I have not posted in a long time, as things seem to be moving so fast and my attitude towards things has really evolved. I have been making a lot of personal discovery for me and Jake as I research Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Disorder, Visual Spatial and Learning styles.

At first I thought I had to recreate school at home and that Jake just needed one on one interaction and all would be solved. This however is not what happened at all. Instead of a curriculum I purchased workbooks in every subject and laid out a schedule. Sitting down and trying to do basic lessons and workbooks he resisted it and he continued to be stressed and have anxiety. The only thing he really liked doing were hands on science experiments and field trips.

For dyslexia we tried Audiblox- he cried he twitched he resisted so we took a break from it thinking I would eventually go back to it. We then moved on to enhanced lateralization techniques, he did not like that either. I then found out about Davis Dyslexia and read the Gift of Dyslexia. This book described Jake to a tee, so off we went to a $2500 week of Davis Dyslexia Correction. He had a great week, I do not regret doing the program but I feel he was not personally mature enough to truly take advantage of the techniques. The clay work that we were to continue at home after a few weeks he resisted or he would drag out each word into an hour and a half playing with clay session that has not much to do with the definition of the word we were working on. He really resisted the reading exercises. So I eventually stopped trying to make him do it, but I must say his reading really improved from these exercises.

In January I had rediscovered a book I had purchased and forgot about it is a Core Knowledge Series by E.D. Hirsch Jr What Every 3rd Grader Needs to Know. I found a great basis for teaching Jake from this book. I picked it up and just started reading it too him. It has wonderful poetry, geography, history art, music. Everything I read about Romans and he was on the edge of his seat and lead us into trying to find documentaries, doing a mosaic, anything Roman. I have taken to searching the tv guide and DVRing anything I thought might interest him. Then I let him pick and choose what he wants to watch. Modern Marvels, International Profiles, How Things are Made Ancient Mysteries, Discovery Kids channel etc....He likes anything to do with space, dinosaurs, ancient egypt and ancient romans. He also likes biographies, he has watched Michaelangelo, Van Gogh, Beethoven, George Washington Carver just to name a few. His recent passion this week is dinosaurs and there is a nice program on Discovery Kids everyday at 2pm. He had gotten a DK book with a cd rom and we spent an hour looking and discussing it. I still ask him to do www.time4learning.com which has basic level math, language arts, social studies and science a few times a week. He has an absolute obsession with building a castle for us as a family to live in. So I have encouraged him to draw and plan it and he will have to save his money for many years to do this. He is constantly drawing plans and floor plans, It will have solar energy and wind mills communication towers, his creativity is endless. So as a math project I have him sorting, counting and wrapping change. Of course he does not know it is a math project which is the best part. He loves imaginative playing very much still and we had a great play date at my friends house whose daughter loves pretend as well and they really had a great time.

His resistance has lead me down several paths exploring other options of learning and we have come to happy place similar to un-schooling. Now I can not really define what we do as un-schooling or radical un-schooling because I do guide and direct a bit but I feel that there is definitely something organic in our approach to learning at this point. I have said all along it is my goal to have a happy child and I finally do. He still is very emotional sometimes but thanks to Davis we have good coping skills.

I have personally been trying to embrace a more mindful parenting approach. Both my older children are curious beyond all get out and are CONSTANT questioners and or talkers and or explainers. A trait I absolutely love but is utterly and completely exhausting at times. So much so I have found myself putting them off or tuning them out. I have made so much effort to be more in the present with them. Or explain why I can't be at the moment. I am trying to be more sensitive to rules and principles. My habits are hard to break, I have been a spanker and I don't like this side of me at all.

Anyway that is a long enough rant and blather for now. I am glad I finally took the time to write out what I have done with Jake as it feels like we are not doing much but I could go on for hours on what other things I not mentioned. Butterflies, Aquarium, Shore homeschoolers play day, fossil digs, legos, imaginext, playstation2, art projects blah blah blah.