Our Vacation: St. Louis... Here We Come!

We recently went on our first family vacation.  This was supposed to be the "meet the mouse" year but we decided to change course after Lockelan's hemophilia diagnosis.  The initial learning curve was too steep.  Instead, we chose to visit St. Louis.  The city offered a lot but it wasn't too far away.

The process of planning and prepping for our week long excursion began weeks prior.  While I’m typically an over-planner anyway, attempting to meet high medical needs and extreme allergies on the road is a marathon event.  Given the circumstances, it would be necessary for me to bring and prepare every meal the Lockelan and I consumed, down to the last detail.

Thank goodness for stow and go so I had somewhere to put all the food.

Not an inch to spare.

He's probably right to look concerned.

The drive was easy and our 2 bedroom/2 bathroom unit was perfect.  Or at least it seemed that way until I realized that nothing was child proofed.  In an attempt to prove my fears well founded, Lockelan immediately climbed in a dining chair and managed to knock it over, taking himself along for the ride.  I don’t know how he didn’t get injured but I was thankful that the first question I asked at registration was the location of the nearest ER. 

This can't possibly go bad.

All three children shared a room.  Elora and William couldn't have been more exited and I adored seeing them unpack and setup the room the way they wanted.  While I’ll admit that I was thrilled to hear the two of them giggling under the covers with their flashlights amid whispered secrets; as time wore on, we ended up separating them until they were both asleep.

The kid's room.  Yes, I move the gigantic "crush a toddler" television.

Did I mention that was a whirlpool tub in the middle of the master bedroom?

All I could think when I saw this coffee table was how I would end up in some ER explaining how my son got hurt by a sled in April.

Even though it was very late before we finished unpacking, it was relaxing to finally be there.  Our unit was large enough to accommodate our endless supply of stuff.  While the children were a bit over excited, they eventually fell asleep.  Matt and I tried to loosely plan the week which was an interesting task since we did not have Internet access.  We also don't have smart phones like all the cool kids.

The first full day started off well.  We decided to visit the Science Museum.  Spirits were high as everyone got ready and ate breakfast.  

It's amazing what we can do to a nice place in less than 12 hours.

We were minutes from walking out the door when Lockelan tripped over his feet and smacked his head on the doorway to the bedroom.  And here I was worried about the sled shaped coffee table…

The hit wasn't hard enough for me to consider an intracranial bleed.   However, as soon as he stood up, I knew we were in trouble.  The area began to swell immediately.  Matt called the emergency answering service for his hemophilia treatment center while I began to setup for an infusion of factor.  While our phlebotomy skills have increased, his veins were not cooperating.  Matt and I took turns torturing Lockelan until we finally had to admit that we needed professional help.  It wasn't the best moment for either of us.

We managed to squeeze lunch in on the balcony in between attempts.

Much to my dismay, the policies at the closest ER for treating hemophilia patients was very unusual.  All we needed was someone else to stick.  However, they were going to require a CT scan followed by an ambulance ride to the nearest children’s hospital.  He would then need a minimum of a four hour observation window.  Despite our hematologists vast experience at one of the nation’s leading hemophilia treatment centers, they weren't budging.  Thankfully our HTC is amazing and they were able to direct us to St. Louis Children's which was about an hour away.  They even called ahead to escalate our case.

While our ER experience lasted nearly two hours, I can’t complain given the exceptional care we received.  They were expecting us and followed the requests of our HTC.  Obviously, his veins were bad for everyone because the pros blew one in each hand.  We had to wait for the IV specialists.  I pointed out a good vein on the side of his head and it was a first time hit.  To my surprise, they used the factor I had already mixed.  Anti-hemophilic factor is stored as a powder that is reconstituted to a liquid form using sterile water.  Once it is mixed, the time frame for using it is limited.  Then it must be discarded, which is hard to swallow when you understand the substantial cost of each dose.  It’s common for hospitals to require you to mix a new dose.  And in case you are curious, yes, it is a medication that we bring with us and is constantly kept wherever Lockelan goes.

IV in the head.  It looks scary but I think head veins are much less traumatic for him.

The rest was a breeze and they discharged us as quickly as possible.  It was already 5:00 PM.  The hour long drive home seemed like an eternity.  And obviously, this meant any plans we had for the day were shot.

Loved the speed limit sign in the garage.

The rest of the night was a blur.  I was thrilled to hear that the older two had a blast around the resort.  Matt took them to the playground and the arcade.  He purchased plastic bats from the gift shop and they took turns trying to hit the ball.

It certainly wasn't the day we planned, nor was it the best way to kick off our vacation.  But still, we did our best to give the kids a fun experience.

The kids enjoyed ring pops at their table.

What am I going to do with that boy?

Infusion Time - School Time

If you remember my previous post on school in the hospital then I'm thrilled to finally include a post on how well school in the hospital can go.

Elora receives an infusion of medication to treat her juvenile arthritis, specifically her uveitis, once a month.  I try to make the most of the 4+ hours we spend in the infusion room.  However, it doesn't always go as planned.  Last month, her veins were terrible.  We were sent home day 1 after multiple sticks.  They were able to gain access on day 2 but the vein was barely holding so she couldn't move much.

This month was so much better.  Poor Elora pitched a fit for the initial stick, fearing the worst.  This time everything was perfect and her IV was established quickly, assuaging her fears.  Due to her history of reactions, she also receives a number of pre-treatment medications that make her drowsy.  She was still able to work quite well at the tasks at hand.

Here the IV is established and she is quite happy about the outcome.

Elora and I worked on groups of rhyming words.  I found these cards in dollar bin at Target.

Next, we moved to a preschool workbook.  I miscalculated the difficulty and she was offended by the lack of challenge.  She nearly completed the entire book of her own accord but the process was filled with lots of eye rolling and assertions that the work was best suited for William.  However, she refused to stop no matter how much I offered.

We moved on to our first set of sight word cards.  The biggest challenged is that she thinks she knows them all and doesn't take correction well.  She still loves to play the knock-knock game where we turn all the cards over and knock on each one, trying to identify it as we turn it over.  Technically, it is the third part of the three period lesson defined by Maria Montessori.

This is domino addition.  She must count and write the number on each side of the domino.  The final task is to count the totals for each domino.  I printed this worksheet form Tot School.

We worked briefly with the movable alphabet.  This particular setup is from Montessori Print Shop.  She managed to spell all four pictures on her own, although she kept asking for my help.

I always include some activity bags.  The pipe cleaner/beading bag has been one of her favorites since she was 2 years old.  Here I made a whale bracelet for myself.

Elora made a bracelet with assorted animals.

She turned her bracelet into a hula-hoop for her stuffed Guinea pig.

I was amazed at how much we were able to accomplish in a relatively short amount of time.  We were finally able to go home and Elora enjoyed the usual wagon ride to the car.

The Return Home

If you've noticed the silence, there's a good explanation.  We went on our first family vacation!  We generally don't like to share prolonged absences publicly which is why you are just now learning about our much anticipated trip.  We spent a week in De Soto, MO.  There were a few interesting moments but overall, we have returned refreshed and relaxed.  We also managed to return with more laundry than I know what to do with.

I chronicled the experience and I haven't decided how much I will share yet.  I don't want to bore everyone with too many details.  I plan to share photos at the very least.  We saw some amazing things, such as this:

While we were on our trip, I finally finished the materials I was making for our transition to the Dwyer reading approach.  I would love to print and prepare everything this coming weekend but that might be a bit ambitious.  The booklets alone are on 70 pages.

Since our return I have officially enrolled Elora and William in the Montessori summer program at a local school.  This will be Elora's third summer and William's second, although this will be his first year in the primary classroom. 

The other tidbit is that I attended an information session on Classical Conversations.  I have had my eye on the program for some time.  Now that I understand it a bit better, I think it will be a perfect fit for us.  I would like to use it as a road map while still presenting the weekly work in a Montessori fashion.  I think my current albums will blend well with it.  And don't worry, I plan to dedicate an entire post about this decision in the very near future.

School Update - March

I haven't posted a Montessori Monday school work update in a while.  I'm continually amazed at how cyclical our class time is.  We're currently in one of the best upswings we've had.  Both Elora and William have stayed eager and engaged for some time.  We used to aim for school in the morning but lately we've started in the afternoon when Lockelan takes his nap.  It has made things a bit easier.  Elora has been interested in revisiting a number of the basics, which has provided opportunities for extensions.

Elora is working with the counters.  She now lines up the counters correctly to differentiate between even and odd.

This is an extension with the brown stairs and pink tower.  

Here you can see the card she is working from.  This is from Montessori Print Shop.

Elora is working the binomial cube.  William has recently taken an interest in this one as well.

Practicing letters.

William is working with the Feel and Find from Guidecraft.  We need to try this one blindfolded.

William is matching the color tablets (box 2).  Elora is in the background working with the spindle box.

Elora has been asking to work with the red and blue rods again lately.  We have been working through various extensions such as figuring out which two rods add up to ten.

On a particularly rough day for William, he chose to take an object to picture matching work to daddy's office chair.

William has been working with the Guidecraft Twist n Sort  a lot lately.  Each of the four pegs  makes it a bit more challenging to remove the shape.  You have to lift while twisting to be successful. 

Elora matched the geometric solids to cards.  She then proceeded to discover that several of the solids had the same shape on their base.  I thoroughly enjoyed her excitement at the discovery.  This is a great example of why I love the classic Montessori materials.  They are much more complex than many realize.

Given her discovery, we also worked with the planes.  This allows her to match the base on each solid with a familiar 2D shape.

Elora has been interested in these CVC letter blocks.  There are five, one for each vowel.  I purchased them from  Quality Montessori on Etsy.  I highly recommend them.

Elora has also started reading through some basic readers.  She is very private about her reading and doesn't like to have me involved.  I try to put a new book out every few days.  She enjoys discovering them.

 

William has been working very hard.  However, he recently has decided that he doesn't want me to take his picture so I don't have a lot to show for it.  Here he is learning the spindle box.  Since it is new to him, we began by having me count them out to him.  Once he's ready, I'll have him count them out to me.  

Elora has started working with the addition snake game.  She is counting  ten beads then exchanging those beads for a ten bar.

Here you can see her carefully counting.  Some of the snake has already been exchanged.

Everything becomes a tower these days.

 

Elora found a pack of post it notes.  She decided to stick several of them together and write her first book.  I adore it!  I'm going to create some book blanks in the near future.

Elora and I are playing the cat and mouse exchange game.  We roll the dice and take the  number of mice indicated.  Once you have ten mice, you can exchange them for a cat.  The cat/mouse aspect of this work has kept her highly interested.  Sometimes she plays the game with William as well.  I purchased this from Montessori N Such.

I recently put this hammering activity out.  I purchased it from Alisons Montessori.  It is currently the most popular work in the room.  It has also presented a wonderful opportunity for the pair to learn to be patient when someone else had the work he/she wants.

William likes to use the spinner.  It indicates which shape to select.  Once he locates it, he can hammer it anywhere he would like on the cork.  Once finished, the pieces can be removed.

The set also came with design cards.  Elora prefers to use these.

I apologize for the shadow.  It's hard to tell but William has a snail puzzle.  The pieces are numbered 1-10 and must be put together in the correct order.  Since he has difficulty remembering the correct order, I gave him the insert from the hanging bead stair so he could follow along.

The children FINALLY took a genuine interest in the geometric cabinet.  It was the perfect opportunity to realize that I did not have the trays setup correctly.  I spent an evening getting everything perfect.  Of course, now we're back to no one wanting to touch it again.

William is working with the sandpaper numbers.  We played "knock knock" which is where you turn the numbers face down and knock on the back of the number asking "Who's there?"  William then flips the card over and tells me who has come to visit.  This is an example of the third period of a three period lesson. 

William has discovered the spatial relations work.  There are a set of cards that show a picture of various object on the board.  The goal is to replicate the picture exactly.  It works with relationships such as in front of, behind, on top of, etc.  I was surprised at how well he did with it.  I purchased this from Discount School Supply, although it was Christmas present.

Lockelan has started to select items from his shelf and put them on his work table.  This isn't as regular as I would like nor does he put things back, but I'm happy with it at this stage.  It's worlds above the moments where he knocks things on the ground, which is still more common than I care for.

Lockelan's favorite activity is still watching out the window.  The geese are back and he couldn't be more excited.

They are finally interested in the constructive triangles as well.

 

William is working with a one to one correspondence work.  He must place a penguin on each circle.  I adore this one because the penguins must be placed carefully or they will fall over.  It requires the perfect amount of attention to detail. I purchased this from Montessori N Such.

He needed some encouragement to complete it but he finally did.  He was very proud of himself so we took time to admire our work.  For the first time in a while, he begged me to take his picture.