spring into action...

last evening, the 2nd & 3rd grade classes at the kiddos' school put on a Physical Education program called Spring Into Action...Jaden (he's in 3rd grade) had a small speaking part...

then the classes doubled up & performed little dances to different songs...one group did the Bunny Hop...

another group had a cute little routine to that infamous Hamster Song...

oh, & the funniest part about that Hamster Song was Jaden - over on the side, sitting down & mouthing every word perfectly...well, i guess if u can call those words ~lol~

the next crew did the Cha Cha Slide...which u know the girls thoroughly enjoyed watching & clapping along to! ;0)

& then Jaden's class (& 1 other class) were up...they performed an adorable line dance to Cotton Eyed Joe...too cute!



then all the classes came to the floor...the last song was Can't Sit Down - encouraging us all to get out & play...choose to be active instead of sitting in front of video games & TV...

each group took turns showing off some different activities...turns out, Jaden has some major hula-hoop-around-the-neck skills!

& check out the video...it's starts out slow, but stay tuned til the 0:55 mark...my son, the superstar!!!

needless to say, he was on cloud nine after the program! as we were walking out of the school afterward, he says "Ma, did you see their faces when i spun my hula hoop?! they were cheering for me!"

♥

a new awareness...

this post was written by autistic college student, Cale...posted on his unbelievably interesting blog, Spectrum Siblings...i really like what he had to say, so i'm posting it here...

So, as you are all probably aware, April is autism awareness month. And if you ever leave your home, you’ll probably find flyers hung up just about everywhere broadcasting things like:

• Autism affects as many as 1 in 150 children and 1 in 94 boys
• Autism is the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the world
• More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with diabetes, cancer, & AIDS combined
• Boys are four times more likely than girls to have autism
• Autism has no cure!

There will mostly likely be a collection of exclamation points after each line, and possibly the web address for Autism Speaks. No doubt there will be a puzzle piece or perhaps several on the flyer. But all this scaremongering does little to actually help autistics or the individuals who care for them. Sure, they’re raising awareness, but not all publicity is good publicity.

If you are thinking about hanging up an autism awareness flyer, here are some things you might want to write instead:

• There are autistic people employed in every imaginable profession.
• Autism is not a synonym for stupid or retarded. In fact, many autistics have average IQ’s, and some have IQ’s far above the normal range.
• Autistics fall in love, get married, and even have children.
• With proper support, most autistic adults can live independent or semi-independent lives. However, the majority of states have little to no support for autistics above the age of 18.
• Autism is incurable. But when asked, many autistics respond that they do not want to be cured.
• Autistic children have a profound effect on their families. Their siblings are more empathetic, nurturing, and accepting of other’s differences than their peers. Their parents learn to enjoy life’s small joys, and celebrate each new development.
• Although their expression may be atypical, autistics can still feel emotions. Autistic or not, it hurts when someone stares at you, calls you names, or belittles your existence.

Let’s get the ball rolling on changing the public’s opinion of autism.

Autism: It’s not what you think.

Easter weekend recap...a picture marathon...

i worked from home on Friday...the kiddos were out of school on spring break, & the daycare was closed for Good Friday...thankfully, my punks did a great job keeping themselves entertained most of the day...it was a gorgeous day outside (in the 80s!), so they spent a lot of time outside enjoying the weather...& as soon as quittin' time rolled around, i joined them!

we'd planned to dye our Easter Eggs...we'd gotten 2 different kits this year - a tie dye set & a set to make the eggs all shiny & glittery

the tie dye kit worked the best...u used droppers to add tiny drops of color to ur egg, while u held it in a baggie...then add another color (or 2) & roll the egg around to swirl the colors together

they came out brighter & the process was quicker than old fashioned dipping

we went ahead & colored all our eggs, then left the shiny kit for the next day since the eggs needed to be dry to add the shine

Rocket joined us outside...he kept watch, making sure that evil cat didn't come around to bother us ;0)

here are our finished eggs after we added the shine effect on Saturday...we were super proud of how they turned out!

another critter that caught Rocket's attention while we were outside dying eggs was this little mama kill deer bird...

she would sit out in the grass with her hubby, just squawking away - trying to keep our attention on her, & not her nest...but finally, i found the eggs...& it was a good thing too - she'd literally laid her eggs under where my brother's hauling trailer had been parked...she was lucky he didn't run over her eggs when he pulled it out...or that he hadn't returned it yet & backed over them

& check this...when i went back out to peek at her eggs on Sunday, there was one more!

i went ahead & surrounded her nest with markers so it wouldn't get run over...i'm just hoping that once the babies hatch, their parents are good at keeping Night away...i'll probably cry if that killer cat gets a hold of them!

Jaden went to bed that evening with a migraine...bless his heart - we knew he didn't feel well when he was only able to take one bite of his pizza, then asked for medicine & decided he was going to bed...thankfully, he woke up just fine on Saturday! that day was pretty chill...i had a wedding cake consultation that morning, but mostly we just hung out & soaked up all the sunshine!

of course Sunday was Easter...& the Easter Bunny sure enough found his way to our new home (Jaden was worried about that)

this was the first year that the kiddos picked out their own Easter outfits...the girls, completely on their own! Jaden only cared that his clothes were blue...i helped him with finding something appropriate ;0)

Easter Sunday service was the children's Easter performance of a story called 'Good News from the Grave'...

Jaden had a solo & the girls sang a song with 2 other little boys...they all had speaking parts as well & everyone did great! once again, they made us super proud!!!



Jaden's solo:
24 hours was all Jesus had
with His disciples, He met to break bread
showing His love, He washed their dirty feet
"I have to go now, but you cannot come"
that's what He said when the end had begun
as they left singing, their music was bittersweet

after church, we ran home to change, then went over to Nana & Grandpa's for a cook-out & outside fun!

& of course, we had to have Easter egg hunts! this year, we skipped the candy altogether (since all the kiddos got plenty from Mr. Bunny already!) and loaded the eggs with one dollar bills & quarters...the kiddos loved it!

the men had the job of hiding eggs...

Scooby says "what egg?!" ~lol~

no Joe, no one will ever find that one! ;0)

let the hunting begin!

& u know we couldn't hang out at the grandparent's without riding 4-wheelers & riding the flyers...we had a great time & left with full bellies...it was definitely a fun, blessed day!

& that's not all!

we'd also promised the kiddos a campfire that night...Curtis was off (very rare on a weekend evening) & the weather was perfect!

while we got the fire going, the rugrats tried out their new bubble guns that the Easter Bunny had brought them...

& daddy got some sticks ready for marshmallow roasting ;0)

we made lots of s'mores & relaxed by the fire...

swinging as the sun fell behind the mountains...

the perfect way to end such a fun weekend...

interesting facts about the world & technology...

thanks to my friend BC at Sincerely, B for posting this to her Facebook page...how unbelievably interesting! especially for those of us with small kiddos - imagining what their futures may hold...things that make ya go hmmmm, right?!

well on her way to becoming a fluent reader...

recently, one of Jaden's special education teachers asked if she could pull Corinn out of class one day for a literacy assessment project she needed to do for her graduate program...she needed a beginning reader, but didn't currently have any in the special ed program...she said Corinn came to mind & wondered if it would be alright to do the assessment on her...she promised to share her findings with me, so of course i said yes...this is probably pretty boring for most of u, but i found it fascinating...& i'm sure our family will too, so i'm sharing it here

Corinn is a 6 year-old kindergartner who enjoys playing Hide-n-Go Seek with her brother, sister, and cousins. She moved into a new home with her family this fall, and she enjoys her yard where she and her siblings play around a certain tree they call their clubhouse. Corinn’s brother is in third grade, her sister in first, and her home is a loving, supportive environment where the children are encouraged to think independently and enjoy creative activities. Both of Corinn’s parents work outside the home, and she and her siblings spend mornings and afternoons in daycare where Corinn says she has fun. Corinn reports that her favorite day is “summer,” and she drew a summer scene of her favorite tree to share with me. Corinn was interested in reading “Spot” books aloud to me, including Where’s Spot? and Spot Bakes a Cake. While she had not yet mastered every word in either of these books, she enjoyed lifting the flaps in the illustrations to show me what was underneath. Corinn’s teacher describes her as creative and cooperative and notes that Corinn is “an excellent student.” Corinn was very willing to work at every task with me and clearly wanted to please with her cooperation and interest.

Individual Alphabetics subtest scores follow:

Subtest 1, “Letter Identification” Corinn confidently and easily identified 26 lower case alphabet letters, correcting herself quickly when she identified “x” as “k.” She enjoyed pointing to each letter with flair, using a decorative pencil.

Subtest 2, “Letter Production” Corinn wrote all 26 letters readily, interspersing capital and lowercase formations and needing little time to consider each letter. She reversed the following letters: j, h, r, f, and z.

Subtest 3, “Letter-Sound Production” Corinn willingly used her decorative pencil to point to each of the uppercase letters listed as she verbalized the sounds. She identified 25 of 26 letter sounds correctly; her only error was identifying “th” as /t/ as in “top” which she corrected when asked a second time.

Subtest 4, “Phonics/Spelling” Corinn was comfortable with the spelling assessment because, as she stated, “We do this in my class every week!” She spelled three letter words with ease and confidence (van, pet, rug, sad). As the first word with a blend was called (plum), her confidence wavered a bit as she said, “I don’t know that word.” After encouragement, she wrote what she heard while she verbalized the word several times. The assessment continued in this manner (chip, shine), and when “skate” was called, Corinn’s face lit up. She said, “That’s my name!” and quickly wrote the word with the “s” on the end to make her last name. She sounded out “float” and “treat” for a total score of 31 of 40 possible points.

Corinn’s total Alphabetics score was 108 of 118 possible points, indicating that she has a firm grasp of letter recognition and letter sounds. She is fairly strong when working with blends and digraphs. She may soon be ready for instruction in long vowel patterns.

Word Identification, Subtest 1, “Word-List Reading” Corinn read the preprimer word list confidently with the exception of “with” where she paused for several moments before saying, “I don’t know this word.” When asked if she wanted to take a guess, she shook her head no. She correctly read 18 of 20 words. Corinn was much more hesitant with the primer word list, preferring to say, “I don’t know” rather than making guesses, and correctly reading 6 of 20 words.

Word Identification, Subtest 2, “Concept of Word” Corinn cooperatively participated in the activities for Sand Castle even though her ability to read over 15 preprimer words precluded her from this subtest. (She agreed in order for this examiner to learn how to administer the subtest.) As expected, Corinn achieved a perfect score of 16 out of 16.

Word Identification, Subtest 3, “Word Identification in Text” Corinn was eager to read both small books for this portion of the assessment. She stopped at the second word in Sam, “has,” and said, “I don’t know that word.” I supplied it, and she continued through the rest of the book, pointing to each word accurately. She substituted “what” for “out” and scored 28 correct words of 30 possible for 93% accuracy. Corinn jumped into My Huge Dog Max eagerly and again read with accurate tracking. She was more willing to guess at words in context, substituting such words as “this” for “that’s” and “in” for “under” and scored 65 correct words of 72 possible for 90% accuracy. She enjoyed investigating the similarities between the illustrations in both books and suggested, “The same person probably drew both of these!”

Corinn’s writing sample consisted of beginning and ending consonant sounds and several correctly spelled sight words. She reversed the letter “j” as she had when she wrote the letters out of context, but “just,” “like,” and “and” were spelled correctly. Corinn used a capital letter at the start of her sentence and an exclamation point at the end. Her sentence described her love of warm weather—“I just like spring and summer!”

Results of the Book Buddies Assessment for Emergent Readers, Second Edition place Corinn at Preprimer level 3 overall. Corinn is moving from the emergent reading stage into the beginning reader stage with age-appropriate skills. Effective instruction for Corinn at this point will include the following: 1) development of a personal word bank, 2) reading of books at Reading Recovery levels 7-8, 3) introduction of context clues strategies to assist reading of unknown words, 4) primer sight word practice, and 5) encouragement for practice and rereading of familiar text. She is well on her way to becoming a fluent reader!

guaranteed to make you smile!

bringing ☮ peace ☮ to the world thru music...beautiful!

read more about Playing For Change---->>>here

(almost) wordless Wednesday...uh oh...

am i one of those dog owners that strangely resembles their pet?
~lol~

weekend recap...

our weekend was pretty chill...we did go see How to Train Your Dragon with the kiddos on Saturday...of course, Jaden started counting down to the release date (which was last Friday) as soon as they started airing the trailers a few months ago...so he wasn't gonna let us forget that it was out! we all went & had a great time - it was a really sweet movie!

of course, 2 days after we get a dog, it starts raining & doesn't stop! well, it's stopped a little here & there, but mostly it's been raining continuously since Friday night!

luckily, Rocket is the BEST DOG ON EARTH! he totally tolerates letting me towel dry him off each & every time he comes in from the rain...he actually kind of enjoys it...he's got such personality! he's very obedient & super sweet to all of us...he does awesome in his crate & hasn't had any potty accidents yet...he's fitting in with us perfectly - i'm so glad he found his way into our home! :0)

we did get in a little outside time Friday evening before all the rain hit...

i think Spring is officially here!

& look what showed up on our sidewalk Saturday morning...

u're guess is as good as mine!
i'm thinking maybe Night found a nearby fish pond?