Lego Competition Champion!

Youngest entered a local Lego competition (not an official Lego event). I was nervous for the "typical" mother hen reasons--I wanted him to win and not be disappointed! Those reasons I can deal with easier; it was the autism side of things that was truly worrisome: Z considers himself to be a creative builder, he loves the Lego company, he asked people to come vote--so in his mind, he should win. He told anyone and everyone he spoke to about the contest and asked them to please come vote for him. He could understand when I would explain to him he might not win but I'm not sure he could completely grasp it, which actually made things even more stressful. I reminded him over and over that just entering the contest took bravery and made him a winner, and since this was his first competition, and he was competing in the 6th-12th grade level (being a 6th grader) it would be a learning experience for the next time. The other issue causing me concern was whether he would be able to leave his Legos somewhere! He has left minifigures or vehicles or even one little Lego piece in places and would stress and worry until they were safely back in his hands. 

As the day approached his anxiety levels increased. He was so excited that the day to drop off his entry (a built, then re-built, then re-built, then re-built again, then again re-built firehouse) had finally arrived! Excitement+autism=TOO MANY EMOTIONS! He was as nervous waiting for the drop-off time to arrive as a dad in an old time movie waiting to hear news of the baby arrival, so much so that we got there 30 minutes early! Thankfully the facilitator of the contest warmly invited him to leave his creation. The look on his face as we started to drive away was heartbreaking; I asked him what was wrong and he told me it felt very weird leaving his Legos. I'm thrilled he was able to express his emotions to me but my heart lurched at what I feared was just the beginning of emotion overload...

The next 48 hours were rough; Z was edgy, emotional, and even somewhat aggressive. He had meltdowns at not just one store (which is so unusual for him) but two different stores! As I've written before, Z's meltdowns don't look like a meltdown to most people, I'm sure; however these were both meltdowns with one even including raised voice, slamming a freezer door, and attempting to stomp away from me. The humor in those moments is that when he does get angry and walks away, especially when a parking lot or street is involved, he only goes a certain distance and then--again especially with streets/parking lots--waits to grab my elbow. More on that in another post!

The day arrived and he was dressed spiffy and ready to go...only one problem, it was only 7am and we weren't arriving until 1pm! In spite of the clock definitely moving backwards at times, we finally headed out.

Very nervous young man on the ride to the competition

We arrived to find people already there voting for "Crowd Favorite". Z was at least able to relax a little because the formal judging had already been done earlier in the day. Some friends and family were there to support him--and vote for him, of course! ;) 

It was fun to see so many great creations, and it was very cool to see how much admiration was expressed over his firehouse! The rules for this competition were: no sets, no modular pieces, and the creation had to fit within a 12"x12" area and be no taller than 24". To quote Z, "It took a lot of 

hard work to think outside the box while inside the box!"

Finally, it was time for the awards to be announced. I prayed for him to just at least get a participation certificate! He takes certificates seriously, so when they said everyone would get a participation certificate I felt like I could breathe at least a little. As they began the announcements, the kids were asked to sit on the floor. 

They began with preschool and worked their way up, first through "Most Creative". I gasped when his name appeared on the screen for his age group! It happened again for "Best Architecture"...

 and the BIGGY "First Place"!

Getting his prizes and ribbon

Absolutely unimaginable ending. NOT that I don't think he's great at designing and building Lego creations--I just wasn't sure how anyone else would "see" his work. To say we were all incredibly happy is the understatement of the millennium. Legos are so much more to him than toys or building blocks; Legos are part of who this child is and who he will become. For Z, this was just further confirmation that his plan to work for The Lego Group will be reality. For me? It was an overwhelming journey of emotions leaving me drained but full of gratitude. 

 

Hope for Ella request for help

Ella's parents (my nephew and niece Chris and Terri) are hitting the bottom of their finances. Terri was reluctant to ever start any kind of fundraising for them personally; however they are barely halfway into Ella's chemo treatments and money is becoming a HUGE issue with travel costs back and forth into Philly, all the co-pays for things that are covered, all the expenses that come along when you are spending 8 or more hours at the hospital treatment days. In addition to all physical medical costs, Ella has developmental special needs requiring treatment (such as social skills groups, educational counseling, etc) which is very expensive. You can look back through my blog posts, searching for HopeforElla, or you can go to Ella's Blog for more information about my sweet great-niece and her amazing family.

Please help if you can, any little bit will help lighten their load--sharing is an enormous help too. They have more than enough to worry about, let's make money one less thing. Please  Click here to help with Ella's Medical Expenses  Thank you! 

Homemade Bagels! (again...)

This is probably my 4th or 5th time making bagels. Each recipe has gotten better and better--not sure if it is because my technique is getting better or I've gotten better at analyzing the recipes. These came out the best, hands down; they were crisp on the outside and chewy and yet light on the inside.

The recipe came from The Sophisticated Gourmet (that link is where the recipe resides), with pictures from my experience. Thank you Kamra!

Definitely use bread flour as the recipe calls for; I can't help but wonder if that is part of what helped make these so delish!

Before the rise

After the rise :)

After shaping the dough, and in the boil! The one technique I just don't seem to be great at is
the shaping. I may try slightly less flour next time.

Voila! I was so pleased with the final appearance, truly looked like bagels
from a bagel shop!

The taste lived up to the look, perfect. An absolute keeper.

Math and Tears Happy Ending!

For today, anyway! That dear daughter who was so frustrated and so self-convinced she couldn't do this and continued to put off taking the lesson and unit tests until I again put my foot down today--that daughter got a 90 on the lesson test and, after reluctantly taking the unit test today, got a 95 on the unit test! Onward and forward! 

Now for one more gush on Math-U-See. I can't say enough about this math program! I never cease to be amazed at the wonderful ways Mr. Demme designed this program to complete full circles. (for any fellow math geeks reading, pun unintended). Concepts are taught as just part of the process long before they will be introduced as full subjects. One of my girls had been in public high school and had not been doing well at all with geometry, when we went back to homeschooling. She complained through MUS Geometry because he wasn't teaching it "like they did at school!" (music to my ears since she was barely making C's and D's) Steve Demme's geometry teaches students the process behind the theorems and then the theorem names. I insisted she stay with it and, as she hit about halfway through the book where the names of the theorems came in, SHE GOT IT! She was able to then know the theorems because she already had the processes and concepts of theorems down.

While learning long division with remainders, students are taught to express the answer as whatever the remainder is, over the divisor. In other words, it is written as a fraction before Math-U-See students are officially introduced to fractions. Fractions came along for one daughter and she had completed a long division problem on a systemic review page. I got to have one of my favorite moments (seeing the "I GET IT"'s happen!) as she looked at the remainder she had written and saw it not just as a fraction but saw it also in the big picture; meaning, she fully grasped that the remainder is a part of the whole. Is my daughter smart? Well yes. Am I a FABULOUS teacher? Duh, of course! ;) However I owe the math moments like these to Steve Demme. So many people avoid Math-U-See because they believe it doesn't keep kids parallel (yes yes, another unintentional geometric pun) with same age peers in public schools. I have personally seen that as the Math-U-See kids progress into higher maths with this program, not only do they "catch up" they fly ahead! Why? Because they understand not just how they solved the problems, but WHY. 

In case you thought I'd forgotten, I didn't--curious about Math-U-See? Go to www.mathusee.com and check it out for yourself.

More Math Tears and Tales

"You are allowed to not understand, but NOT allowed to not learn."

Summer has arrived in our house; my college courses finished a month ago, public school and even many homeschoolers are wrapping up their school years. These things are always harbingers of the start of more formal schooling in our household. Naturally the joy levels in the house are through the roof as Mom puts her foot down and holds it down. I make sure to place it in semi-permanent cement, tough enough to hold it there but leaving just enough flexibility to wiggle out as needed.

Math has been the biggest obstacle recently: M had been creatively avoiding doing math for the past week. She had been zooming along previously; and with her requests to shower, go to the library, walk the dog, and even take her little brother to the playground, I unwittingly fell right into her avoidance tactics.

Until today. (duh duh duh duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhh—ya know, that dramatic music as the plot thickens…)

I asked her if she had taken the Lesson test yet; she replied with "yes! At least, I think I did. Wait, did I?" I asked her if she needed me to check her lesson work. She replied "I think I checked it already. Wait, I think I did."

"Hmmmmmm," thought I.

I asked M exactly where she was in her book and received equally vague answers. It was time for me to look things over. The work wasn't horrible but it was clear something wasn't clicking. This was a lesson that Mr. Demme ( Math-U-See )gives several options for solving the problems, which further increases my love of this math curriculum because the main focus—the ONLY focus—is complete understanding and mastery of each topic. I could see that even on several problems M answered correctly she took a long route that had far too many bends and curves and even got her lost a few times. The concept of "how" was missing.

As I backed her up to go back to go over a couple of the problems, her frustration flared almost immediately. She was instantly angry and insisting that she do it only the way Mr. Demme showed on the video. We've been doing MUS long enough that I knew if the teacher's manual answers were showing alternative routes to the answer, then there were alternative routes presented along the way. I wanted her to do one of the pages that included a "Quick Review" and she was furious and just wanted to move forward. Voices rose, tempers flared, and I knew it was time to defuse when I heard the dreaded "I CAN'T DO THIS, I JUST CAN'T DO THIS!" (and some typical teen "whatever" and eye rolls and, well, I’m sure you get the picture) I gave M the job of clearing the dining room table, while I defused by hitting Facebook and played Bejeweled Blitz. ;)

Tears and further statements to how she could not do this ensued, including "did you ever think that maybe this is just something I CAN NOT DO?" She did not want to look at what she was seeing as a new or different approach to tackling the problem. I kept telling her of course she could do it, and of course she'll move forward, and of course she was smart enough. This brought more tears; calmer tears, but still there. Her last outburst about math was that she just wasn't smart enough.

My response was, "You are allowed to not understand, but NOT allowed to not learn." Where those words came from is anyone's guess, though I'm certain they were heaven sent J

I had M leave the math for a bit and move on to science. She quietly and quickly got that accomplished and then moved back to math, but there was still some reluctance. I reminded her that this was not a test and not an exam—she could have me right with her to work it through, so that's what we did. About halfway through the 2^nd problem the tone in her voice picked up, and by the 3^rd problem there was even a hint of optimism. I got out some of the Math-U-See manipulatives to show here even more alternatives and, although she almost shut down, she stayed open and not only saw it but grasped it! I reminded M that people that are willing to learn are the smartest of all, and that she is one of those people.

I am forever grateful for days like today. I'll take all the frustrations to witness these moments of learning and understanding; there's plenty of hair dye in the world to color the grey hairs the sprout!