Misadventures, adventures, & reevaluation

I realized the other day that it has been a very long time since I last wrote a post on here. Only three months, maybe, but still a lot has happened.

The long and short of it, though, is that my health had to take center stage for awhile. I really didn't have a choice, since I was quickly becoming unable to function normally. Two ER visits, surgery, hospitalization, and plenty of doctor visits later, I'm well on my way to full health.

This whole health problem really caused difficulties for my son. He found it hard to deal with the uncertainty that was in the air, and especially the difficulties of having Mom in the hospital for a week. As you may well be aware, a week is a long time for kids.

Education goals and methods took on a different look during all of this turmoil. To save my waning energy, I made sure my son had access to plenty of educational games and toys. I made sure that what he thought was fun was also subtly teaching him things.

Since our exodus from the daily routine of the public schools, there have been some great changes. My son's language skills have improved greatly. He's more free to try out new sentence structures, marking plurals and possessives and cases and all those grammar things we take for granted. The pressure, stresses, and overwhelming stimuli of the classroom has been removed. Now, he can relax and really listen and try out the language he hears around him.

He is using memorized scripts from DVDs with the right meanings. And to make it even better, he is able to jodify them to suit his needs and themeanings he intends. It's fantastic to hear this growth!

Now we are looking forward to what this year has to offer. Adventures and hikes in the neighboring forest preserve. Trips to the air and space museum. And so much more. But instead of relying on the "traditional" ways of imparting academic knowledge, I will be embedding those skills within topics that HE finds interesting. If he doesn't see any point in learning what it is trying to be taught to him, he refuses to pay attention. But when it is something he enjoys, then there is no stopping him in what he can and will learn.

Might as well work with his interests, right?