Finding Inspiration

The past few days have been spent on WebEx presentations by BrainPop and STMath - talking about new features and teacher resources.  It felt good to learn new things and see new possibilities.  We're upgrading to the 4th grade level curriculum on both programs (while maintaing access to previous levels on some subjects).

Liam is currently finding inspiration in the idea of parodies.  He was binge-watching the Sesame Street parodies of current movies and TV shows and has been coming up with his own ideas, starring his favorite characters, Gator Boys (shadow puppets we perform before bed) and Spiffyman (an original character based on Spiffy Pictues logo).  He loves wordplay.   His favorite is "The Thirsty Games: Throwing Ice" a "Hunger Games: Catching Fire" parody.

He's also learned to piggyback his own character designs onto other people's  MITScratch videos - changing characters and dialogue, but keeping the backgrounds and actions.  This is a pretty common practice on Scratch, with animators attributing their videos to several previous versions.  It's something he figured out all on his own.  Here is a short Spiffyman video piggybacked onto a previous creation by another animator.  He actually knows enough code now to create this level of animation himself.  I hope to tease that out of him in the next few days.




Today, I found a great quote on Facebook, that really describes the biggest challenge that Liam faces.  Liam is missing step three at the moment.  While this is meant to be an inspirational quote, it works quite literally as well.  Without the ability to assign meaning and create our own story, we can be happy in the moment, but we aren't actively creating our future.  Slowly, an awareness of past and future is creeping in for Liam, but he's a few steps away from weaving it into a story.

Today, we watched a new lesson on digital animation on the upgraded BrainPop program that talked about Flash Animation.  Liam learned Flash from a brillaint teacher a couple of years ago.  As I'd hoped, he lit up when he saw the video and said, "I'm going to make a Spiffy film tomorrow in Flash!" I can't wait.

Here's to inspiration - wherever we find it!

When Did THAT Happen?

I was hanging a wet washcloth to dry on the railing above the tub and had a flashback to a railing filled with wet underpants.  It was during the "Three Day Potty Training" when Liam turned 3.  I remember how worried I was that Liam's communication delay would make it hard for him to follow the directions.  Day one,  we used 18 pairs of underpants.  Day two, we used 8, Day three, we used one.  It worked!

A three-year-old Liam, self decorated with a Blues Clue

Today I watched my nearly 9 year old dash to the bathroom to answer the call of nature without hesitation and get ready to meet another challenge - taking a bath by himself.  Getting his hair all wet has always been tricky.  Although we recently installed a detachable shower head, so he could hold it and wet/rinse his hair, he still perfers to wash it in the tub, so I've been pushing him to follow all of the steps himself.  And today, he did it.  Yes, I had hang out and remind him of WHAT to do, but he managed it by himself.

Nearly nine and enjoying "foamy gloves" in the tub

And, how did we get to the end of a school year so fast?  On Monday, Liam reached 100% completion on his ST Math program.  He's still enjoying doing the "Challenge" lessons until we switch to the fourth grade curriculum on July 1st.  Lessons on BrainPop Jr. and BrainPop ESL continue on and I even catch him logging on his free time to play the games and re-watch favorite video lessons.  Wasn't it just the day before yesterday when I was worried we wouldn't have enough materials to work with?

Today, we needed to pick out new frames for his glasses and he easily answered the saleswoman's questions and had very strong opinions about which frames he liked (the black ones).

I'm looking forward to a day in the future when he dissapears into the bathroom and emerges clean and dry and I'll wonder again, "when did THAT Happen?"

English as a Second Language

Ever since Liam was little, he's loved English as a second language sites.  The simplicity and repetition helped him to learn colors, shapes and letters well before preschool.  He even went the other way and learned the alphabet and number systems of several other languages and some simple words.  Here Liam uses his "Oobie" puppet to recite the Greek alphabet:

We were reviewing the online program that Liam likes, BrainPop, to see about buying a subscription to the next level, when we noticed that they had an English as a Second Language (ESL) program.

Like the other BrainPop programs, this one stars the robot, Moby and his new friend, Ben.  There are short movies with optional subtitles which play out scenarios in which the characters use different parts of speech naturally in a conversation.  After each movie, Liam can practice the new parts of speech and take a quiz and even play related games.  

He loves it (especially Moby, who only speaks in "beeps") and I've found him going to the site on his own to play games. He even seems to be grasping pronouns better since we started playing on the site.  The good thing is how easy it is to revisit each lesson.  With every viewing, Liam takes in more and more.  

I'm not sure if speech teachers working with Autistic kids have used this strategy, but it's really making sense to Liam.  I'm just glad we've found a fun way to fill in some of the gaps and help Liam expand his ability to take in and express bigger ideas.  

Major Leaps

Last week, my husband performed in and helped do sound design for a very good, short student film for a family friend.  We kept a copy and John showed it to Liam.  The assignment had been to tell a story with little dialogue.  The resulting dark comedy had some great sight gags and was scored in part with the song "Shaboom,"  both of which Liam adored.

After watching the film, he said, "I can make a movie too."

We've seen how much he loves visual effects, animation and shooting movies, but this was the first time he'd ever articulated it for himself.

This revelation follows close on the heels of smaller declarations of independence, like telling me, "no, I'm still playing on my computer" when asked if he wanted to join me at the store, and insisting that he be notified any time we plan on doing laundry because it is "my turn to do it."

In a few weeks, he'll be turning 9.  Last year, when I asked him who he wanted to come to his birthday party, he had no strong ideas.  This year, when I asked, he said, "EVERYBODY!"

So cool to see him growing in self-awareness.  Now that he wants to let everybody in, I think I'm going to need a bigger birthday cake.

How's It Going?

Well - it's been almost 6 months since we started the homeschool experience.  When people ask how it's going, I'd love to show them this picture:

Liam is happy and growing (clearly, in more ways than one).  In this Easter picture, taken at our neighbor's house, he's wearing an outfit he picked out - bright yellow pants and a purple sweatshirt and the ever-present Oobie eyes. 

The cast of Oobie - a wonderful preschool show of bare-handed puppets!
 

Liam is doing GREAT with his ST Math progam (now over 80% complete for the year) 

JiJi the penguin's progress postcard showing 80% completeion of the ST Math program from UC Davis

He's been voluntarily choosing reading lessons during our forays onto Brainpop Jr. where we've been using old, favorite short stories like "Frog and Toad" to practice book reports, inference and prediciton.

 

The lessons on magnatism have turned into a fun game of "I'm a magnet and you're iron!" where we take turns chasing each other around the house and sticking to each other.

In his free time, Liam has been exploring "Scratch" and redesigning characters in other people's videos and games.  https://scratch.mit.edu/

He also loves to take videos and then add crazy video effects.

On the home-front, he absolutely insists on doing the laundry (sans folding) and helping with the dishwasher and microwave. What started out as a fascination with the digital displays on the appliances has turned into what seems to be an enjoyable job.  He likes to show off his independence - and has become very clear about claiming his personal space.  All of us laugh when he pushes me or his dad out of his room saying "leave me alone!"  

The neighbor kids have been coming over in the afternoons and on the weekends to ask Liam out to ride scooters on our dead-end street and he enjoys racing out to join them.  And we've continued to go back to his old school two afternoons a week to take advantage of after-school programs in art and computer coding for video games (they use Hour of Code - http://hourofcode.com/us).  His old classmates always greet him warmly and he smiles back.  It's clear he enjoys time around the other kids and an hour or two is about all he needs before wanting to go back home.  

So, in the past 6 months, I've watched Liam grow as a happy, confident kid.  That's how it's going.  

Thank You a Lot!

"Thank you a lot!"  came flying with Liam through the two front seats of the parked car, along with a surprise hug.  We'd just gotten back from a trip to Liam's favorite arcade and instead of the usual dash to the front door, he took a moment to thank me.

I've been savoring more and more moments like this lately.  Listening to questions about increasingly complicated ideas - "what does "weird" mean?"
"It means "unusual."
"What does "unusual" mean?"
"Well, when I turn on the computer in the morning, I expect to hear this sound, "bong!"  If I heard this sound (loud rooster crow) - that would be unusual and I'd say, "that's weird!"
Peals of laughter at the idea of the Mac making rooster sounds.

Watching him eagerly chasing down the neighbor boy on his scooter calling after him, "Where are you going?"  Easy, natural and new.

Giving ourselves time and space to think and just be feels good - healthy.

Because Liam takes after-school classes, I'm still on the mailing list for his old school.  I saw today that his class was going on a field trip.  I've accompanied those trips - hearding teams of chatty, excited children.  Lots of crowd management.  I couldn't help but compare it to the leisurly pace of our last field trip to the La Brea Tar Pits.  We all went together for the special homeschool day.  Small family groups of mixed age children exploring what interested them - taking their time.

He's growing as an artist too.  This is a recent drawing from his after-school art class:

John and I have more time to research, think, plan and take advantage of extended time together.  I've read that the happiest people are those that take time to be grateful.  So, I just want to join my son in saying, "thank you, a lot!"

Chemistry

The last time we were at Target, I took Liam to the toy aisle and he saw the kits containing little science projects.  He wordlessly tossed the Volcano and the Slime making kits into the cart.  OK then, time for a little chemistry.

I'm sorry that I was too busy keeping Liam from emptying an entire 2 gallon container of vinegar into the plastic mountain to get pictures of the Volcano in action, but suffice to say, it was a big, messy hit.

Next up was slime.  Honestly, if Liam hadn't been along and chosen it, the Slime kit would've stayed at Target.  But Liam was so excited he begged for two days, until we finally had nice enough weather for another outdoor science experiment.

The kit came with powders and dyes, so that you could make the slime red or green, glow-in-the-dark or magnetic.

Liam decided an all-in-one slime to be the best.  Here he is, mixing red dye into the setting slime so that it looks like the spewtem of a TB patient:

After he finished with his slime, it was captured in a paper cup.  My reaction?

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find kid-friendly explinations of chemical reactions that Liam could access right now.  I'm thinking of breaking out the microscope and starting to examine things under higher and higher magnification, until we can talk about molecules.  In the meantime, chemistry is just, fizz, ooze, ewwww.

The Zen of Autism

Sometimes I think my son would be worshipped as a bodhisattva in the Buddhist community.  He is perfectly Zen.  There is only now.  Each action is a pleasure (or displeasure) unto itself and outcomes are meaningless.  He isn't even attached to his artwork.  I could turn my front yard into a zen sand garden and he'd be perfectly happy to redraw it daily.

I think.

You see, I just don't know what he's really thinking.  He can't talk about it.  I don't mean in that "typical guy" way - he really can't express his thoughts verbally.  And when he writes, it's in bright fragments that don't connect.

And that's where the moments of displeasure come in.  Like last night, he started crying hard over some malfunction in a program.  "Why are you sad?"  "What do you want it to do?"  "How can we help you?"  All questions were met with the script, "This is the worst day ever!"

He just couldn't do it.  He couldn't say what he needed, because he works from moment to moment without a goal - without a plan - without an overarching idea, so when it doesn't work, he can't retrace his steps or tell where the problem is.  How can you find a weak link when there are no links?

(As it happened his free trial of "Videopad" was over and it's become his go-to for video and sound editing.   Guess what we just bought?)

Another example of missing meaning was when we went to the first meeting for Special Olympics for track.  He sort-of followed along, from moment to moment, but if he was too far from the person giving the instructions, he'd wander a few feet away and play kick-the-dirt or spin around.  Even running the track, he got distracted, started walking along the berm and eventually lost track of the other runners and ended up with the younger kids (the kids in his age group had long returned to the other end of the field).  He didn't have a problem with doing any of the things asked, but he clearly had no idea why he was there.  Why do you run?  What is a race?  What is competetion - or even sport?

If someone from another galaxy came to Earth and asked about competetion, how would you explain it?  "You try to do better than the other people."  "Why?"  "Because it's fun to win!"  "Why?"  Liam's social wiring is not able to take in the purpose of this getting-together-for-competetion idea.  In fact, if he's watching a movie or TV show and there is a bad guy, he will say, "NO - he's a GOOD guy!"  No competetion, no opposition.

In order to want to compete, you have to have an ego, and Liam shows no sign of it.  There is no value assigned to his ideas, his art or his work. It happened and it was fun or not.  Moving on.

So the little bodhisattva is both blessed to be so content and challenged to understand OUR need for meaning.  Because, one day, we won't be here to interpret for him, and others may not be as patient, kind or accepting of someone who wants, but can't say why and is brilliant, but cannot apply it to any purpose we can share.  We'll keep looking.  In the meantime - I'll work to appreciate the moments more - seems like there's some wisdom in that.

Perspective

When our kids are in school, they disappear for 6 hours, during which time the classroom teachers have to figure out how to cover language arts, math, "nutrition breaks," PE, Art, Music, science, computer lab and still be prepared for the seemingly arbitrary testing schedule on which they themselves will also be evaluated.  I also know, from my previous teaching experience that sometimes, in a 40 minute class, it can take up to 20 minutes to get everone going in the same direction.

I have great respect and a little awe for the teachers who work in schools.

So, I was nervous at first that we wouldn't stack up.  First of all, I knew that without the prospect of herding kids through a jam-packed schedule we'd be teaching far fewer than 6 hrs./ day.  Figuring out how many hours of instruction would happen each day was one of our first challenges.  We seem to have finally found the balance - fewer classes per day, but more time per class.  Sessions on ST Math or Grammer Trainer usually run about an hour.  Science experiments also go about an hour, but we go through a couple at a setting (exploring polarization and the laws of attraction in magnets, for example).    Other subjects vary between 40 min and an hour.

We get a lot done, but there is certainly more space in our day.  Are we doing enough?   A couple of days ago, I did a little happy dance when I got this e-mail from Liam's online math program:

It means that in the 2 months since we began using the program, we've completed 40% of the ENTIRE 3rd grade math curriculum.  And he likes it.  I know this because of how he reacts when he gets it wrong.  He gets angry.  He's angry because he cares.

We also do work on other programs for reading comprehension and grammar skills.  When he gets it wrong in those areas, his mind drifts, he yawns and he starts talking about ANYTHING but what he's supposed to be doing.   He's escaping because he doesn't care.  

In both cases, I'm grateful for the flexible schedule, because like it or not, the solution is pretty much the same - keep doing it until he get it.  

Because sometimes you'll feel the great satisfaction of conquering something you care about and sometimes you feel the relief of just getting through some crap you don't, but you have to learn to push ahead, either way.  Yesterday, after an exhausting session on comparing fractions, Liam finally got 100% on his quiz and wanted to take a picture with it (my pic of his pic taken in photo booth).  Totally worth it.

At this point in the process,  I'm grateful for the space to notice why things are hard and the time to work it out.

For the Love of All Things. . .Fuzzy

I have mixed feelings about petting zoos.  I know that the animals are subjected to a constant assault of well-meaning, if inept little hands.  But for Liam's sake, I'm glad of them.  Awareness of other living creatures came slowly for Liam.  His interest in the cats finally made him crawl, but once moblie, he forgot all about them until about 2 years ago.

Dogs have always been a little frightening to him.  I think it's dog-kind's natural, in-your-face friendlieness that Liam can't quite understand.  It's like, "if it's so friendly, why is it barking and jumping on me?" I can see how this would be especially troubling when many dogs are at face-level, even without jumping!

Because we had 2 cats, Liam got used to, then infatuated with them.  Well, at least with Jake.  Harley was a bit of a diva (div-dude?).  Finding the balance between his interst in touching an animal and it's wish to be touched has been a big challenge.

Petting zoos, if nothing else, are full of animals used to less-than-perfect petting.  Every animal I've seen is calm and pretty patient.

For a long time, when we'd go to the Studio City Farmer's Market, we'd ask if he wanted to go into the little petting zoo.  Until he was about 5, the answer was always "no".  For the next couple of years, he'd sometimes say "yes," but was very shy about actually touching anything.  If he did, someone else had to handle the animal.

The ice broke at the Dixie Canyon School Faire, where there was a small zoo, which happened to be owned and operated by an autistic young man, called Danny's Farm.  Liam fell in love with a sheep named Lucy.

He also got in there and gave Peanut, the alpaca, some love.

After that, he was much more open to petting the animals at the market.

This Sunday was a big day.  We'd already done the shopping, so I stayed outside the pen with our groceries and let him buy the ticket and go in all by himself.  He had asked twice to visit the petting zoo, which was unusual in itself.  Once inside, he happily wandered around to all of the animals.  He got very friendly with the chicken, petting it until it dropped off to sleep.

 Then he headed for the tub of bunnies.  I was shocked to see him scoop up a large one and hold it, then carry it over to me.

Yes, I'm aware this is bad bunny-holding form, but the bun was relaxed and I made sure he supported him.  After his first bunny, I did go in and encouraged him to hold one a little longer, on his lap.

He was careful and gentle and very, very happy.  He's even starting to tolerate some dogs, in short bursts, as long as they're calm.  We still have to stop him from using the cat as a pillow from time to time and remind him that not all cats are into head-butts, but it's a start!