So far so good!

Although we have been busy this week with two blood draws at McMaster, things have gone well. Jodi Lin seems to really be enjoying school at home (most of the time). Whenever she gets frusterated she thinks going to school would be easier. I think that this is partly due to the fact that she was in Kindergarten at school and now she is in grade 1. She thinks you go to school to play and she gets mad that I don't give her playtime. We do lots of fun things....even play boardgames. She is also done school by lunch time if we don't have appointments. So she has all afternoon to play. I am seeing where her strengths are and where she struggles more. It is amazing that I didn't really know before. I feel like I really need a good math program as she seems to have a harder time with math and I don't have an organized curriculum for it, which really sucks. Yesterday I had her use poker chips to help her add and she seemed to understand and was able to do her work quickly. I don't know if I mentioned this already or not but I had to start her at kindergarten for hooked on phonics. She was not showing me that she was ready for Grade 1 yet....infact she was right at the beginning of the kindergarten book. She is going through it quickly now and I am sure she will be done the grade 1 book and possibly 2 by the end of this year. I think she really needs the one on one. It is so easy for your child to slip through the cracks at school. Like nobody really knows where they are at. I can't believe how well she can memorize! We have been doing a memory verse all week. When I first showed it to her I read it, then we read it together, then she read it by herself....just like that. We went to handwriting for a while and then I went back to it and she read it again. Then I did a puzzle thing where I cut out each word and had her put them in order and she could do it with hardly any help. Dominic is trying to say the verse as well, although very unclearly. Dominic can be quite the distraction for Jodi Lin so this can make things hard. His books are so easy he asks for another page every minute. Although he is not yet ready for the next level up. I find they have to be at seperate tables.

The diet is going well too. I am sure we are having foods that have been possibly cross contaminated with gluten though....which hopefully is not too much of a problem. I don't think we would have that strong of a sensitivity to it. One great result of the diet is that I can't eat a lot of those sugary fattening foods, no pop, no fast food and I am not even alowing my self to have coffee. I have already lost 2 pounds in 4 days. I haven't really felt to deprived yet either. Tonight is our first real test as we are going to a party. They are going to have cotton candy (I bought one the kids can have) and hotdogs, popcorn (which will likely have additives)...etc. I am bringing fruit and veggies and I am going to look if I can find hotdogs and popcorn that we can eat. I have been quite impressed with my kids trying and eating these new things. Dominic hasn't been eating dinner at all....but he wasn't before this either. He just looks at whatever it is...pretty much every night and say. "No a ucky"...What a kid!

Jenaia