Raining Cats and Dogs

We knew when we were adopting the kids that our son would be very behind in English.  He is Deaf and so his access to incidental learning via spoken English is non existent.  What I did not consider, however, was how far behind our daughter would be too.  We are having our daughter tested because she is struggling so much in school.  She seems to have a great command of the English language until a common concept comes up that you think she knows and she just stares at you as if she has no idea what you are talking about.  One such example is lungs.  I was talking about how lungs have to work harder when we work out and she asked me what a lung was!!! She is 9 years old and had never learned what the word lung meant.  These kinds of things come up often these days.  While our son didn't have access to incidental learning because of his hearing loss, our daughter didn't either simply because she was not in a language rich environment! 

This afternoon when she gets home I will ask her if she noticed that it was raining cats and dogs all day.. I can already see her face and hear the laugh as she says.... MOM, it's just water, ok?  There aren't any cats and dogs coming out of the sky.    I bet she has never heard someone say that before.  She will today!

I find myself taking lots of time just trying to get the kids caught up and at grade level-- socially, emotionally, academically, spiritually, physically... things we don't really think about.

My son forgets to wipe his bottom every time he has a bowel movement.  If I am not standing there to remind him (which I am not 95% of the time!) then he forgets and I have to send him back in!  When he was potty trained this was obviously something he didn't learn or chose not to internalize!  So even though he has been here almost 8 months (!) he still forgets ALL the time.  Little things like that never cease to amaze me. 

Another such example- yesterday I noticed my kids sneakers both had a hole in them!!! I asked them about it and they hadn't even noticed. Even with all the rain and their socks getting wet, they just never paid attention to things like that- or if they did and asked for something they needed were turned down so they stopped asking long ago.  We are trying to teach them to advocate for themselves and ask for what they need. 

Everyday is an adventure.  These kids are amazing and are learning SO QUICKLY.  We are blessed!