protective play goodies.

Carnival of Australia, Edition Six: Say Goodbye, my own true lover.

2007-07-04T07:59:00.000+10:00

Like an Aussie mate we have loved and remained loyal to, today Boy and I say goodbye to our own true lover - the home school study of the geography and cultural melting pot of Australia. What a symbolic way to end in order to again begin:

with the sixth edition of the Carnival of Australia

and a special Seekers preview from esnips ("Who are the Seekers?" Boy asked - Oh what a lot of modern Australian history he still has to learn!!).

This fortnights tour of the Aussie blogosphere begins with the post of our last Carnival host, Rodger from Typing is not Activism. In An Australian Musical Tribute to the Fighting Spirit of the Pasha Bulker Rodger takes an irreverent and parental moment to chide the gimpish action of the Captain whose driving skills may need to be reassessed under Australia's new driving laws for minors! If the sheer environmental danger of having a damaged freighter so close to us does not alarm you, check out Rodger's second picture. The size of the freighter juxtaposed with the foreshore buildings make me suck the cold air through my teeth.

Mike Harmon has offered us Article Syndication- The Sky is The Limit So Explore and Aim for the Sky posted at Basic Accounting, saying, "Article syndication is a very simple process wherein one gets to share their article among various online sites which helps to impart knowledge through the web." Happy New Syndication Year to you Mike. My husband is also an accountant so I have some understanding of the manic nature of your end of year reports! Although, I must admit, when he attempts to share his business articles with me, I turn away and feign interest in the dust bunny. Article syndication on the web though - now that's something that speaks to me.

Wattleseed, lemon myrtle, blue gum smoke oil, alpine pepper, and paperbark - how Aussie is that tucker? Noric Dilanchian presents Dilanchian Lawyers - How I became a celebrity chef with intellectual property posted at Lightbulb, saying, "Intellectual property lawyer, Noric Dilanchian, discusses how Australian chef, Benjamin Christie and his business partner, Vic Cherikoff, have developed a book, TV series, Websites and market presence thus charting their own destiny supported by but independent from traditional media."

Ruby nicely portrays how sometimes nice girls don't get to talk on the phone for long: 7 Things About Success That You Can Learn From Steve Jobs posted at Advice and Rants suggests that being successful does not always equate to excellent customer service or relationship building. Did Steve pull off his magic again Ruby or do we all get to bite the poison apple?

Another of our Aussie Carnival conductors, Colin Campbell pulls out The Tooth Fairy is Coming Early posted at Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe. The decaying of children's ablutional habits is a sore reflection on our parenting skills. Is your child eating and drinking too much sugar? Read this post for, hopefully, a diet changing way of life.

Albert Foong presents The lost art of touching, Part 1: Caring, Healing, and Sexual posted at Urban Monk, saying, "The lost art of touching to boost all your human interactions and relationships." Touch is a basic human need. Without touch, Maslow's self actualisation cannot be reached. Urban Monk now has Part 2 of this delightful series posted. I encourage all to consume and reflect upon the importance of the words and the opportunity for change.

Gavin R. Putland presents VAT vs. Retail Tax: An open letter to Messrs Howard and Rudd posted at Putland Uncensored, saying, "A proposal for cutting red tape"

And while we're with the business of tax and cutting through red tape, Leigh Fraser-Gray over at Imaginif writes a Letter to the Corporate Sector: Can your buzz Words Play with our Catch Phrases? Disturbed with a lack of corporate social responsibility, Leigh raises an analogy of hearts to demonstrate which sector is valued more and which sector's bleeding heart needs assistance to keep our kids safe.

John Lampard presents Blasted posted at disassociated.com. I agree with John's sentiments on being blasted with unchosen tunes when opening the door of an otherwise welcoming blog. I have my own tastes in music and know better than to share my tastes with others (I'm a mother of four children - they tell me all about my appalling music choices). Being blasted with music does not help me to read someone else's post any better. What do you all think?

Conan Stevens of Nathan Jones And Conan Stevens In Som Tam posted at Conan Stevens Online, is one of the two biggest men (and both are Aussies) in film history slugging it out in the new Thai action Movie Som Tam. Along with strutting his stuff on the screen, Conan posts all manner of interesting tidbits. Try this Boxing Kangaroo on for size.

Leigh at All for Women has chosen her Site of the week- Field of Women. An initiative of the Breast Cancer Network of Australia, they are calling on 13,000 people - the number of Australians diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 - to stand together and create the first ever Sydney Field of Women LIVE before the Sydney Swans v St Kilda match on Saturday evening, 11 August 2007. What a way to keep abreast of the female cancer scourge.

Gillian King comments that Paving and drainage make me happy. Over at the School of St Jude, Gillian portrays how no donations from Australia can drain the coffers of a Tanzanian school yet simple monthly donations can drain disease carrying pools of water and keep kids safe. Ummmm...which drain would I prefer to support?!

Remember the Safari Suit? According to The Age, The Safari Suit is stalking us once again and is prowling the streets of suburbia waiting for a hapless victim to pounce upon. In ‘Want to look cool? Get a safari suit’ says The Age the sky blue and tan crew over at safari suit keep us up to date with an out of date fashion. This blog is my childhood revisited and I thoroughly enjoyed reading through it. It is such a shame that my father has since died. I would have loved to poke more fun at his antics of resurrecting the polyester overdosed silverfish hiding amongst his Safari Suit in the bottom of the Camphor wood box.

If the fashion industry can pull our strings, why can't we make finger puppets out of fashionable colours? Kirky, a true blue, fair dinkum, Indigenous Australian (A Koorie from NSW) has supplied a pattern for making finger puppets in Indigenous colours: red, yellow and black for the Aboriginal flag and blue, green and white for the Torres Strait Islander flag. More importantly, though, Kirky's Krafts & Chit Chat kirky blog also hosts a wealth of Indigenous comment on Indigenous issues.

In Imagine If...Highly Sensitive, over at Lifes Spacings, a survivor of horrific child abuse reflects on how her life may have been better if people had recognised her pain and acted protectively. How I long for the day we are all sensitive enough to hear the silent screams of our children and to answer them with the loudest voice possible that says we will not tolerate any child abuse at all. To JIP, I am sorry that you had to endure such torture at the hands of multiple adults tasked with caring for you.

L from Road Schola is a relatively new Aussie and is proudly awaiting her passage of citizenship. In Revolution, L reveals that she has been struggling with our rules around boiling the billy. However, L has now discovered that she actually likes a cuppa, a bikkie and the family diversity of type, flavor and additions.

Craig Harper, change master extraordinaire, posits that The Law of Attraction should be renamed The Law of Distraction posted at Renovate your life with Craig, saying, "I personally think the LOA should be re-named the Law of Distraction (as the title of my article suggests) as it (in my opinion) actually distracts people from change principles which actually work."

And Boy, tell us about your most excellent trip to the Laura Dance Festival: End of Term Excursion: Aboriginal Culture. What a great time we had and a fantastic way to complete our Indigenous unit of home school study.

That's it folks. Next fortnight (18th July) the Carnival of Australia will be visiting Colin at Adelaide Green Porridge cafe. Be sure to get your posts in early using the carnival submission form. I apologise to those who had several attempts at submitting to this current edition. Apparently the Carnival Home site was experiencing some difficulties. I hope posts have not gone AWOL in the process (I know they have because I have not received Susan's post from Arts & Stuff). If your post is not showing here, please resubmit to Colin's next edition of the Carnival of Australia.

Go the Maroons

(well....I'm a Queenslander!)

How about one of the winners (a Queenslander) put their hand up to host an upcoming edition of the Carnival of Australia. Just as Australia is a diverse country, so too are her bloggers. Share the load and help Aussie blogging by hosting the Carnival of Australia at your site.

Secret Women's Business

2007-07-02T09:24:00.001+10:00

Well, not so secret because we don't do secrets in our home. Instead, we do surprises. The surprise Women's Business in this case is the All for Women Blogging Carnival. A new Carnival started by Leigh from All for Women, it is open to women bloggers no matter where you are and what you blog about.

Interested in joining? The Carnival is hostessed each Monday on a different women's site. This Monday, edition four is over at my other site: Imaginif Child Protection Became Serious Business. Next Monday, it will be at Pearls of Wisdom.

Unlike Carnivals where you submit posts previous to edition publication, this Carnival works on an empowerment and trust basis. You upload your link to immediately be included in the Carnival. Your link can be uploaded at any time during the week: you only need to know where the Carnival is currently hostessed to include your appropriate post. How sensible is that - must be a woman who thought of it!

Women supporting women is indeed a powerful part of who we are. I hope you will consider joining us in the All for Women Blogging Carnival. To submit one of your posts to this weeks Carnival, visit All Women Blogging Carnival #4: Women, Hot Chocolate, Technology and a Good Old Yak.

End of Term Excursion: Aboriginal Culture

2007-06-29T11:13:00.000+10:00

We went walkabout for a week. To complete this term's study on the geography and cultural melting pot of Australia and Aboriginal Art, we took a week long camping trip to Cape York Peninsula.

The Laura Dance Festival was the pinnacle focus of the trip and neither Boy, Step-father or I were disappointed. Some photos appear below but also check out my info article over at Imaginif: The Culture of Dancing Corroboree for Child Safety.

Whereas Boy has previously visited Split Rock at Laura, my attendance (and a handy tour guide book) ensured a degree of Rock Art painting, culture and myth appreciation. Boy has grown up around Indigenous Australian culture, has heard the words, the language, and knows some of the myths (Quinkins are a favourite in our family), but he had no deeper appreciation than knowing that bread from the bakery can be bought sliced or whole.

Imjim Quinkan - A malevolent spirit. Still very feared.

The story has it that the Quinkan bounces across the rocks on his long knobbed penis. OUCH! The women who married Quinkans are portrayed with breasts that stick out sideways. The breasts were also used for bouncing across rocks.

These Aboriginal Rock paintings and etchings (top pic with Boy) below are approximately 50,000 years old.

1) Woman, Quinkan, Echidna. 2) Flying Foxes (staple tucker [food]). 3) Woman, Red Dingo, Quinkan

Tall Spirit
(they like to hide behind tall Gum trees and can be hard to see)

Another focal point at the Dance festival was meeting up with my foster brother - Joseph McIvor: a celebrated Aboriginal artist, who lived with my family in Cooktown and Cairns during his high school years. Joseph was my brother's best mate and they were always together. It seemed logical that Joseph just live with us and have the opportunity to extend his art through training and access to resources that he may not have otherwise been able to gain access to. Joseph held a Didgeridoo making stall at the Laura Dance Festival and Boy got right into the making of a Didj (pictured).

Boy with his completed Didgeridoo and Joseph McIvor.

Following our attendance at the Laura Dance festival, we spent 3 days in Cooktown, a place I lived as a teenager and young first time mother. The weather was miserable and freezing (by Far North Queensland standards) but Boy's highlight was the abundance of Wallabies around our cabin. The following photo's are of wild wallabies - not zoo tamed creatures.

We are currently on school holidays and Boy refuses to raise any blogs on what he learnt on his camping trip to Laura and Cooktown. Guess how our new school term will be beginning then!!

Search and Destroy Spelling Bee Mission Achieved.

2007-06-19T08:51:00.000+10:00

Today is the 12 month anniversary of a particularly traumatic event in Boy's life. As a result of the trauma, it is also the anniversary of the last time he had contact or conversation with his biological father. Is it any wonder that Boy has been experiencing an over stimulus of emotions and meltdowns leading up to anniversary day!

Although not the last day of attending traditional school, it is a significant day of what school means. The traumatic experience partially occurred at school and goes a long way to explaining why Boy rejects institutionalised learning. Therefore, to honour having made it to a year of forward growth, we are going out to morning tea at a gourmet tea and chocolate shop and step father is taking Boy to EB Games to purchase a new PS2 game.

But, ever on the lookout for that teachable moment and possibility to manipulate some learning material, I carried through on yesterday's Spelling Bee. Boy happily chose 10 "B" words and hid them (all together - he didn't want to hide them in 10 different places) to give them a spell in a place that starts with "B".

We had a quick tally of Aussie related "B" words and Boy came up with quite a few that I had not considered: barbeque and beer were Boy's favourites and he reckons that the words will be said by nightfall and he'll get to test our spelling of the list currently having a spell. Funniest thing is though, as I was processing the list, I spelt one of the words wrong!!!!! This is going to be a hoot when Boy catches us saying an Aussiecentric "B" word and tests our spelling of his compiled list. Like a radar searching for enemy planes, Boy is on a search and destroy mission to catch us saying one of the discussed words.

I am glad to report no meltdowns or anxiety and that Boy had a decent nights sleep. I on the other hand am now aware of why I coped so poorly yesterday. I have a very sore throat, ear ache and headache. I am grateful that the most stressful thing on my plate today will be choosing which hand made gourmet treat to choose. Chocolate. Yummmm....it soothes many life difficulties!

Spelling Bee

2007-06-18T15:22:00.000+10:00

Think of every swear word that starts with B. That's how our school day ended.

"What's for school today Mum?"

"We're going to finish your origami fish, do some Australian spelling and a Kinetic Math and English unit."

We managed the origami fish okay (well, Boy did. I could not understand the instructions at all!!!). Spelling though: B**!!"""___!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a beautiful hook in to a melt down.

We're studying Australian culture. Therefore, I thought it appropriate to include some Aussiecentric words. Did he carry on!

"Those aren't Grade Six words. I'm not learning high school words. What, do you think I've got a photographic memory! You're stupid, you're a bitch," etc, etc, etc.

This is the spelling result:

Aboriginal - Abarikanl
Indigenous - Indichaness
Culture - colcher
Barramundi - Baramundy
Australia - Austalya
Southern Cross - Southen Cross
Rock Painting - Rock Painting
Kangaroo - Kangkaroo
Campfire - Campfire
Koala - Cawla

While I can accept that Boy spelt some of the words phonetically, I was shocked at how his anger appeared to block his ability to sound some of the words out. Boy knew he couldn't spell the words but used his anger as a smoke screen - a way to divert my attention and give up on the spelling exercise. I persevered and stayed calm during the barrage of abuse hurled at me.

Kinetic Math and English though: Oh dear!!!!! I confiscated Boy's lap top as a result of the school refusal. Step father saved the day though. He and Boy are great mates and when Boy calmed down he went to step father to apologise and discuss what had just happened.

Step father backed my confiscating action up. Boy knew that he could get around neither of us so finally agreed to do a Kinetic Math and English unit, but with step father.

It's now hours post the incident and I am still smarting. I know it's a passing thought yet today I have wondered why I home school. Why do I put myself through this? Why do I insist on my son being educated?

I home school my child because his anger tantrums and Asperger meltdowns do upset other people. His anger and excellent articulation of a range of put downs do block teachers ability to stay learning focused with Boy. His meltdowns are a result of his disability, not because he is a naughty little boy and our decision to home school was based on taking the stress off Boy and enticing him with knowledge that does not look educationally institualised.

Bxxxx##**! It was me who buggered up - AGAIN. I tried to make Boy do what I thought was the best thing for him. I disempowered him by expecting him to be like children without Aspergers. I became too teacher orientated and forgot that we value natural learning, as far removed from instutionalised curricula as possible.

Tomorrow we'll have a spelling bee. I will allow Boy to pick ten words that start with B. I'll write them on slips of paper and ask him to give them a spell - a rest. He will have to hide the B words in things that start with "B" (bureau, biscuit tin, bathroom, etc). The next time he hears either myself or step father say an Aussiecentric word that starts with B, Boy's task will be to find his list of hidden "B" words and to test both step father and I. If we wrongly spell any of the words, Boy can pick another ten B words for us to spell.

I will make a spelling mistake on purpose. I will do whatever I have to to help Boy learn how to spell. Boy has Aspergers, I do not. It is my job as his home educator to educate him, not further reinforce his hatred of anything that looks like school.

And right now....Boy and step father are playing Monopoly. We figured that this was a nice way for Boy to have some additional Math learning without us having to suffer the trauma of another meltdown. Beautiful.

Employment Opportunity for Boy with Aspergers

2007-06-15T10:10:00.000+10:00

Boy has been offered money in return for making clay figures that represent emotions. He is a dab hand at the clay work - one of his strengths. Step-father and I were proudly showing off Boy's clay figurines to a colleague of mine and she immediately offered Boy money in return for making her a bag full of symbols that somehow express a range of emotions.

A sandplay therapist, my colleague stated she struggled to find symbols with faces on - not the normal happy, angry or sad faces readily available on cheap children's toys, but faces that capture the range of human emotion - curiosity, grief, anxiety, etc. One of her students had made some faces out of clay but they were now broken, stolen or worn. It was time to replace her feeling symbols and in Boy's clay work she recognised an opportunity.

The cottage industry started during this mornings home school. Boy has been requesting arts and crafts so I pulled out the Sculpey clay and informed Boy of my colleague's offer. Boy heard "money" and jumped at the chance.

During his eagerness Boy made things that he wanted to make. While I sat beside him and calmly moulded clay, I attempted to inform Boy that this was a contract that meant he had to make what the client wanted: symbols that expressed a range of emotions.

Bad move! What an argument we had and I bought into his Aspergers melt down and insults toward me. I'm an idiot, I know nothing, how would I know what kids like, etc, etc. It went on for 45 minutes. I was so angry that I yelled at Boy: "Stop acting like an Aspergers person." Oh good one Megan! He is a kid with Aspergers.

Despite the toxicity and heightened emotion of our today's home school, we did manage to produce a few emotion symbols (pictured). I think he modelled the angry and scary ones on my face!!!! We have now made up and resolved to start afresh tomorrow. He stated that when I was naming all the emotions his head got jumbled up and he started to melt down. Good learning for me here. Tomorrow I will simply allow Boy to check his emotions against the "feeling faces" poster we have on the wall.

This is Boy's employment opportunity - his cottage industry. I will keep my emotion and professional knowledge out of this and allow Boy to experience the exchange of cash for goods and services for himself.

And...I've given up smoking today. This is not the best day to do anything stress provoking!

Message from a Home Schooled Boy in Australia

2007-06-14T09:24:00.000+10:00

As part of Boy's socialisation skills we are helping him to reach out and make new friends. Given Boy's Aspergic tendencies toward computer obsession we have created a safe section for him to hang out in, in our child protection website. I just about live on the site but Boy is bored with chatting to me!

If your home school child is up for making some new friends in a safe and moderated forum environment, then please consider joining the site and helping to foster social understanding between international home schoolers.

The section for kids is private. It does not become visible until a person registers in the site. I have the police doing their regular internet patrols and I immediately ban pornography spammers and delete accounts of any other spammers. It is as safe as I could make it. To date, we have had no spam in the kid section.

Message from Boy below (how great is this that I am getting him to write!):

Hi all,

I'm boy and I would like you to join the k.h.k. (kids helping kids forum) in my mum's website.

The k.h.k. is about kids talking about stuff, like what they like and stuff they do. No swearing is allowed and creeps get kicked out. To enter the kids section, you have to be a member and Mum can ban your computer if you are a trouble maker. You should hear Mum go off when someone puts bad stuff on the site!

This is like the modern way of having pen-pals. It is safe, fun and cool and counts as home school learning about technology.

It is only for kids aged 10-18 and your parents have to know about it because they have to help join you up.

Thanks, Boy

Australia's First Nation People are called Aboriginies

2007-06-13T09:42:00.000+10:00

Article by Boy, age 11

The Australian Aboriginie has been here for more than 60,000 years. When white people came to Australia they killed many Aboriginal people and they herded the rest into groups and made them work for white man.

I live in an area where there are lots of Aboriginal people (Far North Queensland). They are nice. Their skin can be balck, brown, tan or even like a bit sun tanned but not too much.

Aboriginal people live in houses like you and I live in but they love the land more than we do. Their country is very important to them. Where a person is born and where their family comes from is something that means important stuff to Aboriginies. If they are born in the rainforest they may have a rainforest bird or animal as their totem. If they are born in the dessert then they have a dessert totem.

A lot of tourists have the wrong information about Australian Aboriginal people. They only see the bad stuff on the news but there is also lots of bad stuff on the news about us white fellas. Mum said that someone told her that all Aboriginal people abuse their kids. Mum nearly had a heart attack and set them straight. Most Aboriginal people love their kids and try hard to protect them.

Aboriginal painting is pretty neat. They paint with lots of dots and colours made from mixing sand and ground up stone. Their colours represent the earth and other natural stuff like water, sky and grass.

The Aboriginal people tell their stories by either talking or dancing. They are an oral culture (Talk not write about things). The Aboriginal dance story telling is called Corroboree. We call it "shake a leg" as its nick name.

Here is a video that I found on YouTube. Mum is letting me look at YouTube for technology. Because we are studying Aboriginal culture she said I had to find some videos to share with you about Aboriginal culture or people.

Driving all the way to Cooktown

2007-06-12T14:46:00.000+10:00

Boy and step-father recently went on a road trip. Although during a school week, Indigenous Australia was woven into their adventures (we're studying the cultural melting pot and geography of Australia this term) and Boy attended business meetings with step-father.

Step-father works frequently on Cape York Peninsula (a place of high Indigenous population) and is currently doing some work for an organisation that hosts and markets Australian Aboriginal cultural centres. The trip included a visit to ancient rock art paintings.

Boy's own review of his cultural learning trip follows:

Monday 4 June 2007
P and I left here at 3:00 to get to Lakeland Downs. P and I stayed in a caravan in winter true. P ordered a very big dinner and we could not finish it… lol. It was very cold and I felt sick.

Tuesday 5 June 2007:
We went to Laura and met a lot of new people. We met Cliffy, Allan and John. We met John in the Quinkan Center. It was very fun in the Quinkan Center and I had a good time there. Then we went on the walk on Spit Rock and looked at the paintings. Then after that we went up to Cooktown and made a fire with some fish ‘n’ chips. It was very good and I had a ball!

Wednesday 6 June 2007:
P and I went down to the Kiosk for breckkie. I had baked beans on toast and P had toast and coffee. P said the toast tasted like crap. I hung out with P for a while and spent the rest of the day with Rossco and Tom.

Thursday 7 June 2007:
We headed back and made up a song

Driving the road all the way to Cooktown
Boy he farted, he pulled his pants down
P the accountant didn’t know what to do
And shortly there after we hit a kangaroo
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10, 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10, 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Does Learning Ever Stop?

2007-06-12T11:02:00.000+10:00

"What's a hiatus Mum?" he asked in earnest.

"It's what's happened to your blog entries at your Homeschooling Aspergers site. We've had a hiatus: a break, a glitch, an interruption, a burst out, but now we're getting back to normal."

"What's that got to do with that thing at the top of your stomach then?"

Oh dear, does learning ever stop? Boy and I have been having a great time even though our exploits haven't been recorded of late. We've had natural learning experience after experience and I'm sure we've used our yearly quota for home school excursions!

I have learnt a great lesson from my manipulation of teachable moments and natural learning on the run. There is no need for me to ask Boy, at the end of the day, what his learning has been. Prone to hate anything that looks like formalised education, Boy embraces natural learning and adult conversations. Try to reduce a conversation to learning and Boy gets somewhat angry.

"What is your learning today?" I now ask myself. By placing myself in the student's shoes and reflecting upon my own learning I now sit in a better situation to offer Boy a gem or two of my newly gained knowledge without it looking like education. This works for both of us and leads into discussions that may otherwise have been missed.

So....my new website is holding its own, my hiatus hernia isn't killing me, and Boy has excelled in his learning of life. We're back - see you tomorrow!

Imaginif...Child Protection Became Serious Business

2007-05-17T11:02:00.000+10:00

Home school is out for the day because...we've gone live with our new website: Imaginif...Child Protection Became Serious Business.

My poor Boy. He has had to endure a very tired mother, change of home school routine to fit around mother's pressing web site copy madness and a telephone that has constantly interrupted our together time.

Routine is important to kids with Aspergers and routine we have not had. The upside for Boy though is that the constant experiments I have set up for him (to create some time for me to test the web site) have captured his interest, and led him to read instructions that once he would never have read and to search on the internet for topics that once he would have relied on me to do.

The biggest natural learning for Boy has been in interactive web site development. He now uses terms like blog platform through wordpress, forum platform, and html. Already familiar with terms like child protection, child safety, protective behaviours and social justice, Boy appears to have grasped that these terms mean nothing unless they are put into action. He told me he knows that interactive means that individuals have to interact in child protection ways or kids will keep getting hurt.

I near cried when the above gem came out of his mouth. He's got it. He has, in simplistic terms, summarised what I teach to university students. Boy's understanding and integration of complex social definitions blew me away. I am so proud of him. Although he has Aspergers, he has grasped the shades of grey around behaviour and community participation in keeping kids safe. I just so wish that this post had been written to add to the most recent Carnival Against Child Abuse because Boy's juvenile understanding is future child protection in the making.

I love you Boy: all the way up to the stars, the moon and back again.

Grab a cuppa and come and have a look at our new home on the web. There are blogs by many different child safety focused writers, forums in which to talk about any child protection issue (sun safety, road safety, safe parenting, etc) and a protective play shop. If you chose to join our forum you receive a free 10 page protective play tutorial, jam packed with play and activity ideas to keep your kids safe. Use the ideas as home school study around personal safety.

Imaginif...child protection became serious business.

www.imaginif.com.au

Melt and Mould Soap Making

2007-05-16T12:14:00.000+10:00

Today we made soap as a home school activity. Boy does not prioritise personal hygiene and I'm sure that when he does bath, the soap remains dry! Not unusual for kids with Aspergers, personal hygiene is often far from their mind. We've tried the novelty of electric toothbrushes, very expensive gorgeous spelling soaps from Lush, shampoos of every variety and now we need a new trick to get Boy into the bath and washing the dirt and sweat off.

Trying the Melt and Mould soap kits that I've recently listed in my on-line protective behaviour shop, Boy and I made four different soaps (there's still enough base left to make another two soaps): two coloured and scented with Mango and two opaque, scented with Passionfruit. The opaque soap making was the hit.

Into the soap moulds we put two toys prior to poring (yes, it really is that easy: melt the soap base and pour it into a mould) the melted, clear soap liquid. One toy was a wooden key ring of Boys choice and the other - well, what can I say - I think I have a budding entrepreneur on my hands.

Boy chose a flashing LED soft plastic ring. Rather than submerging the ring and completely covering it with soap, Boy suggested that we make a soap ring. We carefully balanced the ring in the setting soap (so that the finger part was exposed) and waited for it to dry. Boy could not wait to try it out. He rather fancied the idea of wearing his soap like a ring and scrubbing himself without having to hold the slippery soap in his hand.

It struck me that Boy's slipping hygiene corresponded with the cessation of his youth worker hours. The youth worker spent ample time with Boy talking about hygiene being a social skill: if you are stinky, people get slinky. They slink off to get away from you. Now that Youth Worker is out of the picture, I guess that Boy fails to understand why he needs to smell clean. We expect cleanliness yet don't necessarily teach it. Today's activity provided me ample teachable moments to talk about the different types and styles of soap and how they often smell different depending on the chemistry of an individuals skin.

We're off to bathe now. Wonder if Boy will "ring me" from the bathroom?

An economical and fun home school activity, we've used the completely natural melt and mould glycerin soap kits from Renascent College. Now a retailer of their soap kits, we're never going to be short of creative ways to get Boy trialing our new soaps. It's not school work, it's Boy helping Mum to try new products (if only he knew the suds I sink to for encouraging his education!).

UPDATE: Big girl (21) tried out the ring soap. Her verdict, "WICKED!" When switched on, the LED flashes through the opaque soap. It is very, very cool and Boy has already had two baths.

Second update: Big girl's friends came around and thought the ring soap was "cack" (intonations and facial expressions suggested the translation was "cool"). Everyone in our house has very clean hands. This was GREAT for Boy's self-esteem.

Volcanoes in the Backyard

2007-05-15T20:12:00.000+10:00

Our verandah table was washed away with bubbling lava and joyous laughter from three children (okay, one child, one 20 year old and one old[er]adult). Boy's kitchen science evolved into a more elaborate demonstration of the volcanic forces of vinegar and bicarbonate soda.

We made a plaster of paris mountain around a small plastic vial. Once the plaster was dry, Boy painted it to resemble hot lava flowing down and destroying trees in its path. Into the plastic vial we added vinegar (dyed pink with food colouring) and bicarb soda. The resultant eruption was pure bliss for Boy who kept adding bicarb until my box was empty!!!

A wonderful, easy and frugal home school experiment that encompassed chemical reactions and art, Boy has played with his new toy for hours. All you need is plaster of paris, water to mix, a small plastic vial/jar, a cardboard cone to place over the vial (we made one from a cereal box) and on which to plaster the plaster, and paint to decorate the plaster mountain. Add vinegar and baking soda to the vial, and watch your volcano spew its fury forth.

Hint for the volcano lava - add a drop of dish washing detergent and note the difference in the lava flow.

Boy's youth work hours on Mondays have been used up. Looking to replace this with another Monday group activity, Boy chose beading classes. At our first lesson, Boy produced a necklace that he hasn't taken off since (pictured). We plan to attend every Monday morning but I have had to place a monetary freeze at $10.00 per lesson.

Boy's eyes widened in glee as he surveyed the array of gem stone beads. While they are indeed beautiful, the cost of them falls well outside our weekly budget. And then...Boy spotted the leather thronging in all colors of the rainbow. Quiet impressive and double the price of jewellery wire it is! Even more impressive though was that Boy knew the names of most of the gem beads. Lapidary classes are paying off with overall learning.

In an effort to instill real life budgeting, Boy has to stay within the $10.00 limit. If he chooses to make a full necklace, he has to use budget beads. If he chooses to use leather thronging, he will need to sacrifice quantity of beads and rely upon a few well chosen beads separated with knots rather than spacer beads.

Eager to use the beautiful glass and gem stone beads that he was in awe of, Boy has been collecting loose change to add to his $10.00 limit. Without even meaning to teach financial skills, beading classes have opened up new teachable moments and probable presents for all the females in the family. My favourite colour is red, I keep telling him. He hasn't got it yet!

In our travels to find a Youth group replacement, we stumbled upon a supply of crystal flowers. At only $2.00 each, we purchased a bulk lot for Boy to play with and for me to use in my work with children. A most effective display of crystal growth, Boy has used so many already that I wonder if I'll have any left for work. Check it out: it's Christmas in July already!

And finally, finally...my new web site is almost ready. We are going live this Thursday, the 17th of May. For a sneak preview and to find out exactly why I've been so busy, have a look at Imaginif's new home. I hope you consider joining us in the forums and getting some good discussion going around child safety and protection.

Science in the Kitchen: the Bicarb Experiment

2007-05-11T09:19:00.000+10:00

What happens when Bicarbonate of Soda (aka Baking Powder) is mixed with different pantry products?

What you need: Bicarbonate of soda, drinking glasses, teaspoon, a range of different pantry liquids.

Method: Boy set up five glasses and add an inch of the following products: one product per glass.

Malt vinegar

Balsamic Vinegar

Water

Mango Juice

Coca-Cola

Systematically, and one at a time, Boy added a teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda to the liquids.

Outcome: The different results were marked:

Malt vinegar fizzed

Balsamic Vinegar really fizzed up

Water did not fizz at all (this may change depending on the pH of your water supply)

Mango Juice did not fizz

Cocoa-Cola fizzed.

Variations: Add different amounts of Bicarb to five glasses of the same liquid. After the experiment was over, Boy added double the original amount of Bicarb to the malt vinegar. It produced a greater fizz and the bubbles crept up over the top of the glass and down the side to make a nice little fizzing mess on the bench!! Worked well though.

How does this work: Bicarbonate of Soda reacts with acids, releasing carbon dioxide which bubbles up through the solution. The more acidic a liquid, the more fizz produced. But what about when cooking butter, sugar and Bicarb together? That creates a fizz yet there’s no acid in the ingredients? Sugar likes to oxidize so that’s why you get a fizz when you add bicarb to a mixture on the stove (like Anzac Biscuits).

Boy’s rating of this Science in the kitchen project: 5/5.

For more simple science experiments for early and middle school years, have a look at Deakin University’s Ideas for Teaching Science: Years P-8 Chemical Change

The Art of Learning

2007-05-10T10:09:00.000+10:00

Boy likes art. Boy HATES anything that looks remotely like traditional school. Eager to expand his creative mind and burgeoning artistic talents we spend ample time on art projects and weaving unschooling principles into suggestions, presentation and home school work time. To achieve this I have had to unschool myself and treat Boy as my academic equal – as though he is one of my university students.

This morning he begged for art. He nominated a yearning for drawing mountains. Ummm, this did not fit my plan for reading and comprehension. How could I weave my requirements for overall learning with his need for creativity?

“No worries darling. I just have to put this book away. Actually, it’s got some great photos of mountains and volcanoes if you want to have a peek for inspiration.”

I was born and raised in Papua New Guinea: a mountainous place of constant earth tremors and erupting volcanoes. A friend, who also spent most of her early adult life in Papua New Guinea, gave us a coffee table book on Papua New Guinea as a present for our recent wedding. When handing it over she said it was to help new husband understand where and how I was raised and why I am the person I am.

I told Boy the story she told as she handed the book across at my hen’s party:

I met Megan when our biggest children were very little. The kids were attending a group and every week, Megan was huddled in a corner poring over books and writing notes. When curiosity got the better of me, I approached Megan and began a conversation. Megan said she was studying for another degree. After only 10 minutes of talking with her, I asked if she was a “territorial brat” (a white child raised in one of the Australian territories, Papua New Guinea). Territorial brats grew up thinking they owned the world, could do anything and allowed nothing to stop their thirst for knowledge, practical learning and artful navigation of life. Megan fitted the mould to a T. It is because of Megan that I decided to go to university. Now that I’ve gone back to do a Masters degree, would you believe that: that little territorial brat has become my lecturer!

Interested in my early life that turned me into a monster (his words, not mine!), Boy began flicking through the book and asking me questions. Enthralled by my animated stories of jumping out of bed in the middle of the night to stand under doorframes until the quake was over, Boy asked a myriad of questions around lava, poisonous gas and the weight of volcanic ash. While story telling, Boy began drawing a volcano (pictured with the inspirational book).

Even more interested in how to become a “territorial brat”, Boy questioned how he also could rule the world.

“It’s all in the way you ask the questions and respond to people. Listening, responding and standing up for yourself are skills. You can them in a helpful way or a not so helpful way. That book club surprise you got last month is all about how to rule the world.”

Eager to capitalize upon the teachable moment, I hoped that I could find the book in Boy’s incredibly disorganized room. Bingo. It was right beside his bed.

“I read that. It’s boring,” Boy scoffed.

“Really? You must have just read the boring bits because check this out: "This book is all about how to deal with other people and get what you want from them, whether it’s a new bike, a fair deal, or a little respect” and “What to say to Grown-ups who treat you like a kid.”

After reading the first chapter together, Boy changed his mind about the book being boring. He completed the pop quiz that resulted in an analysis of:

“You have an okay idea of how to handle yourself, but you don’t always make the best decisions about what to say or do. Don’t worry – that’s where this book comes in! Read on to learn how to get through all kinds of sticky situations.”

How Aspergers does that analysis sound?! As I type, Boy is at the kitchen table drawing a picture of how to get me to stop treating him like a little kid. What an artful way of learning.

To learn more about the art of storytelling, have a look at this article I wrote. Here is another one on being self-assertive. Both are useful ideas to teach to children and to use as home school lessons.

Finally, and just because I cannot fit them into anything else, here are some quilt squares I made for our Wedding quilt. I had terrific fun telling Boy my story behind the quilt square symbols and listening to him embellish the stories beyond belief.

A Quick Spell for Busy Home School Parents

2007-05-10T06:56:00.000+10:00

Poor Boy. I've been so busy this last week, preparing the new web site, that he has done nothing more than Kinetic Math and English. Like a kid made to eat only cabbage, he is so sick of it and is screaming for diversity.

"How about you wash the floor for me? That's as diverse as you can get. In fact, it's probably a new skill for you!"

"You're boring Mum. Who votes Mum gets some new jokes?" ......and so the discourse proceeded.

Stretching into my inner creativity, I attempted to find interesting yet mother labour light educational activities for Boy. While staring into my wardrobe hoping that creativity would jump off a hanger and wrap itself around me, I spotted two bags of large wooden painted letters.

"Nah. He hates scrap booking and I have to be there with him to help." As I thought it, creativity swung its foot at me and caught me in the temple. As I stooped in pain, my hand latched onto the bags of letters. Before I even had a chance to consider how to spell concussion, bags, I and a fold up table were silently conversing in a lounge room strategy meeting: planning our spelling and word formation attack against Boy.

Letters piled atop the table, Boy walked past and asked what I was doing.

"Just taking a spell darling," (where did that hypnotic suggestion come from). "I was thinking that I would sell these on the website so just wanted to ensure they are all okay."

"Can I have them?"

"No! These are precious scrap booking supplies, not toys. Now go back and do another Math unit."

Gazing upon my time saving genius, I smiled wickedly to myself. "He's not going to be able to resist it," I thought evilly. "You're very clever Megan."

By the end of the home school day and without any prompting or help from me, Boy had formed as many words as he could. While I sat and prepared copy for the new website, Boy sought out additional, little chipboard letters from my art trolley. He discovered he needed more vowels to make words.

"What are you doing?" I asked innocently as he scavenged through the art trolley.

"Nothing," he replied in an excited tone. "Just taking a spell."

For a quick spell for the busy home school parent, buy some cheap chipboard letters from an art supply store and throw them on the table. Allow your child to formulate their own activity. Spelling, word shapes, spatial practice (putting two different letters on top of each other to form a different letter) and sentence construction, create yourself a time spell and put a little educational magic into your busy life.

The Carnival of Australia: Number Two Cockatoo

2007-05-09T08:33:00.000+10:00

Welcome to the May 9, 2007, second edition of the Carnival of Australia. Like a pair of Cockatoos this edition of the Carnival of Australia is making some noise about protecting our environment and keeping Australia (and Australians) safe.

Colin Campbell presents Camel Burger Anyone? posted at Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe. Colin humps us off by saying, "Interesting issues related to how to manage and productively use over a million wild camels." Buffalo burgers, crocodile burgers, and now camel burgers. It's interesting how we Aussies cope with our unwanted excess. Colin ponders whether beer or wine would suit camel. Either choice Colin, because we sure don't have excess water to wash the camel down with.

Michelle encourages us to bag plastic in Being Green posted at My New Shiny Shoes. “I am green and it’ll do fine, it’s beautiful! And I think it’s what I want to be.” Thanks Kermit, Michelle couldn’t have said it better herself!

Laurie Joyce, in the Curse of the Loner posted over at Sunrays and Saturdays - An ordinary life, discusses two early childhood incidents that shaped his existence. Like many Australian boys, mateship was Laurie's life. When the mateship was interrupted, Laurie found himself grieving the loss. Further, Laurie's Dad was a drinker and having mates around to play was all too difficult. Laurie coped by retreating to the safety of his shed: a habit that has become a solid part of the man he is today.

Gillian continues to fight poverty through education by blogging at the School of St Judes. In To capture hearts and minds, Gillian updates us on how Australian Media has taken to the cause of one of our own, Gemma Sisa. Gemma is home from Tanzania to tour her new book and to thank Aussies for being so supportive to those who have little. Go Aussie, go. We really are a nation of givers.

Sue over at Spasmodic Dysphonia has been faced with an act of disability discrimination from a large Australian banking institution: Dystonia and Commonly Held Perceptions. Far from happy and no longer feeling safe, Sue took the bank to task for suggesting that her intelligence and lack of voice was the real problem, rather than a banking system glitch. Since posting the article, Sue has informed me that a satisfactory outcome has been reached and an apology offered. Discrimination is NOT the Aussie way.

Emily from World Grows Wide is having a slight Hiatus. Fulfilling the young Aussie rite of passage, Emily is off to holiday in England. Stay safe Emily. Our best wishes go with you.

Boy from Home Schooling Aspergers finally got through the hoards of Japanese tourists to get up close and personal with Australia's favourite animal. In How Much can a Koala Bear? Boy and his mother took a home school excursion to the tropical zoo in the middle of their home town, Cairns. Great photography Mum.

Speaking of home schooling, the crew at Schola are having a great time deciding whether instructions are useful or not. In Projects, mother home schooler decides that, "Instructions are always optional." Have a look at their paper model of the Pharos at Alexandria and their magnificent crystal tree.

And finally there's me. What is Megan up to over at Child Protection: Serious Business? Super busy with creating a new web site, I've put a call out for child safety blog writers: Imaginif...Child Protection Became Serious Business. Australia leads the field again with our aim to be the biggest on-line child protection conversation in the world.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Australia (hosted at Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe on May 23) using our carnival submission form. We look forward to submissions from many new Aussie bloggers. Come on Aussie, c'mon, c'mon. What's a carnival without blog seekers?

Past posts and future hosts for the Carnival of Australia can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags:
carnival of australia, blog carnival.

Scratch and Sniff, Beer and Skittles.

2007-05-05T05:10:00.000+10:00

"How much?" I asked aghast. "For two tubes of ointment?!!"

Boy's health has cost me a small fortune this week. High temperatures, nausea, aching muscles, splitting headaches, Asperger's obsessions and fatigue finally drove us to the pediatrician.

Not only did Boy have a regular child hood virus this week, he has also scratched the midgy bites on his legs and they are nicely infected. Our efforts at ensuring a balanced home education program for Boy have cost us greatly.

Boy went fishing with his mentor last Sunday and then the following day, Boy bush walked with his youth worker. Both highly prized activities and designed to ensure socialization outside of our family, Boy has gladly suffered the pain on his spotty legs. I, on the other hand, have not gladly suffered the pain on my purse.

A tendency toward obsessive compulsions, Boy continually scratched his legs whenever he was still. This was more than scratching an itch, he obsessively scratched until he had blood running down his legs. Once he began, he found it difficult to stop and I caught him scratching all manner of things, wooden table included. Desperate to intervene in the compulsion, I attempted to engage Boy in cognitive refocus on anything that did not look like schoolwork. Reading. What unusual books could I offer him that would refocus his mind and require the use of his hands?

Combining Boy's scratching obsession with a glossy women's magazine, I provided Boy with a two page scratch and sniff advertisement for Mother's Day. Cringing at the thought of holding a girl's magazine, Boy could not resist the temptation to scratch. He smelt the first perfume and interested, moved on the next. We had a hit. Boy fully engaged with scratching, sniffing, reading what the smell was and laughing at the RRP of the featured products (there goes my chance of new perfume for Mother's Day!).

Seizing the teachable moment, I suggested we play a scratch and smell game. Blind folded, I led Boy to a scratch and smell table spread with fruit, vegetable and saucers of condiments and liquids. He guessed some of the vegetables by touch but he had a great time scratching, sniffing AND munching on some of the others.

One of the saucers was filled with the Aussie standard: beer. Boy loved involving this forbidden fruit in a game and it has started a new obsession: Beer box kicking. Rescuing beer boxes from the recycling spot, Boy has been busy making towers, forts and people. Once erected, they get kicked down like skittles. A great game that has kept him interested, active and hand busy so that the dreaded leg scratching ritual is interrupted.

But...the head on the brew was Boy's reading of every word on the beer box! Who would have guessed that a scratch and smell beer sample would have led to obsession interruption and voluntary reading! Go, this home school freedom. No matter what it costs me, or what I have to use, the capital gain in Boy's learning is worth it.

Sick Day

2007-05-01T16:17:00.000+10:00

Boy and I are both crook (Aussie slanguage for unwell) today and have done zero home school learning. While I understand this is boring to you, I am just recording it here for home school diary purposes.

We are like a pair of Blue Tongue Lizards, dragging ourselves around and sticking our blue tongues out to taste the health of the air around us. No...it still tastes rotten so we'll see you all tomorrow or the next day.

Tag for my Five Thinking Bloggers

2007-04-30T09:28:00.000+10:00

Thanks to Ragamuffin Studies for tagging us with the Thinking Blogger Award.

But, now...

Tag. You're it. If you are on the list below, you are one of my five thinking bloggers.

Gotcha with Gary Hughes over at The Australian

Gary dares to articulate some deep social issues. His commentary comes across as unbiased, informed and open to different opinions. While I do not always agree with his social analysis, he offers me food for thought and insight into what other Australians think of social problems faced in our country.

Tokyo Girl Down Under

Tokyo Girl is new to Australia. The perspective on life she offers raises a giggle in me and causes a reflective process of the time I lived in her mother country (England). An aspiring novelist, I far too often think of her unique writing voice while I am washing the dishes or pretending to enjoy paying my rent. I like her posts and often sneak in with a voyeuristic interest in what she is up to. I have never left a comment for her though because I don't wish to spoil my pleasure of just reading her voice.

abyss2hope: A rape survivor's zigzag journey into the open

Marcella Chester, writer, novelist and date rape survivor posts on sexual violence in its many varieties. Informed and passionate, Marcella tells it as she understands it. Her voice is strong without being opinionated and obstinate. I read abyss2hope to stay abreast of sexual violence issues in the U.S. Working with survivors of sexual violence in my home town, I offer Marcella's site to my curious, afraid and developing clients. Marcella also organizes the Carnival Against Sexual Violence so if you have something to say on the topic, this is the place to submit your post to. One aspect of abyss2hope that really made me think was Marcella's positive anti-sexual violence merchandise marketing across ages, gender and species (she even has Stop Rape Dog T-Shirts). I think Marcella has done an excellent job.

Spasmodic Dysphonia
A supportive voice for those of us who struggle with voice.

Sue Bayliss, retired Social Worker and sufferer of many types of dystonia, is the reason I acquired an analytical mind. She is my mother. Struck down with debilitating disability, Mum has almost completely lost her voice and her muscle functioning throughout her body is failing at a radical rate. She blogs about dystonia and attempts to provide a global, virtual voice to others suffering the isolation and suspicion that goes with dystonia. Through her, I have learnt about the disease, its prevalence and its insidious attempt to rob intelligent thinkers of their voice. Thank you Mum, but gee I hope I have not inherited the gene!

Megin Hatch over at GNMParents
GNMParents (managed by Megin Hatch) is a multi-media channel featuring blogs, podcasts and video, aimed to provide a full and rich content experience for parents at all stages of parenthood. Wanting to inform, entertain and engage the community, I think Megin and the team have done an excellent job at raising consciousness and celebrating parenthood.
A regular reader of all blog authors at GNMParents, I do particularly resonate with Megin's blogging voice. Her accent is community development and safety: two issues very close to my blogging heart.

Gary, Tokyo Girl, Marcella, Mum and Megin: your blogs make me think, reflect and question. Therefore I have nominated you for the Thinking Blogger Award.

The Thinking Blogger Award is blog meme (a virtual game of get to know me) where '5 Blogs That Make Me Think' are displayed and linked to. So congratulations to my five chosen thought provokers: you have won my gratitude and I offer you the: Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of simple rules to the five blogs you are tagging:

If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

Elisheva over at Ragamuffin Studies tagged and nominated Boy and I for the Thinking Blogger Award (see what she says about us in her "The Thinking Blogger Award" post). What a blast and an absolutely wonderful way to keep Boy's self esteem buoyant. Thank you Elisheva. It is an honour. But....I want to tag you back because your articles have taught me such a lot about Judaism, traditions and home schooling. I find myself reflecting on your posts frequently and they have developed a deeper social understanding in me. You are a thinker and a teacher Elisheva. Thank you for being you.

Guess What This Creature Is?

2007-04-28T13:35:00.000+10:00

Hint: It is Boy's favorite. Leave your guess below. Boy says the correct guess will be the correct generic name of the creature...BUT...he wants you to know that the pictures are of the creature from two different South Pacific countries. Once somebody correctly guesses, Boy will tell you the identifying names of each creature.

Don't you hate it when the student becomes the teacher!!!!!

How Much can a Koala Bear?

2007-04-27T19:07:00.000+10:00

Home school family excursion this week was a trip to Cairns Rainforest Dome. Boy loves animals and fully engages with the animal carers. He can hear animal facts over and over again (Aspergers thing) without ever tiring or zoning out.

We had considered using a different educational reward this week, but after reading Kaber's FEN Fun post over at All About (my) Boys and seeing her delightful Boys playing out their animal instincts, I just couldn't overlook the value of another visit to our tropical zoo.

Boy was elated with the news of his reward and I figured I could bear it once more. The real question that begs though, is, how much can a Koala bear?

Boy found the above Koala's sleeping position somewhat humorous. Boy thought the Koala could surely bear no more of the tree truck disappearing up its nether regions. It does look funny, albeit uncomfortable perched upon a sawn branch.

Koala's are usually swamped by adoring Japanese visitors, meaning we can never get near them. Today however, we visited at lunch time while all the tourists were off having Sushi. This meant we were alone with the Koalas, their gum tree all day as much as you can eat breakfast and their fact bearing carer.

Koala is an Aboriginal word, meaning no water.The poor little fellow above is bashfully watching Boy drink. Don't let his cute looks fool you though. Check out his teeth!

We had a great family day out (we took Grandma with us today too) and finally got to love Australia's favorite animal close up. Does anybody want to ask Boy a Koala question? He hasn't stopped reciting Koala facts since we came home!

Similes and Metaphors.

2007-04-26T09:35:00.000+10:00

“What is Lego land?” Boy asked this morning. Engaged with my commentary about the Legoland theme park in the U.K, Boy listened patiently.

“That’s nice Mum, but why do people say there is a Lego land down the road?”

Boy finished his monotone and looked at me blankly; letting me know I was dumb because I failed to understand his question!

My explanations of high density living, renamed negatively as Lego land, led naturally into similes.

Not wanting to lose the teachable moment, I gave Boy a definition and a few examples of similes. Without prompting, Boy began matching my similes.

“Wait.” I pleaded manipulatively. “I have never heard such great similes from an 11 year old. I have to write them down so that I can use them in my next book”:

Photo of high rise courtesy of pitus at stock.xchng.

Boy’s Similes:

Hungry as an ogre

Bored like a prisoner

Hard as wood

Sharp as an Eagle

Pale as paper

Loud like an Elephant’s bellow

Slow as a snail

Cool like a cucumber

Farting like a thunderstorm

Quiet like a mouse

His temper was hot like candle wax.

Not wanting to spoil the natural learning, I quietly pondered whether to push onto metaphors. Would his mood and aspergers focus tolerate a change right now?

“He is a fat pig.” Boy waited for me to type his offer of another simile.

My chance. I took it.

“Actually, that is a great metaphor. A metaphor is still a comparison but it is no longer similar: “like” or “as”. The metaphor comparison suggests that the person or thing is something it really is not. The pig is fat, the man is fat, but the pig can never be the man and the man can never be the pig. We do not have magic wands to change people into pigs so a metaphor is an allowable writing or talking way to change the man into a pig. He is a fat pig.”

Without too much thought, and only a little checking of the similes I had recorded, the following metaphors dropped from Boy’s mouth.

Home school is jail.

In school, I am a bored prisoner.

Mum is a slow snail.

My friends are cool cucumbers.

My eyes are eagle sharp.

His face was iron wood hard.

The thunderstorm fart shook the classroom.

His anger dripped its candle wax on everyone his burning eyes looked at.

Candle talk led into candle sculpting. Boy melted (pictured above) wax and shaped it into a mushroom (pictured below).

“Poisonous as a mushroom: simile or metaphor?” I enquired as Boy molded.

“It is the “like” or “as” word. I can’t remember the right word.”

“The word that says something is similar?” I hinted.

“Simile! That’s it,” he responded to my prompt.

“I am a gentle flower. Simile or metaphor?”

“That means you’re just a liar Mum because you are actually a dragon.”

We have had an excellent day of grabbing the teachable moments around similes and metaphors. Best of all, Boy was in such a relaxed mood, he willingly completed an algebra and rhyming unit from the Kinetic Education computer based program that we are using.

Funny thing is though, that today’s diary informs me that French cooking and culture was on the agenda. Oh well. At least Boy's wax mushroom looks suspiciously like a French Truffle!

C’est la vie!

Anzac Day Holiday in Australia

2007-04-25T11:51:00.000+10:00

Anzac Day equates to no home school today. Whereas many people go to the Dawn Service, it is too difficult to motivate Boy to get out of bed. Instead we watched an Anzac Parade on television and I compiled my Anzac Edition of the Carnival of Australia.

Looking for Anzac Day photos, I came upon a list of Anzac links from the ANZAC Day Commemoration Committee in Queensland. The contained information was excellent and I post the links here to share a little of our Australian History with other home schoolers looking for quick information about how Australia recognises their war dead and serving soldiers.

ANZAC: The origin of the acronym ‘ANZAC’
The Dawn Service
ANZAC Day Commemoration
Outline Commemoration Service for ANZAC Day
The Australian National Flag
Australia’s War Dead
Australian War Memorials
Bugle Calls
The Catafalque Party
Colours Tell the Story
Medals
The Poppy is for Sacrifice (Poppy photograph courtesy of saucyann at stock.xchng)
The Rising Sun Badge
Rosemary is for Remembrance
The Military Salute
The Slouch Hat and Emu Plumes
The Victoria Cross
Words of Remembrance

Bee Keeping for Home School Carnival

2007-04-24T18:08:00.000+10:00

How many words or phrases starting with the sound "bee" can you think of?

Beetiful.
Beeming.
Beeside myself.
Beelievable.

Bad spelling? I had better make a bee line to the Carnvial of Home Schooling: Bee Edition then. It is truly beetiful with all its bee information and pictures. Bee there or bee left out in the cold.

Bee gone over myself I bee with the beehaviours of all the home school beegers beecos one of them will beed the next BeeFG author.

Gem Tree

2007-04-24T16:32:00.000+10:00

Boy has finished his Gem Tree (pictured) at Lapidary classes. We LOVE it and have decided to make some more as gifts. In preparation for Christmas, Boy chose little bags of red and green gem stones and a coil of green wire.

Too young to take the jewellery, gem cutting or faceting classes (club rules state 14 years of age), Boy can only learn about gems, make gem trees or assist with polishing stones. Happy with these options, Boy wants to keep up with our Tuesday morning Gem Club meet.

Gem Club is planning a weekend fossicking trip away. Camping and fossicking caught Boys attention and he became embroiled in the politics of where to camp. Giving not a hoot for the rules, Boy was frustrated with the oldies who talked non stop about people who owned suitable properties. Boy wanted to just go; to camp anywhere and to fossick to his hearts delight. Who cares about council by-laws and mining leases? Boy sure doesn't! What a lesson he had in planning, checking and insurance.

Leaving the old women to gossip the fine people points, elderly gentleman, Boy and myself had a discussion about firewood. I told him Boy and I made paper bricks as a home school lesson. Elderly gentleman was most interested, told us he had a press and that he regularly makes paper bricks for his fossicking adventures. He claimed that he never gets to his isolated yet desired destinations until after dark and is not keen to gather firewood in the dark (snakes - poisonous ones like Taipans and King Browns). Paper bricks offer an alternative and burn as long as hard wood. He said they also keep the dingoes away as they make a brighter fire.

Guess what Boy asked to borrow!!!!!! Oh dear, what have I started. Gem trees I can do in abundance, but paper brick making is a whole different level of energy. The things we do for our home schooled kids!

ANZAC Day Poetry Reading: The Final Inspection

2007-04-24T12:46:00.000+10:00

The Final Inspection

The Soldier stood and faced his God,
Which must always come to pass.
He hoped his shoes were shining,
Just as brightly as his brass.

"Step forward now, you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"

The Soldier squared his shoulders and said,
"No, my Lord, I ain't.
Because those of us who carry guns,
Can't always be a saint.

I've had to work most Sundays,
And at times my talk was tough.
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.

But, I never took a dollar,
That wasn't mine to keep...
Though I worked a lot of overtime,
When the bills got just too steep.

And I never passed a cry for help,
Though at times I shook with fear.
And sometimes, God, forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.

I know I don't deserve a place,
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around,
Except to calm their fears.

If you've a place for me here, Lord,
It needn't be so grand.
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand.

There was a silence all around the throne,
Where the saints had often trod.
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.

"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burdens well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."

Author: Joshua Helterbran (edit on Dec 12 2007 I originally had the wrong author according to Beti Ryan-Mercer to whom I apologise for putting my researched name of author in and linking to her blog without her permission - see her comment below)

The Alphabet of Family Life

2007-04-24T08:34:00.000+10:00

It is Carnival time. The 51st edition of the Carnival of Family Life is up:

Carnival of Family Life #51

Full of family-related posts from all over the world, this weeks Carnival reads like an alphabet of difference. To see how others live family life or to keep your finger on the pulse all family related posts, be sure to join the weekly Carnival of Family Life.

No matter whether you are in Austria or Zimbabwe, consider joining us. I try to submit weekly: an article from this site and one from Child Protection: Serious Business. This week the Carnival of Family Life has included my posts on Gem Sifting and Words to Explain Feelings Following Virginia Tech Shootings.

Submit your family related blog entry to the Carnival and watch your hit statistics grow from all around the globe.

And...if you are an Aussie blogger or are blogging about anything Australian, do not miss the fortnightly Carnival of Australia.

Paper Bricks for the ANZAC Day Campfire.

2007-04-23T10:48:00.000+10:00

I want to do something fun for schoolwork. Having heard that phrase too frequently last week, today we did something Boy considered fun: Paper bricks for our ANZAC Day campfire.

Desperate to instill some ANZAC Day learning into Boy, I made a desperate call to my military brother. “Help me,” I whined. “What sites are around for ANZAC Day web quests or sites to tell Boy how he can send a parcel off to a soldier in Iraq. Anything that will help Boy retain the link between current war and Australia’s involvement since WWI.”

My brother laughed. Apparently he has heard this request many times from well meaning parents wanting to war educate their children. After explaining our recent school refusal and constant meltdowns, brother suggested I leave it alone, concentrate on something Boy does find fun, and slip in a few teachable moments to create a cognitive link to the conditions soldiers survive in. Duh!!!! I know this at a cognitive level but I needed to hear it from someone else; a military educator who could confirm that I was doing okay with what I was trying to teach about ANZAC Day.

We are planning a camping trip and I decided that around the campfire would be a great place to relate war tales. We are also concentrating on recycling and sustainable living. Then the idea hit me like a brick: paper bricks. Making them would satisfy requirements of covering Australian history and sustainable living.

“I want to do something fun for schoolwork,” Boy greeted me with this morning.

“Me too,” I manipulated. “I’m sick of all this book and internet stuff. Let’s make some paper bricks for our camping trip.”

Worked like a charm. Boy and I cleared my office of scrap paper, tore, mulched, squeezed and molded paper bricks.

“You should sell this idea Mum,” he said.

This was my in, my teachable moment. “Paper bricks are not a new idea. During WWI and then the depression years, paper bricks were a standard source of fuel. In fact, many people in cold climates still use paper bricks as a cheaper and environmentally friendly way to keep those fires burning.” I told a story about ships carrying paper bricks to soldiers in far away lands where kindling was in short supply and soldiers were freezing.

“WWI? How about soldiers today? Can we send some of our bricks to Iraq?”

Oh, thank you the universe. To begin ANZAC learning, all I had to do was to use Blooms taxonomy and Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences to change the way I was reaching Boy. Today’s ANZAC teaching was reached by making paper bricks. Go figure!

Reading: As much as Boy protested, we also managed to do some sight words. Boy reached 100% of sight word correctness according to the Dolch Word List. When our paper bricks dry, I am going to see if he will paint the names of ANZACS onto the bricks.

Social interactions: Boy successfully achieved his voluntary work at the Gem Club open day yesterday. He sifted sand, showed kids how to hold their sifters over light to see the colour of their gem treasures, and spent long periods engrossed in conversation with champion gem cutters. It was a joy to watch him interact socially without rude behaviour or melt down. Most pleasing though, Boy played with other kids. He LOVED it. We so wanted to go home but while Boy was entrenched in fun kid stuff we stayed and helped.

Home education is reaching equilibrium again. A happy and well-adjusted child who learns naturally is of greater importance to us than having a stressed, cranky, academic child who memorizes facts that means nothing to him.

Now, lest we forget, I wonder if I can get another ANZAC Day fact in….

Photo courtesy of melodi2 at stock.xchng

Carnival of Australia

2007-04-21T11:33:00.000+10:00

Are you an Australian blogger or a blogger who writes about anything Australian? Your blogs are welcome to be submitted to the Carnival of Australia.

The inaugural carnival is hosted at Child Protection: Serious Business on ANZAC Day, April 25, 2007. All posts are to be received by April 23rd.

The second Carnival of Australia (fort nightly hosting) will be hosted here at Home Schooling Aspergers. Who wants to host the third edition?

Kangaroos, Koalas, barbeques, slanguage, sports, history or politics: if you're talking about Australia, we'd love to help get your posts swimming across the Pacific or Indian oceans to sun bake on the shores of down under.

Avagoyamug (slanguage translation: Have a go you mug) and 'aveagoodweekend (have a good weekend).

Photo is of Boy feeding swamp wallabies.

Plan for Coping With Aspergers School Refusal

2007-04-21T10:24:00.000+10:00

School refusal has begun. A wedding, Easter school holidays and big girl preparing to leave home for an overseas job have crippled Boy. Unable to cope with change, Boy's Aspergers meltdowns have increased and he has flatly refused to complete set home school tasks.

Reflecting on our week, I was confronted with my inability to change to suit Boy's needs. Eager to ensure quality home education for Boy, I have over stressed the importance of doing things my way. After taking a breather and investigating what went wrong this week, I can accept that it is I who has skipped off the path of diversity, teachable moments and multiple intelligence. I have thrown our well thought out educational philosophy into the recycle bin because I have been busy and single minded.

Another plan is needed for mother to remember that home schooling a child with Aspergers is completely different to educating a non-aspergers child. Here is my developing plan:

Work through obsessions. On days when Boy is focused on issues not included in the home school learning areas, it is acceptable to investigate Boy's obsessions. These are teachable moments that will otherwise be lost.

Teachable moments are everywhere. School does not have to represent that which we know as beneficial for us. School is everywhere and Aspergers learning occurs best without stress.

What I value as important is not important to Boy or his development. Allow him to explore that which he is highly interested in, even if it has no recognisable educational value to you.

Boy can only grow to be fully functioning if he first experiences a fully functional home life. Fighting, crying and meltdowns do not positively contribute to a functional home. Boy functions best when conflict is removed so ALWAYS remove conflict and remain flexible.

Short term goals are not time specific. They can be revisited and strengthened at any stage. Know that the goals can be re-met if you do things differently.

Nobody can accuse you of being a bad mother. By designing education around the need of your child you are being the best mother you can be. Most people will be grateful that their children do not have Aspergers.

Meltdowns are worse for Boy than they are for you. Remain calm and use Boy's logic, obsessive compulsiveness and anger as a learning experience. Shutting your ears is tantamount to saying you know everything and are a superior person.

Nobody can read your mind. Think abusive thoughts but NEVER say them because they will destroy Boy's confidence and reinforce further unacceptable behaviour and school refusal.

When you reign in and block outsiders from coming to your home and adding over stimulus, remember that it will only be for a short time while Boy reaches emotional and social equilibrium again. Email and on-line Aspergers support groups produce no over stimulus to Boy and are there 24 hours per day. Use them.

You can only recognise a bad day because you have first had good days to measure against. Things do improve. Hasten improvement by reducing conflict and grabbing whatever teachable moments you can.

You are a team, a package, a caring parent. Team work means working together to get the best result. Work with Boy, not against him.

What works for you during meltdowns? Can anybody add to my developing coping plan for Aspergers home school refusal?

Gem Sifting

2007-04-19T10:38:00.000+10:00

At Lapidary classes this week, Boy was asked to assist with some Gem Club Open Day tasks. Not keen because it sounded like work, Boy was delighted to be given the task of "gem sifting" assistant.

In a full sandbox, large buttons are raked through: deep and hidden symbols of treasure. Children purchase a shovel full of sand and sift their sand back into the sandpit. Any buttons caught in the sifting process are exchanged for real, polished gem stones. If the lucky sifter has netted 10 buttons, they are exchanged for a cut gem; 20 buttons, a piece of gem stone jewellery.

Boy's eyes lit up like sparkling blue sapphires.

"Yes. I will do that," he responded in his unanimated aspergic way. I was the only one present who recognised his excitement at turning up a gem of a job. The others appeared to think they had provided him a wrong job: a lump of coal. They fussed as they tried to find a replacement task for him.

An elderly lady cuddled a jar full of surplus polished gem stones. They looked like huge MandM's.

"What should I do with this?" she quavered to Boy.

Immediately he answered, "Guess how many gems are in the jar."

"I have no idea. I haven't counted them," she pondered while scratching an age spot on the side of her bronzed wrinkly face.

"No. Have a competition of guessing how many gems are in there. Sell the tickets for 50 cents each guess and the winner can get a precious present."

How those oldies loved my gem of a Boy. He offered to count the gem stones in the jar and to organise the competition. He sat for an hour, counting, sorting and identifying gems before he moved onto picking gem treasures that he thought kids would like as their prizes.

Math eat your heart out. We've had a gem of a home school day.

For those in Cairns, The Cairns Gem Club is holding their Open Day at 85 Greenslopes Street on Sunday April 22nd from 9AM to 4PM: Displays, gem sifting, competitions, lucky dip, food, drink and demonstrations.

Photo courtesey of selicula at stock.xchng.

Application Example for Home Education Registration in Queensland

2007-04-18T13:22:00.000+10:00

Our application for home education has been deemed appropriate as is and has been sent to the minister with a recommendation for full registration. When I started the application process I had no idea how to write it up. I found some helpful assistance through Beverly Paine's Getting Started with Home Schooling and I consumed home school blogs to get an idea of what others were doing.

What I really wanted was a real life example of a home education application to Queensland Education. Unable to source anything, I provided what I thought I would need when assessing the quality of an home educational program. Feedback from the Home Education unit was that while my application package was thorough, it was more than they required.

Our home school application package follows. I hope that it is of some use to other beginning home schoolers.

(A cover letter and the completed Queensland Home Education proforma preceded the following information)

Items 1 – 5. Completed on green application form that is attached to this document.

Item 6. Details of the Child’s Program

Educational Philosophy.

Education is a life long process.

Education is holistic with areas of environmental and self-care being as important as classical learning.

Teachable moments present themselves throughout the day and when capitalized upon offer enjoyable and non focused educational learning.

Home education is learning a variety of skills in many settings and in many ways.

Education is multi faceted and accessible from a variety of support people with an array of different educational backgrounds, areas of expertise and different views on life.

Natural learning occurs when a student is relaxed, happy and in an environment of safety.

We are co-learners rather than teachers. We facilitate a learning process and encourage empowerment by enabling the student to accept that we do not know everything, that our way is not the only way and that there is learning available to all of us by accessing community, individuals and institutions.

We recognize that by making the student the instructor at times, a wealth of knowledge will be gained for the student and a measurable increase in the students self esteem will become visible.

Any situation is a possible teachable moment. To seize the teachable moment and deliver it in a way that will capture the interest of the student, is a role that we take on as co-learners.

Just as there are different types of intelligence, there are different types of education. Our goal as home educators is to offer balance across areas of intelligence and educational frameworks.

A progression from knowledge reception to higher learning evaluation occurs when:educational material is presented in a palatable way designed to a student’s specific learning needs; when the learning environment is charged with a air of enquiry across all learning partners; and when the traditional focus moves from fact retainment to fact appreciation.

Short-term goals:
To set age and developmentally appropriate, monthly, rich task focused variables across each of the learning areas of English, Mathematics, SOSE, Science, HPE, Technology, Arts, and LOTE. For example: In four weeks time you will be able to talk, for five minutes, to a group of other people, on why rainforest trees have wide and thick leaves. Or, in four weeks time you will be able to write, spell check and publish your own 300 word blog about what you learnt by visiting the Aboriginal community of Yarrabah.

To develop an emotional toolbox for Boy to use at times when he is unsure of what is expected of him or his behaviour.

To reduce Boy’s anxiety and to increase his self esteem.

To reignite an interest in education as a worthwhile activity.

To increase Boy’s levels of educational attainment in reading, spelling and comprehension.

To put the fun and learning back into an educational process.

To develop a holistic educational program that covers personal and learning needs.

Long term goals:
For Boy to be able to learn in a classroom environment.

For Boy to be able to cope with and survive change.

For Boy to match his peers at traditionally accepted educational levels.

For Boy to be able to go back to a traditional school without experiencing constant Aspergers melt downs.

For Boy to have an appreciation of strategy, empathy and other people’s needs.

For Boy to have developed as a person, to have developed in his educational achievements and to have developed an understanding of how he learns best.

What is the broad education program and or learning philosophy you think you might be following?

Given that Boy responds well to a natural environment where there is no stress or over stimulus, we intend to combine elements of Natural learning (Holt) and Steiner with Maths curricula input from the Qld Syllabus and thematic projects based on Social Stories (Carol Gray).

Individualize the plan:

Our educational plan for Boy is based upon recommendations contained in the report from Minds and Hearts (specialist Aspergers clinic in Brisbane). This report is attached as Appendix 1.

It has been apparent for years that Boy struggles in a classroom environment and that relationships and friendships are difficult for him. A critique of our choice to not home educate has been a lack of social interaction. While we appreciate the concern of others, Boy’s disorder means that he views social interactions differently. He is unable to form friendships the way we do. Therefore, we intend to capitalize upon social activities that he already enjoys (Robotics club, Kendo and Laser Tag) and build some new ones into the home education program. Boy is keen to learn about gems so we will join the local Lapidary club as an alternative form of education and social interaction.

Boy struggles (hates) with reading, spelling and comprehension. Attending a busy, noisy library is difficult for Boy. As an author, I have professional access to the children’s librarian. I aim to request a private tour of the closed library and a one on one hands-on tutorial of searching, finding and checking out books. In return, I will offer a chapter read that Boy can also attend and give him a helping task on the day. Similarly, my access to other famous Australian authors (Margaret Clarke and Louisa Dent) can provide Boy with author information and contact that other children would never have access to. Margaret Clarke has sent me one of her latest books to reviews. Although it is focused at girl readers and contains scenes about incest, I will request Boy to provide email feedback to Margaret from a boy’s perspective.

While Boy enjoys and is average in Math, the textbooks create an over stimulus and melt down process in him. Even though we will base Math learning on the year level appropriate Math book, my partner (an accountant) will redesign the activities to make them appear effortless and non school focused. My partner will be responsible for imparting Math learning and will capitalize upon Boy’s natural penchant for computer learning. Textbook activities will be redesigned to encompass spreadsheets and analysis.

Boy does not like to write but loves to play on the computer. Therefore, we have purchased him a laptop for Christmas and he can word process all of his assignments, place photographs, and manipulate the presentation of said assignments.

Do you need to modify your child’s program?

Boy’s educational program is designed to fit his unique needs due to having Aspergers. Reading, spelling and comprehension will be based upon his current level of achievement rather than his educational year level. We have sought out spelling lists and work sheets for the Year 3 level and will master these words (100% accuracy) prior to moving onto more age appropriate word lists.

Teaching and Learning

We have all agreed upon home education occurring every morning from 9 to 12. I will be the principal educator and will draw in the expertise of others as required. My partner will educate in Math one day per week. The time frame has been achieved to create a boundary for Boy. He detests school to the point that he will be clock watching. Therefore, by attacking any formalized work sheet or projects during this time structure, we are then left with the evening to incorporate natural learning tenets into our family life. For example, cooking with Boy or watching a documentary on the plight of the Panda, will be reported upon but he will have no idea that it is part of his school day.

We have turned our dining room into a home education area. In the afternoons, I will work from home and Boy will have free time to pursue his computer games.

Boy has been granted two hours per week Youth Worker hours through the Early Intervention Service. The Youth Worker will be addressing anger management, social skills and recreational activities. These two hours will become a home education session and will occur on a set morning, once a week.

The many excursions that we have planned will occur at the time-frames of our accommodating friends (e.g. the environmental scientist field trip mentioned earlier). These will not be framed as educational activities to Boy, but rather, as privileges that we are all lucky to have. These privileges will be solid learning but will be in addition to our nominated educational hours.

Excursions connected to the rich task learning will occur during our nominated school times. For example, if we are studying reef fish, a trip to the reef and a glass bottom boat trip would be considered as a home school activity. Therefore, the allocated learning time for that day would be taken up by the excursion.

Once a month, if the rich tasks have been met, Boy will be rewarded with a local trip of his choice. This may be a session at Go Carts or Cable Skiing (both of which offer valuable learning) and will be outside of nominated home education hours.

We are fortunate to have a number of friends who are educators and curriculum development specialists. Although we have not yet needed assistance from these people, they have offered objective advise or guidance should we require it.

Learning areas covered:

See The Home School Year Planner

Assessment and Reporting

Boy’s progression will be measured initially against his willingness to school. Once we have a variety of worksheets to use as a platform, progression will be measured against his own work achievements.

Checklists on a number of web sites have been used as a guide to establish where Boy’s peers would be learning at. While these checklists remain as a check only, they also provide us with a goal to work toward progression and higher learning.

We will be having monthly tests: a mixed bag of Boy reporting on what he has done and learned. Rewards for reaching 50, 60, 70 80, 90 and 100% will be metered out at the end of the test. One hundred percent correct answers will result in an overnight visit to a place of Boy’s choice (the first one of choice is a trip to Charters Towers to do some gold panning).

We started a home schooling blog (http://homeschoolingaspergers.blogspot.com/) when we first decided to home school Boy (Nov, 2006). The blog acts as both our home school diary and our reporting mechanism. The public nature of the blog ensures transparency and a call for help/participation with other home schoolers. Sample blog entries and articles done by Boy are attached as Appendix 2

During November and December of 2007, we home schooled Boy two days per week. During the school holidays, we encouraged a culture of enquiry by treating every outing as a teachable moment. These were all recorded on the blog. Since we formally began our process of home education on January 29, 2007, every school day and home education related activities have been recorded on the blog.

Copies of all worksheets completed are kept in our filing cabinet. Similarly, writing, book lists, spelling, and art work is photographed and, where possible, kept on file.

Social Skills and Extra Curricula activities

Boy already attends Robotics Club, Kendo and Laser Tag. These activities will continue throughout 2007. He also has an adult mentor through Cairns Youth Mentoring Service. He meets with this person fortnightly and they work on computer game strategies and other activities of interest (bowling, fishing).

Boy is currently attending a youth group through the Early Intervention Service. This group runs for seven weeks and concentrates on challenging behaviours, self esteem and anger management. Their flier is attached as appendix 3. Further, the youth worker plan from Early Intervention Service is also attached as Appendix 4.

Teaching Resources:

Internet and free worksheets are used to maximum degree. I have paid to join Teaching Treasures and buy worksheets that are suited to our thematic study units.

Human resources are heavily utilized to make learning fun and for specialist knowledge and material not readily available in stores.

Math follows “Go Math” level 6.

Our home schooling blog lists the resource sites that we use most regularly:
Sites we like and use frequently
A to Z Home's Cool Homeschooling Web Site
Assessment Learning
Beverley Paine's Homeschool Australia.
Home Schooling Information
Homeschool Australia Blog
Ragamuffin Studies
Sculpey (clay)
Wrong Planet (The online resource and Community for those with Asperger's Syndrome)

Learning Environment:

Boy lives in a home where education is valued. Both my partner and I have tertiary degrees and I teach part time at University. Our social networks are highly motivated and intelligent people with a range of specialist expertise. My mother, a frequent home school support, is a retired social worker and my brother has several degrees (Education, Anthropology, Archeology and has just exited the S.A.S).

Boy has his own office space, laptop with broadband and network to a colour laser printer.

One wall of our lounge room is dedicated as a “grouse” wall: anything of value to any family member can be placed on this wall. This is the nominated place of display for Boy’s home education projects and learning hints.

Given the natural beauty of the area we reside in, we are concentrating heavily on natural learning tenets and visit places of educational worth regularly (Great Barrier Reef, rainforest, wind farms, etc).

Context and process:

Boy has Aspergers (Pediatric assessment attached as Appendix 5). Although he is very bright, he appears to be unable to learn the way other children do. Our intention is to deliver education in a way that best suits him. He shows a preference for retaining information delivered in a natural and non-educative way. Samples of his very recent work at home are attached as Appendix6.

Boy values one on one, adult relationships and will naturally gravitate toward a person who offers him respect and information. For example, at a recent dinner party, Boy gravitated toward a male guest who holds a PhD in geology. Boy is a keen rock collector and he shared his collection with our guest. Boy and the guest spent the evening discussing how the different types of rock, minerals and gems were formed, where they are found, and what conditions are present for them to develop. Boy has retained all of this information and is able to repeat it to us.

We are fortunate to have a host of intelligent and generous friends who are considered expert in their field. It is our intention to use our friendships to assist in educating Boy. This has been discussed with many of those friends and plans have begun to include Boy and his particular needs into field trips, farm visits and visiting workshops. For example, we have already arranged with a senior environmental scientist for Boy to attend their next field trip to assist them in counting and identifying bugs. Boy is excited by this and has not yet made the connection between it being a home education exercise.

Obsessions are typical for people with Aspergers. Boy becomes obsessional over things that he enjoys. We aim to create a flexible home education program that will allow us to naturally work through his obsessions. The monthly rich task focused criteria will guide the learning to ensure that Boy’s obsession stays focused and functional.

Boy has poor personal hygiene and a good deal of the first terms focus will be on ensuring the visual cues for teeth cleaning, hair washing, changing clothes, etc. The Aspergers clinic in Brisbane has supplied several ideas on how to achieve improved personal hygiene and we will build these into our school day.

Should you require any further evidence or material from us, please don not hesitate to contact.

We look forward to entering into a learning partnership with you.

Megan Bayliss (BSW, Dip SOC, MAASW)

Youth Week 2007 Met Home School Goals

2007-04-18T09:57:00.000+10:00

Home school activities that help others and raise the profile of young people and their unique needs and culture:

Boy participated in some voluntary work and free workshops for Youth Week 2007. As a youth helper, Boy attended a signage workshop and helped to paint signs for the Youth Week celebrations. He loved it. He contributed toward signs for Body Painting (painted inside the scripted letters), Clay work and Drama.

Major bonus for Boy was actually attending and participating in learning workshops on Drama and body painting. Other participants showed a good deal of interest in Boy being home schooled and how his involvement in the workshops counted toward home school hours. Boy appeared to proudly share the knowledge he had about youth issues and how making a few changes to his life has greatly helped him (Boy has Aspergers).

Evidence of meeting two of our short term goals for home school was delivered when I was least expecting it. Boy was invited to speak publicly about his involvement in the Youth Week activities. He took the microphone and told the audience how much fun he had had. His self esteem healthy and his sense of self comfortable, Boy unknowingly has met the following two goals, without connecting that his fun days were school work related:

· To reduce Boy’s anxiety and to increase his self esteem.
· To reignite an interest in education as a worthwhile activity.

I LOVE home schooling for my child with Aspergers. Youth Week provided us a platform of measurement to observe how significantly Boy has improved since our decision to home school.

Why I Hate School (written by an 11 year old boy)

2007-04-18T09:01:00.000+10:00

I hate school because it is so BORING. You only get one hour to your self at school and five hours of work. The libraries just have books on history and junk that kids don’t like.

The teachers are mean and only want you to do what they say. All the work has to be right and perfect. I think you are not a normal kid if you like school.

Home school is the same but my teacher isn’t the same as other teachers. She’s not so mean, just a dragon. The books are better at home because the dragon teacher lets me read things that I like: MAD comics, K-Zone, D-Mags and a whole lot of other fun magazines. I also get to use the Internet for school work and get to look for things I like to know about, example, jokes and pranks, science experiments and anything to do with World of War Craft and Rune Scape.

By Boy, age 11, grade 6.

This article is posted by Boy's mother - the dragon home school teacher! Boy's writing assignment today was to write more than six sentences on why he hates school. As he sat and wrote, he asked me how to spell words. This was an achievement because he generally hands me his work full of spelling mistakes.

Well done Boy. You may hate school but thank you for your efforts in learning and producing results of that learning. Now go and play before I breath my fire on you.

Norfolk Island - How it Became Populated.

2007-04-12T12:13:00.000+10:00

We have just returned from our honeymoon on Norfolk Island. A living museum and a refuge from the worlds cruel abuse of itself, Norfolk Island is a place we will now travel to every year. We have spent hours telling our home schooled son about the marvels of the island. Interested in how people first came to discover Norfolk Island, I have written our conversations up so that you can use them as a Norfolk Island information plan.

How Norfolk Island Became Populated.

Norfolk Island is a tiny South Pacific Island, halfway between New Zealand and New Caledonia. Green, hilly and a long way from anywhere, it takes two and a half hours in a plane from Brisbane or Sydney (Australia) and one and a half hours from New Zealand.

Beautiful, unspoilt and organic, Norfolk Island is an extinct volcano. It is the only above ocean part of a rocky ridge that runs from New Zealand to New Caledonia. Where the rocky ridge rises majestically from the ocean, golden sand has congregated around some edges. Where there is no sand, the island edge is instead dimpled with rock pools of azure blue. Wherever you are on the island and wherever you look, Norfolk Island provides amazing views of either unspoilt coastlines and never ending blue, blue, blue ocean or green forested rolling hills, guarded by majestic and tall Norfolk Pines.

Norfolk Island is its own country. You need a passport and visa to go there and they have their own Island rules and regulations. Their government is made up of only nine politicians who work in a magnificent old building made by convicts.

Norfolk Island had three beginnings at becoming populated:

The first settlement (1788-1814). Although discovered by Captain James Cook on his second voyage in 1774, there weren't any people around to live on the island until 1788. England had banished their convicts to a hard life in Australia and as soon as they all arrived, the English masters were keen to get their hands on the other beautiful little Island that Captain Cookie boy had described as "paradise". Cook had noted in his ships log that Norfolk Island was covered with tall pine trees (Norfolk pines) with plenty of flax that looked as thought they would make good masts for ships and sails. A small party of convicts and mean guards were sent immediately to claim the Island and to collect food to send back to the starving new colony at Botany Bay Australia.

Bad luck for the English: the Norfolk Pines were unsuitable for ships and there was little food to feed the starving convicts and officers in charge of them. After killing off all the birds for food, the English decided to not only abandon the island but to destroy all the strong stone buildings that the convicts had made. The English did not want to make it easy for anyone else to claim the island, especially the French. By 1814, the English had taken all of the convicts back to Australia and the island had only broken remains of buildings. The English bashed and raided the island and left her bleeding and alone, spoilt so that nobody else would want her.

The second settlement (1826-1856). Imagine if after the first sad start and end of Norfolk Island that things got better. Unfortunately, things got worse. In 1826, The English settlers of the penal colony in Australia needed somewhere to send the worst of the worst convicts. Already sent away from their families by being banished to Australia, the English governors punished the convicts a second time by sending them to Norfolk Island. This time there was nothing nice; no semi freedom for the convicts. The conditions were harsh beyond belief and the lives of the convicts meant nothing. There was no plan for the convicts to ever return to the mainland of Australia and nobody cared about them. They starved, drowned as they worked, or died from disease of filthy conditions. They slaved in chains to build magnificent stone buildings (the stone was quarried from under the ocean) but never got the opportunity to enjoy seeing what they had built. The conditions, suffering and cruelty they endured caused an outcry from people who cared about human life and the Norfolk penal settlement was again abandoned. The few surviving convicts were sent to Tasmania and the island again sat alone and uninhabited. During this second settlement, Norfolk Island was referred to as "Hell in the Pacific."
The third settlement (June 8, 1856). The British Government declared Norfolk Island as an independent settlement and allowed the descendants of the Bounty mutineers to move to the island. Embarrassed by these people and their ties to a mutiny against the British Navy, England didn't know what to do with them. The mutineers had settled on Pitcairn island (they married Island women and had many babies), but the island was so small that it could no longer support them all. Norfolk was uninhabited, was viewed by the English as unworkable, and so the descendants of the Mutiny on the Bounty were granted the right to settle there.

In the loving hands of these people from Pitcairn Island, people who understood the precious balance of nature and island life, Norfolk Island has risen from it's gory and sad history to become a safe and jeweled island paradise. Nowadays, Norfolk Island has approximately 2000 people living on her. These people take very good care of her and protect her from misuse, disease and over population.

Norfolk Island has the second cleanest air in the world. The cleanest air is in Antarctica but its a little too cold to live there! Norfolk Island has no snakes or poisonous spiders and is a safe and healthy haven for children to explore. No fruit or vegetables are allowed to be imported onto the island so that the island's disease free status can be maintained.

The biggest pest on the island is the feral chickens (chooks). They roam where they want, digging up people's vegetable gardens and making havoc in flower gardens. Nobody seems to like the wild chooks and everybody would like them gone.

Because the island is so small (8km by 5km), the government has to be careful about how many people live there and how many tourists can visit. The island is an interactive museum. You don't just see and hear about history on Norfolk Island, you live it, walk on it, touch it. Too many visitors would destroy the natural beauty and living history of the island.

Norfolk Island has become our new family holiday place. We will go there every year because it is beautiful, safe and healthy. Living with the Australian history of the island also makes a visit to the island an educational experience that no other place can match.

If you'd like to visit Norfolk Island you can fly there with either Qantas or Air New Zealand. Start saving your pocket money. Not only is it a beautiful place to visit, it also boasts having the cheapest Lego in the world. Cool!

Just Married

2007-04-11T04:55:00.000+10:00

We celebrated our wedding in the rainforest on March 31. The day was perfect. The weather held, the guests all enjoyed themselves and in the words of an eleven year old to her mother as we began our wedding waltz straight from a Pulp Fiction scene,

"This wedding is wicked."

For all of Boy's Aspergic difficulties around coping with change and being surrounded by too many people, he did exceedingly well.

Our vows were a tear jerker for both of us and our friends and family shed tears at Boy's and Paul's displays of affection to each other.

Our Honeymoon on Norfolk Island was divine. We fully intend to take Boy back to the island as a living history trip and home school excursion. As I impart the historical and botanical highlights to Boy over the next few days, I will share the information and photos in posts.

In a nut shell, our wedding in the rainforest was beautiful and will remain a special and happy memory for all of us.

Snap That - Take a Photograph it Lasts Longer.

2007-03-25T14:19:00.000+10:00

A funny thing happened last night. I was whitening my teeth and Boy kept asking me questions about how it worked. Muted by the mouth guard, I attempted sign communication. Unable to decipher my sign language (I feel another home school activity brewing around this), I gave Boy the instruction manual and pointed to the relevant sections.

Boy read aloud like he had completed a master class in reading. He attempted words he had not come upon before and got all but one correct. The whitening treatment took 30 minutes. During this time Boy oscillated between reading and teasing me with the camera as he threatened to take photos to show people how ugly I am when I'm trying to make myself pretty!!!

And speaking of cameras: In my search for helping Boy progress in his learning maturity I came upon a photographic idea from Aussie Home Education: How, What, When, Where, Why? (Check out their other photographic lesson plans too on their website). They advocate a photographic hunt ending in pictorial representation of the concepts How, What, When, Where and Why. They suggest arming the student with a camera and sending them out to snap answers to questions such as: How do you do it? What next? When did it occur? Where did it happen? Why is it this way?

Snap. I'm going to use it this week with Boy. It is brilliant and fits in nicely with my struggle to get Boy to write movie reviews. Busy with last minute wedding organisation, the in-laws will be helping Boy with his school work. However, Boy is as much out of routine as I am. He won't want to do boring stuff while I'm out doing exciting stuff. The idea of giving him a camera and sending him off with the step grandparents appeals to me. Boy loves to use my camera so this has got to be a win/win home school project. He can do a review on what they did in my absence. Displaying the project on the wall is going to enhance the learning and make sure that the higher learning and understanding of difficult concepts last longer and becomes integrated.

Reviews: In preparation for our crazy week, I hit the video store and got five space and war documentaries for Boy to watch with the step Grandies. Boy is fairly knowledgeable around the Vietnam war (my father was a career soldier and did three tours of Vietnam) and he is looking forward to educating step Pop around the types of Guns used during the conflict. This positive anticipation that Boy is displaying is music to our ears. One of our short term goals was for Boy to like learning and to want to learn. We are well on the way to achieving our goal: even if it has occurred as a result of wedding madness.

And the wedding: this Saturday we are getting married at the bottom of a beautiful waterfall, surrounded by rainforest and the people we love. We are going away for a honeymoon and family is coming to look after Boy.

From now until after Easter my home school diary blog is going to be sporadic. This does not mean that Boy is not learning or involved in educational pursuits. Instead, it means that mother is too busy or without Internet.

No matter how busy I am, Boy still has to do the dreaded spelling words every morning with the step Grandie there to encourage and correct. This week the list of words has come straight from Education Queensland's list for grade seven children: teeth, cascade, waterfall, adventure, different, Easter, explain, moment, yesterday and suddenly

Take care, stay safe and I'll see you all on my return (or on those times where I sneak some time at my beloved computer).

Photo is Boy's big sister filming me as I snapped her.

How to Make an Australian Wedding Quilt

2007-03-24T08:40:00.000+10:00

A teachable moment has presented itself in my desire to make a wedding quilt. Not being a quilter myself (how I am longing for my retirement so I have time to learn) I have asked my quilting in laws to quilt up our wedding squares. On our wedding blog I have posted my plea:

I have decided that I rather fancy a wedding quilt. If you're up for it, I would like a decorated square from each of our wedding guests that will be sewn into a wedding quilt card for our marriage bed.

So, for all you crafty men and women...don't buy us a Hallmark card. Instead, a six and a half inch by six and a half inch cotton square, embroidered, beaded on or indelible penned upon will make a precious, treasured and most personal quilted wedding card from you. Alternatively, a knitted or crocheted square of the same proportions would fit the bill...as long as it's made by you.

I know that some of you are inherently craftless so I'll take some squares of cotton and indelible pens to the wedding in the rainforest. Please, upon these squares, write us your message and help us to create a lasting memento of our wedding in the rainforest.

I've started my square and it will take pride of place in the centre of the quilt. Beautiful fillet crochet in fine white silken thread, it will read, "Make the bed yourself." Just joking, I would never say anything like that!

If you want some hints on what I hope to achieve by sewing a combined wedding quilt, re watch "How to make an American quilt" (Winona Ryder, 1995). It's one of my favorite chick flicks and I intend to pull up a whole therapy around life story quilting by the time I die.

While matching my cotton squares to cotton thread, Boy became interested in what quilting is.
"Can I make one too," he asked.
"Of course you can. You can draw, write, crochet or I could teach you some stitches," I lied while I thought that kids and quilting just wouldn't go together.
"Can I do a bit of each on one square?"

Boy's enthusiasm and seriousness was real. I have tried to teach him to crochet on many occasions. He makes long snakes and ties everything in the lounge room together: a trap for us to become ambushed in. He likes sewing because he can terrorise us all by sticking the needle in us. The thought of sitting with Boy while he makes a square for the wedding quilt fills me with dread, BUT, I cannot pass this teachable moment up.

Today (Saturday, a traditional non school day) I will teach Boy Blanket and Daisy Chain stitch. I will show him how to sew one of his long coloured snakes into a circular pattern - a snail perhaps. I will let him choose whether he wishes to draw with indelible pen or fabric paint. I will encourage Boy to produce a square that will have pride of place in our wedding quilt and when I pull our quilt over us, I hope to have his square nearest my heart.

From Aspergers obsessions about guns and World of Warcraft to learning how to make a square for a quilt: teachable moments are everywhere when we adults open our eyes and allow learning to be a 24 hour per day job. I must admit, I had never considered quilting as a home school project. How badly I need educating!

Photo courtesy of SXC Photo Exchange.

Wedding Reading, Spelling and Craft...or Math...NO DANCING!

2007-03-23T09:00:00.000+10:00

Today’s home school readings are:

Navajo Indian Blessing.

Now you have lit a fire and that fire should not go out.

The new fire represents a new beginning,

A new life and a new family.

The fire should keep burning;

You should stay together.

You have lit the fire for life,

Until old age separates you.

The Dragon and the Knight by Michael Leunig

Once there was a damsel in distress.

She had become a bit of a dragon and it was consuming her.

A knight in shining armour confronted the damsel, and, seeing her reflection in his shiny breastplate, she realised what a dragon she had become, and she didn't like it.

In earnest she set about getting the dragon where it belonged and making sense of it.

"You have saved me", she cried, "Take off your armour that I may kiss you in gratitude".

"The removal of armour requires assistance", responded the knight.

So, together they removed the heavy armour and the damsel embraced him warmly.

The knight had never been so warmly touched. He felt immense relief.

He felt lighter; less weary; more free.

"That's how I feel too!" cried the damsel joyfully, and after some healthy, passionate kisses they had some healthy, passionate children.

They kept the dragon and the armour, which were useful from time to time; and generally speaking, in their own funny way, they lived quite happily ever after.

Today’s spelling netted a return of 90%:

Saturday
Wedding
Congratulations (this is the only one he got wrong)
Thirty-first
March
Bucks
Best man
Present
Vow
Marriage

Yes, today we are in full on wedding practice mode. Boy is in a FOUL mood and a melt down looms over our house like a Charlie Brown cloud of doom. We managed a single Kinetic Education unit on rhyming but Boy was solemn, fuming and disinterested.

I asked Boy if he’d like to help me finish some of the wedding crafts. Oh dear, you’d swear I’d said witch craft to the most devout religious. So, I’m sitting here being a good mother and trying to quietly remove the wedding stress associated with things being different; out of routine. Boy is not coping so well today and I am wondering what I can do to lift his mood.

He suggested that I go away and leave him alone. You know, I might just do that. When step dad gets back, I think it might be time for me to take a walk and smell the roses. Between home school, teaching at uni, running my business and organizing this wedding, I have had almost zilch time for me.

Mother in law is coming down for two days next week to do home school with boy while I go and do the girl things (hair cut, eyebrows, etc). Boy firmly stated that he DOES NOT want to come with me to “stupid girl appointments”. He'd rather dance and he hates dancing. I so can’t wait for him to realise that not coming and helping equates to doing school work while I play!!!

Best of all, I’ve arranged a mini working party to come and help me finish the wedding favours. Boy is just not interested in making platypus for art and crafts anymore so while we roll and mould the clay, Boy is going to have to do some math. Big brother (22) is coming for the wedding and big brother is stricter than I am with Boy’s learning. Boy is going to have to show big brother the evidence of home school learning. No work will equate to no fishing with the beloved big brother. Yip Yah! Calling in the support troops is the best thing I’ve done in a while.

Eight sleeps to go until our wedding in the rainforest.

Photo 1 is of Boy dancing at his sister's wedding.

Photo 2, "Congratulations" courtesy of remind at stock.xchng

Aspergers, Isolation and Support.

2007-03-22T07:50:00.000+10:00

Is Aspergers isolating for families? I hear daily from people with children or relatives who have Aspergers. It seems that for many, the condition isolates the majority of family members, even extended ones. This has piqued my curiosity and I smell some research coming on.

One thing I have really noticed is the frequently desperate voice of people caring for Aspergers kids. Desperate for information and support, the carers seek comfort in chatting with others who understand the dynamics of a home where Aspergers social skills take dominance.

There are plenty of academic, text and parenting books around about Aspergers but I have not found a single book containing the multiple voices of non-aspergers family members affected by the meltdowns and impaired social skills of the person with Aspergers: a support group book if you like.

How do you cope with friends who label your Aspergers family member as naughty, rude or lazy? What is it like in your family when the meltdowns last for hours? How do you recover from the obsessions, anxiety or isolation when your Aspergers loved one refuses to leave the house? These are questions I receive from readers who are just beginning the Aspergers paved road leading toward having a different life.

At times, I have used creative and formal writing as my sanity sanctuary (Parenting a child with Asperger's Syndrome and Living with Autism). At other times I ring my partner and vent on him (he doesn’t want to come home then!!). I research, read and seek out different strategies of coping. I reframe my child’s behaviour and accept that this is our family life: different and focused on preparing our son for a life where he will always be viewed as a little strange. The best thing has been the contacts with others throughout the world who are going through similar situations as us. Hearing of their life, their difficulties, their ways of coping and adjusting has given me strength. I owe an enormous amount of gratitude to Elisheva at Ragamuffin Studies: she came into my blogosphere life on a day where I wondered if I’d make it through without going stark raving mad. Talking with another adult who instantly recognised the challenges of Aspergers parenting and home schooling has cemented a friendship that I hope will eventuate in meeting face to face.

I value and appreciate those people that contact and tell me of their journeys. We have rich material that can help each other and I would love to see someone collect our data and turn it into a support handbook for other parents of children with Aspergers.

Is Asperegrs isolating for your family? Would reading a book about the experiences of others be helpful?

What is Algebra? Can I wear it with my Wedding Dress?

2007-03-21T16:34:00.000+10:00

Wednesday is Math day (aka Mum's day of teaching at Uni). Step father came home to teach Boy and I asked them to do the excel spreadsheet of family worries Boy and I have already classified into sections on the worry tree.

I came home from uni to find a very happy Boy and step father. "He worked solidly," step-father announced. "Scored over 75% on the five Kinetic units on Algebra". Algebra??? "What's that, in relation to our current Math plan?" I wondered aloud trying to keep abreast of Boy's learning. I thought they were doing the worry analysis.

Step-father claims he forgot (now that's a worry!!) they had to complete a task started by us last week, but, oh well, Boy worked well anyway. "Algie-bra is cool," he intonated in a very bad sexy sounding accent of what I know not.

I asked Boy what Algebra was. My reply was "A= B2". I guess in his Aspergic way, he answered my question. Further, I dared to ask for evidence of learning right in the middle of a World of Warcraft raid. How inconsiderate I can be sometimes. Step father (an accountant) gave me a much more informed answer but I still googled it to sate my curiosity and because Google doesn't bung on that pretend sexy accent.

Algebra is a branch of mathematics that uses mathematical statements to describe relationships between things that vary over time. I wonder what the algebraic equation would be for the pre wedding relationships in our house at the moment? How much fun would it be to have access to that drop dead adorable Math guru from the television serial Numb3rs. I could give him our problem situation (household is out of kilter because we are about to have a major event) and see what math equations and theories he uses to describe why and how we're all going to get back to normal in 12 days time.

In Crime and Computation, Rhonda Hillbery states, "Leave it to television to work out a way to make a national symbol of nerdiness—mathematics—into something sexy". I had to laugh when I read this because my first reaction this afternoon to the word Algebra was, "Okay, strapless bra, U bra, algebra". Oh dear, (I am again laughing aloud) how normal we will all be when this wedding is over and done with.

Win a Children's Book about Protective Behaviours

2007-03-21T09:19:00.000+10:00

Here's a competition that may interest some of you home schoolers:

WIN a Children’s Chapter Book (Bitss of Caramel Marmalade on Toast) for Yourself and Your Local Library

I can't enter the competition because I wrote the book and I'm one of the competition judges.

Bitss of Caramel Marmalade on Toast is a children's book about body ownership and protective behaviours. In our house, child safety, particularly protection from sexual predators, is considered very important. In Queensland, Australia, Protective Behaviours are embedded into the curricula, across all key learning areas. In our home school program we include child safety learning in Health and Physical Education and Studies of Society and Environment.

Using emotional intelligence as a start point, we focus on feelings and intuition as early warning signs of danger. All my kids are trained to listen to their early warning signs and to go to someone they trust and discuss why they are feeling the way they are.

Here's some examples of how we play games to teach about personal safety:

Say No to Hang Man.

A Protective Play Tutorial for Grandparents.

A Mime of Early Warning Information.

Chatterbox Play: A Touching Experience.

Good Touch Bad Touch

Why not write up a lesson plan on staying safe from child sexual predators. Enter it into the competition, and, you could even use it as your blog entry for Blog Against Sexual Violence Day on 5 April 2007.

Stress Balls, Fires and Lapidary Classes.

2007-03-20T15:49:00.000+10:00

Lapidary classes started today. My little gem of a child started his soap stone carving project (pictured) and drove me to distraction in the process. Talk about Aspergic obsessions and anxiety coming out…they were fully alive and thriving today.

Due to his young age, Boy cannot do the jewelry making classes just yet. Disappointed, he wanted to begin carving so that he could move straight into making a gem tree (pictured below). After spending the morning with all the gem cutters and receiving tidbits of information and advice, they sent us off to purchase the required tools. Me in a tool shop is like me pretending I hate chocolate – the two just don’t gel. However, after selecting a basket full of stone carving goodies from the local hardware store, I encouraged Boy to remain patient and to come and briefly look at the packaging section with me. His gratification quickly reaching immediate on the “when to begin the project” scale, he agreed to allow me 10 minutes browsing.

There we were, in the aisle, keeping our distance from each other lest one of us explode when the fire alarm went off (wasn’t us, I promise). Staff scurried toward us asking us to leave the building immediately. “Cool,” I thought. “Evacuation means going home. I can dump the basket full of $180.00 worth of tools and step-father can bring Boy back when the fire has been dealt with.”

Boy was not leaving without his tools. Let’s just say that I am now exhausted and possibly banned from the store, Boy is OVER stimulated and the soap stone we got this morning has already been filed away to nothing. Boy has also asked 1,000,000,000 times whether our fire alarms work. AAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, how hard is it trying to balance Aspergers obsessions with real fire danger. Those firefighters just should have listened to Boy’s fire assessment: low risk, now let me take my tools.

The fire incident has encouraged me to organize a home school excursion to our local fire station. Even though we’ve had a bad day, at least an idea for another educational experience has come from it.

Boy made some cute stress balls at youth group yesterday afternoon. I’ve seen them at markets and wondered how to make them. Simple, simple, simple, Boy has assured me. You just need dough, sand or birdseed, a pair of scissors and lots of balloons. Boy was supposed to write up the instructions for me as a writing project for today but he is far too busy on the back verandah happily grinding stone into talc. Instead, here’s some instructions for Squishy Balloon Balls from Craft Bits.

Now, where did he put those stress balls, I need to go squeeze them because there’s only 11 sleeps left until our wedding.

Carnival of Family Life

2007-03-19T19:20:00.000+10:00

The 46th edition of the Carnival of Family Life is up at Digital Rich Daily. Take some time to poke around and check out all the great family-related posts (many from home schoolers) The site took a while to load on my machine but the wait was worth it. Everyone came running to find out why Mum was playing music on her work computer! Would have been a great marketing ploy if I was marketing for the Carnival of Family Life.

Only 12 sleeps to go until our wedding. Don't have to run a competition for everyone to know that I'm stressed! My partner is away on business twice between now and then and my wedding dress still isn't altered yet. Family life....I so want to just go to bed and wake up in time for the ceremony!!!!!

Marriage: A Gem of a Spelling Word

2007-03-19T14:34:00.000+10:00

Spelling this week concentrates around everything associated with weddings (only 13 sleeps to go): Saturday, wedding, congratulations, thirty-first, March, bucks, best man, present, vow, marriage. Boy amazed me by getting eight out of ten on first testing. Being the original doubting Thomas, I went and checked the words against our states suggested spelling words for years three to seven. Week days, months and numbers were all there and I assessed that the types of words I today presented to Boy were equal matches for other words on the state public school list. While Boy did exceedingly well (he is definitely improving in this area), I also think I need a merit sticker because boy tested me for “marriage” and I finally got it right. What a gem I am. Do you think I can usually get the “i” and “a” around the right way!!! Marriage is one of those words that I have perpetual difficulty remembering the order of letters. Boy made a rude comment about it being no wonder my previous marriage went wrong. I chose to ignore him and we moved onto…..

English. Boy completed another three low level Kinetic units. Once again, he got 100% correctness but he sought constant approval from me. This need for approval encouraged me to relook at applying Blooms taxonomy of cognitive processes in relation to the instructive words that I give to Boy. Whereas I tend to use words that fall under the classification of Application or Analysis, Boy is still operating at Knowledge with the occasional foray into Comprehension. I have to learn that for English, I must present the learning to Boy as though he is seven, not eleven.

Math: I made the mistake of doing English before Math. Boy was on edge, cranky and horrible to sit beside. His strong subject, he would only entertain completing one unit of Kinetic Math because he had “done more than enough” (his words) and school sux. Note to self: NEVER do English first up.

Worry Survey: The extended family have been sending their worries in. Boy and I printed, and sorted them this morning. Unfortunately, our worry tree became too weighed down with the worries of our family upon it, and we have had to move to container based sorting. This in itself was advantageous because I was able to explain the worth of having a data collection and methodology that remains standard so that bits of information do not become lost, distorted or influenced by other factors. I talked a bit about the research I have done and how his attendance at a day care centre led toward me researching parental views and then publishing some educational material to help parents teach their children about protective behaviours. It is this very real application of learning that Boy relates well to. If he thought that surveys were something that he would never use then he may be reluctant to embrace the activity.

Health and Physical Education: Monday is youth group day (self esteem and anger management). While Boy was otherwise engaged, I was looking forward to having a couple of hours to myself to make hair and waxing appointments but alas, my family is revolting. The cupboards are bare, children are starving and I have to go grocery shopping. I am resigned to looking like myself on my wedding day!

Extra Curricula Activity becomes Inter Curricula: Boy and stepfather hung out at our local lapidary club over the weekend. We are joining as a family and Boy is going to attend two hour classes every Tuesday morning – starting tomorrow. Boy’s first project is to carve soft stone. Excited by this, he is going to be ecstatic when he sees the wedding present we have him: a box of gemstones. And to my family who I know are reading these entries to become familiar with our home school program for when they are staying here with Boy while we’re on our honeymoon – tell him and you’ll wish you hadn’t!

Photo (Heart of glass) courtesy of noohoo at stock.xchng

Boy Shaved for a Cure - Right Before the Wedding

2007-03-17T12:08:00.000+10:00

Boy wanted to Shave for a Cure to raise funds for people with Leukaemia. A family that fully supports our children developing social awareness and empathy toward others, we supported his desire to be brave and shave. Boy wanted to raise $1,000.00 for kids with Leukaemia and by yesterday afternoon he had already raised $170.00 from family and friends who happily sponsored him to lose his hair. I wasn't too worried about the difference between $170.00 and $1000.00 because there were still a few weeks worth of fund raising to go.

By the time I realized (last night) that the public shaves occurred today, just 2 weeks before our wedding, it was far too late to pull out. I suggested that Boy perhaps have his shave at our reception and we hit all our wedding guests up for a donation to the Leukaemia Foundation.

"No way," he and step-father appealed. "It's tomorrow and that's it. At least everyone at the wedding will remember how brave Boy is and how kids can help sick people. It'll be good motivation for others to help."

I swallowed my nervousness around having a prickly headed ring bearer and sent the boys off to do their thing. Here's the results:

Before

During

The Worry Tree and Mother's Other Worries.

2007-03-16T12:43:00.000+10:00

After a worrisome start to the day (Boy awoke in bad mood) we’ve had a great day of learning.

Following up on our Worry Survey Project that we began yesterday, Boy and I created a Worry tree (pictured) and stapled our immediate family worries under the headings of; All the time, A lot, Sometimes, and Not very much. The idea is to help Boy group the data and to begin to look for trends. Without doing any computer-based analysis we can already see that we are a family that worries a lot because there are more worries under that heading than the others.

His interest piqued, we sent email worry surveys to our extended family. They have all agreed to participate in a wider family survey so that Boy has some experience in sample size affecting analysis. Stepfather is going to show Boy how to enter and analyze data in excel. What a great way to learn Math and Information Technology.

Even better still, Boy is very interested to find out what other home schooled kids throughout the world worry about. We have posted the survey here and we would appreciate other home schooled kids sharing their worries to help Boy get a grip on surveys as a real life research project. The idea for this came from a Behind the News survey on What Australian Children Worry About.

Spelling: Boy aced his Friday spelling test with 100% correct. Celebrations all round. Boy has put extra effort into his spelling this week because he wanted to prove that he could get them all right at the same time. Every Monday I make a list of ten new words and we use the list for the week. Every morning Boy is tested on the words he got wrong the day previously. On Friday, he gets tested on the entire list. It appears to be working well. Friday also brings a financial bonus for Boy. I sit with a pile of ten 20 cent pieces beside me and Boy gets 20 cents per word correct. Today is the first day where he has ever walked away from a spelling test with $2.00.

Math: Using the Kinetic Education computer program we have just installed, Boy did three Math units on measurement and got 100% for each one. He rather likes the practice games and would have preferred to spend his entire time playing them, but…when Boy does a Kinetic unit we have access to telephone tutors (if needed) who can log in and see: his score, the types of questions he got wrong, what themes are arising in the mistakes and how long he is taking to complete a unit. I Love it and Boy is aware that he needs to both beat his previous score and time. Best of all the program is based on the state curriculum and comes with a money back guarantee if your child does not improve after spending half an hour, three times a week, completing units. Designed by educators and psychologists, I am very impressed with the program.

English is not Boy’s strong point. We have started him on Kinetic Grade level English below his age and my aim is to get an idea of where he’s at so that I can design a specific “Boy” program to help bring him up to speed so that he can embrace Kinetic's English units rather than shy away from them. Once again, he preferred to play the games. He has fallen in love with hangman but seems to like the clicking rather than actually having an educated guess at what the word might be. After much encouragement (aka Mum biting her tongue) he moved into a Kinetic unit on matching words to an incomplete sentence. While he got 100%, he was unsure and did not want me wandering away to make coffee. His self-esteem around English is very low and I’m not convinced that working to curricula is going to improve his ability. Yesterday, when we read the poem about drought, he read well, confidently and even managed some rhythm. This was because it was nothing like school. Unschooling for English is the best way for him to go (I think????). I really worry about Boy's English - far more than any other subject.

If any of you Aussie or New Zealand home schoolers are interested in the Kinetic program, contact me and I'll put you in touch with the consultant we dealt with. He was very patient with my one million questions and dogma that Boy is treated with respect and acceptance. Knowledgeable and passionate about children achieving at their level, the consultant spent a lot of time with Boy and was never once phased by Boy's Aspergic idiosyncrasies.

Only 2 weeks now until we get married and Boy has a holiday from home schooling. We’re both counting the days, but for different reasons!

A Global Worry Survey for Home Schooled Kids

2007-03-16T10:34:00.000+10:00

Boy is doing a survey for home school and we are hoping to collect data from outside of our family members. The data will be collated in an excel spreadsheet and then Boy and I will do an analysis on it.

The survey is on Worries. If you would like your home schooled child to participate in this global home school project please seek 1) their willingness and permission, and 2) your child's answers to the below. Record their answers in the comments section of this blog.

You have until Friday the 23rd of March to send your Worry comments back (and remember, you can include this activity in your home school diary as a legitimate piece of home school work).

Worry Survey

What do you worry about?

Please list 5 worries and add if you worry about them:

not very much,

sometimes,

a lot,

all the time.

For example: 1. Bird flu (a lot),

2. Not learning enough (sometimes).

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

At the end of our worry project, the collated information will be placed on Boy's home school blog (this blog), WITHOUT any names of who is worrying about particular things. This is an educational experience for Boy, to help him learn about surveys, differences in people and using Excel. Your personal information will not be shared with anyone else. Perhaps it would be best if you registered your comment as Anonymous so that the rest of the blogoshere has no idea what it is that you worry about.

Thanks for helping Boy with his Worry Survey.

Associated article about our Worry Survey Project:

Droughts and Flooding Rains: Home School Australian Drought Relief

The Worry Tree and Mother's Other Worries.

Droughts and Flooding Rains: Home School Australian Drought Relief

2007-03-15T09:57:00.000+10:00

Parts of Australia are in severe drought. Cattle, crops and farmers are dieing. Suicide has become an option for our farming men who internalize drought-induced inability to pay debt, as personal failure.

Boy is becoming socially conscious (a rich task focus for us) and has an understanding of environmental protection. Last night I was telling him about the shower time limit in Brisbane – the motel I stayed in had a big sign asking people to limit their shower to four minutes. This started a discussion on water conservation and why drought happens.

Discussion turned into today’s home school lesson for SOSE (Studies of Society and Environment): Australian Drought and what we can do to conserve water.

Using an excellent lesson plan from the ABC's Behind the News we began with talking about what worries Boy in relation to having no water. The lesson plan will become an ongoing project where Boy has to interview other kids his age to find out what worries them. I aim to get Boy to do a blog questionnaire so that other kids who are home schooled can answer the questions and share their comments.

ART: Boy also completed a simple worksheet on dry weather and trees needing water (pictured). His insight into other things that require water to survive astounded me. Despite verbalising his knowledge, the only thing he would draw was a tiny frog in the branch of a tree.

READING: To finish up, Boy read a poem written by Murray Hartin (Australian Bush poet and storyteller) as part of a Salvation Army DVD project to help our depression affected farmers:

RAIN FROM NOWHERE

Murray Hartin

February 21, 2007

His cattle didn't get a bid, they were fairly bloody poor,

What was he going to do? He couldn't feed them anymore,

The dams were all but dry, hay was thirteen bucks a bale,

Last month's talk of rain was just a fairytale.

His credit had run out, no chance to pay what's owed,

Bad thoughts ran through his head as he drove down Gully Road.

"Geez, great grandad bought the place back in 1898,

Now I'm such a useless bastard, I'll have to shut the gate.

Can't support my wife and kids, not like dad and those before,

Christ, Grandma kept it going while Pop fought in the war."

With depression now his master, he abandoned what was right,

There's no place in life for failures, he'd end it all tonight.

There were still some things to do, he'd have to shoot the cattle first,

Of all the jobs he'd ever done, that would be the worst.

He'd have a shower, watch the news, then they'd all sit down for tea

Read his kids a bedtime story, watch some more TV,

Kiss his wife goodnight, say he was off to shoot some roos

Then in a paddock far away he'd blow away the blues.

But he drove in the gate and stopped - as he always had

To check the roadside mailbox - and found a letter from his Dad.

Now his dad was not a writer, Mum did all the cards and mail

But he knew the style from the notebooks that he used at cattle sales,

He sensed the nature of its contents, felt moisture in his eyes,

Just the fact his dad had written was enough to make him cry.

"Son, I know it's bloody tough, it's a cruel and twisted game,

This life upon the land when you're screaming out for rain,

There's no candle in the darkness, not a single speck of light

But don't let the demon get you, you have to do what's right,

I don't know what's in your head but push the bad thoughts well away

See, you'll always have your family at the back end of the day

You have to talk to someone, and yes I know I rarely did

But you have to think about Fiona and think about the kids.

I'm worried about you son, you haven't rung for quite a while,

I know the road you're on 'cause I've walked every bloody mile.

The date? December 7 back in 1983,

Behind the shed I had the shotgun rested in the brigalow tree.

See, I'd borrowed way too much to buy the Johnson place

Then it didn't rain for years and we got bombed by interest rates,

The bank was at the door, I didn't think I had a choice,

I began to squeeze the trigger - that's when I heard your voice.

You said 'Where are you Daddy? It's time to play our game,

I've got Squatter all set up, you might get General Rain.'

It really was that close, you're the one that stopped me son,

And you're the one that taught me there's no answer in a gun.

Just remember people love you, good friends won't let you down.

Look, you might have to swallow pride and get a job in town,

Just 'til things come good, son, you've always got a choice

And when you get this letter ring me, 'cause I'd love to hear your voice."

Well he cried and laughed and shook his head then put the truck in gear,

Shut his eyes and hugged his dad in a vision that was clear,

Dropped the cattle at the yards, put the truck away

Filled the troughs the best he could and fed his last ten bales of hay.

Then he strode towards the homestead, shoulders back and head held high,

He still knew the road was tough but there was purpose in his eye.

He called for his wife and children, who'd lived through all his pain,

Hugs said more than words - he'd come back to them again.

They talked of silver linings, how good times always follow bad,

Then he walked towards the phone, picked it up and rang his Dad.

And while the kids set up the Squatter, he hugged his wife again,

Then they heard the roll of thunder and they smelt the smell of rain.

To Murray Hartin: Thank you for such a moving poem that beautifully captures the depressive plight of our farming families. In the words of Boy, "That was sad. Can we help those men?" Yes, Boy, we'll go and make a donation to either the Salvation Army or through the Westpac Bank. We'll also buy Murray Hartin's Drought Relief DVD as soon as it becomes available.

Related articles by me about the Australian Drought Relief:

Woolworths National Drought Action Day January 23, 2007.

Woolworths raised $4.7 million for Drought Relief

Photo (Outback 5, Images from a farm after a 3 year drought) courtesy of matmos at Stock.xchng)

Wedding Award Tops off the Kinetic Education Install for a Carnival Finish

2007-03-14T09:29:00.000+10:00

UPDATE 17.3.07

We won the GNMParents

Hot Stuff Award for our article

Children at Weddings: Acceptable or Non-Acceptable?

Exciting news: We've been nominated for a wedding article award. Only 16 sleeps left until our family focused wedding in the rainforest. Over at Child Protection: Serious Business, I posited whether children at weddings are acceptable or not. Overwhelming support has been pro children at weddings, BUT, even more exciting, somebody unknown nominated the article for a Hot Stuff award from GNMParents. Go vote if you agree that kids and weddings go together.

We now have a Maths and English program installed on Boy's laptop. He is this minute playing a spacial game (over and over again) and attempting to better his score and time. Impressed by his willingness to begin the program without prompting, pleading or bribing from me, I can only assess that the Kinetic Education program is a HIT! Eager to learn and navigate my way around the program, I sat with Boy and encouraged him to show me other things. "NO!" was his stern reply, "I do Math with [step dad], not YOU." Thank goodness step dad is home from his business trip today. Step Dad can learn Kinetic's math program with Boy and then show it to me.

After the install yesterday, Boy spent over an hour playing hangman (on Kinetic's English program). It was interesting watching him attempt word recognition and letter blends. This is a fantastic outcome as Boy is fundamentally opposed to learning anything to do with English. In Boy's words, "English is dumb."

Do we recommend the Kinetic Education program? We sure do. Thank goodness for computers and Kinetic's computer based educational programs. Boy is going to be in his element.

The Carnival of Homeschooling (Number 63) is ticking away over at Why Homeschool. The carnivals are magic places to find a plethora of valuable home schooling articles all in the one place. If you have any interest in homeschooling, the Carnivals are the place to hang out. I have learnt a lot about motivators, educational philosophies, lesson plans and time management by reading the home school occurrences of home educators world wide. Similarly, the 45th edition of the Carnival of Family Life is also up at Adventures in the 100 Acre Woods. Be sure to take a stroll in the woods and check out all the great submissions received. Tons of home schooling and other family related articles. And, while we're on the carousel, the Carnival of Hope: Volume 1, Number 7 is also posted at Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good.

Related article on the Hot Stuff Award: What's Worthy of a Hot Stuff Award? Parenting is.

Photo is of my oldest daughter on her wedding day.

How to be a STAR Problem Solver

2007-03-13T08:24:00.000+10:00

Participation in the Youth Group focusing on anger management and self-esteem issues is providing Boy with valuable interpersonal resources. Despite this being my professional field (I am a child therapist), I am first and foremost a mother. There is no way Boy would accept training from me if he thinks it has anything to do with my work.

Emotional Intelligence is happening big time across the key learning area of Health and Physical Education. Boy spoke volumes last night on the STAR Problem Solving model. The model has come from Boy's Talk: A program for young men about masculinity, non-violence and relationships.

Stop and Recognise
Do I have a problem?
What is the problem?
How is my body affected?
What feelings am I showing?
What feelings am I keeping to myself?
Think and Communicate
What do I want to happen?
What do others want to happen?
What are the facts of the situation?
What are my beliefs and opinions about the situation?
Have I observed, gathered and remembered all the facts?
Have I clearly expressed my feelings and thoughts?
What are some different solutions and their consequences?
Are the consequences safe for and respectful to others?
Have I consulted others affected about the range of solutions?
What is the best solution?

Act.
Choose the best solution.
Take action.
Choose to go back to 'stop and recognise' again if there is no best solution.

Review
Observe the consequences.
If there are no satisfactory consequences go back to step 1.

Happy that he now has a plan to attach his problem solving thinking to, Boy was keen to blu tack the STAR poster to the wall. Yip Yah!!!!!!!!!!! Between that and the rules of Fair Fighting hopefully the Asperger's meltdowns will be easier to manage and leave us all less traumatised.

If ever I have doubts about home schooling Boy, I just need to remind myself of the massive leaps we have already made in emotional intelligence and calm learning. These two things alone are worthy of massive celebration in Boy's journey of home education. I LOVE home schooling. It works perfectly for Boy.

English and Maths: Today we are having the Kinetic Education software installed. As of tomorrow Boy will begin at least three Math sessions a week based on the Kinetic curricula. I intend to fully check their English program and design my own lesson plans to assist Boy to reach an entry level standard for the computer based program from Kinetic. Maths he does with little difficulty. English, well, that's just another potential meltdown waiting to happen.

Movie Review for English: Boy still owes a review from last week. I took him to see Norbit and he loved it. Boy told me he would rate it ten out of ten. While I was away over the weekend, Step Dad took Boy to see it again. Apparently the two of them never stopped laughing. Today Boy is keen to see either Wild Hogs or Hot Fuzz. Oh he's going to scream when I insist he writes up both reviews. Perhaps as a compromise I will suggest that he write only one review and clean his bedroom. The cleaning will be less acceptable than writing a movie review so I'm fairly confident that we'll get two written pieces of work.

Does anybody try making their own movies or short films for home school learning? I'd love to hear about it.

Fighting Fair in Africa with Sleepy Lush Products.

2007-03-12T10:11:00.000+10:00

I came home from Brisbane loaded with helpful, sleep inducing goodies for Boy…I think we must be one of Lush’s best customers. I never walk out of their stores with under $100.00 worth of sleepy dream products. This time I have bought some new ones for boy: a natural massage bar infused with Lavender and a tin of Temple Balm for Boy to rub into his temples and to dab under his nose to assist him drift off to the land of nod. He sure is the best smelling and cleanest person in the house.

Spelling: The plane trip home from Brisbane afforded me some time to reflect on spelling words that Boy needs to know. This term we are spending time getting to know our community. Whereas Boy knows the names of towns surrounding us he does not know how to spell them. Hence our list of ten contains: Mungalli Falls, Cairns, Brisbane, Townsville, Port Douglas, Great Barrier Reef, Mossman Gorge, Lakeland Downs, Cooktown, and Edge Hill. Boy has visited all of these places but does he know how to spell them in order to Google them for additional information??? Well, he got six out of ten with our first spelling test this morning and did he carry on about the list being greater than 10 words. He reasoned that Great Barrier Reef should count as three words for example. If I could have sent him to the detention room I would have!!!!! When I started on about proper nouns needing capital letters I knew I had gone too far. I'm surprised I didn't have the Lush massage bar thrown at me!

Geography: Gillian’s Africa challenge beckoned us. I printed out the map and Boy and I studied the names of the many African countries. I was able to tell Boy the odd anecdotal story about some of the African countries and impart tidbits of knowledge regarding Boy favored movies set in African countries. Boy now wants to visit the Seychelles and find pirate treasure. The Seychelles has been on my to visit immediately list for the last 20 years (not for treasure hunting). Unfortunately, “visit immediately” has always been superseded by “immediate responsibility” in paying bills and caring for a large family. Perhaps Boy's weekly spelling account (we pay him 20 cents per correct spelling word on every Friday's spelling test) will be able to shout me a trip because the cost of our impending wedding is suggestive of a frugal and grounded lifestyle for the next year!!!!

Monday is Youth Group day where Boy tackles issues of anger management, self-esteem and group social skills (falls under Health and Physical Education). Last week they covered the rules of fair fighting:

Be willing to fix the problem,

Say what the problem is for you,

Listen to what the problem is for them,

Attack the problem, not the person,

Look for answers so everyone gets what they need.

Fouls to fighting fair include:

Name calling,

Put downs,

Sneering or blaming,

Threats or hitting,

Bring up the past,

Making excuses,

Not listening,

Getting even.

I teach the above rules for fair fighting to many of my counseling clients and as training material for my university students. Somewhat surprised that Boy came home with the same handout from the Conflict Resolution Network that I use, I was impressed that the youth group organizers are concentrating on issues of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is something we are working hard at instilling in boy. Our philosophy is that while it is admirable to have academic intelligence, academic learning is but one area to concentrate on. Life skills, knowing yourself and valuing other people are core areas of educational focus for us.

Do you include any emotional intelligence in your home school learning?

The Flying Home Schooler: Africa, Cairns, Brisbane.

2007-03-09T08:18:00.000+10:00

Gillian from the School of St Jude's has posted a Countries of Africa Challenge! The interactive map of Africa allows you to first view the named countries and then enter a timed count down site to name as many of the African countries as you can remember. It's a groovy way to teach geography to people of all ages. Boy and I are going to get into it on my return from Brisbane.

Brisbane...yes, well!!! At extremely short notice and on my only free weekend with Boy and partner before our wedding in the rainforest, I have to do an emergency and family related trip to Brisbane. Brisbane is our capital city and is a two and a half hour plane trip from where we live in Cairns (see the map for an idea of distance). The shock of my departure has unsettled Boy who is unable to cope well with any change.

I am leaving today while Boy is unwell and I am feeling anxious for him. Step father is highly capable and thank goodness he is free to look after Boy. Yesterday Boy slept for the majority of the Day. I wrongly thought that I had tired him out with our animal audit. No, Boy has spiked a temperature and has pains in his neck and back.

Living in the tropics means a whole host of wonderfully exotic diseases and fungal infections. Being highly analytical I am this morning having to stop my stinkin' thinkin' about what possible tropical illness Boy may have picked up. Poor kid, we over sported him and he ended up with Achilles Tendinitis and I would hate to think that in my endeavour to educate Boy with the most interesting and stimulating home school activities I have exposed him to some other tropical animal germy misfit. Who knows, he may just have a cold coming on. I worry far too much. Wouldn't you think that by the time I got to the fourth child that I'd be a bit more relaxed around the kids getting sick.

I'll see you all on my return. No matter where you are in the world, stay safe.

Map of Australia courtesy of Trailmaster.

A Sleepy Village Boy in the Home School Lounge.

2007-03-08T11:05:00.000+10:00

Boy's sleep disorder is all over the place. He says he slept poorly last night and he has been up (me too...arrrrrgh!) since 4 AM. After yesterday's animal audit, we intended spending some more time in the garden discovering what bugs are living beneath the composted cardboard. I also had an alternate plan to get Boy to help me with some weeding.

Boy must have known of my evil weeding lesson plan because just as I was ready to enter the sunshine for some natural learning, Boy fell asleep on the couch. There he still lays, peaceful and innocent. Should I wake him. NO WAY! I'm getting so much paper work completed that I want to continue my roll.

If we were traditional schooling, Boy would have had trouble at school today and they probably would have rung me to come and get him. So, in home school generosity and eagerness to clear my own work back log, Boy is having a day off school. This is only the second day off since we started home schooling (the first day off was because of us, not him, and we at least managed some art and craft).

Today is not a totally lost home school day either. In our usual routine, Boy began with his weekly spelling list. Finally, finally, he got 100%. For this alone I think he deserves the rest of the day off. Well done Boy, now just stay asleep for one more hour please.

An Inspiring Neighbourhood Animal Audit

2007-03-07T08:17:00.000+10:00

Today is Math day. In preparation for step father's lesson, Boy and I decided to do an audit of animals (I suggested we do flowers but Boy near puked at the thought) in our neighbourhood. What a fun way to inspire Boy and to approach concepts of Math. I was actually inspired after reading A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That posted over at Ragamuffin Studies. Elisheva's descriptions of the spiders and animals in her area resonated with me as a learning experience and further inspired me to share what we see on a daily basis.

Here's a few of the Australian animals we live with and were audit inspired by.

Sun Bird. Ms and Mr Sunbird nest on our back verandah every year. The nest stays hanging year after year with the odd maintenance occurring prior to them laying eggs. A popular food source for snakes, we keep a protective eye on our little sun birds.

Scrub Turkey. When Boy was little his nick name was scrub turkey. They are plentiful and become almost domesticated. Boy loves them and would allow them in the house if he could get away with it. For more information about the amazing Scrub Turkey, see this article we wrote just before Christmas: The Christmas Turkey is moving.

Black Cockatoo. Beautiful and incredibly noisy. White Cockatoos are everywhere. They can be a real pest. Although not uncommon to see Black Cockatoos, they are not a bird we spot every day.

Cassowary. Big, big, big flightless birds. A rainforest species, they are endangered. We had them frequent our house when we lived in the rainforest but we hardly ever see them now.

Eclectus Parrot. Beautiful or what! Their vibrant colours are breath taking. They are common and frequent our back yard.

Wallabies: Very common. They are consistent road kill which saddens us. Because we now live in town we don't have them in our back yard but a drive anywhere around our home results in several spottings of Wallabies.

Paddymelon. This is Boy hand feeding a Paddymelon. They are a small reddish brown wallaby, very cute, shy and common.

Galah. Grey and pink, these are very cute and very cheeky Australian birds. More common in the dry season, we don't see them regularly in our back yard. An Australian slanguage name for a person who is a bit of a fool is "galah."

Ibis. Commonly referred to as the "undertaker bird" (because of the way they look), Ibis' are very common. This one was trying to help itself to our breakfast on the verandah.

Rosella Parrot. These are everywhere. They're really pretty, and noisy. Curious and unafraid they are a common site in back yard trees.

Kangaroo: Boy took this photo of the Kangaroo trying to get away from me. Perhaps it didn't like my perfume. WARNING - Kangaroos can sometimes be aggressive so do not try this at home!

Tawny Frog Mouth Owl. Boy's favorite bird. Have a look at his learning about them: The Tawny Frog Mouth Owl

Jungle Perch. Can you see the fish that Boy is swimming with? Look along the front left toward centre of the picture. He doesn't like it when they come and nibble him.

Mossman Gorge. After a long day of animal auditing what else is a Boy to do but have a swim in one of our local creeks.

We are keen to encourage social understanding and knowledge within our global community of home schoolers. Have a look at an "our community" sharing idea we had. It can be found at the bottom of Scarab Beetles, Winchester House and Social Understanding .

Hope you liked our photographic math audit. We know we live in a beautiful part of the world. Home school and life inspiration is only a look through the window away. What do you think?

If you find these photos inspiring, pop over to the photo contest at An Island Life and vote (between March 9 and 11, 2007) for our natural and tropical Aussie home school inspiration.

All photos by Megan,
except for that one that Boy caught of the Kangaroo trying to hop away from my allure!

Homeschooling Carnival Does the Rounds Again

2007-03-06T20:38:00.000+10:00

The 62nd edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling (Mar. 5, 2007) is up over at Tami's Blog.

For those who don't know what a Carnival is, it is a single blog that collates a variety of posts on a specific topic: in this instance, Home Schooling. No one view, political persuasion, religious or educational philosophy is represented.

Home Schoolers across the globe are welcome to submit posts to the weekly Carnivals, to meet new people and to stay current in knowledge about what other home schoolers are doing to home educate their children.

Wander round the Carnival and see what you find in the lucky dip.

How To Be A PERFECT Mother

2007-03-06T11:08:00.000+10:00

Let me begin by qualifying that I am not a perfect mother nor am I sure how to get there. I do however know that I have a perfectly wonderful son who thinks I am perfect (and now I've got it in writing from him!).

A friend sent me an email containing some anecdotal research done with second grade children. I found the questions so interesting that I decided to turn them into a writing and reading review home school lesson.

I told Boy that there were some answers from other kids but that I wouldn't show him until after he had answered the questions himself. Boy's written answers, unprompted by or discussed with me, almost made me cry. Just so as there's no mistake that this is indeed Boy's work, I have attached a scan of the first page of the review worksheet I made from the questions.

Below are the questions and answers as came to me on email. The email had no information about the origin of the questions so I am unable to offer credit sorry. I have included Boy's answers as the last response to each question. Just remember that children with Aspergers are literal. It is possible that he was unable to understand the essence of the questions he has answered with ???

WHY GOD MADE MOMS

Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:

Why did God make mothers?

1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.

2. Mostly to clean the house.

3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

BOY. To take care.

How did God make mothers?

1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.

2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.

3. God made my Mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

BOY. ???

What ingredients are mothers made of ?

1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.

2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Boy. ???

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?

1. We're related.

2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's moms like me.

Boy. ???

What kind of little girl was your mom?

1. My Mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.

2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.

3. They say she used to be nice.

Boy. ???

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?

1. His last name.

2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?

3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Boy. That he was an idiot.

Why did your mom marry your dad?

1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my Mom eats a lot.

2. She got too old to do anything else with him.

3. My grandma says that Mom didn't have her thinking cap on.

Boy. (Note from mother: Not ever a question mark here. It's obviously still a sensitive topic with Boy.)

Who's the boss at your house?

1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such a goof ball.

2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.

3. I guess Mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

Boy. God

What's the difference between moms & dads?

1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.

2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.

3. Dads are taller & stronger, but moms have all the real power 'cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend's.

4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

Boy. Mum's a girl.

What does your mom do in her spare time?

1. Mothers don't do spare time.

2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

Boy. Looks on her email.

What would it take to make your mom perfect?

1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.

2. Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue.

Boy. My Mum is perfect!!!

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?

1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.

2. I'd make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it and not me.

3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

Boy. Nothing.

I was blown away by Boy's last two answers. Moved emotionally like never before, I now know that at least what I have been doing with Boy is appreciated and that he doesn't hate me.

Below is a picture of Boy and I on a recent snorkeling trip on the Great Barrier Reef.

Managing a Work/Life and Home School Balance.

2007-03-06T09:11:00.000+10:00

Broken and disturbed sleep makes mother cranky and Boy intolerable. Every time stepfather goes away on business, Boy’s insomnia increases. I appreciate that it is the changed routine and increased anxiety about stepfather’s safety but gee it’s hard to manage and find balance: to work and to home school when we’ve both had minimal sleep.

On the eve of stepfather’s return, Boy slept well. Maybe the medication is beginning to work or perhaps Boy has some comfort in knowing step dad will be safely home tonight. Regardless, Boy awoke in a happy mood ready to go to the movies and complete his Tuesday movie review. Problem!

I have a mini training booked today for a local foster care agency. Without another adult home to stay with Boy, he has to come to the training on Life Story Work with me. This is not unusual for my children. They have often assisted me in the facilitation of my training programs and they loan real examples of how effective child focused tools are.

Boy has decided that he really does not want to come, he wants to go to the movies: he wants to do his schoolwork just as he is supposed to do. The problem is that the movie he wants to see is on at times overlapping with the mid day training I am facilitating and then again in the late afternoon. Following the training, I have a client: right at the time of the next movie screening. I can’t cancel the training at last minute so what to do???

When we undertook home schooling, we did it because it was the best thing for Boy, not for us. We agreed that Boy’s special needs took priority and that his education was of huge value. I knew that my workload (and income) would be cut by half (we school in the mornings and I see clients in the afternoon).

Going back to these original decisions on why we home school, the answer to “what to do” became very clear. I rescheduled my afternoon client so that I can take Boy to the movies and help him with a movie review. That is my most important job.

I require the income from employment because I carry sexually transmitted debt from a previous marriage. However, as a compromise, I now work part time counseling and consulting from home and I am surrounded by a terrific support network to help with Boy’s needs. On the days when my support network is unavailable, Boy, not work, remains my top priority. Debt will always be there, Boy will not.

My actions have not only prevented a potential Aspergers melt down but have also shown Boy that he has value, worth and that compromise can bring around a win/win situation.

How do you manage to balance home schooling with earning a living?

Join the Carnival of Family Life.

2007-03-05T23:05:00.000+10:00

The 44th edition of the Carnival of Family Life is up at Be A Good Dad. They included three articles from me: one from each of my blog sites.

There's a few home school posts in the current edition of the Carnival of Family Life so do check them out and consider posting to the carnival next week over at Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood. Stephanie at 100 acres is a home schooler.

Here's a recent article I wrote (at my Child Protection blog) about Carnivals: How to Attract Site Traffic to Child Protection or Sexual Abuse Blogs.

Mentors, Bowling, Fishing and Dragons.

2007-03-05T10:58:00.000+10:00

Studies of Society and Environment - Socialisation: Boy has finally been matched with a mentor and they enjoyed their first activity over the weekend: bowling. The picture is of Boy bowling over the Christmas holidays. He loves bowling (is 200% better than me) but has been unable to bowl since he damaged his foot.

Boy also loves on-line games and one of the reasons he was matched with this particular mentor was because of the mentors interest and expertise in gaming. The mentor plays a game called War Hammer 40, 000 Dawn of War Dark Crusade. So….guess what Boy has now purchased with his pocket money!!! A strategy game, Boy’s aspergers egocentrism will be pushed to consider the tactics and moves of others. This fits in beautifully with our rich task focus of “understanding another person’s position.”

Although the mentor is both a gamer and blog keeper, both he and Boy opted to engage in a mentoring activity that neither of them knows a lot about: fishing. We’re pleased to have Boy away from the computer for two hours per fortnight and to re-engage him with outdoor activities that he used to thoroughly enjoy. His leg has been so sore for so long now that he has done little more than sit at the laptop.

Mentoring is a structured friendship. Both mentor and mentee enter a contracted mutually agreeable activity, frame worked with aims and a final presentation of their chosen activity. Boy and his mentor have undertaken to:

Report on fishing

Have Boy teach the mentor how to fish

Catch something.

At the six-month celebration ending the mentoring friendship, Boy and mentor will present a log of their fishing and what they learned.

Spelling: Step-dad had worked out a list of spelling associated with the Math activity they undertook on Friday. However, step-dad has flown off to the Never Never (Aussie slanguage for the outback) for work and I cannot find the list. Using the wedding reading as a basis for new words, I just picked ten words that Boy may or may not be able to spell: dragon, Knight, shining, armour, damsel, distress, consuming, confronted, reflection, assistance. Well done to Boy, he achieved 50% correct spelling words this morning.

Reading: Boy flatly refused to read the little wedding reading this morning. He told me he doesn’t think he wants to read in front of wedding guests because he might get it all wrong. Despite my cajoling, support, understanding and encouragement he refused to budge his position and I refused to get into an argument over it. As a compromise, Boy read a page from Eragon. At least it was Dragon related and covered some of the words on this weeks spelling list.

Health and Physical Education: Boy attends the youth group again this afternoon where they focus on anger management and self-esteem. Because social skills are a required part of Boy's learning and integration into a world that fails to understand people with Aspergers, we have no difficult in counting group time and mentoring activities as home school hours.

Home Schoolers are Research Associates in Child Development and Human Relations

2007-03-03T09:34:00.000+10:00

The following piece of serendipity came to me on email - original source unknown:

A woman named Emily renewing her driver's licence at the Transport office was asked by the clerk to state her occupation. She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself.

"What I mean is," explained the clerk, "do you have a job, or are you just a ......? "

"Of course I have a job," snapped Emily. "I'm a Mum."

"We don't list 'Mum' as an occupation...... 'housewife' covers it," said the clerk emphatically.

I forgot all about her story until one day I found myself in the same situation, this time at our local police station. The Clerk was obviously a career woman, poised, efficient, and possessed of a high sounding title like, "Official Interrogator" or "Town Registrar."

"What is your occupation?" she probed.

What made me say it, I do not know... The words simply popped out. "I'm a Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations."

The clerk paused, pen frozen in midair, and looked up as though she had not heard right.
I repeated the title slowly, emphasizing the most significant words.
Then I stared with wonder as my pronouncement was written in bold, black ink on the official questionnaire!

"Might I ask," said the clerk with new interest, "just what you do in your field?"

Coolly, without any trace of fluster in my voice, I heard myself reply, "I have a continuing programme of research, (what mother doesn't), in the laboratory and in the field, (normally I would have said indoors and out). I'm working for my Masters, (the whole family), and already have three credits, (all sons). Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities, (any mother care to disagree.?) and I often work 14 hours a day, (24 is more like it). But the job is more challenging than most run-of-the-mill careers and the rewards are more of a satisfaction rather than just money."

There was an increasing note of respect in the girl's voice as she completed the form, stood up, and personally ushered me to the door.

When I got home, buoyed up by my glamorous new career, I was greeted by my lab assistants -ages 4 and 2.

Upstairs, I could hear our new experimental model, (a 10 month old baby), in the child-development programme, testing out a new vocal pattern.

I had triumphed over bureaucracy!

And I had gone on the official records as someone more distinguished and indispensable to mankind than "just another Mum."

Motherhood.....What a glorious career! Especially when there's a title on the door. Does this make grandmothers "Senior Research Associates in the field of Child Development and Human Relations," and great grandmothers "Executive Senior Research Associates"??? I think so!!! I also think it makes Aunts "Associate Research Assistants".

Marching Down the Isle – Home School Wedding Preparation

2007-03-02T15:09:00.000+10:00

We’re getting married this month (March 31). Boy is just as excited as we are. To ensure that I can maintain our home school learning AND get all the wedding tasks completed in a timely manner, I am capitalizing on Boy’s natural wedding interest by incorporating wedding tasks into home school.

Reading: Boy will be reading at our wedding. This is a huge thing for him to do. He HATES having to read aloud and sometimes struggles with pronouncing words. However, Boy rather fancies Dragons, Myths and Fables so guess what he’s willing to read at our wedding. By choosing something that he has a natural affinity to, I aim to encourage his reading progression and to lessen anxiety around public reading at our wedding. In true Asperger’s obsessive tendencies, we will be daily reading the following story from Michael Leunig so that Boy gets to know it almost by rote.

Once there was a damsel in distress.

She had become a bit of a dragon and it was consuming her.

A knight in shining armour confronted the damsel, and, seeing her reflection in his shiny breastplate, she realised what a dragon she had become, and she didn't like it.

In earnest she set about getting the dragon where it belonged and making sense of it.

"You have saved me", she cried, "Take off your armour that I may kiss you in gratitude".

"The removal of armour requires assistance", responded the knight.

So, together they removed the heavy armour and the damsel embraced him warmly. The knight had never been so warmly touched. He felt immense relief. He felt lighter; less weary; more free.

"That's how I feel too!" cried the damsel joyfully, and after some healthy, passionate kisses they had some healthy, passionate children.

They kept the dragon and the armour , which were useful from time to time; and generally speaking, in their own funny way, they lived quite happily ever after.

Spelling: We’re still on the list of Egyptian associated spellings and today was the test day for the whole list; not just the ones that Boy has got wrong during the week. Congratulations to Boy: he got 9 out of 10.

SOSE Time Planning: Boy and I had a rather large clash over this. He considers that time planning is too hard and takes too long!!!! Ummmmm…I had to bite my tongue several times during his Asperger’s melt down. The lesson I had planned did not even get started. I wanted Boy to turn an exercise book into his own diary and start blocking out project time, including time for working on fun wedding stuff. Best I could get from him was a Wedding advent calendar (made from the FREE home school resources available at Home School Mom) and a list of tasks to be completed in the next week.

Writing: “I’m not writing anything,” he wailed. “Fine. I’m not putting up with this behaviour any longer,” was my truthful response. “Don’t write the jobs down. Get the white board and jot them there so I can then write them down.” So, without realizing that whiteboard work is writing, Boy happily listed tasks as I spoke them. Beautiful.

Math: Step Dad and boy are off to the shops to do some budget shopping with Boy’s pocket money. Apparently, Step Dad has a Math framework around the trip. I look forward to seeing the write up to keep as a home school entry (hint, hint, step dad).

Thank goodness it's Friday: I'm tired so Boy must be exhausted. Have a GREAT weekend everybody and stay safe.

Extra. Extra: Read All About It. Carnival of Home Schooling #61

2007-03-02T08:52:00.000+10:00

BREAKING NEWS: In this weeks Carnival of Home Schooling, Homeschool Cafe serves rich latte with educational flavor and wins international award for social understanding.

Australian home schooler, Megan Bayliss, stated that Homeschool Cafe baked the best slice of home school life she had tasted in a while. She said that she awarded the prize for social understanding because of the creative way the cafe mixed the contributed ingredients. "The presentation provides an immediate 'news of difference' for home schooled kids to aspire toward," Ms Bayliss offered.

Ms Bayliss also said she'd be back for more tastes of Home School News and encouraged others to use the Carnival of Home Schooling #61 for their own professional development.

Photo courtesy of those clever Mississippi Moms at the Homeschool Cafe.

Media Statement: New Standards for Queensland Teachers

2007-03-02T08:33:00.000+10:00

The following media statement has given me some points to reflect on as a home school teacher. In particular, the required standard of professional development. I often wonder if I am doing the best that I can. Should I be pushing my child more? Should I be giving stamps and stickers as they do in class rooms? Should I be taking classes in core subjects so that I'm on top of current learning and teaching trends? I'm keen to hear from other home schoolers to find out how you contribute to your own professional development as a home school teacher.

Minister for Education and Training and Minister for the Arts

The Honourable Rod Welford

01/03/2007

NEW STANDARDS FOR QUEENSLAND TEACHERS

New professional standards for Queensland teachers have been released as part of the State Government's comprehensive reforms of teacher registration.

Minister for Education and Training, Rod Welford, said the standards outlined the abilities, knowledge and professional values expected of teachers in Queensland schools.

"These reforms are part of our major overhaul of teacher registration and respond to the needs of a modern education system," Mr Welford said

"They have been developed by the new Queensland College of Teachers, which our Government established in 2006 to oversee changes to teacher registration.

"Teachers now have to renew their registration every five years. To gain renewal, they will have to show they've maintained their professional skills through ongoing professional education and recent teaching experience.

"These new professional standards will provide the benchmark for the profession in Queensland and give teachers a common framework to examine and renew their practice.

"They will be used to test first-time teachers in their application for provisional registration and full registration, as well as supporting preservice teacher education programs.

"They capture the essence of teachers' work - its complexity and diversity - as teachers manage the learning and teaching process for individuals and groups of students.

"Importantly, they provide a means to demonstrate to parents, school communities, and the public the knowledge, skills and abilities required by teachers in our schools today."

The standards are based around the three areas of teaching and learning, relationships with students, families and colleagues, and professional development.

The standards were developed in consultation with Queensland teachers and key stakeholders. Teachers can view the Professional Standards for Queensland Teachers from the Queensland College of Teachers website.

Copies of the standards will be sent to Queensland schools and registered teachers at the beginning of next term.

Media contact: Greg Milne or Marnie Stitz on 32371000

End of Media Statement.

How do home school parents ensure their professional development? What home school conferences are available? I would love to attend some.

Japanese Language

2007-03-01T08:09:00.000+10:00

Languages Other Than English (Japanese): Boy has had a yen to begin languages so today we tackled Japanese (Nihongo).

A language and culture not unforeign to us, today we began our unit on Japanese language and culture (we’re not going to do hiragana, katakana, or kanji for writing – it’s asking for trouble to get Boy to write more than he already has to!). I used to learn Japanese and we’ve had several Japanese homestay students over the years so at least I have some basics in pronunciation. I’ve also visited Japan and could tell Boy some stories about my confusion over money and food.

Boy can already count to ten in Japanese (thanks to Kendo) but he struggles to remember the greetings. With the help of Say it in Japanese from Kids web Japan, I made some charts for the wall (pictured) for all of us to use phrases and words that Boy would have heard over the years.

How do you do? Hajimenashite (sounds like hud gee may mush te)

Yes: Hai (sounds like hi)

No: Iie (sounds like a stuttering e e ea)

Good morning: Ohayougozaimasu (sounds like Ohio gaz eye mas)

Good afternoon: Konnichiwa (sounds like con ichy wa)

Good evening: Konbanwa (sounds like con bun wa)

Good night: Oyasuminasai (sounds like oi a sue me nus i)

Together, Boy and I made some flash cards using recycled cardboard and we intend to test everyone in the house by flashing the Japanese word at them and asking them what it means in English and how do you say it in Japanese.

SOSE: For social understanding to be successful, learning another language also requires an understanding of that country’s culture. Off we went to the Sushi shop and consumed sushi: without wasabi (neither of us like it). We asked for the Japanese words of some common foods (e.g. prawn – ebi) and listened to the rhythm of the talk of the Japanese (Nihonji) young people in the restaurant.

Health and Physical Education: While drinking Green Tea we had a yarn about the importance of digestion for overall health.

Apart from the delicious food, we had a great time. Cost me far too much but how can I place a price on the value of educating my Boy? I do not mind the cost because the learning was invaluable.

To round the home school lesson off, we stopped in at an Asian grocery store and lurked in the Japanese section. Both Boy and I like onigiri, so we purchased some nori and we’ll make some seaweed covered rice balls one evening this week. In need of a steamer, we also purchased a bamboo steamer so Boy can have steamed, rather than deep fried, Dim Sims (Chinese). He considers Dim Sims and Spring Rolls as foods that should be included in the eat most section of the food pyramid. We have a long way to go but we are getting there!

What a great home education day we have had.