Josh has been singing this song all week, so we decided to record it and share with friends and family. Merry Christmas!!
More pics and video to come tomorrow. :)
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Saturday, April 02, 2011
Gym Time!
Drew has been having a blast at Us Too Center since last summer and I just today remembered to bring my camera to document the fun. These pictures aren't the best, but when those two boys of mine are in motion it's hard to grab a good one!
Us Too is so freakin' fantastic, we *love* them! The owners are lovely people who really really understand having a child with autism (since their son is autistic). The instructors are loving, fun, accepting, patient - everything you want in a person who works with your child (especially your special needs child). Jordan is the best guy *ever*, the boys *adore* him. Oh, and even though this is Drew's class, they always allow Josh to 'crash' the class if he has to tag along. Did I mention we love these people? :)
Us Too is so freakin' fantastic, we *love* them! The owners are lovely people who really really understand having a child with autism (since their son is autistic). The instructors are loving, fun, accepting, patient - everything you want in a person who works with your child (especially your special needs child). Jordan is the best guy *ever*, the boys *adore* him. Oh, and even though this is Drew's class, they always allow Josh to 'crash' the class if he has to tag along. Did I mention we love these people? :)
Skateboardin' Fools
The boys and I attended a skateboarding clinic for autistic kids today, hosted by Etnies and the A.skate Foundation in partnership with Autism Speaks. I'm not generally a big fan of Autism Speaks (they tend to view autism as a disease to be cured, and I'm not really on that bandwagon, myself), but this was an *awesome* time for the boys and they had *so* much fun! It was totally free, they allowed Joshua to participate, and every skater had a volunteer working with them, 1:1, woot!
From what I could tell, the volunteers were not autism experts, therapists, etc., but just ordinary people who loved to skateboard and donated their time and energy to giving these kids a fun morning of skating freedom. I wish I could remember the names of the people who worked (played really!) with my boys, but whoever they were, I loved you and THANK YOU for making my kids so gleeful. To be honest, the volunteers seemed to be having as much - or MORE - fun than the kids. See for yourself! (as always, click on an individual photo to view a larger version)
From what I could tell, the volunteers were not autism experts, therapists, etc., but just ordinary people who loved to skateboard and donated their time and energy to giving these kids a fun morning of skating freedom. I wish I could remember the names of the people who worked (played really!) with my boys, but whoever they were, I loved you and THANK YOU for making my kids so gleeful. To be honest, the volunteers seemed to be having as much - or MORE - fun than the kids. See for yourself! (as always, click on an individual photo to view a larger version)
Jog-A-Thon
As you can see, the last post around these parts was back in the fall. I typically go into a bit of winter hibernation and emerge once again in the spring, and here I am! I have a lot of pictures to share and will do a separate post for each set. I might even keep things up to date for a while after this...maybe. *grin*
The first set of pictures is from Joshua's school fundraising Jog-a-Thon. He amazingly went 21 laps over a 30 minute event. Yay Josh! It was adorable, watching the 1st through 3rd graders run around a mini track while pop music was played by a DJ and all the parents stood around cheering them on. Since Drew is homeschooled he of course was with me during the event (it was held on a school morning) and Joshua's teacher invited Drew to jog along with his brother, which Joshua *loved*.
The first set of pictures is from Joshua's school fundraising Jog-a-Thon. He amazingly went 21 laps over a 30 minute event. Yay Josh! It was adorable, watching the 1st through 3rd graders run around a mini track while pop music was played by a DJ and all the parents stood around cheering them on. Since Drew is homeschooled he of course was with me during the event (it was held on a school morning) and Joshua's teacher invited Drew to jog along with his brother, which Joshua *loved*.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Halloween 2010
Another successful Halloween has concluded at the Thedakers! The kids were invited to visit at a friend's house tonight, and although Josh had a tough time and wanted to come home with me to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood, Drew chose to stay and do the candy rounds with his friends for a bit. So I took Josh around here, we came home to pass out candy (which Josh loves to do), I picked up Drew, he did another round of t-o-t in our neighborhood, then came to pass candy here too. Whew!
Drew originally wanted to dress up as a little-known video game character, but it was too complex for me to figure out, so he opted for a Lego instead. So much easier and it came out great!
Josh went with Luigi (from the Mario Bros.), which was Drew's costume from last year. Easy again!
We had fun with pumpkins, especially since I encouraged (okay, forced) the kids to do their own this year. I always carve everybodys and I wasn't doing it this year! Josh's was the cat (of course!), Drew did the bat, Eric did a last-minute silly face and I did the dragon (which came out awesome, in my opinion).
A successful evening, ending with a big bubble bath for Josh and (hopefully) sleep before 10:00pm, since it's a school night.
Drew originally wanted to dress up as a little-known video game character, but it was too complex for me to figure out, so he opted for a Lego instead. So much easier and it came out great!
We had fun with pumpkins, especially since I encouraged (okay, forced) the kids to do their own this year. I always carve everybodys and I wasn't doing it this year! Josh's was the cat (of course!), Drew did the bat, Eric did a last-minute silly face and I did the dragon (which came out awesome, in my opinion).
A successful evening, ending with a big bubble bath for Josh and (hopefully) sleep before 10:00pm, since it's a school night.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Creative Multiplication
Drew is still struggling a bit with memorizing his multiplication facts. We went ahead and moved forward in math, working on fractions, but not knowing those times tables by heart is making some of the work frustrating. Rote learning is so horribly boring, and honestly didn't seem to be working for him. He's very visual and artistic, so I started searching around for artistic, creative ways to work through the times tables.
As it often will, Waldorf saved the day! I found two approaches that Drew really enjoyed. Both ideas came from reading the blog Our Little Nature Nest (amazing stuff there if you are interested in a Waldorf approach to education, especially in the home). The two ideas, both variations of a wheel of numbers, are in the post HERE. Scroll down a bit to see the pictures of the multiplication sun and star. I will say that our art is not *nearly* as lovely as the art shown in the blog, but it was lots of fun and Drew enjoyed it, which was my whole point.
So the first idea was a sun, in which you draw a small circle in the center containing the number you are working on - 3 for example. Then you number 1-12 around the outside of the circle, as a clock would be. Each number then has a section radiating out to an outer circle - the sections will then contain the product of the two numbers, i.e. 3 and 1 will be 3, and so on. This is all colored, of course, that's the artistic fun part! Here is Drew's for 3:
The second idea has proven to be even more engaging for Drew. It's called a Waldorf Math Board, and is typically done with wood and nails. It looks like THIS. To make my life easier, I went with a cork board we already have and used pushpins instead of nails. Voila!
This design is the times table for 7. Isn't it cool?? There are 10 points around a circle, 0 to 9. You start with a string tied at the top, at 0. So, 7x1 is 7, tie the string around the 7. 7x2 is 14, tie the string around the 4 (last digit of 14), 7x3 is 21, string around the 1, and so on. Who knew math was so beautiful?
A shot of Drew working the 7's.
A close up of the pins, I just put little pieces of paper with the number written on the underneath each pin.
This is the 2 times table pattern. It's the same for a few other numbers too, of course. :)
As it often will, Waldorf saved the day! I found two approaches that Drew really enjoyed. Both ideas came from reading the blog Our Little Nature Nest (amazing stuff there if you are interested in a Waldorf approach to education, especially in the home). The two ideas, both variations of a wheel of numbers, are in the post HERE. Scroll down a bit to see the pictures of the multiplication sun and star. I will say that our art is not *nearly* as lovely as the art shown in the blog, but it was lots of fun and Drew enjoyed it, which was my whole point.
So the first idea was a sun, in which you draw a small circle in the center containing the number you are working on - 3 for example. Then you number 1-12 around the outside of the circle, as a clock would be. Each number then has a section radiating out to an outer circle - the sections will then contain the product of the two numbers, i.e. 3 and 1 will be 3, and so on. This is all colored, of course, that's the artistic fun part! Here is Drew's for 3:
The second idea has proven to be even more engaging for Drew. It's called a Waldorf Math Board, and is typically done with wood and nails. It looks like THIS. To make my life easier, I went with a cork board we already have and used pushpins instead of nails. Voila!
This design is the times table for 7. Isn't it cool?? There are 10 points around a circle, 0 to 9. You start with a string tied at the top, at 0. So, 7x1 is 7, tie the string around the 7. 7x2 is 14, tie the string around the 4 (last digit of 14), 7x3 is 21, string around the 1, and so on. Who knew math was so beautiful?
A shot of Drew working the 7's.
A close up of the pins, I just put little pieces of paper with the number written on the underneath each pin.
This is the 2 times table pattern. It's the same for a few other numbers too, of course. :)
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