7QT and every one of them about Food.

1.

On Wednesday, Lucy made her first appearance of the day at nearly 11 o'clock am and informed me that she was leaving for a party at 5. I very matter-of-factly stated that she was making dinner.

She put chili in the slow cooker and baked corn bread from scratch. Boom.

Slow cookers are awesome in the summer.

So is Lucy.

So is this Slow Cooker Revolution Volume 2 that I use at the very least, bi-weekly.

2. Rather than wrap up the St. Jude's school year in some formal way, it just faded out. Still fading. Fading out. Fading out. Just fading out....

We are still watching documentaries and educational programs on Netflix all the time. Can't quit the 'flix.

Some of our favorites include

Ted Talks.

Leap Frog. Math or phonics, it doesn't matter. Jill loves the opposites, the rhyming, the counting, all the things. I only wish there were more Leap Frog shows streaming and Jill wishes there were more Netflix Leap Frog shows with the cute dogs aka Scout and Friends.

Fed Up. More on that coming up.

3.

Edmund and I watched Fed Up on the same day we watched Jamie Oliver's Ted Prize Wish: Teach Every Child About Food. Now, Edmund has sworn off soda and spouts factoids like "More people will die this year from obesity than from starvation." and points out to everyone with a pulse that the nutrition facts on any item with a barcode have a blank space when it comes to % daily value of sugar. Spooky.

Patrick was a little hot about some of the more obvious propaganda points. For example, the movie makes a point of saying that life and health insurance companies invest in Big Food companies. Patrick says that all large companies with 501k programs invest in portfolios and those portfolios will include Big Food, but not because of some nefarious partnership.

On the whole, Fed Up packaged the Sugar Is Bad For Us message along with lots of other new messages about science and diet and exercise, which is great because I was calling this "science class."

For example, exercise is NOT going to help Americans if they consume soda and processed foods. There aren't enough hours in a day to work off those calories. The Calories In, Calories Out message is ripped to shreds.

There are many sad statistics about the health and future of American children.

I had no idea how difficult it is for children to make healthy food choices in a public school setting. Jamie Oliver taught us how public school kitchens do not have cooking equipment. They only have "heating-up-processed-food-equipment."

The partnerships between fast food companies and soda companies and public schools was news to me. Horrifying news. I'm bothered that my daughter's private high school has a soda machine, but public school kids are being given junk food for free?!?

Jamie Oliver is spot on when he says that the problem is education. He wants to educate people on how to cook in their homes. He says every child should graduate "knowing how to make ten dishes that will save their lives."

5.

 Edmund cooks every day. Every single day, he starts off by making a wholesome breakfast from scratch. No cereal here, unless there is some sort of early morning crisis, like we are out of eggs.

6.

Jamie Oliver. Edmund. Both dyslexics who love to cook. I'm working out a brainstorm here. Edmund. Cooking show. YouTube. Teaching kids how to cook dishes that will save their lives.

And I can call it Science!

7. If you were 12 years old and going to make a vlog or series of YouTube videos, what kind of equipment would you need? What kind of program would you use? Asking for a friend.

Linking up with Kelly for Seven Quick Takes Friday, late per usual.

A Day in the Life at St. Jude's School for Kids Who Want To Read Good and Do Other Things Good Too

For the See Me Homeschool blog hop, I photo-journaled last Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, February 18th, 2015. Technically, you don't actually see me homeschool, but you see my homeschool.  I'm the one holding the camera.

The idea behind the blog hop is "a photo album of a typical homeschooling day - no words." I'd love to explain the crazy behind the chaos but I'll just have to leave it up to your imaginations.

There is one cheater photo in the bunch. The picture of Edmund altar serving isn't actually from Ash Wednesday, but he did serve noon mass last week. My hands are pretty full when he serves. Even though I brought my camera last Wednesday, I didn't get the opportunity to use it.

Welcome to St. Jude's!

.  

 

Many thanks to Theresa of Ordinary Lovely and Micaela of California to Korea for hosting the See Me Homeschool blog hop and for inviting me to participate. Thank You!

To learn more about our homeschool journey, here is an interview I did for the How I Homeschool blog hop.

To learn more about homeschooling and dyslexia, here are some other posts I've written as part of a series I'm working on:

Catholic, Homeschooling, and Dyslexic: Diagnosis
Catholic, Homeschooling, and Dyslexic: Religion Class

This post is the one where our homeschool was born.

Be sure to check out the other See Me Homeschool participants! Today, you can also check out Erin's homeschool over at Seven Little Australians and Counting.

7QT Friday: blah, blah, blah, GIVEAWAY!

1. Happiness is letting your 3 year old burst into her older sisters' bedroom to wake them up with Rebecca Black's Friday blaring from your iPhone.

2.

Theresa of Ordinary Lovely and Micaela from California to Korea (and back again) are running a blog hop called See Me Homeschool. (You can read my interview for Micaela's How I Homeschool series here.)

You can get an in-depth look into the chaos that is St. Jude's School for Kids Who Want To Read Good and Do Other Things Good Too on Monday, February 23rd.

That's Monday, Monday, better check back on Monday...

Dang song stuck in my head.

There are lots of other (better) homeschooling bloggers participating so be sure to check out their homeschools too. Here is the blog hop schedule.

If YOU have a homeschool and want to participate, there's a link-up and an Instagram hashtag (#seemehomeschool).

3. This is a short video of actress Frances McDormand saying wise things about aging and womanhood. 

4.

I've been having far too much fun over at the Twice website. Technically, it's Like Twice. Twice is another one of those online secondhand stores, but with higher end clothing and...

wait for it...

Actual Measurements of the Actual Items for sale!

Do you realize what this means?

It means a much higher chance of getting something that actually fits!

Not only that, but the Twice people include the "fit" in the description.

Lemme 'splain.

The women in this house wear Julie fit pants from LOFT. Over at Twice, if the tag says "Julie," they let the web readers know that detail!

They also have good prices and a great return policy. They'll give me a little bonus if you sign up through my link and they'll give YOU a $10 credit!

5. RobinsOwn Soap Shoppe on Etsy.

You must go to there.

Robin makes soap by hand in her home using goat's milk and a cold process method that I do not understand.

I do understand that the soap is beautiful to see, smell, and touch.

Brown Sugar Soap

Edmund uses the Cedar Bay in the shower. Patrick uses a bar of Sexy Man he got for Christmas.

We currently have a lovely sweet wine heart-shaped soap in the powder room. Who knew that wine scented soap would smell so delicate and clean?

I got wee rashy Polly the Simply Goat's Milk shown above.

Pumpkin Bier, or as I think of it, Cinnamon Goodness

Robin is always adding new scents and shapes and I have yet to receive one I didn't care for.

I don't have a picture of them, but for Christmas I gave some people Robin's Madonna and Child shaped Cherry Almond soaps.

Sunshine Yuzu

In the past, we have also enjoyed the Frankincense and Myrrh, the Pumpkin Bier, and the Sunshine Yuzu flavors too. Sunshine Yuzu is my favorite everyday hand soap scent. Yuzu is a Japanese Lemon.

I'm saving this one for summer. It's called Icky Yucky Hands.  It's so pretty, it looks like it would taste good.

Robin is a single mom who runs her Soap Shoppe out of her own home.  She doesn't have a car, so she walks to the post office to deliver her handmade products every Friday.

I don't know Robin and she has no idea who I am, but I do know her soaps and recommend them to everyone I know.  I call her "my soap lady."

6. A GIVEAWAY!

I am going to give one of you LUCKY readers this gorgeous bar of Blackberry Sage Dragon soap AND the teal soap dish pictured here.

Just hop over to Robin's Shop then come back and tell me what you think looks good in my comment box. I will choose a winner from the commenters so please make sure your contact info is accessible.

The winner will be chosen sometime in the next week when I get around to it. Probably by Wednesday because I'm planning a WWRW post for that day.

Patrick just stuck his head over my shoulder and said, "What are you blogging about? Soap! I love her soap!"

7.

I did not do a What We're Reading Wednesday post this week, but the February link-up lasts all month.  Next month's link up will be on March 4th.

Linking up with Kelly for 7QT Friday! Friday! Gotta Get Down on Friday!

Catholic, Homeschooling, and Dyslexic: Diagnosis

I probably should have started this series with the diagnosis.  Better late than never.

How did we find out that Edmund is dyslexic?

In kindergarten, his teacher wanted him tested for speech. No issue there. He just couldn't pronounce all 6 sounds for "r" yet, including the sound in her name. His vocabulary tested at age 14. Maybe above that. They stopped testing him when he demonstrated mastery of a 14 year old's vocabulary.

When Edmund was in kindergarten, I read Tolkien's The Hobbit to him. He loved it.

I met with his teacher about his "not meeting expectations" grades and she emphasized that he was one of the younger children in the classroom. How could this be? He has a January birthday!

Lots of children, especially boys, are held back these days. I've heard it called "the Texas Hold'em." Kindergarten expectations have soared. Children are expected to read BEFORE kindergarten. Along with increased height and strength for sports purposes, there are loads of advantages with waiting until a kid is age 6 before entering kindergarten. Wish I had done this for my boys. But hindsight is 20/20.

In first grade, he bombed the five word spelling test each week.  I met with his teacher. She stressed that "boys are late bloomers." Edmund is left-handed. The teacher explained that left-handed boys are especially late bloomers. She saw no reason to have him tested for anything.

Disney Princesses do exist!

Second grade, he muddled along with a kind teacher who graded him kindly. Plus, I found a lovely Disney Princess reading specialist tutor to work with Edmund on reading and spelling after school. We loved her and she loved Edmund, and she moved away a few years later.

Third grade, another kind-hearted teacher who loved him and saw nothing wrong with him. Straight As. But, third grade brought the first standardized tests.

He scored below the fifth percentile.

Gut punch.

Still, the teacher sighted boys, left-handers, late-bloomerism.  She did amend his spelling tests to ten words instead of twenty. She also let us have spelling words and some test assignments early so that the tutor could help him study and pre-read the tests.

My late sister, Mary, was an educator in a Catholic school that specializes in serving learning disabled kids.  No, not in my diocese unfortunately. The Archdiocese of St. Louis has a Special Ed department. They test kids for disabilities and educate learning disable students. As far as I know, it's the only Catholic diocese in the nation that serves learning disabled students.

I spoke with Mary often over these years, asking her for advice, telling her my fears. She was/is Edmund's godmother, and was so very helpful to me during this time. She was the one to suggest testing him for learning disabilities.  Her exact words were "if there is that big of a discrepancy between his grades and his test scores, that's a red flag. That signifies a learning disability."

This is my last picture of Mary, Christmas 2011.  She passed away in July of  2012. You can read more about her here.

Another friend agreed with Mary and had the name and number of a neuropsychologist that she had used with her own children.

I called the number, made an appointment for four months out, and waited.

That spring, after a day of testing, we learned that Edmund is smart, but learning disabled, specifically in reading. Learning disabilities in reading are many and varied. Edmund's disability specifically has to do with phonemes and phonemic awareness. All learning disabilities that have to do with reading fall under the umbrella of dyslexia.

Undiagnosed.

Having a diagnosis was so freeing!  I can't tell you what it meant to Edmund and me and Patrick to learn that he is not lazy (as one teacher surmised "Perhaps he just wasn't paying attention in kindergarten."), he is not stupid, he is handicapped. And there was so much we could do about it!

Sixteen weeks after the testing, we received a 16 page report from the neuropsych that included recommendations for re-learning how to read with a multi-sensory curriculum. I found a Wilson tutor, and another wonderful relationship was formed. You can read about that tiny miracle and how my sister guides her godson from the afterlife here.

Once we had a diagnosis, the Catholic school was willing to make some accommodations for Edmund, including reading standardized tests to him and giving him extra time for all tests.

However, in fourth grade, the day of the standardized test, I was informed that he would not be given any accommodations without an IEP (Individualized Education Plan). In the eyes of the administrator, the 16 page report from an MD was worthless without a piece of paper from the public school system.

Off to the public school we went! And they used that 16 page report, administered one or two additional tests, observed him in his classroom and corroborated everything that the neuropsychologist had concluded. What a pile of red tape and wasted time to help a child.

We did learn one interesting fact. The school psychologist who observed Edmund reported that he paid attention better than 80% of his classmates. Boom.

We muddled through fourth grade despite his teacher's confusion about learning disabilities vs. behavioral disabilities. "He seems to understand. He sits still in the classroom." And headed into fifth grade.

Despite, the diagnosis and subsequent IEP (Individualized Education Plan), our Catholic school was unable to meet Edmund's needs. You can read about our transition to homeschooling here.

In addition to attending St. Jude's School for Kids Who Want to Read Good and Do Other Things Good Too, Edmund still sees a Wilson tutor for two hours a week. They are finished with the Wilson program, so together they read books, write reports, and work on spelling and grammar.

Edmund uses Bookshare on an iPad and since the first of this year, he has completed three novels on his own (not for school) and is well into his fourth.

Bookshare is paid for by a grant from the federal government for students with a diagnosis of dyslexia. Bookshare shows the text of a book while playing the audio, and here is the wonderful thing about Bookshare: It highlights each word as it's read to him. He can also adjust font size and audio speed to his own preferences.

We were very fortunate at the time of Edmund's testing that it was covered by our health insurance. The diagnosis and IEP are valid for three years, so we will have to decide how to go about repeating the experience next year post-Obamacare.

If you think your child might have a learning disability, or if you see a huge discrepancy between grades and standardized test scores, private medical testing, or testing through your local public school district might shed some light.

Other posts I've written on these topics:

The Founding of St. Jude's School for Kids Who Want To Read Good and Do Other Things Good Too or How Edmund Quit School

My interview with Micaela at California to Korea on How I Homeschool

Catholic, Homeschooling, and Dyslexic:  Religion Class