Dare to Think Differently

One blessing I think CVS and Mito have done for our family is that it has made us take brave steps in thinking differently that we otherwise would not have done. Yes we all can list the things we have not been able to do because of it. This is my challenge to myself and to you to make of list of the GOOD Things that have come from it. Here is one thing I am thankful for... I will do more in future posts.

Homeschooling.
Because my son cycles frequently and requires many hospitalizations, we made the last min decision to homeschool him this past Sep. Yes I always talked about homeschooling all the kids, but well I was just not that brave to actually do it....that is until CVS. We went to first grade open house excited and nervous. We pretreated at home and prayed for the best for the first day of school the next day. But of course we got the 4am puke wake up call and were in the ER by the time he should have been getting ready for his first day of first grade. This proved to be a 6 day hospital admission this time.

 As I thought and thought as we struggled to get the puking under control even in the hospital setting...I knew something had to give. Something had to be different, outside of the box, if not I feared I'd just be moving into Southern New Hampshire Medical center for the school year. See a helpful thing was this, I'm dyslexic, and by our very nature we are very adaptive, and innovative type people. But homeschooling could I really do it. Well honestly it could not possible worse than the track we were heading on if we stayed this course. I'd already graduated high school, college and graduate school, all things that seemed un obtainable when I was in first grade.

I always said I could teach anything but not how to read and that's proving to be true... but that's a whole other story. For now what I can do is inspire him to learn in a less pressure environment and teach him in the ways he learns best. I can teach just about anything with legos :) We read stories of history and then build them. We do math problems and solve them with legos. We create scenes and then write stories about them together. I think he has the same dyslexia I do, so we do everything orally until proven other wise and we get more supports in place for that.  I read to him classics like Ralph S Mouse, Trumpet of the Swan, Geronimo Stilton books, and many more. We have quite the list of books that we've done together.

And Yes I do count Minecarft buildings as assignments. He has a natural gift with spacial learning and art that would never have been fostered to the extent it has if he was in a traditional school setting.

He's finally gaining weight and is back up to a healthy BMI (body mass index). Hospital stays are still common but spaced out further apart from every 2 weeks lasting 3 days to 6 weeks lasting 24 hours. Those are huge gains for us. He's happier, he's calmer and has more time to focus on his strengths.
 
Is this all easy? No. It's challenging.i doubt myself all the time. I question our approach.... Could this really work? Of course it can, this is how kids learned for generations. Is it different than the majority? Yes....  Is it worth it? YES! 

I'm a realist by nature. I tend to focus on what is and see what we can change and what we have to live with or deal with that's out of our control. But this leads to a greater appreciation of simple things, simple joys, and everyday blessings.  I know we won't be able to do of many your status quo stuff..trips to Disneyworld, or traditional elemtary school for him. but who says you need to? Life is about finding Joy. So what if my joy is having a short episode and short hospital stay, and joy in his latest innovative story or design and yours might be a student who's on honor roll or playing on a sports team. Joy is joy no matter where you find it. Will things always be like this.....? God only knows... but for now this is what is....and I am going take a good hard look at what is... and find the good that can come of it. D

Different is different... not necessarily all bad...and other approaches to life are not failures....ITS ALL IN THE MATTER OF THE WAY YOU CHOOSE TO VIEW IT.

 Because of this..... We get to focus on a lot of this.....