Birthday(s)

Thirteen!

It hardly seems possible that the boys are thirteen, but the years don't lie. The first Saturday in August, we hosted their 13th birthday party.

Mikey doesn't really have friends but David does. He invited 3 kids plus one of the women who does respite. My husband's parents (Great Grandma and Great Grandpa) and my daughter and son-in-law also came.

The kids who were invited are from "park day," which is something that evolved out of the home-school parents. Some of the kids are "on the spectrum." It's important to understand that, when you invited a kid on the spectrum, you've invited the whole family. So we had over 20 people.

Our tradition is to set up the bounce house - we bought one on closeout from Costco several years ago, and it's more than paid for itself - and not have organized games. Kids on the spectrum don't take well to most organized birthday games. They do bounce, sometimes even inside the bounce house!

This year, inspired by an idea in "Family Fun," I also set up our blue E-Z-Twist screen house - it's about 8'X8'X8' - and filled it with blue helium-filled balloons - thereby creating an "ocean" to swim in. All of the kids, at one time or another, got in the "ocean" and did whatever imaginary play made sense to them.

We set out all the "leftover" party toys - plastic flutes, yo-yo's and those things you blow in and the curled paper extends out and they squeal, and some punching bags.

Given that many of the kids are teens or close to it, I wasn't sure how they would take to these things, and it turned out they were all a hit. The punching bags (the blow-up-like-a-balloon kind), ignored in prior years, turned out to be a Big Deal this year.

For food, we went "easy" - Baja Fresh takeout, some watermelon and grapes, and some home-made nachos (they're easy). A tray of shrimp and my "big" effort: deviled eggs, completed the food bill. Iced tea, lemonade, assorted waters, juices and sodas. All outside; paper and plastic that will make it to the landfill.

In years past, we've invited everyone into the house for cake, ice cream and presents. This year, the weather was just perfect - not too hot, not too windy; just sunny and warm - so we held those festivities outside. The usual chaos, with one Brilliant Preparation on my part - I took the ice cream containers, put them into freezer bags, set the bags in a plastic tub (the kind you might put in the sink to do dishes), and put that in the freezer. I then poured water around the containers.This was done 2 days in advance, of course. Then right before we started cake and presents, I got it out and set it on the outside patio. The ice cream did not melt!

So, how did the boys do? Mikey actually played in the bounce house with the kids, for a while. He foot wrestled with David. He then ran around the yard a bit, and then wanted presents before it was time (late arrivers were still eating). We set a schedule with him - play until this time; then presents, then cake and ice cream. With a little persuasion, he did pretty well. He did, however, take his own time out to play away from the chaos on the computer.

Mikey did pretty well with presents, although saying, "Thank you," is not something we've been able to get him to do on his own. A couple of the presents were hits and he ran off with them to play a bit before coming back to continue opening.

David got lots of cash and iTunes cards - he uses them up almost as quickly as he gets them. He is learning about money and had a significant amount - almost $80 - saved here. Mom took that and contributed the rest to get him Guitar Hero for the Wii.

It's really funny, when the boys were little, I could sing to them. For a while, they wanted NO music. Then Mikey started listening to symphony and opera, and would even ask for them. David then started to get into modern music - more on that in another blog.

At any rate, the party was successful and we ended it with party favors that honored the Space Program - Astronaut Ice Cream.

Happy Birthday, David and Michael!

More Math Techniques: PEMA pants

Well, Order of Operations is important in math. There is the default order and then there is the order cast by using symbols, such as parentheses. David is a visual learner, and pneumonics are helpful to him as well.

So on this particular Saturday we were working on this. It finally went well with this:

Parentheses
Exponents
Multiplication (he knows division is inverse multiplication)
Addition (ditto for subtraction)

which we remember by using the phrase "PEMA pants." [He is in Junior High, after all!!]

I owe it all to ...

David frequently asks how a particular math lesson will help him be a video game designer (this is his ambition). Often it's not too hard to let him know how, since game design is so math-intense.

Of course, sometimes the math lessons are challenging. Recently, after David finally mastered a difficult concept, he turned to me and said, "When I'm a game designer, I'll owe it all to YOU." (You can probably see the smile on my face from wherevever you are reading this.)

Math Techniques

So since we're talking about math (again), I thought I'd share some of the things I've come up with to help David with his math. We have been solving linear equations with 2 values, identifying slope-intercepts, etc. To solve a linear equation involves finding a single variable and equating it to something solvable.

So, in order to get David's attention, I tell him we have to find the "naked" y (or x). In order to do that, we "MARCH to the Other Side and Change The Sign." [I literally march around for this one.] Then we "Divide and Conquer." [We do this with waving of arms and pointing.] Just thought I'd share ..

The other day, David, who is almost 13, started watching several "Little Bear" episodes on tape. Little Bear is age-appropriate for 3-5 year olds. He also pulled out a Wiggles video! We asked him why, and he declared that he "must be reverting to my childhood."

Mikey has fixated on a feature on the Sleeping Beauty video disk #2. It is a walkthrough of the Sleeping Beauty castle. He watches it over and over, and looks up similar videos on You Tube. This has supplanted the more recent fixations with "The Lion King on Broadway" You Tubes and the "Journey through the Grand Canyon and Medieval World" from the Disney train ride. I wonder what will be next.

Speaking of Mikey, he has learned it is appropriate to greet someone when you see them for the first time in a day. "Good Morning, Mother." "Hello, Grandma."

He does this rather quickly then goes off, again rather quickly, to pursue his own interests. His Mom said that, one day when - hm, I'm not sure if it was on the bus ride home from school or a day when Mom went to the classroom - at any rate, someone in authority reminded Mikey to "say hello to your parent."

"Hello, Parent!" he said.

Mikey does continue to make improvements. However there are some core issues. One is that, when things don't go his way, he sometimes throws a tantrum. He'll flop on the floor and scream and do the hit-his-head-with-one-hand and bite-the-fleshy-skin-over-his-thumb with the other. AND he kicks. It takes 2 of us now to control it.

The one thing that is more scary is that he cannot tolerate a person crying, including babies. If David cries, Mikey will cry and hit him. You have to watch him very carefully at a park; where normally he ignores other kids, this is the one time he'll attempt to connect with them.

David is doing very well in math. The past several concepts, save one, have come to him rather easily. He will probably finish the pre-algebra course a couple of weeks from now. We'll be able to start the following year's math before this year is out. Heaven knows what Grandma will have to brush up on to keep helping him.

Also, how creative I'll need to be. This past year we have "MARCH to the Other Side and Change The Sign" and "Group the Troups Together." It's tough to "literalize" abstract concepts and I expect it will get tougher. It is very rewarding and not terribly infrequent for David to turn to me and say, "Thank you, Grandma, for explaining that to me."

David is turning into ...

"So David," I asked, "What is happening on July 30 this year?"
"My birthday!"
"What else?"
"I don't know - what?"
"What does it mean?"
"I'll be an eighth grader."
"What else? What will you turn into?"
"WHAT?"
"An icky, terrible, stinky teenager!"

Yup, the boys are going to be 13. And David has turned into a Weird Al fan. He has an inexpensive MP3 player and 5 albums loaded. He now sings/recites the words to dozens of Weird Al parodies. And yes, David knows what a parody is - he has even told us in detail about "Bob" - the song comprised of all palindromes. And yes, he knows what that is too.

Disneyland Redux 2

Mikey has on-and-off been interested in our car GPS units. I have a Garmin device - I think a C650 - and it is small and will operate on battery power. Hubby's GPS is really old; it's a larger model and not terribly portable. Recently, Mikey has been staring intently at street names - or something - while we drive.

Last Saturday, as we got ready to go back to Mama's house, Mikey asked, "May I have GPS, please?" so I got mine out of my truck and let him hold it on the way home.

He did push buttons; we could hear them - they beep. Then the GPS unit said, "Turn right on Heather Street."

Now, the GPS gives directions only when a destination has been programmed, of course. And we needed to turn left. It took a moment to realize that Mikey must have pushed the "Go Home" button. So I told him, "Mikey, 'Home' on the GPS is Grandma's house."

I took the GPS from him and programmed it to go to HIS house. I also told him we would not be following the instructions exactly. As we approached intersections where I knew the GPS would give different directions, or if it did give different directions, I would reassure Mikey by saying something like, "We are going straight here" or something equivalent to explain our variance from the proscribed path.

We soon got close enough to "Mama's house" that the directions were accurate. However, as we approached one particular street, the GPS said, "Turn right on B---- street."

Hubby asked, "Why is it asking us to do that?"

I responded that it sometimes directs us around and in from the other side. He said, "Yes, but we would need to turn LEFT to do that."

We were stopped at a light, so hubby took the GPS and looked at the instructions - Mikey had managed to find a set of directions to Disneyland!! and executed them. We guess he thought if he programmed the GPS, the car would go there ...

Feb. 7

It has been raining for a couple of days, and the yard was really soaked. The boys came over, as usual, of course. We had tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches, and the boys got goldfish in their soup. [The crackers; not real fish ;0]

Disneyland Redux

We were surprised last week that Mikey did not ask to go back to Disneyland. No worries - or maybe many worries - this past week, he said, "May I have Disneyland, please??"

We told him, "No," of course; even if we were to get him a "Southern California" pass, weekends are blacked out for most of the year. Also, I don't think we could take both boys at the same time; they like totally different things.

David, who, for a long time, said he did not want to go to Disneyland (an assortment of fears), has now decided that he wants to go as well. So I'll pick out a time for him. I can take him on my own and we won't get a "Guest Assistance" pass.

Aquarium

We are also members of the Aquarium of the Pacific, which is in Long Beach. The boys have loved going there. Our favorite times are "Member Nights" which *used* to occur the first Tuesday of every month. On those nights, the Aquarium would open at 6 pm for 3 hours for "members only."

Before I retired, I worked practically next door to the Aquarium. Mom would bring the boys around 5 pm and we'd go to Tequila Jack's for their Tuesday special: $1 tacos and half-priced margaritas. (Only Mom and I had margaritas.)

Then we'd go to the Aquarium and have it pretty much to ourselves. The boys were better able to concentrate on the exhibits without the distraction of the crowds.

Mikey was always pretty much touch-and-go, or just go, for the longest time. Lately, however, he has picked up a "fish finder" (the Aquarium's brochure that lists the items in the exhibits), and has actually spent time looking at the fish etc.