Mrs Piggle Wiggle

I know this will be blasphemy to some, but it has to be done. I HATE MRS PIGGLE WIGGLE!! I hate reading it. I hate listening to it. By God wouldn't you know it Zane LOVES the books. Gag! I would rather suck on a dirty gym sock. My husband remembers laughing so hard when his mother read those stories to him and his sisters. My mother in law told me to buy them. When James was 4 I bought a 4 book set. I brought them in, set James down and began to read the most uninteresting dribble I had ever laid my eyes upon. James, the kid that was currently listening to The Hobbit every night, could not stand them either. They were promptly placed on the bookshelf to hopefully rot in peace. My luck held out with Jonah. He did not like them either. Curiousity struck him when he saw the books. With my inability to toss out books, because they are fine and not peed on by the dog, you should keep them no matter what. Zane comes along and finds them as I am clearing out the library. "What's this?" he picks up two of the books.
"Oh that is Mrs Piggle Wiggle, give them here, they will go nicely here." I gingerly take the books and smile and shove them between two larger books hoping they will be lost from prying eyes.
That night the Piggle Wiggle curse fell upon my head. Zane asked me to read the "piggie book" with the "old lady on it." I knew when he said "piggie book." It's that motherly intuition that only mothers have and fathers are clueless, standing in the middle of the room looking down and the weeping babe on the verge of screaming, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT."
Nope, I knew, Mrs Piggle Wiggle. I crinched, but thought, "it will not take long, he will ask for Olivia or Little Bear, maybe even Gloria and Officer Buckle." NO, he did not. I ended up reading half that book, several "cures" before he lost intrest enough to find a new book. I was ready to read the Fudge books for the third time after that.

What does this have to do with Homeschooling? Not sure, it was reading to my child. That is about it. And thank you, God, for helping him see the light, ughm....I mean a new book ;)

Get off my back!

This is what I feel like saying to people that give me a hard time about James and his education.
I KNOW he's behind. I have talked with people about this. He's has all the traits of a dyslexic kid. I have done a TON of research online and with the state of Ks about available resources. What I found out was the state of Ks will pay for James to have an IEP at a public school. What it amounts too is going slower than the rest of the kids and he's not expected to do the same work. They do not recognize dyslexia as something to treat differently, meaning the style in which they teach, same way but slower. I did more research, I found out that other states AND privately paid tutors that specialize in dyslexia are using the same math program I am ALREADY using. So why sink $500 for 3 months of math when it only costs me $65 each time we move up a level? What am I getting at here? I am getting at the fact I am working with him. Yes, he is behind. No, it is not because he's homeschooled. He got further behind by going to school last year than if he had stayed home with me.

I have found he advances faster with me than when he's being schooled by "professionals." The reason being I see him "drift off" and call him back. He's a chronic daydreamer. He's habitually slow. He's major procrastinator. He's the worst of Sam and I wrapped into one kid. Yet, I swear on my Grandmothers grave, this childis an idiot savant. He's brilliant, but like Einstein, it's hard to see, right now. Just today he took an old broken down, not working in year ancient CB apart and put it back together, it works now. Yet, last night we had the most unusal conversation about numbers. It went like this....

"Can you take 9 from 18?"

"Ummmm"

"OK try this, what is 9+9?"

"18"

"OK, then what is 9 taken away from 18?"

"0"

I then stood there staring at him with complete disbelief and ahhh.

Finally after a couple minutes he saw his error and figured out it was 9 after all and not zero.

This is typical math time issues. Add on that to his piss poor spelling and you have an uphill battle on your hands, academically. Yet the kid remembers EVERYTHING he hears. He knows ALL the years of important dates; Civil War, death of MLK, birth years of grandparents, friends, friends parents. He listens and hangs on to everyword people say and files it away. Later he comes back with "hey this is like the time so-and-so said......" and is able to fix a problem by having those tid-bits filed away in his brain rolodex. He got our tractor fixed and working last Summer when his Dad threw in the towel and said he did not know what to do. We sat at the table one night after dinner and heard it roar to life. He then gave Sam a list of things he needed to buy so we could fix it up; belts, tires, etc...


It's just no one knows how much I am working with him. We work on this stuff everyday. I even had a retired (recently retired) Special Ed teacher tell me that public school was not good for a kid like James in this state. I have noticed, and private is even worse, for him.

Have you heard of the library programs where the dogs sit in the room and listen to kids read? Well I have one better, a little brother that thinks James is super cool and James thinks Zane is super little and needs his protection. James, the kid that WILL NOT READ, now reads everynight to Zane. Tonight is was The Magic Finger! It is a start. It's something meaningful to Zane and warms my heart to see. Plus the bonus of James actually reading a chapter books and other smaller books to Zane.

It's getting better. I do work with him. He even has special on-line help. I am covering my butt/bases here.
I just wish people would back off and let us work and trust we are!
He's special. He's unique. He's brain works in such a way that it looks lost to us, it's only because we are much to dull to think the way he does.

It's not easy being an Einstein mini-me! LOL!!!