9/17/12 - 9/21/12

Wow! What a week. We're into our third week and this was a rough one. Grandma and Grandpa Klein left and Nicholas was wanting the same attention as when they were here. It made for a very tough week. Lots of whining and me getting stressed. The more stressed I got the more whiny he got and it just makes for a miserable day. And it's hard to force a 4 year old into time out when you're feeding a newborn...for an hour(The little princess takes her time)! Ugh! It didn't help that one day I slept in and wasn't prepared with worksheets for him. So...the lack of structure made the day miserable. Nicholas loves structure and needs a "plan" for the day. He likes to know what's going to happen and have it all laid out for him. If I don't have a plan and I need to cook meals or feed Isabella he literally doesn't know what to do and can not play on his own. He just plants his head into the couch whining "what can I do?" over and over and over! He has a playroom filled with toys. I'm talking trampoline, basketball net, lego's, mega blocks, train set, etc...he just won't play with any of it on his own. His occupational therapist thinks it's part of his sensory overload and he really doesn't know what to do and that he needs to be taught how to play. I didn't know this could be possible. Doesn't everyone know how to play with toys on their own?!?! I just thought he was needy and wanted attention but the therapist thinks its more sensory and having to decide on his own what to do is overwhelming. There are too many options going through his head and it's too much. Interesting!

Anyway, we continued our daily worksheets and we decided to give him more difficult math problems just to see how he did. He amazingly did everything correctly. For some reason his mind just "gets it"! It's amazing! We've decided to use one of these worksheets for his application to the Davidson Young Scholar Program when he turns 5 next May. Here's a website to the program: http://www.davidsongifted.org/youngscholars/ It's a free support group for profoundly gifted students ages 5-18. Nicholas was IQ tested in May at the age of 3 and his results came back as Exceptionally Gifted(borderline profoundly, which is the highest). With the standard deviation(5 points given for his perfectionism and not wanting to answer some questions for fear of failure) he does fall into the profoundly gifted range. Therefore, I describe him as EG/PG rather than picking one. We've heard great things about this support group and look forward to hopefully getting him accepted. Once accepted he would remain as a member until he's 18. A big part of our reason for taking pictures and documenting all of his work is for this program and for us to be an advocate for him and get him the help that he needs, since the public school system most likely can not accommodate him. We want all of his work samples should anyone ask so they can readily see what level he is on at any given point. He is so hungry to learn and loves Math(and science) that we want to do whatever is necessary for him to continue on this path and do whatever great things this may lead to.

Something we did this week was make a volcano(mixing acids and bases). I basically put the mold together and poured the plaster but the next day he painted the volcano himself. He was so excited to erupt it on the third day but it was quite a bit of a let down. It barely erupted so I would not recommend the scientific explorer kit we used. We definitely want something more grand! I think next week we'll pour a bunch more vinegar and baking soda in to see if we get a big explosion, rather than just the 1 teaspoon of each per the instructions. In months past he was into volcano books and watched a cool DVD about all the volcano's in the world and saw eruptions and destructions of cities and how people can be in danger. I think I'll look for that DVD on netflix again and watch it again with him soon!

I also noticed the game Qwirkle in a Mindware magazine that we received in the mail. We had it but we never played. I brought it out and thought it would be a great thinking game for him so we tried it while Isabella was napping. It was a hit! He got it right away. We made our own version of it and used all the pieces. It was exciting to see the huge winding shape we made by the end! I think this will be a good "go to" game for the next few weeks!

We are also working on another scrapbook for Grandma and Grandpa's journey back to South Carolina. They got home today but we are a little behind on keeping up with them. Between Isabella's feedings and Nicholas' whining, things were a little slow this week.

However, we did have a get together with a friend. We had a friend come over with her 19 month old son. He is in the toddler stage, not yet talking but running around. I was curious to see how he would do with him. He surprised me and did really well, trying to help him play with toys and even engaged in a "pass the toy back and forth" game the little guy initiated. But, as always, Nicholas is much more into the parents and preferred to read a book with him mommy. But...he is progressing!

Here are some pics from the week. You'll see we also did a spreadsheet on ounces/pounds/cups, played with math dice, and worked on IXL.com website for their math problems.