November 24

Last weekend Carl took Sarah out to ride her tricycle. At one point she was on a slight sideways slope and lost her balance a tiny bit. When she recovered her balance she said, "Close, Dinosaur, real close" which references one of our favorite books, Dinosaur vs. the Potty. I love her sense of humor and how she can pull references from other things and use them appropriately!

While some things, such as pronouns, are linguistically elusive for Sarah, there are other things that she picks up right away to the point of being able to generalize. She can turn any word into an adjective, such as when I said there were beets in the juice and she responded that it was "beety." Expanding on my use of "momsicle, Sarahsicle, and Amysicle," she then said "dadsicle" in a fitting context.

Sarah did a tiny bit of dishwashing this week, though I can see it is more about isming with the water. Still, it was a great new moment that she initiated.

We got a new dining room table and chairs this weekend and the girls truly helped Carl assemble them.

Last night Carl was wearing a button-down shirt, which is not at all his usual attire. As Sarah sat in his lap I realized that she was busy fastening and unfastening a button. These are small buttons!! And she was spontaneously doing them by herself. We have worked on buttons in the past but always with large buttons.

Sarah can open her dresser drawer by herself. This is a large, wide drawer so it requires going back and forth, opening each side just a tiny bit. She figured this out on her own.

Sarah loves working on writing and easily allows reading practice. She does each of these several times a week during her SR time, especially with Sonia. We are at the very beginning of these skills and it is thrilling that she loves to practice.

Sarah does lots of screaming any time she doesn't get what she wants. We are starting to say that while this is ok, we would prefer to get a thank you for the nice thing we just did rather than getting screamed at because of it ending. Not sure how effective this is so far, but if feels good to ask for what we want. While screaming is understandable and ok, it is not going to fly in kindergarten.

Amy loves preschool, taking to it like a duck to water. 

Because sometimes I don't feel like I am running a full time program, M. gave me homework to write down what we currently do:

6 hours typical preschool with Sonia attending

some aspect of Becky's program daily, sometimes all aspects. If all, that is 90 min. 

1-3 hrs field trip 

15-20 hours in SR room

GAPS related food journey (shopping, cooking, cleaning, thinking to support that)

1 hr play date every other week

occasional additional play dates

watching 30 min dvd or tv a few times a week, taking turns with who gets to pick so I can introduce new material

refreshing toys/books in SR room (10-15 min)

1 hr meeting with Sonia to organize our life/program

increasing amount of free play

(meanwhile, Amy gets experiences at daycare, preschool, 2 hours with an Amy volunteer while SR is happening, helping with chores and errands in addition to all of the above items that affect the whole family).

Because of my worrying that things would be better if I was running a more full-time official Son-Rise program, M. gave me more homework...

Reasons why our current program is more helpful for Sarah than doing 40-60hrs/week of SR plus all of Becky's stuff daily...

That is not where we are right now. Sarah is flourishing. Our overall goal is to have her connected, learning, thinking, playing in the world at large so stepping out of the SR room more often is in the direction of that goal. Time in the SR room is still beneficial as a way to really focus and connect without distraction and with minimal stress. Our goals are also to have her more physically active, which again is easier to accomplish with less time in the room. Less time 1:1 means more time with Amy and 1 or 2 other adults which helps with her social learning and communicating. We can see where her challenges are more clearly because she currently functions so well in the SR room. We are focusing more on academics in and out of the SR room and this is great because she loves it and is connecting to us through the academic play/practice (reading, writing, drawing, table top toys). The more she can come up to age level with her academics the more she will be ready to be around her age peers in a school setting. All the time cooking and cleaning is helping her body be healthy so it can function optimally. She also gets to observe and help with the cooking. If she was in the SR room all day plus the time doing Becky's routines then she wouldn't have time for free play and spontaneous connection with Amy or Sonia/me/Carl. Free play allows her to learn and take care of herself in the way that she chooses. I do very little official SR time myself right now because of implementing Becky's program. This is ok. I have trained an amazing team to do the SR time and I still lead the team. I am the only one currently able to do all of Becky's routine. It is important to have time for me so that I can be refreshed in the big picture. I spend a lot of time with each girl and both girls together. So does Sonia. So does Carl. Even if the time is not 1:1 play, we are still around and showing up, helping them learn and grow. The more I take care of myself and allow free play for me, the more relaxed and creative I can be with the girls, in whatever capacity. While everything we do and try may help, the ultimate person to create change and growth is Sarah. The buck does not stop with me. It stops with her. No change will happen without her consent. She loves learning and growing so we just have to show up with our best selves, which we have been and are doing beautifully.

(note to self, doubting my program or abilities while talking to M. will result in homework! :)

Wrapping it up with a note from Carl:

Sarah woke up on this lazy Sunday morning with a glint in her eye.

S: The world is covered in snow

D: Well, it snowed yesterday. You'll have to check if it is still there

Sarah gets out of bed and goes to a window and lifts the shade. She looks disappointed. 

D: Did the snow melt?

S: Snow not melted! Close the shade! Try different window!

She did exactly that and unfortunately her plan for restoring the world to its proper state, despite being innovative in its approach, ultimately proved unsuccessful.