hide-n-(sensory)-seeking

The last two weeks have been very busy, very...um...full of small challenges and a few not so small ones. Thankfully, we have our local library as well as a home library full of places to escape to.  Sometimes we escape together, sometimes we fly solo, but either way we've had some very good reads! So here is the short list (no sarcasm intended, despite the length of this post. this really is the condensed version!) I will dispense with writing out each title and author, they can (mostly) clearly be seen in the pictures, just for the sake of expediency. With Kitty Bitty: We didn't utilize this audio-book as much as I had wanted to, only using it in the car a couple times. But going into this next week, I now know where both a portable cd player and a larger slightly less portable boombox are that I can either hook up ear phones to, or move to a place where her book won't disturb the big kids. So we are going to keep giving audio books a try. ...

I'm still working out a number of kinks in our school schedule. Last year, the kids had a lot of independence in their school day. I gave them their assignments, if they didn't already know them, and their only criteria was to finish before they could have their screen time after 3:00. We still did some subjects together, and experiments and such, but I didn't regulate their time strictly.  This worked very well last year. It freed me to focus on Kit's therapy and sensory diet, and was flexible enough for the crazy hours that I was juggling constantly. The kids rarely ever had more than 3 hours worth of work, but had all day to complete it, with plenty of opportunities to ask for help when needed. Zak especially responded very well to it as it allowed him to have a lot of control over his own daily schedule. He knew exactly what to do, but had ample freedom to choose when to do it. Grace still needed more help, but she did well too. She is not as much of an ...

Saturday is our Library Day. We go every week when possible. Everybody loves it. We have two bags now that we take with us. Returns. And Recheck. Daddy goes down the list calling out titles, and little people scurry around the house digging books from under pillows and piles of paper, matching DVDs with the correct covers, and sweeping arms under the couch in search of strays. Kit squeals with delight as she asks every person in the family if "you're coming too?" and we all say "YES!" Even Grandpa is easy to get out the door on Library day. Upon arrival, Daddy sees to the business of returning items, picking up orders that have arrived, and rechecking the ones we aren't quite finished with. The rest of us fan out in search of this week's adventures. The rule is the kids must select at least one item before getting on the computers. Really, this is mostly a rule for Grace. While not our biggest techie at home, she L...