Our Classroom!

Isla decided our  classroom needed a sign.  I can honestly say she still loves homeschool even though sometimes I feel like a major failure.  

I finally got my teaching stuff organized.  That was a huge project to say the least.  Now that I'm a little more organized, it's making lesson planning easier.  

Our library/train area.  We literally have no other place for the train table, but I've found it's actually helpful to have in the room.  It usually keeps Brevin entertained for a solid 10 minutes.  Ha!  It's seriously so hard finding things to keep him busy and/or learning while Isla is working.  It's definitely my biggest challenge. 

The cleanest our room has ever been! :)  Our large dry erase board still isn't hanging yet, but otherwise everything is in place.  

The closet is where I keep all of our other toys and books.  I rotate toys a couple times a month!  When my kids have access to all of their toys, they literally just make messes and rarely enjoy what they have.  When I keep a limited amount of toys out, they actually PLAY with them.  I rotate books for the same reason.  It's nice when a story is "new" again.  

An exciting sneak peek into the closest.  

The final part of the room...our dress up corner and art wall.  We obviously have no projects displayed on the wall right now, but that's where they will go!

This is one of my favorite rooms in the house.  I love having a classroom, but it's hard feeling so confined to one space.  This room is tucked away at the end of the hallyway in our lower level.  We spend the majority of time on our first floor though. If this room was upstairs, it would be perfect. Next year I may transition the classroom back to a playroom and do most of the teaching upstairs at the dining room table.  A classroom is great, but not completely necessary.  I still love it though!

More Mold, Less Patience

I never blogged about all of the problems we've encountered since we bought this house.  And I never in my wildest dreams would have expected to pump so much money into this house the first year and a half of owning it.  It was built in 1968 so it's not like it's crumbling or anything...it's just a piece of sh*t.  Let me recap what we've had to do since we've moved in (not including painting the entire house and replacing the carpet which ended up being way more money than we expected too).

-We replaced 80% of the windows since they started molding and rotting during the extreme cold last winter.

-Fixed leak in kitchen that resulted in "raining" in the laundry room Christmas Eve morning.

-Gutted the hallway bathroom due to a moldy air jet tub.

-Mold removal in the attic.

-Knocked all of the walls down in the master bedroom due to a smell caused by water getting in the attic (again from the extreme cold winter).

- Spent over $2000 in landscaping services...mainly yard cleanup and weed removal since the previous owners didn't maintain the yard AT ALL.

-Dealt with the laundry room drain flooding several times before finding a plumber that could identify the issue.

-Dealt with water in our lower level air ducts due to improper yard drainage (this issue still needs a permanent fix).

I'm feel like I'm forgetting something, but you get the idea.  Our home inspector only found minor issues with our house when we bought it.  We knew eventually the windows would need to be replaced, but we weren't planning on doing it right after we moved in.  This house was on the high end of our budget, and we bought it thinking we wouldn't have to do much right away.  That, obviously, couldn't have been further from the truth.  The amount of money we have put into the house is disgusting.  I love our house, but at the same time I hate it.  The floors are slanted in many areas and I really wish we would have a structural engineer inspect the house before we bought it.  Now every time I walk over humps and down little slopes I get so pissed off.  Nothing like having a daily reminder that we bought a crappy house.

Anyway, because a lot of our issues were a direct result from the extreme cold last year, we filed a claim with insurance and had USAA come out and do a full inspection.  They gave us very little money, and told us that everything looked fine and after replacing the windows we would be ok.  Fast forward to present day, and we are in the same situation again.  This time, the mold and terrible smell is coming from the nursery.  USAA has been dragging their feet.  It's been 3 weeks since the damage from the below zero temps and they have yet to get someone out here.  Not only were the walls in the nursery growing mold, the exterior wall is literally bowed.  We know that it happened as a result of an ice dam forming on the roof in that area.  The water got under the roof and into the attic and dripped behind the walls. The siding in the same area is bulging outside.  So we pretty much know we will have to add insulation to the attic...but I don't know what we will have to do with the wall and siding.  UGH.  The stress of dealing with this crap is overwhelming and I'm losing my patience.  Paying a mortgage with one income is tricky enough, but add all of these extra expenses and things have gotten real tight.  Now add a baby to the mix and new repairs that could have been avoided if the inspector from USAA actually did his job thoroughly last year....Ugh. So stressful. And the fact that Brevin is extremely allergic to mold and the insurance company is taking their sweet ass time really gets me mad.

If you look closely, you can see the wall curve near the top.  

On the bad days, I need to remind myself how blessed we are to have a house.  The kids love it here, and it's far nicer than what Andy and I grew up in.  We have 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, plenty of living space, a huge yard, and we are located in a quiet, safe subdivision.  But seriously.  I cannot take much more of this.  I can't wait to move, but after all of the money we put into this house, I don't think we will ever be able to afford to!

Selectively Mute

Brevin's pediatrician was the first to mention the term Selectively Mute when discussing Brevin's extreme shyness.  Brevin would never talk to his doctor, or even look her in the eye.  You can tell he gets so nervous the minute she walks into the room.  Amazingly, he is the most cooperative little patient though.  He does everything she asks him to.  He even gets his shots without crying.  So we knew his lack of talking wasn't him being defiant.  It was very clear he was nervous.  When I volunteered in Brevin's classroom for the first time in December, my heart nearly broke.  It was then when I discovered the full extent of his anxiety.  Most days he didn't want to go to school, but when I picked him up he always said, "I had a GREAT day!"  His teachers told me he was shy, but I just didn't expect it to be as bad as it was.  

I was helping students outside of the classroom, so I was constantly going in and out to get different kiddos.  For the first hour (no joke) Brevin was at the coloring table, sitting alone, coloring a picture very slowly and carefully.  It was almost like he knew he needed to work slowly so he could stay safe at his table.   A while later when I came back in, Brevin's teacher was encouraging him to go choose a different activity.  Brevin hesitantly got up from the table and walked to the middle of the room and just stood there.  He was one of the oldest in the 2 year old classroom.  The majority of the students were still 2 and still in diapers.  It was most certainly complete chaos in the classroom...kids running all over the place, toys were covering the majority of the classroom floor... I could tell it was very overwhelming for him.  Another teacher quickly escorted him to the water table.  When I came back into the room, his teacher was ushering him over to the Magnatiles table.  If Brevin's teachers hadn't suggested a new activity for him, he would have just stood there.  The look of nervousness on his face just broke my heart.  I was almost in tears several times that day.  He communicated only by shaking his head yes or no to his teachers, and never spoke to another child.  

The following day Brevin pooped his pants in class...but somehow the teachers never realized it.  When I picked him up he looked sad and immediately apologized for having an accident.  My poor little man was too scared to tell his teachers he needed to use the bathroom (the bathroom is down the hall, not in the classroom which is very inconvenient for little kiddos, especially those who are potty training!).  It was at that very moment I decided I needed to pull Brevin out of school.  I couldnt' let him stay in an environment where he didn't feel comfortable speaking at all.  I was so worried he would get hurt or feel sick, and be too scared to say anything. 

Now I was really considering Select Mutism as a possibility, but I first started with a speech eval because he is somewhat difficult to understand.  I thought maybe he wasn't confident in speaking because often he isn't understood.  Fortunately, he tested slightly above average in both expressive and receptive speech!  Yay!  But that's exactly when he speech therapist brought up the fact that she thought he is selectively mute.  She told me she could just feel his anxiety and that at times she could tell he knew the right answer, but he was too nervous to actually say it.  

So as of now Brevin is currently in speech therapy for a few minor speech issues, but we are in the middle of finding a therapist to work with Brevin on his anxiety issues.  I'm so thankful we caught this early.  There is a huge difference between being shy and reserved and being so anxious and nervous in a social situation that you literally can't speak.  Looking back on my childhood, I'm pretty sure I could have been diagnosed as Selectively Mute as well.  I never talked to my teachers in early elementary school, and as I got older, I needed to rehearse what I was going to say to my teachers several times before actually going up and talking to them.  I still remember how anxious I felt having to do that.  I lacked relationships with my peers because I literally didn't know what to say to them.  I wanted desperately to have friends, but I couldn't get passed the fear of talking to them.  While I slowly outgrew the paralyzing fear, I still got nervous in class even through high school.  I would know the answer, and want to raise my hand, but I just couldn't do it.  I was the last one picked for groups, and I often didn't have a partner for classwork during freshman and sophomore year.  As an adult I struggle with social anxiety and probably always will be a bit of a social weirdo in situations where I don't know anyone.  Thankfully, I'm able to put myself out there and attempt to talk to others, but it took a really long time to get here.  I don't want the same childhood experience for Brevin.  I feel terrible that he has inherited my anxiety.  I'm hoping by catching this early and getting him the therapy he needs, he will be much more confident in speaking up for himself.  No one deserves a childhood filled with fear and anxiety...especially my favorite little man!

My sweetness!

I love him to the moon and back!