Connections

[artsymominnc]

I had another rough day with my 9-year-old son yesterday.  Sometimes his dysregulation feels really immobilizing for me, and resentment starts to creep up on me as I realize that my day is no longer "going according to plan."  So I work harder at trying to avoid the anger resentment.  I try to see things from his perspective.  It's hot and humid...which is uncomfortabel for all of us without AC.  He's got his heart set on playing with some toy or doing some activity other than school work, and yet I can't seem to tap into his ability to make a connection that if he'll do some school work with me, he can have some play time.  A little more school work...a little more play time.  It occurs to me again and again that the idea of "making connections" has never really connected....except for those that have a negative aspect to them. 

Recently his cousins from Illinois visited us, and it's been two years since they were last at our house.  My son remembered that the last time they visited (also in July), we had a really bad thunderstorm.  We lost power for several hours, and a huge branch from an evergreen tree fell into the road.  A neighbor came by with his chainsaw to help us remove it from the road and break it into smaller pieces.  The power didn't come back on until all the kids were in bed.  My point to this is that when his cousins visited again this summer, my son seemed very anxious...and it wasn't just about having to share his space and his toys (though that was also a BIGGIE.)  In his memory he had stored the connection that when his cousins visited, there was a scary storm, and now they're visiting again....there was going to be a STORM!!!  As fate would have it, it rained almost every day during their visit, and on top of that, at least one of the nights, there was indeed a thunderstorm.  Fortunately, the storm occurred later in the evening and my son slept right through it.  But, I'd be willing to bet that if his cousins visited again next summer, his memory would again be triggered causing him to re-experience the fear that there would again be a storm.  Connection: I don't feel safe when my cousins visit because it storms and I am afraid of storms.

School has been a similar issue for us.  He made all sorts of negative connections about school, and even after homeschooling him for a year (+), I have still got my work cut out for me trying to counter all those negatives with positives.  For instance, when he was in public school, he was overwhelmed by the movement, noise, visual stimulation, and despite having a school day "schedule" there was also a certain lack of structure to his day that wore against him.  He's come to expect "school" to be overwhelming and chaotic.  He had an IEP and was scheduled for speech services, monthly OT consult, and time in the resource room at least 4 days/week.  We're pretty certain that he still was falling through the cracks because on the surface, no one seemed to notice all the ways he was struggling.  Because he didn't speak up to let teachers know that he wasn't understanding something, they seemed to assume everything was OK.  To some extent, I think he fooled the system because he knew how to copy work from other students or hide worksheets in his desk.  Somehow he made it look as if he was doing fine...so teachers tended not to believe me when I'd try to address all the things I was seeing at home that told me he was not keeping up.  The negative connection that got reinforced in public school was that when he didn't understand something, he'd look for a way out rather than asking for help...and I am still seeing that on a daily basis.  I'm not entirely sure where "fear" plays into this except to assume that he fears the whole idea of asking for help.  It takes away from his perceived self-control, even though his actual self-control is really minimal. 

Art is something that he and I both enjoy.  It is such a wonderful avenue of self-expression and empowerment, so I have tried to utilize this shared love whenever I can.  We bond over art...it's an unspoken langage.  Unfortunately, I see a new negative connection unfolding when it comes to school and art.  We're into our third week of school now, and like last year, I set aside Wednesdays as a day to put aside the academics and work on art and creative writing.  I also set aside time to read to my younger son rather than him reading to me.  This year I'm using ideas from a book called Word Weavings by Shelley Tucker.  It gives all sorts of creative writing ideas to learn about similes, metaphors, alliteration, etc. while writing very simple poems and doing related art projects.  It's intended for K-2 (which is roughly where his expressive language skills are at.)  My son is familiar with the book.  We've worked through some of the activites when he was younger.  I thought it would be a good match...just adding a little more emphasis to it this year.  However, each Wednesday so far has been a disaster.  I can't blame the lessons because usually we can't even get as far as starting the lesson before he's already "shut down" and can't/won't do it.  We've eventually gotten the work done...at least by Friday...but it's got me baffled.  I'm digging deep already in my mind to try to reason through what connection he's making here that is preventing him from feeling safe doing writing and art with me.  The best I can come up with is that expressive language is really hard for him.  He's getting older...maybe he's that much more aware of how challenging it is for him to describe or compare things.  And yet, to some extent, that's exactly WHY I'm doing these little exercises with him and WHY I'm keeping it so simple.  At least...by my standards, it seems simple.  Maybe not by his.

Maybe it's not even the writing and the art.  Maybe he's worried about what I'm going to read to him?  Last week I was supposed to finish the Time Spies book I was reading to him...one that I had started several times and had not been able to finish because he was teanse about it.  I never got to read it last Wednesday but finished it with him Thursday afternoon.  He went on during his play time to reenact the surrender of Cornwallis during the Revolutionary War with a bunch of stuffed animals...something that had happened in the book.  It seemed to me that he had managed to convince himself that he liked the book.    On Monday I started the second book in the series, and I'm wondering now if he's feeling the same sort of apprehension.  He's never done well with longer books.  He gets anxious about what's happening and he gets scared easily if there's the slightest hint of danger.  Even The Magic Tree House books are hard for us to get through.  I keep reassuring him that there are a couple dozen more books that come after the one that we're reading...Jack and Annie have to be OK!  But he worries...and worries some more.  A connection has been made that if the children in the story are not safe, then he must not be safe either.

It's these and other irrational connections that keep getting in the way.  There's a huge difference between the days when he's well-regulated (able to experience maintain stress within his window of tolerance) versus when he's afraid and worried.  Unfortunately, those "regulated days" seem to be less frequent than the others...and most days it feels like quite the uphill climb to get the smallest amount of work done or to maneuver our way through an errand or appointment.  Yesterday was a rough one.  I don't know what today will be like, but we've got library books that are due, and we're supposed to meet friends at the park later this afternoon.  Given the heat, the AC at the library will feel good, so maybe we'll take our school work there this morning.  One day at a time...one moment at a time...one connection at a time!

Liz

 

[artsymominnc]

I'm thinking now that I may have been right about his fears about the book I intended to read with him yesterday.  When we were going through his schedule of today's work, and how we would need to also catch up on yesterday's work, I mentioned that I would hold off on reading the story until the end of the day.  I caught a glimpse of his releif when I said that, and I seized the opportunity to ask if the book had something to do with the way he shut down yesterday.  He admitted that he was afraid of the story, and that was at least part of the reason for not doing his work yesterday.  I'm not convinced that was the ONLY reason, but at least it offers a starting point for turning things around.  I was able to talk with him about how sad it was that we had missed out on so much good work together yesterday because he had not felt strong enough to tell me that he was afraid of the story. 

On a brighter note, instead of doing the planned art activity, I gave him time this morning to finish a painting that he had started when his cousins were visiting.  After he finished it, he seemed both happy and distresed.  We talked about that and he mentioned that while he was working, he had been feeling a little frustrated with it, but he also felt like he wanted to be able to finish it...so he kept on working.  He was clearly pleased with himself for finishing it, so I used the opportunity to call his attention to the fact that if he hadn't pushed himself a little bit to work through some of his doubts and fears, he never would have experienced what it was like to feel so happy with his finished work!   (Pertaining to finishing the painting--he was a little upset with me when I suggested spending a little more time touching up the details he had painted over, but I think he liked the results when he slowed down and clairifed some of those lines that had been covered up and could no longer be seen.)  It was a good little lesson in the power of perseverence.

[karleen]

Hi Liz,  As I read through your post first post, a couple thoughts came to mind.  For the creative writing, would it work for ds if he could 'write' into a tape recorder, rather than on paper?  Our twins love to talk, but hate to write.  If the goal of the writing is to work on expressive language, maybe the task of actually putting it on paper is getting in the way.  Since he loves art and expressive language is so hard, maybe he is making a negative connection to art, i.e. the effort for the writing is so great it's not worth putting it out to get to do the art.  Maybe these 2 should be on different days, although it sounds like the other days are acedemically focused.  Maybe art could be paired with music, or a field trip, or some other activity that he loves.  Or maybe, if using a tape recorder would work, you could then type up his story for him, leaving lots of space on the page for him to illistrate, and then you could find an easy way to 'bind' it and make a book.  He could even do a cover as part of his art.
Just some ideas. (Note-this was written before the second post)

After reading your second post, I'm wondering if giving him a choice of books might help.  Maybe you do that already.  It sounds like you are selecting books for history.  Maybe some other historical focus would help.  The set that comes to my mind are the Little House books.  I loved them growing up, and my boys have enjoyed them also, although some more than others.
Just another idea.

[artsymominnc]

Perhaps I should clarify that when I say "creative writing" with my son, it goes about as far as him dictating a few sentences to me, I write them down with correct spelling, and he copies them into a notebook to record his work.  The poetry activities have a lot of prompts.  The recent assignment I gave was to write a poem about ribbons and bows using the prompts "A ribbon is like ..." and "A bow is like..."  He came up with "a ribbon is like spaghetti," and with a lot of prompting from me we were able to add just a little more detail to complete the sentence with "that twirls around my fork.  His poem consisted of four similar sentences.  Next week we're going to relate colors to feelings...."Red feels like..." etc.  It's really meant to be very simple and again, I'm doing the writing at first so that he can work exclusively on the language.  It's really not a bad exercise in expressive language, but I've always respected that it's hard for him, so I do A LOT of prompting to help him think through the possibilities and decide what he likes best.

The art projects are geared to enhance/reinforce the imagery of the poems.  For example, when we do color poems next week, the emphasis will be on either one particular color or a variety of colors--depending on which direction he goes with the poem.  I plan to do some sort of mixed media collage...so that it can be colorful and rich in texture.  Something like that also offers the opportunity to reinforce knowledge of basic shapes...both regular and irregular, which is also not a strong point for him.  He gets the names mixed up.

As for choice of books, I appreciate your suggestions.  Though the Little House series are good books, they're too far above his level of comprehension and too long to hold his interest.   The Time Spies book is the first in a new series that I wanted to check out, and it's written just slightly above his reading level (when he's focused---WAY above his level on a bad day...)  My hope was that if I start reading these or any other books to him, maybe one day he'll pick them up to read on his own.  That was part of my plan last Christmas when my mom sent some money to buy gifts for the boys and I added to our Magic Tree House book set because he'd been assigned to read some of them when he was in public school for 2nd grade.  They were too hard for him then, but he seemed to like them.  Then I bought the books and tried to start reading them to him only to discover that he was afraid of them--as much as he seems to want to read them...he can't get past his fears that something bad will happen to Jack or Annie.   

We took our school work to the library today and although I managed to guide my son through each of his assignments and we finished by noon, something unsettled him before we left the library and he's still sort of stewing in his emotions.  He won't talk to me about it other than to say that he was mad because Dad had told him to "do a good job working with Mom today."  The other day he had been mad that Dad had told him to finish his school work before lunch time because it was going to be hot that afternoon.  (Trying to keep my sense of humor, I'm chuckling to myself that my son and my husband have got to stop having these heated conversations each morning!      )  My son was also trying to balme his bad mood on the fact that there were no more lemonade juice pouches in the refrigerator and he had to drink a flavor he didn't like...but he drank it anyway.  He mentioned that about 2 hours after the fact...and if he had asked me, there was more lemonade in the pantry.  Sigh....

I was re-reading your suggestions about making a book with illustrations and that reminded me that he recently (finally!!!) finished working on a storybook kit (Illustory kits enable kids to submit their stories with illustrations to be made into a hard-cover book.)  I had gotten him the kit over a year ago...had written the story with him last summer, and it dragged on and on for months trying to get him to finish the illustrations.  The story we wrote together is all about a very good day....all the things from beginning to end that would make a day really special.  It began to seem very uncomfortable for him to work on the story book...as if he just couldn't bring himself to make pictures about a good day when he kept having bad days. 

We have to head off to the park in a little bit.  At least it's turned cloudy so it doesn't feel quite so hot.  The park has a sprinkler area set up.  I'm a little concerned it might be crowded and that will unnerve my son, but I've been trying to set up a play-date with this friend of mine and her kids for ages.  I'm hoping the kids will all have fun and entertain themselves well so Tami and I can catch up with each other...but both her boys have autism and as hectic as things get for me...it's crazier for her.  I doubt we'll have much time to talk. 
 

[karleen]

Whew, I can tell I'm not a teacher or homeschooler!  I have said many times that teaching is too hard for me.     One other thought about books.  Our library has a set of books based on the Little House books.  They are a very abbreviated version of the original story, so much shorter.  Each book is about the size of a Magic Tree House book.  I think the stories were also rewritten to really gear them to a younger reading level, and I think the chapters are independent so that the whole book doesn't need to be read to enjoy a chapter.  One other idea for art.  In 1st grade (I think) our boys would have to draw a picture starting with a shape.  What I mean is the paper would have a shape on it.  It might be a circle, a wavy line, a box, whatever.  They would draw and color a picture that incorporated that shape.  I think they might have even written a sentance about their picture when they were done.  Can't remember for sure.  Anyway, just some more ideas, for what they are worth.  Take care, Liz.  Hope you enjoy(ed) the park.

[artsymominnc]

Hi again...the park was fun but we had to cut it short because a thunderstorm was threatening.  Now...nothing!  We sure could use a really good rain shower.  I haven't had time to water my gardens for several days and things are starting to wilt.  My firend's niece was with her to help with the boys so that she and I could talk without too many interruptions. 

Thanks for the other suggestions.  I don't know if you knew that I was an art teacher for about twelve years before we adopted?  I feel like I'm in my element when it comes to finding creative ways to handle a subject, and I love to integrate the subjects to add more depth and meaning.   For example, my son's social studies lessons last year (and this year still) were all about countries of the world.  We looked at maps, read folktales, listened to music, looked at pictures of landmarks (natural and man-made), did related art projects, and whenever possible, I prepared special meals to give us opportunities to sample foods that were common in that country. 

What's confusing me this year is math.  I'm trying to work on very basic addition and subtraction, and trying to just get across the idea that when you add, you get a bigger number..when you subtract, you start with the biggest number and your answer will be smaller.  He doesn't get it.  In fact, if we've solved something like 4-3=1 and I ask him what other problems we can make with those numbers, it would not be unusual for him to say something like 3-1=4...and really not seem to understand why that can't be so until I show him again with manipulatives. 

In all honesty, I'm really beginning to think that we would benefit from some intensive testing.  It's not like we haven't pursued a variety of evaluations already, but we're inclined to think that everyone's missing something...some piece to the puzzle that would explain why he's struggling so much with such basic concepts.  I wish we could afford to start all over again and have a really thorough evaluation...but resources are limited in our area...and quite frankly, so are our finances. 

My husband has been expressing interest in a job in Wisconsin (my home state) where we would have access to many more resources.  I have mixed feelings about the possibility of making a move.  For one thing, I've gotten used to the warmer climate of the NC mountains, and I love the scenery.  I would miss many things about where we live now, but at least he's not rushing into anything.  Living somewhere where we could have access to more services for both our boys (older son is gifted)...well...that might be a step in the right direction.  But...then the memories of those COLD Wisconsin winters comes to mind and I shiver!!!!  Time will tell.... 

Take Care,
Liz

[karleen]

I lived in WI for 5 years before moving here almost 20 years ago.  I loved it there because of the winter weather.     Makes me smile thinking of the place.  Of course, what I didn't like was the threat of tornados.  Never did really get used to that.

Quote: What's confusing me this year is math.  I'm trying to work on very basic addition and subtraction, and trying to just get across the idea that when you add, you get a bigger number..when you subtract, you start with the biggest number and your answer will be smaller.  He doesn't get it.  In fact, if we've solved something like 4-3=1 and I ask him what other problems we can make with those numbers, it would not be unusual for him to say something like 3-1=4...and really not seem to understand why that can't be so until I show him again with manipulatives.

As I read this, I thought of how the twins needed manipulatives to get this concept.  They really seemed to need the hands-on stuff for a long time.  You probably already do things to incorporate this into daily life, "Oh I have 2 plates and you have 2 plates.  See 2+2=4 and that's enough for our family" kind of things at whatever level appropriate.

By the way, I do seem to remember reading in the past that you were an art teacher, but I had forgotten.  That is so great for your sons that you can take training and ideas from a 'past life'  and do this for them.

Sorry, as I said before, I'm not a teacher.  So I'm out of ideas.  I wonder if there are games out there that would focus on the basic arithmatic concepts so they could be learned in an entirely different way, one that doesn't look like schoolwork.  If I have any other brilliant ideas, I will let you know.

If you decide to get testing done, I wonder if you could get it through the school system even though you are homeschooling.  Maybe you have already done that.  I know a neighbor's kid was getting speech therapy even though he was in private school.  So maybe...  This past spring we had ds11r tested privately.  4 hours of testing, along with the time to write the report and talk with the parents, cost just over $1,000.   

Glad your family had fun at the park.  And I know what you mean about rain.  We sure need it here also.  Take care.

[artsymominnc]

Our family has an advantage in the sense that my husband is a doctoral level psychologist and he was able to do the basic assessment testing that's required each year to have on file for homeschooling rquirements in NC.  But that sort of testing isn't specific enough to catch the subtle weaknesses.  I have to admit, as well, that my son must have been pretty clever while he was attending public school to fly under the radar.  Because of his IEP, he was tested twice during the time he was in public school in this county alone. (We moved 5 years ago from Raleigh where we had first gotten him tested to qualify for early intervention services.)  How he manages to "test" so much better than he performs academically can be very misleading, but perhaps by persuing more specialized testing would help us.  My husband will be the first to admit to parents that once he administers the test, he can interpret the results, but his specialty is not in how to remediate the learning challenges he uncovers. 

We could choose to go back to the school for services, but that would be my last choice.  I'm realizing I need to let go of those past frustrations, but I really don't want to return to the same battles that prompted me to make the decision to homeschool in the first place.  Our public school system is simply not well-equipped to support kids with special needs.  Speech therapy was more or less a one-size-fits-all approach...he got what the other kids got.  The OT and PT evaluations indicated that he was able to function adequately, so he didn't qualify for anything more than an OT consult once a month.  But the OT assistant wasn't looking for specific problems, so if he seemed to be doing OK, then no modifiactions were made.  Months passed...nothing changed. 

Resource help was the biggest disappointment to me because if you don't feel that the special ed. teacher is on your side, who can you count on?  I remember a specific conversation I had with her once when I mentioned that my son was having a lot of trouble reading the chapter books he was assigned for reading.  When he came to words that he didn't know, he would just guess.  He had no strategy for sounding them out or using context clues.  I asked what strategy I should practice with him, and was basically told to just tell him the word if he's struggling.  It was implied that I was putting to much pressure on him to be like his older brother who is gifted.  That was a pivotal moment for me in realizing that after all those years of thinking he would get more help from trained professionals, I was wrong.  If I wanted him to get individualized help, I was going to have to take a different route...and since there aren't a lot of options in our area, homeschooling seemed like the best fit. 

The timing was right to see that as a good option for my older son too because as a third grader, he had already worked through the fifth grade reading and math curriculum and the school principal was suggesting that we consider sending him to the middle school part-time for math and language arts--as a fourth grader!  Knowing that my son could handle the academics of sixth grade is one thing...but socially, he'd have a really hard time because he tends to be a bit immature in his social skills.  From the time he was in first grade, he was advancing part-time to work with the kids two grades ahead of him.  That put him in a very awkward position for trying to make friends.  To this day, he still struggles with the idea of making friends.  I'm not even sure that he's all that inetrested in having a friend.  I do what I can to encourage him to interact with the kids he encounters in Scouts, 4-H classes, at church, etc....but I see that he's often kind of clueless as to how to start up a conversation and maintain it.  I tried getting him involved in writing to penpals, and that was OK, but it was awkward for him.

I've really wandered with this topic.  Never realized how "different" both of my boys seem to be from "the norm" until I start trying to analyze or describe why they've never made lasting friends or even why they don't consistently play well with each other.  They get along OK with each other...maybe even better than most...but I'm still working hard to nurture the idea that they could actually be friends for one another.

My time's up!  I hope I haven't made too many typos because I don't have time to proofread my post! 

[Wendy]

Liz,

My sister teaches first grade.  When I was struggling to help my daughter with math, she told me to use items she could handle and count-- beans, stones, marbles, any small item where she could physically see and handle the problem.  It helped, but my daughter still had difficulty retaining the concepts.  As a diabetic, she has to use insulin to carb ratios to determine how much insulin she needs based on the carbohydrates for a particular meal.  She does fairly well with that.  Yesterday something came up where she was challenged to subtract 80 from 180.  She couldn't do it in her head, and even with paper it took her three attempts and my direction before she could do it.  I would recommend letting your son create math problems with objects-- for a treat you could use jelly beans or something occasionally.  I think I'd make plus, minus, and equal signs, and then start maybe by setting up groups and having him place the signs in the appropriate spots, and then maybe write them down.  Just a thought. 

I sympathize with the school issues.  I had to battle to get my daughter special ed services.  She was dissociating is class, and thought that there were snakes in her desk.  She was quiet and compliant at school, so they didn't see her as having a problem.  At home I was having major battles to get her off to school each day, because she didn't feel safe there.  They kept claiming I was a problem, even after an independent psychological evaluation showed a tendency towards psychosis and a letter from her psychiatrist.  It wasn't until we moved to a different state and connected with a wonderful teacher that she really began to get the services she needed. 

[artsymominnc]

Thanks for your feedback, Wendy.

I can't claim to have tried everything already...I'm willing to consider new ideas...but I've already been using manipulatives of one sort or another since we started homeschooling.  Duplo blocks have been particularly handy because they stack. 

I've also made a string of ten large wooden beads (with enough extra string so that beads can be slid from one side to another and grouped to make the fact families for 10.  My idea was that he could manually see that he always has ten beads...but they can be grouped differently by sliding the beads apart.  For example:
-----   (beads) ------and----- (beads)----- would be a visual as well as tactile way to show 5+5=10.

Today things were going pretty well as far as getting through school work.  I had him review his spelling words with his big stuffed Clifford, and that seemed to do the trick because he got a 100%.     But things began to falter as he got closer to finishing his work.  My best guess is that we continue to have a loop going where he fears he won't have a good day...so he gets anxious, but if he is having a good day, he says it feels uncomfortable.  There's probably some truth to that, but I'll admit that it always catches me off guard for him to say that, especially if I've just worked really hard to get him through some tough stuff.   

[adsglinda]

yeah... a good day is a new and different feeling.  new and different can be scary!  Uncomfortable that is to be expected.. he's not sure if the uncomfortable is good or bad yet.. hasn't had that feeling enough.. takes time for him to figure it out..  so you look at uncomfortable as good and give positive feedback to that and safety and then just go real slow and easy.  everything real slow when he is uncomfortable.. give him time to adjust and figure out it's ok.

[artsymominnc]

How well I remember you encouraging me to think the same thing many months ago....just to give others some idea of how long it takes for a child to heal.  As hard as things have been, I'm so encouraged though that he is getting school work done!!!  We're now into our fourth week of homeschooling, and though we've had our bad moments...even entire days here and there...I've set a minimum goal of what we need to do each week for school, and he's not only getting that done (sometimes eventually rather than promptly....) but we're also adding some things into the day that aren't on the schedule....things like exercising, listening to music or stories, art work...etc.  I'm also seeing that his play time with his building toys has been a little more focused.  He's building specific things like airplanes and machines rather than just tinkering with the pieces.  He's acting out scenarios of airplanes taking off and he's giving tours of places when they land.  His imagination has been sort or upped a notch!  That's so good to see.   

It feels like baby steps....and sometimes I'm too close to the situation to appreciate how much things are changing, but we're definitely in a better place now than we were say six months ago.  It takes TIME and PATIENCE....and lots of it!  But it's SOOOO worth the effort.   

[karleen]

I remember so well some of the baby steps the twins took.  When we adopted them at 24 months, they were not walking.  Within a month, they were both walking.  But their gross motor skills were so delayed that we eventually started PT and gymnastics.  They did both for about 2 years when they were preschool age.  I still remember the day when dsa first was able to hop, 2 feet together, for 2 or 3 hops, on the tramp.  He was 4 yo already.  I was so excited, I think I actually cheered.  And I remember how happy I was to see them start to do more imaginary play, using an object to represent something, i.e. a block was a car or a train.  They are such literal thinkers that this was a hard step for them.  These images you reminded me of just make me smile.  Thanks

I love your idea of beads on a string.  That would have been great for the twins.  I wonder if your ds would benefit from an old fashioned abacus (sp?) as he gets into harder concepts like ones/tens/hundreds, adding multi-digit numbers, etc.  Not that I have ever used one and so know how it is supposed to be used, but it just seems to be a logical followup to beads on a string.  One thing we used for ones and tens was toothpicks, both single ones and ten held together by tape.  That seemed to work better for the twins than coins.  They had a hard time remembering that, even though a dime is one coin, it still represented 10.  Just another idea for the future, although it's one that is pretty common.

Glad things are going well.  Hope that continues to be the case.  Isn't it great when the necessary gets done fast enough that the extra can be done also (especially when it is fun stuff)?