"BIG POOL"

So, Jman has wanted a pool forever. Earlier this summer we talked about getting a large above ground pool, but given logistical issues decided against it at the time. We did get a large inflatable kiddie pool, which Jman still enjoyed last year, but that just wasn't sufficient for him this year. He did get in it, but not without re-asking for a "big pool."

Well, we've decided to go ahead and get one of the "bag pools" (as I call them) afterall for the rest of the summer. Sly said he'll keep it clean (because I won't be able to) and it'll be great for the boys. So, when Jman recently began pestering me for a "big pool" again, I told him we'd get one the next time daddy was home.

Today he was at it again, and I walked over to the calendar and showed him today and which day we were gonna get the pool. I wrote on that date "pool" and of course Jman started to freak out for some reason. Fair enough, so I erased "pool." He then took the pencil and I thought would scratch out where I erased, but much to my surprise and delight he instead began writing. First a "P" then above that he wrote (in all caps) "BIG." Then he dropped back down to the P and wrote "OOL." Then he underlined "POOL" and then "BIG," and then said, "Big pool!"

You got it, buddy Jman--we'll get a "big pool" this time, but NOT until daddy is home again to set it up for us!
Pretty awesome communicating for a severely language impaired kiddo!

Jman Art: Harold's Rocket Ship (and the art of conversation!)

Just a little while ago I walked into Jman's room while he was in the midst of coloring in this drawing of his. I commented on the amazingly cool train layout he had going around his room and out into the hallway, and then simply stopped to watch him color for a bit.

And that's when the beautiful stuff happened.

Like I said, instead of talking at him, or trying to get him to respond, or anything, I just stopped and watched him color. And that gave him time and space.

And he said to me, as he continued coloring, "Black." (He was coloring outer space, but with a blue crayon. My interpretation: He needed a black crayon, but was making do with what was left in the box. It was both an observation and a sort of request, though he clearly was NOT expecting me to hand him a black crayon because he just kept on working with what he had.)

I answered that I guess we needed to buy some new crayons.

Then he said, "Rocket ship." (He paused in his coloring just long enough to point at the rocket as he spoke, and then promptly resumed filling in outer space again. Yep, that's a rocket ship, all right.)

Then he said, "Purple." (Quickly after the rocket ship comment, he pointed to a small area of outer space where he had apparently initially begun coloring with a dark purple. In addition, he may have been letting me know where the picture came from, in case I didn't already recognize it.)

I observed that he was drawing a picture from a nearby book on his bed, "Harold's Trip to the Sky" by Crockett Johnson. Remember the Harold and the Purple Crayon books? Fabulous books! And Jman has been enjoying them again recently. And drawing lots of pictures from them. And coloring in the pictures in the books as well. Great books.

Right after my comment, Jman piped up again with, "White baby." (He pointed at his drawing of Harold on the rocket ship. Yep, Harold was white, and he was a 'baby.' Thus, in this color dominated conversation, Jman so eloquently elaborated and described more of his drawing for me!).

I commented, "Yep, that's Harold!" And Jman continued finishing the coloring in of outer space.

Is that an AMAZING conversation, or what? I mean, seriously, for a man of few words, such as Jman, that was QUITE the conversation! And HE started it! And kept going with it! And it all made perfect SENSE! No scripting. Nice turn taking. On topic. Great elaboration. Mutually interesting to us both. Relevant. Sharing. Not trying to "get" anything from anyone. I was not trying to get words or attention. He wasn't trying to get anything from me either, just sharing about what he was working on, while I was seeming interested by standing there just watching for a few moments (and I genuinely WAS interested!). It's totally the kind of conversation ANY kid might have with their mom when mom walks in and sees the kid is drawing a picture--the same KIND of conversation, but with a LOT fewer words, of course!

Anyway, I was just fascinated. What a cool thing. It also reminded me of several other things he took the time to show me today, mostly when I walked in to see what he was doing, but once when he actually brought something to me just to show me. I guess he just wanted me to see what he'd made. Way cool.

So, Jman art--both his drawing AND his art of conversation! Who'd've thunk? :) I'm so glad I didn't go in and start asking him questions or start commenting myself on what he was doing! Less is more. Just give Jman time and space to think, and he can blow you away! I love that boy!

Jman Video Art: "Ow!"

Jman got some Toy Story legos for his birthday. He recently pulled them back out, and today we caught him making a home video of Woody and Buzz riding RC and wrecking on the kitchen counter. It's blurry. It's short. But when we heard Jman's "Ow!" at the end, we decided this HAD to make it to the much neglected blog. You go, Jman!

Jman art

We went camping and adventuring this weekend. We all had a good time, and I could (and may) write a longer blog post with lots of pictures. But the night before we were going to come home, Jman drew this amazing picture. This is our house and yard, in great detail. He included the 'shed' in the backyard, including the outside stairs and balcony. He included the walkways around the house, the tree in the yard, the fence. You can see the recessed front door through the tree. Even the orientation of the buildings is accurate. Truly, his skill with a marker blows me away. I could never draw as well as he does. And his drawing has meaning, as he clearly stated with his 'title'--go home. (Btw, Jman did have a good time--he got to ride a train! It was just time to go home after a long, tiring weekend!)

The Art Museum

We took Jman the artist to the open house at the art museum last week. It was very crowded, but he/we enjoyed it enough that it just might be worth joining and going back when it's NOT quite so crowded!

Jman especially liked this 'motion screen.' It'd be great for OT! I have videos of him moving around and doing jumping jacks and having a blast!
Here Jman and Habeeb are rearranging various bean bags on a tilting frame to try to literally 'balance the composition.'
Here they are going through a wood block printing press process. Each of four presses had a different color of ink. When you were done, your print was a smaller version of the one on the wall.
There were other special activities going on too. One was making a 'paper quilt.' The artists had a tic-tac-toe paper grid to fill in with either hand drawings or with pictures and designs cut from other sources (such as old art museum brochures that were out of date!). Jman began a Wallace & Grommit 'quilt.'
And, of course, there was art to look at, like this funky blue person glass sculpture thingy that caught Jman's eye (can't you tell I'm quite the art connoisseur?).
All in all, I agree with Sly: It was way too crowded to really be enjoyable (you can't tell from the photos we took, but there were a LOT of people there). However, it would be worth going back some time when it's NOT crowded. If nothing else, the motion screen is a great opportunity for some fun OT! :) But I think it might be fun to see if Jman would be interested in 'studying' any of the 'art' in the museum and transferring it to some of his own art creations too. If nothing else, it'd be fun to go back when the slot cars on the Talladega speedway modern art piece were back in working order!

Coloring outside the lines

Jman has indeed continued to work on his book he made a week and a half ago. Over the days, he gradually filled in the pages with drawings from books, videos, and whatever struck him at the time. Here's a picture that I think is based on one of his favorite books, "The Good-Night Train." I flipped through the (real) book and couldn't find a picture exactly like this one, but the style is much the same. I'm pretty sure the book was inspiration for his drawing.

About a week ago Jman and I were at a store where I saw a Wall-e coloring book I offered to get for him. He brought it home and disappeared with it. I didn't think too much about it for a while. Then I noticed that he was indeed coloring in it and drawing in it. One of the weaknesses of coloring books is that they might have a tendency to squelch your artistic creativity, seeing as how the drawing is there and all you have to do is fill in the colors.

But Jman isn't one to necessarily play by the rules. He added his own flair to the pictures he colored. Here he added a baseball cap and Frankenstein bolts to Eve, and drew in a hologram projection of the plant in a boot that she found but which was missing.
I think this one is really sweet. This is a picture of Wall-e and Eve 'dancing' in space near the mother ship Axiom. Jman paintstakingly colored the picture in, but then added his own touch: music notes! Afterall, the mostly 'non-verbal' movie was playing music while Wall-e and Eve were 'dancing with the stars!' And if you've noticed, Jman also didn't feel constrained by the coloring book's binding. He selected these two masterpieces from the coloring book, removed them from their original binding, and tried to add them to the book that he had made. Especially interesting is the fact that he placed them inside the 'covers' of the book, removing the last notebook page and putting the coloring pages just in front of that last page before trying to reassemble his book.

When I considered what Jman was doing with his coloring book, I thought about what he was 'supposed to do' with a coloring book. According to 'the rules,' he should have colored the pictures as they were drawn, using appropriate color choices (not a rainbow striped, largely pink mother ship, for example), and certainly leaving the book assembled. If he was in school or in an ABA program, his thinking and creativity would have been squelched, or 'extinguished,' as is the proper and popular terminology. He would have had the 'art project' designed and dictated by someone else. He and all the other kids in the class would have produced essentially identical and interchangeable products. It would have been very . . . boring, and mind-numbing.

But Jman isn't forced into that box. Instead, he has the opportunity to think and be creative. He's able to appreciate what others have already created (such as the books he's studying and using), but then he has the freedom to crawl out of that box and create his own interpretations and expressions. Jman is allowed to color outside the lines, and it's a beautiful thing!

Jman's first book

A couple days ago I caught Jman doing something I'd never seen him do before. He was trying to staple pieces of paper together. I've never seen Jman use a stapler before. I've seen him use tape, and I've occasionally had him use glue sticks. But I can't recall a time when I had him stapling anything, or when he was fixing pages together. But there he was--working very hard to staple a stack of pages together. Even funnier was the fact that he'd cut all the pieces of paper out of a spiral bound notebook. It seemed he destroyed one notebook to try to make another book.

Anyway, left to his own timing and his own devices, Jman has recently begun making great use of both scissors, and now, without instruction, he's using staplers as well. (Or he's trying to. He had almost too many pages for the little stapler we have, so I had to help him actually get the staples through the paper once I found him. He was trying hard though!)

Jman didn't do anything with his stapled pages right away. Just assembling the pages seemed project enough for him at that time. It was later that I discovered the larger project he was working on. He was drawing the cover page for a book he was making, modeled loosely on a couple of 'real books' he has.


At first he only did the cover page, then set the project aside once again. This is rather unusual drawing behavior for Jman. He typically draws on a page, then draws on the next, and then the next, and then the next. He can go through a 70 page one subject notebook in no time. (Good thing I stocked up on them one year when they were six cents each for back-to-school!) But Jman wasn't filling in the pages on this project of his at lightning speed. Just the cover, and then he set it aside.

Today I noticed he has added a couple more pages to his book. I honestly was expecting to find the first couple pages copied from his real My First 500 Words book, but that was not the case. Instead, the first picture resembles a drawing from a different book, and I'm not sure where the next drawing is from. However, that next drawing spans two pages. Another interesting variation, because Jman usually only draws on the front side of a piece of paper, not the back side. To draw a picture spanning two pages with writing on the back side of a page is a new thing for him.


Now, why do I share all these odd little observations? I suppose because I just find it absolutely fascinating. Even left to his own devices, Jman continues to learn and discover and create and grow in new and surprising and exciting ways. I have to work very hard to resist the impulse to jump in there and start taking his projects over, trying to direct him and 'make the most of' his projects. Either I could be teaching him more skills or academicky stuff, or I could be usurping his projects and interests to try to work on social and communication skills.

But when I resist the urge to take over, I'm realizing that he perhaps learns and grows even more. For example, rather than taking over his book-making project, I stepped in and helped him with the stapling problem. He just couldn't squeeze that little stapler hard enough to get it through the number of pages he had. I noticed, I stepped in, I offered help, which he accepted. And then I stepped back out and let him keep doing his thing when he didn't need me anymore. Perhaps that is an even better way of working on the relationship and communication skills--gradually teaching him that I'm interested and there when he needs or wants me, but also that I'm not going to come in and take over and ruin all the fun.

I've contemplating maybe doing a little more 'parallel' with him. If he's making a book, maybe I could make a book too. Not trying to take his over, not trying to direct his project, but just maybe finding a non-controlling way to 'share the experience' a little more deeply with him. Just as he borrowed my idea of folding the paper when I made a card and he made a DVD case, maybe we could both get some creative juices flowing and share and communicate more with some other parallel projects. I've even wondered if his book-making project stemmed in some way from the paper DVD case he made. It's an interesting thought.

Anyway, Jman is making a book, little by little, and that's a new thing for him. I wonder how long he'll continue with this project of his, I wonder how it will ultimately turn out, and I wonder about maybe creating my own parallel book to see what comes of that sharing. And increasingly I'm more and more comfortable with relaxing and 'unschooling' Mr. Autism.

stimming vs studying

Here’s yet another NEW Jman art story that I discovered very late last night. First a little history: Jman has been listening to a short audio cd that reads aloud a small Usborne book that has 4 short train stories in it. I bought this book/cd set more than a year ago, showed it to him, and he had no interest in it at that time, despite the fact that it was about trains. However, he ‘discovered’ it a few weeks ago and has been all over it ever since. One might call it a stim. How many times in a day can a mom listen to “The Old Steam Train” on the cd player before she loses her mind? I think we may have a chance to find out!

But here’s the thing: It’s not exactly a stim. Why? Because he’s not just doing the same thing over and over again. He’s actually studying this book, learning it, memorizing it, and even interpreting it.

First, he spent time figuring out what pages go with the audio tracks. He actually did have to think to do this because there are NOT ‘dings’ telling you when to turn the page, not to mention the fact that he was completely unfamiliar with 'read along' books anyway. After that he began figuring out which words go along with the audio track. I think he’s still working on that, because I’ll see him back tracking and self correcting sometimes as he runs his fingers under the words. That reminds me of how I learned to read when I was little. Jman has been interested enough in this ‘association’ process the last week or two that I began to realize he’s not just stimming, but is actually studying, trying to learn from this book and put it all together. With his language delay/disorder, that’s a very valuable thing.

But here’s the recent discovery that blows me away: Jman has begun drawing suns in the sky on each page of the stories, AND those suns are PAYING ATTENTION to what is going on in the story, AND those suns have facial expressions that almost perfectly match the ‘mood’ or situation on that page of the story.

Consider these few pages from one story. Up until this point in this story, the suns have been generally happy faces, reflecting the pleasant time the characters in the story are having. However, on this first page, the sun is noticing a bit of a problem. The dog Rusty is jumping through the train window. Notice how the sun is looking in the direction of the problem, and how he has a slightly worried expression on his face. On the next page the sun is still considering the problem of the dog on the train, with a less surprised expression, but still considering the problem.

On the next page the sun has a bit of a frown, indicating there's a problem. The sun's expression is almost identical to that of the lady on the platform who's facing the reader. I love the eyes of the sun on the following page! The pupils are centered, and the sun's mouth is a straight, expressionless line. The characters in the story are trying to problem solve, and the sun has a matching expression.

Finally the train returns, with the sun happily looking down. What I found interesting here is that the sun is looking down on the people, rather than at the train. It's as if the sun knows that the emotional state of the people is more important that the object of the train. The next page has a relaxed happy sun waiting for the offloading.

After that are a few more pages with happy suns as all the people reconnect with the missing puppy dogs, but I wanted to share this very last page of the story. Not only is the sun happily looking down on the happily resolved situation, but he's also located slightly behind the fence. I really don't know much about 'art' but I just find it absolutely fascinating when Jman tucks part of a drawing off the page or behind another object, rather that having to draw the whole object for display. With the sun tucked behind the fence like this but peeking over, it feels as though the sun is interested and happy, but recognizes that he is not really part of the story. It keeps the sun separate from the real characters in the story.
When I showed these pictures to Habeeb last night, Habeeb asked if the sun was Jman, watching the story. Perhaps he is. Or perhaps it's the baby in the sun from teletubbies! But here's the thing: Whether the sun is Jman or a baby-sun or just a sun watching the story, Jman's comprehension of the action in the story AND OF THE MINDS AND EMOTIONS OF THE CHARACTERS IN THE STORY is perfect. Do you have ANY idea how NOT autistic that is????? No, I'm not saying that Jman is not autistic, because he definitely is. But I what I want you to understand is that folks who have autism CAN think and feel and understand and comprehend. They are REAL people, fully human, with the same motivations as the rest of us. They are NOT some mutant or some robot or some space alien dropped here by mistake. The thing is, they have this neurological information processing disorder that just makes it REALLY HARD for them to figure out and apply all this all the time. But Jman has clearly demonstrated with these drawings that he is thinking and feeling and interpreting and understanding. It's just that in real life the info is too much and too fast for his current neural networking to process and keep up with without some help, support, guidance, scaffolding. That's what I'm for--to help him out when it's too much, and to back off when it's not.

I was discussing this with Habeeb last night in light of a question someone asked on an autism board. The question was, "What are your current challenges with your children on the spectrum?" The answers people were giving included school, or potty training, or behaviors, or whatever--the typical answers one hears. I didn't answer, because I couldn't really think of anything. I could list some of those typical answers too, don't get me wrong. But I don't really categorize them as 'challenges' I suppose. Habeeb jokingly offered up stimming on the computer (Jman is into re-edited veggietales videos on youtube too, right now), and I suggested "The Old Steam Train" (because I've heard it SO many times).

But then we discussed whether some of these stims were really stims. In Jman's case, I'm beginning to see growth happening out of some of these apparent or so-called stims. Stims are generally defined as repetitive behaviors that are often calming to the person (like tapping your foot or drumming your fingers if you're 'normal', or flapping your hands or spinning things if you're 'autistic'). In Jman's case, it might be listening to the same track over and over and over again. But increasingly I'm seeing some of Jman's 'stims' be 'productive.' He's reviewing and studying, and getting enough time to practice, and is building new meaning and new information from his so-called stims. I just find it absolutely fascinating. Jman isn't trying to drown the world out. He's actually trying figure the world out. Gee, go figure! Why should I be surprised? He IS a person, ya know!

Variations and Thinking

Yesterday I took the boys to a very small autism playgroup that just started up. We went last week as well, and Jman spent a lot of the time drawing pictures. This week we began with an inpromptu tea party, and later Jman requested the drawing materials again.

He and I sat down with some paper and markers. I'm not much of an artist, but I enjoy playing with paper. I thought maybe I'd make a book instead of a picture, and proceeded to fold my sheet of paper in half. I did not tell Jman to look at what I was doing. I did not tell Jman to DO anything. We were simply together, sitting beside each other, getting ready to draw our own things. Think of it as parallel play, if you'd like.

What does Jman do? He notices that I'm doing something a little different. Immediately, he adopts the idea and folds his piece of paper in half as well. I'm not quite sure why that surprised me, but it did, and I gave him a bit of a hard time about it, saying to him, "Oh man! Monkey see, Monkey do!!" Jman didn't mind my teasing and proceeded to work on whatever his new idea was. He didn't continue to copy my variations, because I proceeded to tear my paper along the first fold, and then folded the two half sheets in half again to make a four-leaf booklet. He kept his once-folded, not torn paper and was beginning a drawing.

I changed my mind again on what I was going to do. SB3 has his first birthday in a few days, so I decided to make him a card. When I finished, I showed it to Jman, thinking maybe he'd copy my idea and make a card too, since he'd copied me before. Briefly it flashed through my mind how often autistic kids are told what to think, what to do, what to draw, how to draw it. Everyone in a class has to work on producing identical projects. They even do it to 'normal' kids in regular classes too! What a drag. Instead, I just showed him my card. He could like it, copy it, hate it, ignore it--whatever. I was simply sharing my idea, and he could think for himself.











Jman was indeed thinking for himself, as I soon discovered. After a while, I noticed he was very close to finishing the drawing he was working on--more VeggieTales stuff. In particular, he was drawing a scene from "The Grapes of Wrath." I thought to myself, "Great--more VeggieTales. But hey, it could always be a VeggieTales card, I guess. They make 'theme' cards like that." Again, my thinking was too limited.Jman finished his drawing, then opened the piece of paper and drew a couple of concentric circles and a line inside. I had to stop and think for a second, and then it hit me: He made a DVD case! The DVD's we have for VeggieTales look just like the concentric circles with the line on the bottom. How cool is that? It totally reminds me of the kinds of things I'd make with paper when I was a kid--houses, radios, you name it. Nothing like paper and tape to entertain!So, anyway, this was very exciting for me on several fronts. First, Jman noticed my variations on his own, and adopted those he found interesting on his own. Also, he didn't copy me just for the sake of copying me. He took a bit of my idea and added his own thinking to it in order to produce his own unique creative project. And finally, I was even pleased with myself and how I shared with him without limiting or directing him. Another little tidbit is that while he was still drawing (so before I knew it was going to be a DVD case), I offered to do some of the time-consuming coloring for him, and he was just fine with it. I remember the days when other people were not allowed to interfere in what he was doing. Now, perhaps because I was respecting him and what he was doing, my input and assistance were welcome instead of rejected.

Being together, not forcing someone to comply, respecting each other's ideas, sharing and building off of each other's creativity, and even working together a bit--it just doesn't sound very autistic sometimes! (But trust me--he is VERY autistic!)

Jman art: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words (give or take a few)

Jman may be a man of few words, but he sure can say a lot with one of his drawings. Yesterday afternoon when we were together, he stopped what we were doing and began to draw a picture. I looked over and watched him as he finished. I knew exactly what he was drawing, and when I said, "Bacon and eggs?" he enthusiastically repeated, "Bacon and eggs!" The poor boy was hungry, and apparently enjoyed breakfast so much that morning that he wanted some more.

What totally blew me away with his picture, though, was the great detail. Notice he included a bottle of Frank's Red Hot. He LOVES Red Hot, and scrambled eggs just aren't the same if they aren't engulfed in Red Hot. He has a big pile of eggs on one plate at the top, and the bacon on another plate at the bottom, like they are when they come off the stove. There's an empty bowl from when the eggs were scrambled before cooking. He also included a couple knives (one for cutting the bacon in half before we cook it), and a fork and spoon for eating with. In the upper left hand corner is the spatula and in the upper right is the iron skillet. The drawing of the iron skillet I find particularly fascinating because he didn't draw the whole thing. Part of it is off the page. I love that he could think outside the box enough to not have to draw the whole skillet. It kind of points out that the skillet is now out of the picture, so to speak, because the hot food is ready to eat. And the food IS hot, btw--notice the little wavy heat lines over the strip of bacon and the pile of eggs. A meal fit for a Jman!I don't know about yall, but Jman impresses me, not only with his drawings, but with his ability to communicate so clearly through them. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for him with all these real thoughts in his head and not being able to simply put those thoughts out there into words. I'm so glad that he's moved his drawing up from just copying pictures and words he's seen somewhere else to actually putting them together creatively from nothing to express his own unique thoughts and observations. I never thought about it before, but perhaps it's a visual version of the ideas of teaching kids how to write (as in how to compose the written word) by beginning with copywork. Jman began with self-imposed copywork, which he does still enjoy, but is now clearly moving on and up into creative 'compositions' of his own. I think it's simply amazing. It just goes to show how truly smart and how truly fully human he really is (and others on the spectrum as well for that matter, including the so-called 'nonverbal').

Sly's Political Cartoon #2

So, the other day over lunch Sly and I discussed the Supreme Court, including the branches of government, Justices vs judges, the appointment process, the length of term, the majority rules, etc, etc. I expect we were quite the entertainment for the fellow in the adjoining booth at McDonalds! And of course we also discussed President Obama's nomination of Judge Sotomayor to fill the vacancy being left by Justice Souter. I suggested that Sly try to come up with a political cartoon around the Sotomayor nomination. Neither of us thought much about it until this morning, when we were watching some news. Later this afternoon, Sly drew up this little cartoon spoofing Sotomayor's decision regarding the firefighters' discrimination suit.

It's really hard to see what he drew in this picture, so I'll try to help you out. Judge Sotomayor is sitting at the courtroom bench giving a thumbs up. A couple of minority firefighters are celebrating in the box next to the judge. They are holding test papers with poor test scores. Two other white firefighters with high test scores are expressing their anger at Judge Sotomayor's decision in favor of the minority firefighters with the low test scores.

While the artwork in this cartoon is far from excellent, he did achieve success in making a political statement with a cartoon. He's got his thinking cap on. We just have to get him to work on the drawing/art side a little more. Of course, we could also call this a 'first draft' (which it is) and expect him to be able to make a better drawing artistically on a second or third draft. BUT we're getting ready to head out on a road trip and I'm perfectly satisfied with this thought-out first draft. Go, Sly!

If you give a mouse an mp3 player

Jman has been into books and drawing lately. He shuffles through the bookcases and selects stacks of books to flip through. Then he draws pictures he sees from the books. We have a table currently covered with Jman artwork, drawings he's copying from all these books he's looking at.

What's even neater is that he's getting creative with some of his drawings and interpretations. A sequence of drawings I found this morning just made me smile and laugh out loud.

First, there's the cover of one of the books he's been perusing:


Then there's his first drawing. At first glance, I thought he simply recreated the picture on the cover of the book, but upon looking further I noticed some extras I haven't entirely figured out yet (like I haven't quite figured out what's up with the antennaes on the mouses head, or why the crayon looks like a syringe, or about the stange platform next to the mouse. But hey, I like his creativity!):


And then there is this drawing. The mouse no longer has a cookie. He's now happily holding an mp3 player, complete with the video screen showing the album cover (Sly noted it was supposed to be the warner bros logo for animaniacs, one of Jman's faves), AND the mp3 player is also plugged into the wall (Jman loves to plug things in and be 'tethered'). You can even see the ear buds in the mouse's ears! This one is SO a self-portrait of Jman!

Sly's Political Cartoon #1

He did it! Here is Sly's first 'real' political cartoon. In the first frame, a terrorist sits happily munching popcorn while watching tv (with game controller by his side, for another form of entertainment should he get tired of tv and munchies) as a friendly American wearing an all-American baseball cap tells him to have a nice day (as opposed to interrogating him with EIT's such as waterboarding). In the second frame, terrorists are blowing up the Pentagon. He set the cartoon up as an 'if-then' scenario, with his point being "If the US doesn't use EIT's (Enhanced Interrogation Techniques) then the US might not know what to protect and when."
A couple of interesting side notes: When I gave Sly the assignment to draw a cartoon from scratch, his first idea he brainstormed was a great idea for a cartoon, but actually conveyed the opposite message from what he intended. I found that interesting. No, I didn't tell him to change his cartoon. I just asked him what he thought his first cartoon idea suggested, and he himself then realized it was the opposite message of what he wanted to say. Then he began excitedly working through variations of that same idea and issue. I offered the two-frame possibility, and then he quickly cemented his plan.

Second, he has noted frequently of late that he's not good at drawing people yet. He's been working on that little by little, but chose not to worry about his people drawing skills for his cartoon. He figured he could still make his point with stick figures, and I agreed. And we both think he succeeded.

Finally, Sly had finished his drawing and was working on "BOOM!!" when he asked me about labeling. He hadn't labeled anything yet, and wondered if maybe he should label the terrorist in front of the tv so the reader would better understand what the picture was. I told him great idea and that political cartoonists do that all the time. He was delighted to glance briefly at another half dozen or more cartoons online that demonstrated the tags and labels that political cartoonists use. He then went back and added in his own labels, including the 'if-then.'

I tell you what--the boy may just have the makings of a professional political cartoonist in his future!

political cartoons

Yesterday I introduced Sly to political cartoons through this website: http://cagle.msnbc.com/teacher/. As you might imagine, it is very left-wing liberal, but that should be expected from msnbc. But Sly did find the concept of political cartoons interesting. I expected as much: He likes to draw AND he's a kid with an opinion. He was MADE for political cartooning!

So, anyway, we discussed the swine flu cartoon, and we also discussed the suggested questions. I must make clear that we didn't just 'answer' the questions suggested, but actually discussed the questions, defining terms, considering biases inherent in the questions as asked, considering other information that might be pertinent to the question but left out of the provided discussion material, etc. It made for some interesting conversation. The first cartoon (the swine flu one) is relatively bias neutral (relatively!) compared to the following 4 cartoons. I read them after Sly and I were done. The bias is MUCH greater in those.

Following his little introduction to the concept of political cartoons, Sly promptly took two drawings he had completed just prior to our discussion and turned them into his own political cartoons. They were a little awkward for me to understand at first, but hey, so are many other political cartoons at times!

Staying on the swine flu theme, Sly added a bottle of hand sanitizer to the drawing of the starfish and added a thought bubble that says: "I need this to avoid swine flu people!" (Btw, we still haven't figured out why his starfish is smoking! Hmmmm . . . )

Then Sly flipped to a shark he had drawn about to bite a hook and added another thought bubble: "I would be liberal to bite the hook cause then I wouldn't be here to stop abortion."

Yeah, they're a little odd, but afterall, he just added a comment on a political issue to a drawing he already had made. The next step is to come up with a unique drawing that actually relates to the political issue he has in mind and that also makes the statement on that issue that he wishes to convey. I think he's up for the challenge.

Field Trip Friday: The Zoo

We did it--we went to the zoo! It's been more probably a year and a half since we've gone to a zoo, maybe more. Neither kid has been terribly interested in the zoo in years past, Jman in particular. He'd just walk up to whatever exhibit I steered him to, then say good-bye to whatever animal I said was there. Good-bye, camel. Good-bye, elephant. Good-bye, hippo.

But this week seemed like the perfect time to make a trip to the local zoo. We've lived here a year and a half and haven't checked it out yet. There was no reason too--it would have been a waste of money, quite frankly. But today we went ahead and bought the family pass (along with the family pass for train rides too, of course).

And this time, Jman was kind of interested! Yes, he was still fascinated with the huge sprinklers in one garden area. Yes, he was fascinated with the train. BUT he also actually LOOKED at the animals in the exhibits with us for a while! Not for as long as WE did, but he did stay and LOOK with us some. We stopped at looked at the beautiful white bengal tigers. (Look close and you can see them in the background.) He was listening when we commented that they look like big versions of our two white kitties, but with stripes.

Another big hit were the pink flamingos! I think Jman stood and looked at them for the longest time. He has known his colors for years, but we had fun pointing out that they were "pink" and that they were "flamingos." I'm trying to work real hard at using simple language structures for Jman throughout the day, and having him repeat them back to me when I can. I'd like to also try to reinforce these simple, experience sharing, language practice opportunities at home with writing, which could also serve to work on episodic memory. (Yeah, I know--what on earth did she just say? Don't worry about it right now. It was a bunch of RDI terminology. I know what I'm talking about, and my try to explain some later. For now, I'm just thinking out loud. Humor me!)

Now, lest you think this was entirely about Jman, I must point out that this was SB3's first trip to the zoo. Yea! He rode around on my back and was just hunky dorey. The funniest SB3 story from the day would be how he jumped everytime the hyacinth macaw squawked!

Now as for Sly, the first thing he did was discover some art books in the gift shop! Gee, go figure! However, he kept his cash and strolled with us through the zoo, drawing supplies in hand. I had given him an assignement: Draw something from the zoo, AND record some factual information about whatever he chose. Since we have the passes, we can go back over and over again, and over time he can create his very on "Zoo Art" book, complete with his drawings and info on the critters. How's that for a way of doing art, research, writing, and science all in one fell swoop? Oh, and also geography because he had to include maps with where the critters lived. Sly was all for it. However, we got there very close to closing time (which we knew) so he didn't really get a chance to sit and draw his chosen critter while we were there. However, that's why God created cameras! Sly took a picture of a flamingo that he could draw from at home, and still fulfill the assignment. Now, we'll have to see if he follows through!

The other critter I just have to include a photo of was the beautiful black jaguar. Wow, was he ever gorgeous and impressive! His head was just MASSIVE, and his paws were huge. I would have loved to reach in there and scratch his beautiful ears, but of course that would probably not have gone the way I would have wanted! So, I just stood there looking at him, and marveling at God and all of God's creation. Just absolutely stunningly beautiful and amazing.

Taking advantage part 2: art

I have another kid with another interest running at high rpm's right now. Sly is developing the budding artist within him. For quite some time he has wanted to learn to draw. When he was doing vision therapy a few years back, he began to add some depth and interest to his scenes, though his figures were still stick people. Later he said he wanted to learn to draw, but he never really stuck with it. He'd doodle some, but it really wasn't anything impressive.

One of the 'electives' we got with Sonlight Core 4 a couple years ago or so was Mark Kistler's Draw Squad. I showed it to him, he got all excited, and then it sat on the shelf for a long time. A couple times it got pulled back out, but never for very long.

Well, in January we started Sonlight Core 5, including the scheduled Bible study, and including the not-scheduled art lessons in the Bible study. Sly looked forward to the art lessons, but found them challenging. However, the idea of drawing what you actually SEE rather than a cartoon or a symbolic representation of what you see was an interesting cognitive concept for him.

Then a few weeks ago, he noticed a 20-something at Bible study who was doodling and drawing a winged horse during the lessons (she's one that has to fidget to pay attention). Sly was fascinated with her realistic drawing, and pulled back out his own sketch pads to start drawing again himself. And I must say, he was getting better.

He packed his drawing stuff (the sketch pad and a #2 pencil) to take to FL and kept himself busy sketching and drawing. His biggest frustration was when little brother SB3, now mobile, would get hold of his sketch pad and tear another page out. But hey, they'll both learn, right?

Now, back from FL, he has rediscovered the Draw Squad book from Core 4. You know, it never ceases to amaze me how Sly has his own time table for learning. Even though he was interested in the book before, I suppose he just didn't have the developmental readiness to follow along with the lessons and to practice and develop the skills being taught. But now, 2+ years later, he's all over it! He's studying independently and applying what he's learning. He's previewing lessons ahead to see what's coming, but then going back to the earlier lessons to practice and build his skills.

And so, I'm taking advantage of his artistic pursuits. The plan was that we would be doing Japan this week back at school, but instead, we're doing art. Sly was absolutely tickled when I looked at him yesterday morning and said, "Go outside and draw me something you see." You've never seen anyone so happy to do school! This morning, in an unrelated series of events, I learned that Mark Kistler has videos on youtube (btw, some of the comments I saw on one of the videos are very inappropriate, so you might not want to leave your kids alone watching these if they scroll down and read the comments, but Sly was delighted with the art lesson!).

What else is Sly learning through all this? Well, how about economics! He saw Mark Kistler using a 'stump pencil' to blend some of his shading in a drawing. He began trying to blend his own shading, but without great success. #2 school pencils just don’t ‘blend’ well. I pointed out that there are other pencils that artists use that have softer leads and lend themselves to blending and smudging (which is exactly why schools don’t like them!). After lunch, we stopped by Michael’s and took a look. Now, Sly got to thinking and considering what if anything he should spend money on, seeing as how he’d like to save up enough to buy a Wii (yes, I’ve told him if he can buy it, he can bring it in the house, though I will still set the rules on when it can be played and for how long). There were lots and lots of options, but we kept looking and found a beginner’s set that had a couple charcoal pencils, a few assorted sketch pencils, and even a few stump pencils for blending, along with a sandpaper thingy, sharpener, and eraser. And all that for $5! He asked, “Who pays for this? Me?” I smiled and offered to share the cost with him, much to his delight. In fact, he’s thanked me for pitching in a couple bucks several times since then!

Now, he’s taken to doing some research and experimenting. He has made marks with each of his different new pencils, and tried blending and smudging them with the stump pencil, and made observations as to how they compare to his old pencil and to each other. He’s commented that the art pencils draw so much smoother than the #2 he had been using. And he’s demonstrating his discoveries to me along the way.

Now, my plan was to do Japan this week and next. But plans change. Once again, while there’s a passionate interest, we’re pursuing it. Eventually the passion will slow to a simmer and we can then get back to more scheduled academicky pursuits.But for now, Sly is learning not only how to draw, but also how to pay attention to detail, experiment and draw conclusions, research and find appropriate guides and tools to teach him, some economics, and yes, he’s still got to consider time management and non-negotiable obligations (such as cleaning the cat box, keeping his stuff out of SB3’s reach, and making it to guitar lessons and karate on time). This weekend we’re going camping (or that’s that plan). He has already noted that that will give him the opportunity to draw things from the campsite. Of course, he’s got to help set up and break down camp too—but after that, I’d love to see what he sketches out with his new pencils! As this little mini-gallery tour shows, he's improved immensely just in a few days. I am truly impressed.