Day 4

We are enjoying the rare rainy day in the desert of Arizona today....all thanks to yours truly....I washed my car 2 days ago :o)

So the meds are definitely taking effect. Noticing changes. The first is that he is quite talkative. All day yesterday, until the time he went to bed. His tutor also commented that he was very chatty in their session. There were 2 times he got a bit emotional, but I was warned that would happen and it was normal. He also felt I was being rude quite a bit and would get frustrated and say "Whatever." I ignored that and he pretty much just moved on to what he was doing or talking about something else. I also noticed that when he was asked to do something that he didn't want to do, he didn't blow up and start a huge argumentative fight. He would ask, "Please can I do it in a minute?" or "Please Mom, I don't want to." But I persisted and it got done pretty much immediately after that. The the big change took place. For the first time I had a real conversation with him. We sat on the couch and talked alone for a good 30 minutes. He had clear, concise thoughts and feelings, backed by real reasoning. It was AMAZING. I found out something that has been bothering him for a while, because HE TOLD ME!

He conveyed to me:

His 3 year old sister is the typical 3 year old little girl. She's girly, into princesses, loves anything pink or purple, and talks A LOT! They get into disagreements like most siblings. She adores him as most little kids adore their older brother or sister. So basically speaking, he is annoyed by her. And much more than I knew. He also values quiet, relaxing time. He feels, with a little girl walking around filling every waking moment with chitter chatter, he can't ever relax or enjoy quiet. He also mentioned that he does not know how to tell her to be quiet without getting into trouble, but sometimes he just needs her to be quiet!

The solution:

We agreed we would try to talk to her and let her know that sometimes we need quiet time. We also agreed he could have 30 minutes of time to stay awake after she goes to bed. Normally they go to bed at the same time. This goes back to them sharing a room for 2 years, up until 5 months ago, they had to go to bed at the same time as to not wake the other. The last thing we agreed upon was that we would not skip our alone, quiet time each day. I added this to our daily schedule about 2 weeks ago, and as time goes on, and we run low on time, this is what we cut back on. Well, no more! It is imperative for the kids as well as myself. There are so many reasons this is important, but mostly, I want my kids to learn to appreciate being alone early on. They do not need to be constantly entertained and scheduled, free time alone is a good thing. I recently learned that. I want them to learn it and appreciate it early on.

I found a great group on yahoo today that was referred to me from another homeschool Mom. It is called Homeschooling Dyslexic Kids. This is exactly what I have been looking for! Even better, I have found a good number of Moms using the Barton System as we are too! I can't wait to learn and share with them!