Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Joey's Journal

Each morning in Joey's first grade class, the kids each write a journal entry. I assume this is so they can practice printing skills as well as comprehensive writing skills. At the beginning of each month, they bring home their journal from the previous month. Today Joey brought home his October journal, and here is an entry he wrote:

Today is Wednesday October 8, 2008. My mom told me my baby brother Finnian has something called down sydrome. my mom let me read some books about down Syndrome kids. they were great. She gave me 3 books. They helped me learn alot about down Syndrome.

He drew a picture at the top of the page of the three books.

Pretty cool, huh?

6 comments:

Jodi said...

I love that the books helped him. What an amazing kid he is! YEA Joey!

Lisa B said...

How is it that Joey is like 40 in a 6-year old body when it comes to confidence, clarity and wisdom? What a wonderful kid!

I have caught up on a few days of your posting just today - you asked what we leared from your 31 for 21 - I had a decent understanding of Downs before Finn but I learned so much from you about the parents' side of things - and a person's amazing ability to accept and grow. I would so LOVE to have a third child and your family's love and embracment of each other just reaffirms that for me (now if I can only get Larry to go along..;) )

Finn looks so adorable in his costume!

The teens in the store - they suck - and it sucks your heart has to hurt so much when you just run a simple errand. I guess just try to let it roll off you keeping in mind how stupod we ALL wree when we were young - they will learn - and sometimed it will be perfectly appropriate for you to give the piece of your mind you wanted to!

I was in the bookstore this weekend and saw Jenny McCarthy's new book "Mother Warrriors" about her battle with her son's autism and her quote was something to the effect that there are the mothers who fight for their kids with everything they have - they are warriors - and those are the women she walks with now - and it made me think of you. You will be that for Finn and many others, I know...L

My name is Sarah said...

Hi Lisa, This is Joyce. I had to take a day or two away from blogging. I think my little guy, (I know I need to stop calling him little - now that he's 12, but I just can't) was feeling neglected:)

Today's posting is beautiful. Joey sounds like he is going to be an amazing big brother. To write that at age 6 is really good. Great idea letting him read the books. Over the years I have had my heart melt over and over again at the things Sarah's brothers have done for her and paper's they have written about her.

I wanted to tell you about your question regarding Sarah writing her blog. It is truly a family effort. After reading your question though I think we should actually do a blog posting about it in the future. To start with we are about two - three weeks ahead in postings, meaning we are working on what will post the last week in November right now. The only exception is when we do a "Late Breaking News." Sometimes it takes us two or three days to finish one days posting, which is why we need to be days ahead.

I start by picking a series of photos and then I let Sarah pick the pictures she wants to use. Next I have her tell me about the pictures. From what she tells me and my own memories I start to shape the story and tell her a sentence and ask her if she likes it. If she does then she starts typing. Some words that we use over and over she can spell on her own, others I spell for her. She has a great sense of the keyboard and can type pretty fast. That has been in her IEP at school for some years, it has always been easier for her to type than write.

When she responds to other blogs she has some sentences that she types totally on her own, which is why you will start to see the same response from her over time. Her favorite is "Oh he is so cute." I also typed up a list of 10 responses and sometimes I will tell her to use #6 as an example and then she will type that sentence.

The greatest thing is watching her type the word used in the verification. She loves doing that. Every now and then a letter will be too hard to read and she does get frustrated and growls with her voice.

I think she is just days away from being able to sign on and respond totally on her own. I will have to post a warning to everyone when that happens just as an alert if a response isn't totally on cue. She is home alone for about an hour each day and usually signs onto the Disney website which she can navigate around perfectly on her own. Good thing she doesn't have a credit card yet or she would buy everything on that site. Hope that helps. If you ever want to send my a question behind the blog wall my email is jhillely@yahoo.com

JaybirdNWA said...

That is cool. My other 4 kids knew of Johns' Dx before he was born which has helped them to know how to pray for John and how to play with him. Siblings are great.

Carla said...

Oh, my dear, that little Joey is freakin' incredible. All of your kids will be advocates for Finn for the rest of his life. Lucky boy!

Tricia said...

That is VERY cool.