I had heard of this site before but forgot about it:
www.booksshouldbefree.com
I just downloaded a bunch of children's books to start listening to tomorrow. I'm excited to play them on my new awesome mp3 player through the stereo system while we clean or work on art or other projects. Now I just need a radio converter so we can listen in the car!!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Strabismus and Stereovision-- our experience
My little 5 yr. old has had glasses since he was 9 mos. old. Our good eye doctor passed away a couple years ago, and I didn't like his replacement so it wasn't until last year that we found another one we liked. My daughter's vision was fine with her glasses, but my son was referred to a surgeon to because his eyes continued to cross even with the new glasses. That surgeon then referred us to a pediatric opthamologist because his eye muscles moved both side to side and up and down. The pediatric opthamologist was really nice and I'm sure totally competent, but he was also very honest about the fact that surgery may not solve my son's vision problems although it would help. But surgery was the only thing he was able to offer us at that time. I now had a name for my son's condition and hoping to avoid surgery I got on the internet and started reading about strabismus which led to learning about vision therapy.
Basically strabismus is where the eyes don't work together. The person can have double vision, or one eye will shut off and turn in or out. My son had developed a lazy eye because of the strabismus but his weak eye was strenthened by patching the strong eye and forcing him to use his weak eye, but now he was switching off eyes to see and not using them together which meant that he could not see in 3-D. It's different than the way we see with one eye because our brain is so used to seeing things in 3-D that when we close one eye we still see in 3-D, but for someone who has never used their eyes together, everything is flat like on a t.v. screen. It is explained very well in the book, Fixing My Gaze by Susan Barry. She gained her stereovision while in her 50s after a lifetime without stereovision. It is fascinating and it also helped me to understand what we needed to do to help my son and why vision theraapy may work for him,
There were 2 offices listed on the website in Utah, so I called and made an appointment with the one 45 min. away. She told me she would be able to help him after the surgery but she would not be able to help with the up and down movement. So I then called the office 1 hour away and I guess being board certified makes a difference because he thought he would able to help and studies show that a waiting 6 months to do surgery at my son's age wouldn't make that big of a difference so it was worth a try.
So I have been driving my 7 children down to the eye doctor 1 hour away once a week for 2 1/2 months now for vision therapy. Fortunately our insurance covers a lot of it-- we just have a $25 co-pay each session. The exercises they do are varied and interesting. I'll explain them some other time if anybody's interested. But they did an evaluation 2 weeks ago after 8 weeks of eye exercises at home and weekly visits in office and his vision has improved 1 line on the eye chart and now this week he told me that things are starting to "jump" out at him which means he is using both eyes together!!!
Yay!! I'm so happy for my little guy. I'm so grateful for people with effective tools to help us in this. I'm grateful to my Lord for showing me the way. We still have a ways to go, but what a relief. I think we are headed in the right direction and all the sacrifice is worth it!!
Basically strabismus is where the eyes don't work together. The person can have double vision, or one eye will shut off and turn in or out. My son had developed a lazy eye because of the strabismus but his weak eye was strenthened by patching the strong eye and forcing him to use his weak eye, but now he was switching off eyes to see and not using them together which meant that he could not see in 3-D. It's different than the way we see with one eye because our brain is so used to seeing things in 3-D that when we close one eye we still see in 3-D, but for someone who has never used their eyes together, everything is flat like on a t.v. screen. It is explained very well in the book, Fixing My Gaze by Susan Barry. She gained her stereovision while in her 50s after a lifetime without stereovision. It is fascinating and it also helped me to understand what we needed to do to help my son and why vision theraapy may work for him,
There were 2 offices listed on the website in Utah, so I called and made an appointment with the one 45 min. away. She told me she would be able to help him after the surgery but she would not be able to help with the up and down movement. So I then called the office 1 hour away and I guess being board certified makes a difference because he thought he would able to help and studies show that a waiting 6 months to do surgery at my son's age wouldn't make that big of a difference so it was worth a try.
So I have been driving my 7 children down to the eye doctor 1 hour away once a week for 2 1/2 months now for vision therapy. Fortunately our insurance covers a lot of it-- we just have a $25 co-pay each session. The exercises they do are varied and interesting. I'll explain them some other time if anybody's interested. But they did an evaluation 2 weeks ago after 8 weeks of eye exercises at home and weekly visits in office and his vision has improved 1 line on the eye chart and now this week he told me that things are starting to "jump" out at him which means he is using both eyes together!!!
Yay!! I'm so happy for my little guy. I'm so grateful for people with effective tools to help us in this. I'm grateful to my Lord for showing me the way. We still have a ways to go, but what a relief. I think we are headed in the right direction and all the sacrifice is worth it!!
Monday, August 16, 2010
My new Garden Blog
I've started a garden blog in hopes of keeping better track of what I've been doing to it and why it doesn't grow at all. It is totally stunted. I have sent in a couple of soil samples. I really want nice fresh produce from my own back yard. You can check it out at www.ambersveggiegarden.blogspot.com Wish me luck!!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
A poem by Mother Teresa
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
By Mother Teresa
Words to live by, I especially love the last 2 lines.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
By Mother Teresa
Words to live by, I especially love the last 2 lines.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Why study Latin and Greek?
I got this question in my comments-- here's the drawn out answer:
My husband had the unique opportunity of studying Latin as a high school student and one year at BYU. More than anything else he attributes his ability to think clearly and logically to his study of Latin. Also by learning Latin, he learned Grammar with a capital "G", most of us won't understand what he means until they study Latin. Grammar schools get their name from the schools where the kids attended to learn Latin, like in Anne of Green Gables. It was and can continue to be done.
Latin is a very organized language. The nouns, adjectives, adverbs and other parts of speech will have a different ending depending on what it is doing in the sentence-- subject, direct object, indirect object, possessive, or what word it is associated with etc. Therefore, in order to make a sentence properly in Latin, it must be clear exactly what it is you are tying to say. Same with the verbs and other parts of speech. I think the Grammar is what makes it so difficult. There is so much to keep straight which trains the mind very well. Also, by learning Latin, the student will learn English grammar as a by product and way better than they would by studying any modern language.
Another reason to study Latin is that many English words come from Latin, so it helps us understand our own language so much better. Latin is also the underlying language of our civilization. By learning Latin, we learn about history, art, science, and everything else Latin has touched which is just about everything in Western Civilizaiton.
So now why Greek? Greek has one less declension than Latin, so it is not quite so involved. So the Grammar is a little easier and that makes it a nice precursor to studying Latin. Many English words also come from Greek and how cool would it be to read the New Testament in the original Greek? And it is pretty fun to read in a different alphabet.
Tough subjects turning out disciplined minds?-- yes, just what I want. Do my girls like it-- yes when it's easy, and no when it's hard. They sure are pleased with themselves when they struggle through and finish what they thought was insurmountable.
Check out these articles from Memoria Press on studying Latin, scroll down to the bottom to see the Latin section. The section on studying formal Logic is also enlightening.
http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/
Need a short answer?
Mean Verbal SAT scores for 2006:
LATIN STUDENTS: 672
Spanish Students: 577
French Students: 637
German Students: 632
Hebrew Students: 623
Average for all students: 503
My husband had the unique opportunity of studying Latin as a high school student and one year at BYU. More than anything else he attributes his ability to think clearly and logically to his study of Latin. Also by learning Latin, he learned Grammar with a capital "G", most of us won't understand what he means until they study Latin. Grammar schools get their name from the schools where the kids attended to learn Latin, like in Anne of Green Gables. It was and can continue to be done.
Latin is a very organized language. The nouns, adjectives, adverbs and other parts of speech will have a different ending depending on what it is doing in the sentence-- subject, direct object, indirect object, possessive, or what word it is associated with etc. Therefore, in order to make a sentence properly in Latin, it must be clear exactly what it is you are tying to say. Same with the verbs and other parts of speech. I think the Grammar is what makes it so difficult. There is so much to keep straight which trains the mind very well. Also, by learning Latin, the student will learn English grammar as a by product and way better than they would by studying any modern language.
Another reason to study Latin is that many English words come from Latin, so it helps us understand our own language so much better. Latin is also the underlying language of our civilization. By learning Latin, we learn about history, art, science, and everything else Latin has touched which is just about everything in Western Civilizaiton.
So now why Greek? Greek has one less declension than Latin, so it is not quite so involved. So the Grammar is a little easier and that makes it a nice precursor to studying Latin. Many English words also come from Greek and how cool would it be to read the New Testament in the original Greek? And it is pretty fun to read in a different alphabet.
Tough subjects turning out disciplined minds?-- yes, just what I want. Do my girls like it-- yes when it's easy, and no when it's hard. They sure are pleased with themselves when they struggle through and finish what they thought was insurmountable.
Check out these articles from Memoria Press on studying Latin, scroll down to the bottom to see the Latin section. The section on studying formal Logic is also enlightening.
http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/
Need a short answer?
Mean Verbal SAT scores for 2006:
LATIN STUDENTS: 672
Spanish Students: 577
French Students: 637
German Students: 632
Hebrew Students: 623
Average for all students: 503
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