Ever since I was little I have always said that I wanted to be a elementary school teacher or a homeschool mom (or both) when I grow up. I have always had a love of learning and passion for education and want to share it with as many as I can. When I started college that was my goal and part of me kind of thought I was giving up that dream (at least for a while) by moving here.
As I'm finding is often the case, God wasn't asking me to give up that dream by calling me here but fulfilling it in a way I could never have imagined. I have realized that what I've actually always wanted to do is homeschool 3 special needs kids in India - I just didn't know it!
Every day I get to spend time doing school with Lily, Nolan, and Molly and those times are truly my favorite parts of the day. Here is a little of what each of them are working on!
Lily
Nikki and I each spend about an hour in school with Lily each day and it still isn't enough. She is hungry to learn and so intelligent we are having a hard time coming up with things that are truly challenging for her.
I work with her on letters, numbers, and sight words and Nikki does review on the sight words and practices typing them on the iPad. We both also throw in some iPad apps and anything else we can think of to work on fine motor skills and try to challenge her.
Typing will probably be the best way for Lily to communicate so having the donation of 2 iPads has been such a blessing. Nikki and I have both tried to type with her in the past but it was too difficult on a laptop keyboard. Now with the iPads, she has quickly mastered it and wrote her first full sentence the other day: I love you.
She knows letters A-M very well and also a few more that are in words she knows such as O, R, and T. Here she is working on some words. She can also recognize her name and is starting to learn the names of some of her siblings. Lily hasn't quite gotten to the point of sounding out the words, but has memorized the order of the letters for each. Phonics will be something we'll work on next after she gets through the rest of the alphabet as well as lowercase letters as she only knows the capitals currently.
Lily had just started learning her numbers when I arrived and although now she knows 1-5 really well, the concept of counting has just started to really click. She is getting better every day though! She counts the balls as shown in this video and will also count out however many I ask from a pile. I am so proud of her!
Lily is so rewarding to do school with. She is smart and wants to learn desperately! Her enthusiasm is contagious and it is so cute the way she gets proud of herself when she knows she has done well. Yesterday Nikki called me in during her time with Lily because Lily was so proud of her typing she wanted to show me so I would praise her - and praise her I did!
She is learning faster than we can teach her and I can't wait to see where she will be in even just a month. I'm sure I'll look back at this and chuckle at the fact I thought this was amazing!
This little girl that was kicked out of school after only a few days because of her disabilities is proving that she really can learn and that she is way smarter than anyone ever imagined.
Please pray that after we move to Hyderabad we will be able to get her into a mainstream school - she wants to learn so badly and is so ready for that kind of challenge!
Nolan
School with Nolan is a little more complicated as he is deaf and is just now starting to learn some sign language. He also has a very short attention span... We are having to be very creative as we come up with goals and ways for him to understand and accomplish them but it has been so rewarding and he is doing great!
His attention span has improved a lot and now Nikki and I are able to each spend around 45 with him in school every day (Nikki in the morning and me in the afternoon) which is so good for him. We mostly work on the same things as he needs the repetition throughout the day.
Nolan will be getting cochlear implants on February 13th (you can read that story here) but even if that is successful he will most likely have to rely on ASL to communicate as him developing full speech is very unlikely. With that in mind, we have been learning ASL (wish I had taken it in high school!) and integrating it into our daily lives as best we can. We also spend some time with him during school really working on the signs he knows and teaching him new ones. Right now, we are trying to help him connect each of our name signs with us, so we will show him pictures and ask him the name of the person in the photo. He has to answer with the respective name sign. He hasn't quite gotten the concept but is getting closer. We also ask him questions that he has to answer - mostly yes or no right now but we are hoping to start getting him answering in full sentences soon.
He is also learning the alphabet and the corresponding signs but that progress is much slower. He is now pretty solid on A, B, and C - I will sign one of them and he has to find it out of a couple options. Hoping that continues well and I can add D soon...
A few weeks ago I started doing a matching card game with him - I'd put out two options and he would have to give me the one that matched whichever one I was holding. After about 4 or 5 days in a row of trying it over and over again, he finally got it and started handing me the right one every time. By the end of the week it wasn't a challenge anymore - even with a desk full of options to choose from. Once we got the iPads we started using a matching app that seemed to be a good challenge. After 3 days though he was doing the hardest one (colors) with ease...
Then we found out that there was a second, higher level version of the same app. Again, we thought it would be a challenge but that lasted about a day... He started with this one but now is doing even harder ones like it's nothing!
We're trying to find some other apps to use but for the most part the only challenge for him is figuring out how the game works and then the rest is a breeze.
Another thing we've been using with him to work on focus and fine motor is a peg board. At first he couldn't do it at all so we started with nails as they were easier to grasp and put in the holes. After he had mastered that, we moved on to the pegs and then sorting them by colors. He is pretty much a master at it now and we only started with it a week ago! Soon we'd like to start having him copy simple patterns - maybe that challenge will last more than a few days! ;)
It is so great to see all the progress Nolan is making. He has been told over and over again that he is mentally retarded and incapable of learning but he is proving all of them wrong! Just look at all he has learned and accomplished in such a short time. All it took was a little direction and some people who believe in him. It's incredible to think of what he might be capable of over time and as we do more research and learn how to better help him.
Please pray for Nolan's upcoming surgery and that it would open the door for us to get him into a real school. He is such an amazing boy and I know God has some huge plans for him!
Molly
School with Molly has been the most challenging of all. I only work with her for about 30 minutes in the morning and am having such a hard time figuring out how to help her best. The challenge is the fact that she is very intelligent but is largely restricted by her body so I have had a hard time thinking of things to do with her. It also makes it difficult to know what she is actually learning...
At first just getting her sitting up was a challenge as she can't sit on her own in a chair. I was able to clear out a little corner in the school room though that she can sit in while still being able to "go" to school like Lily and Nolan and that has been working well.
I have been working with her on reaching her arm out to choose between different objects and she is getting more and more accurate with getting her hand where she actually wants it to go. At first it was hard to tell if she wasn't getting it or just kept missing while reaching out her hand. Now she rarely misses if the objects are far enough apart and when she does I can usually tell what she was trying to go for. This has opened up so many opportunities so now I'm just trying to come up with more activities to try!
Mol knows letters A-C and will select the correct one when I say the name and can also kind of say their names herself. To practice reaching out and selecting an option, I've been doing a lot of holding up two items and telling her which one to grab. Also, she has been doing a matching game and is getting pretty good at it! I'm incredibly proud!
We have a really good iPad app that is designed for children with disabilities like hers to be able to communicate by selecting pictures and the goal is to get her to the point where she can use that but right now she doesn't have the control between things that close. We've been having her use the iPad as much as possible and working on selecting different things but she still really struggles and uses her entire hand not just one finger - thinking maybe getting a stylus might be a good option...
Yesterday I started using a yes/no app with her whenever I asked a question as she does not currently have a good way to answer but she can't quite do it yet. I know she understands the concept but getting her hand exactly where she wants it to go is still a struggle. Once she masters that I think it will open up a whole new world of communication for her that she has never had before and give her the opportunity to have a little bit of say in what happens to her and what she does throughout the day.
I am so proud of Molly and all the progress she has been making. Each of the little everyday things that are nothing to us are a huge struggle for her yet she pushes through amazingly. Like so many other children that I am surrounded by here and that are all over the world, she is trapped inside her body, her mind held back by the things she can't do physically. She is a daily reminder to not take the things I have for granted.
In fact all 7 of my kids are, but especially these 3, Lily, Nolan, and Molly. Most kids dread the thought of going to school and try to get out of it by any means necessary but these three ask every few minutes if it is time for school yet. Their minds have been disengaged for so long, they can't wait to learn! Their whole lives they've been told they can't learn or aren't worth the time to teach. But now that has changed and they're going to make the most of it!
They are my heroes and the reason I get out of bed every morning. I know no greater joy than giving these precious ones a chance grow their minds, communicate better with those around them, and learn skills that will give them more independence. They are so ready to learn and I am incredibly blessed to be the teacher of such fine students.
The desires of my heart are being granted daily in the most beautiful of ways.
Lily, Nolan, and Molly, you are some amazing kids and I can't wait to see what incredible things you will accomplish next!
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