The waiting game

It's one of those days where I'm waiting for my kilns to fire and cool.  There is no immediate gratification in the land of ceramics.   I've thrown a new bowl shapes and a few new mug shapes, made a bunch of new and old glazes and now I have to wait to see what will turn out.  Sometimes this waiting game gives me a little perspective between the heavy process oriented aspect of the work and the final outcome.  Sometimes I feel impatient with it, like I want to know what I did right or wrong now.  I guess it's a little like parenting a child sometimes.  
Johnny is growing so fast.  He's up to my chin for crying out loud.  How did this kid get so big?  Seriously.  We have our good days and our hard days.  Our days when we don't worry or fret about school, where he's gentle and kind, fun-loving, telling jokes and singing to himself.  Days where he's a real pleasure to be around.  And then there are days when I feel as though everything I say comes back to my face with an anger and a frustration that comes out of left field. 
For those of you that are new to my blog, Johnny was diagnosed with a learning disability last June.  His teacher in Grade 2 was completely baffled at how he would un-learn what he had been taught the day before.  He's a bright and intelligent kid and his reading and writing in particular didn't match up.  Last fall he was enrolled in a really great Literacy program for grade 3's with learning disabilities.  It ran from September to the beginning of December, there was only 7 kids in his class, one teacher and one Orton Gillingham Instructor.  Wow, did we ever see a difference.  The confidence that this program gave Johnny was immense.  It was hard work- 30-45 minutes of homework 6 days a week.  Spelling tests daily.  Lots of practicing and reviewing.  And he really improved.  His reading went a whole grade-level higher.  We saw a big improvement at home, his stress level and happiness level surrounding school really improved.  Unfortunately the program only runs for 3 months.  Now we are back in the regular school system and really struggling to keep up.  There are a lot of holes in the way the regular classroom operates that can be hard for kids who struggle with learning ie split classes, too many kids in the class, teacher sharing, too many extra-curricular activities... all of these things are probably fine for regular kids, but for someone who needs space and extra concentration just to learn the basics, these things just distract. 
So, what to do?  I've been researching options for next year already.  Grade 4 is supposedly a big year, there is lots expected of kids in this year.  I've looked into a school for dyslexia here in our area.  $19'500.  Yeah, not likely.  For grade 4???  I realize there could be scholarships but I really don't quite think that's going to cover it.  I think it might be more reasonable to look into a combination of Orton Gillingham tutoring and getting him a laptop for school.  If the frustration continues to mount I've even thought of home schooling him for a set time.  But for that I'd have to really scale back what I do at the studio. Hard decisions. 
Really at the end of this all, I know in my heart that Johnny will be a great person when he grows up.  He has so much going for him and school is really only a small part of our lives over-all.  And really, there's spell check for when he's going to get bogged down with the whole spelling thing, right? Everyone has stuff in their life that they will struggle with, some of us struggle with it early on, some of us later.  I just hope  (and pray) that we are giving him the tools to know how best to cope with his struggles now so that later in life he makes good choices.  Really, isn't that all a parent can hope for? 

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.

Home Parties

I've been holding onto the notion of having small home birthday parties for as long as we possibly can.  It is no easy thing to entertain 6-8 boys in our small place if it rains and so we left Sasha's kid birthday party for this past weekend.  The weather was perfect, we set up game stations, only invited 6 extra kids (+ my 2), made it for 2 hours, and provided lots of snacks & goodies.  Simple, fun and not too expensive.  Games included Balloon Darts (yep, pop balloons with darts), Drive-way bowling, and Bocce Ball.  Fun and not too competitive.
Candy Apples with 'Nerds' on the bottom to keep them from sticking to my pan (we had some milk allergies in the mix so I couldn't do caramel apples...).
And a 'Vegan' recipe for 'Wacky Chocolate Cake' (using 'Earth Balance' instead of Butter)
1.5 cups Flour
1 cup Sugar
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
3 Tbsp Cocoa
pinch Salt

1 tbsp White Vinegar
1 tsp Vanilla
5 tbsp melted Butter or Earth Balance for Vegan/milk allergies
1 cup Warm Water

Dry ingredients into a bowl (sift if you feel necessary, I just whisk it).
Wet ingredients in a large Measuring cup- yes it looks kind of icky and I know there are no eggs...
Pour wet into dry and mix with a spatula until mixed.  Pour into a 9X9" pan or cup-cake tins.  Bake at 375 F for 25-30 min for pan, 20 min for cupcakes. Don't overbake- if the top springs back when you gently touch it it's done. Quick, easy, moist and yummy. No icing necessary.  Especially great when you run out of Milk and eggs when people stop by...

Early Influences

The boys have both been making 'comic books' lately. I'm not sure who's idea it was, but it's pretty fun to see what they are coming up with.  This drawing, by Sasha who's nearly 6 is inspired in part by Ed Emberley's book:'Drawing Book of Faces', which he's been drawing from as of late.  The translation is really sweet, but this one was made without the book in front of him, so I can see that it's been influencing his drawing over-all.  Interesting- I wonder who's art I should introduce him to next?