Summer Time + Esther's New Therapy

I'm copying this from Esther's blog as this is really keeping our family busy these past few weeks!

Esther LOVES to help Carese...
far more than Carese likes to be helped, though!

Summer has arrived, and with it some beautiful weather!  In the past few months, we were given a swing set which is getting a lot of use now, and we got a steal of a deal on a swimming pool (ours died of old age last year) as well.  The kids haven't been in the pool much in the last two weeks due to cool/rainy weather, but that all changed this week!

Esther enjoyed our first "Lake Day"

Summer also means "Lake Days."  We have some sweet friends who live on the lake, and they invite us over almost every week for some beach time.  We all enjoy this special treat!  Last Friday was our first "Lake Day" and we all had so much fun.  Esther spent almost the entire time in the water, and enjoyed every minute of the day.  Carese kept me busy, and it took a while for her to get used to wearing a life jacket, but Esther had no problems with the "life jacket all the time" rule at all!

Last winter we heard about a neurodevelopmental program that a dear friend of mine had discovered, which had made a huge difference in her child - leaping 18 months in development in just 4 months.  The second 4 months did not show this great leap of developmental progress, but there were other extenuating factors.  But she had continued to progress more rapidly with this program than with any of the other therapies that they had tried.

Esther learning her alphabet while getting her hair combed,
after getting dressed and getting her glasses on.
While we are doing therapy with Esther we have Mozart
playing on our stereo for brain stimulation.

We researched the "Can Do" program, and found out that they would even be at our Christian Heritage Homeschool Convention!  Even though it was difficult to come up with the up front costs, we decided that it was the best time to start this program for Esther, as during the summer months I have less on my plate (homeschooling break) and it would be good to start this program before Esther's new sister come homes (her adoption should be finalized next winter).

Esther had her first evaluation at the beginning of May, and at that time I was also taught everything I needed to know to implement the program that they custom designed for Esther.  We will be sending in updates every two weeks and later every month.  We will have her re-evaluated every 4 months (that is how often they are in our area).  Can Do services 8 states (WA, ID, CA, ND/MN, MI, OH and NY) and families drive a long way to use their services.  Thankfully, we only have to drive about 1 hour away!

Here are some photos of Esther's therapy!

Esther leaning animal sounds while getting deep pressure massage
to her hand/arms/feet/legs.
Jessica is doing the massage in this photo.

Our therapy checklist for the week, and her daily meds/supplements
most of which go into her yogurt.
The penny bank and pennies is for fine motor skills
- she has to pick up the pennies and put them into the bank!
That is Daniel's job - to help Esther with this therapy.
You can also see "bite tubes" in a baggy.
The bite tubes are part of her mouth stimulation and for
strengthening her jaw for better speech later.

Esther gets a vibration massage to her hands a feet while she eats her yogurt
this helps develop her brain/body connection to help her overcome
her high pain tolerance and prepare her for potty training.
Here Rachel is working with Esther

Esther's memory cards.  She is learning the names of the items on the cards
both to say them and to point them out on command.
She can only do one at a time, but we are working to help her be able
to point to two in a row and then three, and then four.
You can see Carese is also at the table "playing" therapy.

These are photo cards that I made.  There is the word for the item in the photo on the back
We show her the word, and then the photo, and then the word again
She loves these cards and is saying more words now, as well as
pointing to the object in the photos!

Dayton is helping Esther learn her numbers.
All the children (except Carese) help Esther with different parts of her therapy
as each child is able - it's their "school" for the summer!

This is Carese - she stole this sucker/sponge that we use for mouth stimulation with Ether
She loves these (she's been teeting)
We use this with Esther,one is dipped in very warm water and swished around in Esther's moujt
The other one is put in very cold water and we alternate between the two.

Esther has many other therapies, but I'll save those for another post!

If you want to check into this program, check out their website - Can Do

They are a christian company who focus on teaching parents to work with their children at home to enable their children to reach their greatest potential - it's for children with any disabilities, even ADHD, dyslexia and Autism!

What is Normal - I've forgotten!

Esther trying to smile while in the ER
Poor Baby!

Just when I thought things would get back to "normal" after the flu (upper respiratory kind) swept through our family, Esther got a second round.  She had been doing so much better, and then over last weekend she tanked again.  I ended up taking her into the ER on Monday as there were no openings at her doctor's office.  It all worked well and I even got new instructions/dosage on her ibuterol treatments.  She required steroids to help open up her airways and she was doing better by the time we were headed home.  She still had a couple of rough days Tuesday and Wednesday, but today she was definitely on the mend.  Anyway, normal is over-rated and our family seems to need a new "normal" every few weeks.  I just need to "roll with it"!  I'm getting good at doing that, you know!

On the way home from the ER, we stopped in at Walmart and I found PJs for the girls for just $5 ea, in cotton too!  Esther can't wear polyester,and it can be challenging to find cotton pjs, and I don't think I've ever gotten these two matching outfits yet, so this was fun!

Since I started recovering from my bout with the flu, I have been able to do some preparation for our home study visits.  I was able to move Carese into the big girls room and I found a "like new" rocker that I got for a song.  It was wonderful to rock Esther last night instead of perching on a folding metal chair in the middle of the night!  What a blessing!

Speaking of blessings, I was pondering on the blessing of adult children yesterday and was so thrilled that all three of my older boys are gainfully employed!  Not only that, they are all in the field of work that the love doing!  Jeremy has a custom made position doing website and programming work surrounded by dedicated Christians.  Jason is a machinist and he's good at it.  He was always good with working with his hands growing up, and this job is something he was made to do.  Jonathan's job has just become his dream job.

Jonathan struggled in homeschooling due to a reading disability.  This runs in my family. He has outdone what the reading specialist said he could accomplish.  He worked hard last year studying "the book" on commercial driving and passed the written test with flying colors the first time and was awarded his commercial driving permit!  But the hoped for opportunity to work for a friend of the family did not work out and it looked like his life long dream to drive truck was fizzling.  That all changed this week!  He has been given the opportunity to get his driving experience right where he has been working for the past 3 years!  Praise God, such a blessing! Today he got to drive the "little" truck and he was in such a great mood when he came home.

These two dresses used to be Elizabeth
 and Esthers about 4 years ago -
they were so cute matching the last Sunday
we were able to attend church!

I've been homeschooling now for over 25 years, and I have about 18 to go yet!  But I think my most difficult years are behind me.  I have never been an ideal homeschooling mom as I have been on the more un-schooled type of mom.  Our times of book work would never add up to the amount of hours most homeschooling families put in, but it hasn't prevented my sons from being gainfully employed.  They have excelled in spite of me.  I did give them the tools to learn, and they have the ability and knowledge to learn anything they want to learn.  Jeremy self taught himself several computer programming languages - I could have never taught him that!  Jonathan earned his CDL without any help from me (I encouraged him, but I did not teach him anything!).

I believe that most book work that children are expected to do in "school" is a waste of time. I know, I know...that sounds ridiculous   But let me ask you this - how much of what you learned in a classroom do you use in your everyday life.  If you hear about a country with political strife, do you immediately recall what you learned about politics and that country and it's government from what you learned in school, or are you like me and run to the internet to "research"?  I had an excellent education - one of the best around.  It has been a great value to me, but mostly because I was taught how to learn.  Most of the book work and things I studied I no long remember.  When my children reach high school and beyond, I'm not really going to care if they completed every page in every subject every year, but I am going to care about is whether or not they have learned what they need to know to be a hard worker (chores), care for their family (even boys need to know how to cook and clean), balance the checkbook, make good purchasing decisions...and know how to learn.  When they find the they do not know something, are they capable of learning it without having to take a class on the subject?  I've never taken any accounting training (well, accounting 101 in high school, but that doesn't really count and I've never applied what I learned there), but I now do all the bookkeeping for our family and my small business - including all our payroll!  I do hire an accountant for our year end tax preparation, but I know I could do that if I tried...but I'd probably miss new tax laws.  I hope that my children will also know when it's time to hire an expert - like difficult car repair, wiring in the house and such!

Anyway, that's just my two cents about it.