Just had to do a little bragging

Esther is working on a history(?) project with our homeschool group.  She has to research a famous person, do a report and poster on that person, and then answer questions about her person in character.  Somewhat to my surprise, she chose Louis Braille.  The following is her report, as dictated to me.  I started out by asking her what she would tell someone about Louis Braille if they didn't know anything about him.  After that I mostly just prompted her with, "And then what happened?" along with a few clarification questions.  I was really impressed with the amount of detail she remembered and with her organization!  There are a couple of significant events missing, as well as no mention of dates or ages, but for a first-grader I think this is pretty good!  She had me read the essay over to her several times, and had her own ideas about where she wanted to change the wording or add information.  We are working on it more today to fill in some details she couldn't remember the first time around (that's what the brackets are there for) and to make it a little more complete.  

It's intriguing to me that Esther is such a natural at what I would consider higher-order thinking skills, while basic phonics and addition facts have been a year-long struggle.  So I'm glad we can do a project like this that builds on her strengths.  The presentation will take place this Saturday, and she is not looking forward to it at all--in fact, she has been asking me to cancel!  But I think she will do fine, and hopefully it will be a good memory.

Louis Braille

      Louis Braille had a very hard life. He punched himself in the eye with an awl. His mom and dad came running for him. The doctor came running fast. He kept rubbing his eye into the other eye, and he got an infection which made him blind. He said, “When is morning going to be here?” Everyone hated that question because he was blind.

      Nobody said, “Watch out, Louis Braille!” and nobody said “Louis Braille, stop!” One time his father made him a cane out of wood. He used echoes and songs to “see” if he was going to bump into something.

      One time a new pastor came and his name was Father Palluy. Father Palluy asked if Louis wanted to come to the church so the Father could teach him lessons. On some days they did Bible stories and on some days Louis learned to recognize bird sounds.

      Father Palluy sent a letter to the Royal Institute for Blind Youth. It was time to tell the Braille family that there was an institute for the blind. And Louis's father had a lot of questions. He said he was thinking about it. Louis begged to go, and his father finally said yes. The stage coach came and Louis was going on the stage coach with his father. He was happy. He went down an old lonesome road and he saw the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris. His mother sent treats with him, but the next day they were stolen. The other students at the Institute thought it was fun to trick him into going into a closet. He had mixed feelings about being at the Institute. But he was happy, but nervous.

      At the Institute, Louis learned piano lessons and other musical instruments. He learned to make things with his hands, like slippers. He also learned school classes, like arithmetic.

Captain Barbier came to the Institute. He thought Night Writing would be a good lesson, but it wasn't helpful at all. Louis thought there must be a better way. He was determined to improve Night Writing. It took three years, but he finally found a way, punching dots with a stylus, which was like an awl. He showed his alphabet to the other students. They said, “We want to see what you have written for us.” Everyone decided, “That is incredible!”

      Louis invited other people to use his alphabet. [ ]

      Louis became a teacher at the Institute. Then he got tuberculosis. [ ] His students had to lean forward to hear him because his voice was so weak. His cough got worse. The doctor told him that sometimes walking in the air helps. His friends packed up his bags.

      [IOU box] Louis's cough got worse and worse. Finally he closed his eyes for the last time and then he was dead.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Life with a kid can be a roller coaster.  Especially if that kid is a teen.  For some reason (maybe all the togetherness resulting from WAY too many snow days!), lately I've been noticing how many little ups and downs there are in life with Daniel.  Some, I'm sure, are typical of all teens; others, not so much.  (And the ones that are atypical are not necessarily bad...just...different!)

So, without further ado, some vignettes of the ugly, the bad and the good.

The ugly:

One evening Daniel was mildly displeased with me about something, and demonstrated his displeasure by blowing in my face from less than ten inches away.  (Mind you, he gets righteously offended at Esther for blowing in his direction, even if she's several feet away!)  I told him to quit.  He grinned, and proceeded to blow in my face at every opportunity for the rest of the evening.  I have a feeling that that kind of behavior is normal for an ornery child at some developmental stage--but I'm pretty sure that that developmental stage is not older teenager! 

The bad:

A couple of years ago, we went through months where Daniel would ask me every day, often more than once, if I loved him.  When I said yes, he would grunt, or respond with "maybe" or "I don't think so" or "no you don't."  Recently he was feeling anxious about some upcoming changes in our family, and started recycling the whole "Do you love me?  No, you don't" pattern.  Besides this he was doing every little thing he could do to get on my nerves, and telling me he was "annoying" and "a bad kids."  It was really hard to parent him when he was in that mode, because at the same time that he so much needed reassurance and nurturing, he was acting in ways that were pushing me away.  He's doing much better now, but I have a feeling that at some point in the future, we'll re-cycle through those feelings and behaviors once again.

The good:

Our beloved foster/adopt agency recently had an open house their new location, and it snowed the whole time.  Daniel volunteered to shovel the sidewalk, which meant four hours of keeping an eye on accumulations and periodically going out to clear it off.  He did this all with energy and a positive attitude, and not one of the VIP guests had trouble walking in from their car, even the ones in high heels.  In between shoveling, he wandered around inside, cracking up the staff with his wise guy remarks.  (You know those sitcom characters who have a snarky comment for everything?  He can be like that in real life!)  We were really proud of his hard work and his willingness to help.  Besides being a character he has a lot of character, and it keeps getting better!

Also, I couldn't help but smile today when he called me from a club trip to thank me for noticing that the gloves he had picked out were too small and for putting a larger pair in his backpack.  (And, I'm thrilled that he agreed to go on a just-for-fun peer activity, just like a "normal" teen!  Social though he is, he has not been interested in typical teen activities like attending sports games or school dances or all-county choir, and I think it's probably good for him to experience that side of high-school life.)


So, there you have it.  Our life with an adopted teen is "different"...and there's plenty in that to drive us nuts...but also plenty to be thankful for!