ASL class

 

The kids are taking the ASL class at co-op.  Over the holiday break, we found out that the teacher had to suddenly leave.  It was a wonderful experience to have her as a teacher and I am so thankful the kids had the experience to sit in her class for a semester.  And while there are some great things about co-op, communication and initiative are not their strong suits.  So, I had an honest conversation with Alison.  We had 2 choices for the class; we could either just not go to first period since the class was no longer, or we could offer to take over the class.  Alison immediately said that she wanted to teach the class.  I reached out to the leadership and they were excited about the idea of a student teaching and agreed to let Alison take over the class.  I'm there to help, but Alison knows more sign than I do, so she runs the class.  She's come up with all the plans and then I just help manage the class and assist where needed.

 

This girl right here; she did it all on her own.  She decided she wanted to learn sign language and she did.  She found a curriculum, got it "approved" and took off.  She spent hours and hours on lessons without being told.  She turned in quiz scores without me asking for them.  She kept going through levels even when I told her that maybe she should slow down and space them out.  And because she did, she was prepared for an unique opportunity.  It's also given her the ability to sign with a deaf customer at work and with a family at "Buddy Break".  My homeschool soapbox is this: teach a kid to learn, help them love to learn and then give them space to do just that.  This picture right here, sums up why I believe that will take kids far greater places than any rigid schedule education will.  What if they can go further than that the rigid box?

 

 

Here's a little clip of a game the class is playing.  Alison taught them some vocabulary words and then would sign a word and they would have to find it on their bingo sheet.  It was a fun way to learn new words! 

Matching boys

Somehow my matching boys went from this:

To this:

And I had to bribe them to get this picture.  But I always love seeing them playing together.

 

Sleep Study

 

 

We saw a sleep doctor for Alison and she ordered a sleep study to be done.  We went to the Children's Hospital in Queens and spent the night.  It was definitely an experience and I will be shocked if any accurate readings come from this.  I would not have lasted 2 minutes with all this stuff on me, so I have no earthly idea how Alison slept a wink.  She's a tough cookie.  Actually, the person who stayed up all night watching her might be a little tougher.  

 

I will take a few points as well, for sleeping in the recliner. 

 

Ben's 40th birthday!

I cannot tell you how excited I am that Ben is 40!  I love growing older together and I love entering into this new stage of life together.

We had planned on going to the Statue of Liberty, the 9-11 Museum and out for a nice dinner.  Unfortunately, it was raining/snowing and we decided that it wouldn't be all that fun to spend the day walking around in.  So, plan B=we ate a lot of pizza and went to the mall.

 

Ben, I'm apologizing now for not getting the best pictures, but I love you very much!

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

We still went out to a nice dinner, just to a place down the street and not in Manhattan. 

 

 

 

We ended the day with cheesecake!

 

 

Cheers to 40 years!

Rock picking

Alison spent her hard earned money on a fish and named him Misty.  Unfortunately, he didn't make it long.  It's always sad to say goodbye to a pet, so we went down to the beach to pick some rocks to paint in honor of Misty.  It ended up being a beautiful afternoon by the water.

First snow!

We finally got snow!  Our New York winter has not been what I anticipated...I shouldn't complain, but I would take a little more snow and a little less rain.  Since this might be our only snow to play in, we took the morning off to enjoy some outside time

 It was the perfect snow to build a snowman :)

Then Colin made a slide!  

 

I spy

With my little eye, a dog that cannot be left out of whatever is going on, whether is school work or playing legos or early morning coffee drinking.

 

Basketball loving boy

Colin falls more in love with basketball by the day.  He's often bummed if it's raining because that means that he can't go out and play.  He's playing with the Y for several sessions and his coach made him team leader.  Here's some clips from his last game:

 

I'm excited to see where basketball takes Colin.  He's top of the Y, but the next step is a travel league (a very big thing on Long Island) and we're not so sure about that...but I'm confident whatever path Colin takes, it will be a amazing.

Ben took him to see the Harlem Globe Trotters and he got a signed ball!

Father Daughter Dance

 Our church had a father daughter dance.  From what I hear, they had dinner and then did some square dancing.  However, Alison's ankle was still hurt (she fell down the stairs and badly sprained it), so she held a baby and Ben danced with another daughter...one dad had 5 girls with him!

This evening goes on the list of things we've learned about Long Island.  We add something almost weekly and I hope to add some stories of examples.  To us, this just seemed like a nice thing that the church was doing, but in fact, this is a Long Island tradition that pretty much every organization participates in.  Apparently, the moms and sons are expected to help serve at the dinner (oops, I missed that boat and we were home watching a moving in our jammies) and the years alternate, so next year will be a mother son dance.  Dinner is pretty much always the same pasta dish and a sausage Italian dish that I'm sure has a specific name.