Thursday, February 27, 2014

Adjusting to homeschooling with Chronic Migraines



It's been a bumpy week or so here.  Lots of sickness and not a lot of energy for school.  My migraines have been a real challenge.  Ya know as much as I prayed and thought I prepared for homeschooling my son while dealing with Chronic Migraines I am realizing that it will take a LOT of flexibility and patience before we find a good groove.  I will be trying a "new to me" Migraine treatment in the next week and am praying it is helpful!  I also just ordered a book that a friend recommended to me.  It's called The Mood Cure by Julia Ross.  I have been told it covers all sorts of things from depression, anxiety, ADHD, muscle issues, Fibromyalgia and more!  It just arrived today with my 2 day Free Amazon Prime shipping and I can't wait to get started!

We did manage get a few things done.....
We watched a great video on Humpback whales and the songs they sing.  Well, we learned in the video they don't sing as their mouths are closed so they are actually humming.  And their noises can reach across the ocean!  Notice below in the link before the words "youtube" it said quiet.

*****You can add the word quiet before whatever video you watch to remove ads in the video AND so you don't see those random videos displayed on the side panel!****  

http://www.quietyoutube.com/watch?v=-oYIK6Bg6co

What we've been reading lately:
DK Eyewitness book: Explorer
Farmer Boy
Spaghetti and Meatballs for All!  (a living math book)
Janice VanCleave's Oceans for Every Kid -Great activities to reinforce science


For now it's been necessary to cut way back and just focus on English & Math.  Turbo is doing a math facts app that I have on my Iphone called Math Magic.  I've tried LOTS of the free (popular) math practice websites and my kids thought they were kind of a drag!  Math Magic is fun and it's mobile so we can be sitting in a doctors office waiting room practicing math facts!  We are pushing hard to finish up Math Mammoth 3B.  I love the program.  So much that I bought the entire series!  However as we push through Turbo is kind of on the fence about it.  I love that it is a mastery program but I find that for us it requires some adjustments.  For example if we hit a concept Turbo already knows I will drastically reduce the number of problems he has to do. When we began this program I had Turbo working independently only coming to me if he had questions.  I got the idea to sit with him and do much more of the math orally.  It has CHANGED the way we do math!  Because I'm sitting in I can clearly and quickly identify things that Turbo has mastered and reduce the work if needed without him getting frustrated and going into mental overload.  He is also much happier to give an oral answer and math is getting done in about half the time it was taking before.  Rob (dad) has been helping to take over Math by teaching it in the evening since I'm having such a hard time getting through everything.  Thank God for my good husband!  I so appreciate his help but I hope & pray this is a temporary fix.  In my ideal world I'd be able to get all the instruction done during the day and we could enjoy evenings as a family. 

http://www.mathmammoth.com/




Product Review:  I can not tell you how much of a hit thinking putty is!  I only ordered one container of it and it was not enough since EVERYONE wants to use it.  Even the adults & teens who visit!  It can keep my little one occupied for quite some time.  It really gets his imagination going as he finds new ways to use it and incorporates his other toys into it.  I was even able to remove the entire ball of putty from our off white carpeting today!!  It gives the boys something quiet to do with their hands while I'm reading or going over lessons and it's so much fun!  No more play dough for us we are definitely picking up more thinking putty soon!


My next post I'm planning to explain in more detail what we are doing to keep up with homeschooling while having Chronic Migraines.  I'd love to hear what others are doing to manage health issues and still made home schooling a priority!

Blessings,

Melissa

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