Fall comforts

Well here we are nearly half way through September.  I did some baking over the weekend, bought some new yarn to start knitting again, and started some new glaze designs that I will show off later this week after my glaze firing tomorrow.  Things are starting to settle in at home and at school after a week of sick kids and half-starts of classes.  My boys are now in grade 1 and 3 and while everyone is congratulating me on all the time I will now have, it's not quite as easy as it seems. 
I've mentioned a few times that my older boy has some learning disabilities that were diagnosed at the end of the school year last year.  We were given a unique opportunity to send him to a Literacy Program that our school district offers for specific kids that have certain learning disabilities this fall.  The program is only about 2.5 months long- from end of September until beginning of December, but it requires a lot of extra homework and a commute to this new program.  We are really grateful that our son was able to get in, especially starting the school year off with the program.  It's just going to make for a really busy and different fall than I had imagined. 
I guess I've been 'dreaming' about this time in my life for a little while now.  The time when I would drop my kids off at school and then get to the studio for 5-6 hours a day monday through friday.  Without having to pay for extra childcare.  The reality is that life is never quite as we always imagine or plan for, there will always be circumstances that come up that create challenges we might not have expected.  My challenges are really small in comparison to some of the greater challenges out there.  And I'm pretty grateful to be in this place, comforted by the opportunities we've been given, content in knowing that not everything is always as it seems and that there is a silver lining in every circumstance.

Birthdays for boys and a diagnosis

Well, we officially have an 8 year old boy in the house and for his party this past weekend 2 of his closest buddies came over for a sleepover complete with mini-golf, nerf gun target practice, a late night movie, pizza and cake and a pancake breakfast to boot.  Wow.  I felt like I needed the next couple of days to recover from all that!  The decorations were kept pretty simple- just some balloons, streamers and paper airplanes hung over the table.  A couple of old trophies made for a fun centerpiece.  I did end up putting a 'Darth Vader' Birthday Candle on the cake so it was a little more appealing to the boys.  Anyways, it was fun and wild and sometimes crazy but that's how it goes with boys this age.

Yesterday we had our meeting with the school psychologist who actually did do some diagnosing.  I'm still trying to process some of the results- more the labels and associations that come with the diagnosis.  It seems that Johnny has some form of ADD and dislexia that are inhibiting his ability to learn to read and write as smoothly and quickly as other kids.  Both diagnosis were kind of a surprise to me. Johnny has never mixed up letters and he can read and write, albeit slowly and below his level.  So there is a program he might do for 10 weeks in fall to re-learn how to read and write geared for kids with mild dislexia. 
I think what surprised me more was the whole ADD diagnosis.  I sat down to do some research yesterday and frankly, it's hard not to see every boy Johnny's age as being somewhat ADD.   Knowing that about 7 of Johnny's classmates have undergone a similar psychological assessments this year makes me a little frustrated that we aren't looking at the process of teaching kids as opposed to simply trying to medicate and diagnose our kids into being good students. ADD or ADHD seems to be a catch-all phrase for kids who have a lot of energy and a low attention span.  Perhaps it's not just our kids who have the 'problem', perhaps some of the issues have to do with educators and parents who haven't completely learned how best to motivate these kids to learn and cope with life at their optimum.
With that in mind, I can see that there are a few strategies that I can work on personally as a parent to make life a little smoother for both Johnny and us as parents.  Some of those parenting tips I found here, some more I found here- both sites and the video being advocates for the concept of 'positive parenting'.  Essentially, the idea behind positive parenting is to learn how to avoid conflicts/power struggles with your child while trying to teach them how to make positive choices.  For me it will mean being more intentional about how I relate to my boys and not trying to rush over the parenting tasks that I do every day.  Also making sure that we have a more consistent schedule, complete with lots of meals/snacks, good sleeping habits and lots of physical activity will be on the agenda.  Good thing I bought some new running shoes on the weekend- I have a feeling I'll be playing a lot more soccer and going for more hikes and runs throughout the summer...