I just completed the first week of my twenty-five year homeschooling. That is a sentence I didn't expect to ever write. Our seventh child, Josiah, graduated high school in the spring of 2016, and I anticipated for over a decade that his graduation would end my homeschool teaching. Decisions about our son Nathaniel's education have been a long (mostly kept private) wrestle over the last few years. Perhaps in time I will share more about the small decisions that landed us at last Monday - Nathaniel's first day of Kindergarten in our homeschool. But for today, I just want to share about that first week.

We are using PrACCtical AAC's list of core words for our July augmentative and alternative communication work with Nathaniel. My goal is do one fifteen to twenty minute activity per day that allows me to model the words and motivate Nathaniel to use his device and learn new language skills. There are twelve words in the list; that is a lot to take on all at once. I've found success with focusing on four words per week for three weeks and then having the last week of the month to mix it all up and revisit some of our favorite activities. The words we are worked on this week were FIND, COLOR, AND, and LOVE. Nathaniel loves to speak in one word utterances and let his communication partner do the work, but he more than capable of two to three word utterances; longer utterances are emerging. I tend to model between three and five word phrases and sentences. He is becoming aware of pronoun use, present progressive verb endings, and adding a plural s.

A few weeks ago, my nieces visited our home for their annual week of "Camp Rankin." We meet their family at the same park, halfway between our homes, each year to pick up and drop off the girls. Visiting a playground only once a year provides amazing insight into the changes in Nathaniel's physical abilities. In 2015, he kept his feet on solid ground. Walking on the uneven park surface carrying his tube feed in a backpack was challenging enough. In 2016, he was comfortable walking up a ramp to the lowest play area. His aunt and cousin were watchful spotters to his emerging climbing skills in 2017. This year it was hard for any of us to keep up.

The first word that comes to mind when I think of my mom is creative. She showed her love by making you something. After high school she worked at a fabric store. Sewing remained a life long enjoyment. When I was in high school she made every dress I wore to a dance. There was a plaid skirt and powder blue spaghetti strap silky top for my freshman year. A pink satin with fitted bodice and 1980’s puffy sleeves for my senior prom. I loved those outfits. But Mom didn’t do zippers or button holes.

We celebrated Nathaniel's birthday a few weeks ago; early because his actual birthday falls on the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Five seems magical and unbelievable. It seems to have happened overnight, and at the same time like he has experienced too much to still be so young. A few hours before his party, Josiah took him to the back yard to take some photos. They too are magical. They show clearly Nathaniel's wonder and joy for living.

I typically use Nathaniel's quarterly GI appointment as a reason to write about his progress transitioning from g-tube to oral feeding. I skipped writing about April's appointment because there was nothing spectacular to share.  Nathaniel's extended PICU at the end of February required us to return to full g-tube feeds. He lost two pounds while sick and had no desire to eat orally when discharged. I write a bit about that recovery here.

I probably should have written about feeding through that season. The ebb and flow between success with oral feeding and relying on the g-tube has been very much a part of the transition.

When we decided to homeschool this year, I did not want every piece of our day to be remedial and fixing weaknesses. I wanted to do something that built on Nathaniel's strengths and things we enjoy. His receptive language skills are fantastic. He loves stories. He loves being outside. This intersection is where I am building some fun learning into our day.

"Backyard Visitors" is the name I am giving to our nature study. We are learning about one animal a month through children's literature, crafts, and time outdoors. We are working on core AAC vocabulary. The first critter that we learned about was the firefly.