Classes reume!

I started classes again this week. I have Women and Religion class which is not as bad as I had thought. We are basically reading books about women who go through their life to find god or alla and how they are also considers “feminist" point of the view what religion is to them and how they make it work for them. The first book that I have read has a surprise because I thought the book was going to talk mainly about religion. To my surprise, the book was very enlightening show the need to take care of myself, it is like saying "I can still beloved, lovable and accepted myself with all my flaws." I really enjoyed Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott. I would recommend you read it too.

My other calls on American Presidency. The call is mainly a debate class, so we chit chatting out options about political matters. Listening to everyone’s point of view is interest because I am not a political person nor do I really care. So far this class is great for awakening my naive mentality and has wanting learned more. All in all I know that I can do my best to get an A this session. I am really excited.

Well, I have stopped bumping with I am at school and I am allowing my husband to fee the baby a bottle to hopefully get her calorie intake to increase. She loves food so I honesty do not think that will be able problem. Over wise the family is doing great. My oldest turn 10 on the 20 so for his birthday present I am sending him to summer camp and he is so excite. The twins are already say how they miss him, and was won’t be leaving until next Sunday, LOL

I am hopping the best for you all out there.

K.I.T.E

Yesterday, 06/22/12, I volunteer for my school's enTech, for a program called K.I.T.E, Kosair's Integrated Technology Experience. The program allows children with disabilities from the ages of 3-12 to work with a therapist for no charge. The Kosair's Shriners donate the space and funds that allow the program to be available. Here is a great link to check out the program: http://spalding.edu/academics/entech/kite/

When I arrived, they informed me that I was going to be paired up with an OT student that needed some help. About 5 minutes into sitting with the OT student, I was told that I would have my own child to work with. I was actually in shock because I had not made it into the program and was bout to practice being an OT. The service coordinator was extremely helpful. He told me that if I needed anything to let him know. He walked me through how to use and IPad, yes people, I do not know how to use one. LOL.

The child that I was assigned to was 8 and has Aspbergers Syndrome. Without trying to sound completely ignorant, I honestly do not know much about this disorder other than Bill Gates has it. The only thing that I could go by was in his binder his mother wrote that he has to know what's coming next. At first I tried to build rapport with him. He completely ignored my attempts and seemed to be getting frustrated with me. So I went back to the service coordinator and ask how can I over come this. He told me that I just need to be there for the child, sometimes taking his lead. So I allowed the child to feel comfortable with me by giving him choices and following through on the rewards. For example, he was playing on the computer with a "Faceland" activity and we needed to move to crafts @ 10. I advised him how much more time he had on the computer before be had to move on. When it was coming close for time to be over, he started to finish the program more slowly. I then advised him that it was time to move on and I would allow him 2 more minutes to finish the game or he would have to stop the game without it being finished. That seemed to get him going. I had to keep reminding him, one more minute, thirty seconds, and so on which kept him on track. Once he was finished he ran off. He ran to pick up someones IPad. I told him that if he did his craft than I would allow him to have some IPad time on the IPad that I had. He seemed to like that. On the way over to the craft table he got in the big circle object that looks like a big tire and sllllllllllooooooooowwwwwwwly rolled over to the craft table. Then he just stopped halfway there. I had to pretend to give him gas in order to get him moving again. I have to do this four or five time before he understood what I was doing. He just looked at me with a questionable face. I told him, "I think you stopped because there is no more gas. So let me give you some gas to get you going to the craft table." He still looked at me funny when I made a gulping sound and put my hand at the back of the wheel pretending to put gas in. He got out of the tube to see what I was doing. I explained to him again that I was giving him gas. I told him to give it a try, to get back in and see if it moves closer to the craft table. Guess what? He moved it. That was the first smile I have gotten from him that morning because he really did not want to have anything to do with me. Then he slowed down again. This time I filled him up with turbo gas so he could get the rest of the way to the craft table faster. From that moment on, the child seemed to like my presence. He still became frustrated with activities, but if I played in between the activities that gave him a little encouragement to move on or follow my lead. We still had some bumps in the road with him running off and hurting other people, however, I had to give him the stay in your own bubble talk and to stay with me talk. Even though he seemed to not care what I was saying, he still followed my directions. I worked with him from 9-12 and really enjoyed it.

I also was able to talk with some students that are currently in the program. They told me that if I get a "C" I will get kicked out of the program. They said that I need to get with the "smart people" and for study groups. They encouraged me with applying. They told me that I would be fine. They said just to make sure to make in impression in the interview to get in the program. It was nice to interact with students that are about to graduate from the program. I also networked the OT that graduated from Spadling and received more encouragement.

I came home to a screaming baby and stressed husband. The baby had not nursed since 8 that morning and he gave her a formula bottle at 11, but she just was not content until I was home. The kids were yelling and running all over the place. Nothing like being home. LOL.

I am very thankful for the opportunity that I had yesterday. Just wanted to share my joy. I hope the best for all of you out there.

OT interview day

I play hooky from my Stats class on Monday, which I know is a no no due to the fact there was quiz and the teacher went over a lot of important information. We have two weeks left. I had to ask the teacher what me grade is in the class because they are not posted and she informed me that I have a A in the class, so right now I am doing what I can to maintain that grade. Thankfully, the teaching allowed me to retake the quiz this morning. I am feeling fairly confident about the quiz even though there were a few problems that stumped me. I am excited about moving on because that means I am getting closer to applying to the program.

While I was on campus today, the ASOT program were interviewing people for entry into the OT program starting January 2013. Everyone looked so beautiful and professional. I really didn't want to talk to anyone because I had just rolled out of bed and ran in to do my test. Needless to say, I looked a hot mess. I am a firm believer that first impressions are important. So I was sneaking around trying to hide my bed head appearance. LOL. That taught me to never go on campus without being prepared. LOL. I was able to talk to a canadidate that wanted to transfer in form another University into the OT program. I asked her what all they were going to do today and how long would it take for them to find out if they are accepted into the program. She told me that they doing the interview and the 15 minute writing portion, and that she did not know how long it was going to take to find out if she was accepted into the program. I am so excited to get into the program and to say that I am a MSOT student. I just need to put my energy into these classes and keeping my GPA up. On count down to October to apply.

I hope the best for all of you!

Time4Learing Reveiw day 3

In my previous post, I stated that I had agreed to write a review for this Home school, Tutoring, and Summer Learning program called Time4Learning. It has been 3 days since my kids have used the program and I have some good feedback so far. I have a full 30 days to keep up to date and write reviews.

06/02/2012

The day I agreed to review the program, I enrolled my three children, my oldest son who is 9, soon to be 10 on June 20, is going into the fourth grade, and the twins, who are five and are going into kindergarten. My intention was to look for a program for this summer that would keep my 9 up to level on his reading. In the state of Indiana there is a new law that states that all third graders have to pass a reading test called IREAD in order to progress to the fourth grade. From my understanding the test is designed to make sure that the kids are at the appropriate level to "read to learn oppose to learning to read." My son failed the test by 3 points. From what the principle of my son's school told me, 28% of Indiana third graders fail, however, they were either students that are ESL students, or students that have an IEP, or students that barely missed it by a few points. Since my son failed the test by 3 points, they are allowing him to retake the test next week. With that being said, I wanted to get him into a program that challengs him in reading and math. I have a confidence that my son will pass this time around because he is also in summer school. My oldest likes school but he gets easily frustrated when he is challenged and he is not the best reader. I honestly can not afford a tutor for him so I have been looking around on Pinterest for homeschooling information for fourth graders and I came across Time4Learning site. With the twins going into kindergarten, I just wanted to make sure they are also on the appreciate level with knowing their letters, starting to pick up sight words, and their hand writing. Time4Learning allowed me to practice a demo before enrolling my kids. The demo was colorful and seemed to be something that would catch my kids attention. Time4Learning has a lower level, Pre-K-3rd grade, and an upper lever, 4th-8th, grade curriculum. I figured it would not hurt to try this product out. I signed the twins up for the lower level and my oldest for the upper level. Each of their accounts have their name and their own password that allows for me to keep track of what each of them are doing and how they are progressing.

06/04/2012

Day 1, It took 3 days for the  kids accounts to be active so they could log on to do some work. My oldest was the first to test drive the program. I must admit that I was instantly impressed with what I was watching him do in the first 10 minutes. I chose to start him on vocabulary.  The Time4Learning program is designed to show arrows to show the kids where they should start so that the curriculum is more like build blocks of knowledge. My son worked on synonyms and antonyms, which I know he had done in third grade, I know the importance of repetition so I had no problem with the review. When my son started, there was this colorful vibrant character that asked him if he knew what a synonym was. He clicked on the answer yes, so she proceeded to ask his a question about synonyms. Well, he got the answer wrong. In a chipper voice she reassured that it would be OK because she would help him by meeting a few of her friends. The characters had conversations about different vocabulary words like fatal, niece, etc. When the characters talked about the words, they made sure to give the definition of the word and give an example of the word along with an example of a synonym. That made me feel like the program was really making sure my son was grasping the concept and meaning of the words. At the end of each lesson there was a short passage to read. BINGO! Because that's one thing my son needs to work on, reading passages and retaining what he read. It gave him time to read the passage. When he was done, he had an option to click that either he understood what he had just read for 5 extra bonus points or that he did not understand what he read and to get some help. I love that because that allows for my son to be honest without think the whole class is looking at him or allowing him to feel judged for not knowing what he read. There were at least 4 passages. I was able to watch my son to chose that he understood the passage and the option where he didn't understand the passage. When he chose the option that he understood the passage, along with getting the 5 bonus points, the program asked him a questions about the passage, that included the vocabulary word, if he answered correctly he received 10 points which made him so excited. When he chose the option where he didn't understand the passage, the program made sure to review the vocabulary word so that when he answered the questions he could get at least 5 points. I really liked that about Day 1 for my oldest.

Now for the twins, on Day 1, it was a review of the alphabet, matching capital letters with lower case letters, how many letters are in words and more, the program had very colorful vibrant characters and laughed and giggled making them feel like the were playing a game while they were learning. There was a section that was talking about books. It explained what and where the title, author, and illustrator where on a book.  They got to see how to read from right to left. That portion of the program bored both of the twins. I made sure they each worked on the program separately because one of the always gives the answers to the other one, you know, the normal twins thing most twins do. LOL. I found that part of the program to be a little more advance for their age too, but I have to remember that kindergarten is not like kindergarten when I went so many years ago.

Overall, I asked each child separately on Day 1 what they thought about the program, they all said that they like it and they couldn't wait to do it again the next day.

06/05/2012

Day 2, on this day I allowed my son to do some Math. He went over Standard and Expanded Form. I was thinking, "WOW I just learned this in my College 104 class." LOL. He told me he knew what to do. So I watched him. He did fairly well. When he got an answer wrong, the program did not show him what he did wrong, it just asked him to try again. This is where I had to step in because at the beginning, the program did not break down the two forms as well as it did in vocabulary. So I had to tell my son to start breaking down the numbers from the ones place because he was trying to expand the form from the largest number which confused him. I feel that there could be a little more strength in this area with making sure to give hints on how to get to expanded form. He still loved it because there was a little pie tracker at the bottom of the screen that showed him when he was close to getting finished. He was still so excited about his progress and the work he had done. I actually left him alone and came back upstairs and he was still working an hour later excited about going to the next stage. I told him to give his brain a rest and we will continue the next day. The hubby said I should just let him play, but I do not want him to get burnt out so soon.

Twins Day 2, They were suppose to do some math but it turned out to be a lesson on how to work the mouse. How to click and drag and items. I think it was trying to get them to match items and to put appropriate items where they go, but they became easily bored with it and put in a movie on the laptop, making me think they were doing work, but they were watching a movie. LOL, those sneaky babies!

06/06/2012

So today, I allowed the twins to take a rest since they seemed bored yesterday and allowed my oldest to do some Science today. Guess what? It had reading passages and critical thinking questions. BINGO! I love that. I allowed my son to read out loud to me and to answer the questions with me. He drew a picture of a scientist and compared it to what other students think scientist look like. I was interested to see how his picture looked similar to the picture another student drew. Then he learned that scientist aren't all crazy looking. Since it was reading, he deiced to stop after 35 minutes of work and I agreed because he had read so well and answered the critical thinking questions so well and besides he is in summer school, so his brain does need a rest when it gets to a certain point.

So far, I like the Time4Learning program. Seems to be a good fit for my kiddos.

Time4Learning

I've been invited to try Time4Learning's online education program in exchange for an honest review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so come back and read about my experience! For more information, try their lesson demos or find out how to write your own curriculum review.

Please check out the updates to come with my 2 kindergartners and my 4th grader.l Really excited about this experience for them.I am using this program as a summer supplement for my that is going to be a 4th grader and my twins that will be going into kindergarten. I am just trying to get a balance of what they should be doing and if the material will help advance their skills. I am really looking for to reviewing the program.