That explains a lot.....

It is the end of term at school and all of the assignments are due. The writing teacher let the kids look at their progress report in the middle of the week so they could make up any assignments that may be missing.

Chance was missing 3 sets of journal entries which totals 15 pages total. And he got zeros on every spelling test.

Huh?

So Chance spent a pleasant if not slightly annoying night at the kitchen table writing. And writing. And writing.

Chance was adamant that he had done the work and I felt for him, but as I told him,"If the teacher has no record of it, you have to do it again."

And after all of that work, Chance came home on Friday with all of the pages still in his binder because he forgot to turn them in.

Naturally, I was annoyed that all of that work might go for naught, so I drove him back up to the school to turn the papers in so he could get credit for his work. Chance explained to me that he had therapy every Friday during writing and that is why he forgot to turn his work in. That made sense. If he he didn't attend class, it would be easy to forget to turn in the work.

We met his teacher in the hall as she was coming out of faculty meeting.

As we were talking, the teacher mentioned that Chance was marked absent in writing that day. I told her that he was in therapy and that is why he forgot to turn in his work.

His teacher paused and then asked,"Does Chance have therapy every Friday?"

When I explained that he did his teacher responded,"Friday is when we call for the journal entries and take the spelling tests. Chance probably didn't have any idea that we were calling for journal entries."
It was a moment when a light bulb went on for both of us. Chance's missing assignments were due to the fact that Chance was never in class when they were called for. We were scratching our heads at home trying to figure out why our very conscientious and driven Chance would be missing so many assignments. It would also explain why we could find several journal entries in Chance's various notebooks yet they had not been turned in.

The writing teacher explained that each Friday, the writing teachers took turns teaching the lessons so each teacher only taught every 3rd Friday so no one had realized that Chance was gone each Friday.
WHEW! This explained a lot.

Chance was adamant that he had been doing the assignments and seemed genuinely confused as to why he had so many zeros on his progress report.

So, now we can work on the logistics of letting Chance turn in his assignments on Mondays (after having time to make up Friday's journal), so he is getting credit. Also, we can arrange for Chance to take the spelling tests on another day.

Spelling is one of Chance's strongest points which has always amazed me since he spent several years not hearing the words he spells. He can spell words he doesn't even know the meaning of. Due to this fact, I told the teacher that Chance could probably take the missing spelling tests right then which he did. 100 percent as I expected.

So, the moral of this story is, we need to communicate with the proper teachers and therapist so that everyone knows what the schedule is and so Chance does not go crazy wondering what in the world the expectations are :)

The gift of spelling

Chance has a gift. He can spell. I mean really really spell. Some people are just good at spelling and Chance is one of them. I remember reading once that good spellers are ALWAYS good readers - the two go hand in hand. Chance does love to read. Sometimes way later than he should, in fact. He'll get engrossed in a book and read in bed long after he should be sleeping.

What amazes me about Chance's spelling though, is that Chance has not heard the words all of his life like I have. He could not sound them out in kindergarten the way that I did because Chance wasn't hearing the subtle sounds in all of the words. For many years Chance wasn't hearing all of the subtle syllables of many words. Yet, here he is an incredible speller. He can spell words he doesn't know the meaning of. He'll spell the word perfectly than turn to me and ask,"What does that word mean?"

Since Chance has therapy every Friday and thus misses the spelling tests, the teacher and I were discussing what we could do to help Chance earn points for the tests he misses. She wondered if she should just exempt Chance from the last two spelling tests since he was in speech therapy and the term was now over. I told her that one day when she was sick and there was a substitute, the teacher had passed out a list of several hard words for the kids and had them test each other and then write down the words they missed to practice. Chance missed two words out of at least 50 words. Some of the words he spelled correctly and then turned to me and asked,"What does that word mean?"

In a bold display of confidence in my boy, I told the teacher that she could probably give Chance the spelling test right then and he would do O.K. So, that is what she had me do. While she was in the corner of the room gathering papers, I administered a spelling test to Chance. He aced it with 100 percent.

Good heavens. How do you become an expert speller when you are deaf? I heard words just fine in school, yet I didn't always get them right. Even when I slowly repeated the words in my head or whispered them to myself as I sounded them out, "annoying" or whatever the word may have been.

Yet Chance who doesn't have the experience with hearing words that I do, can spell like a pro. It is an amazing phenomenon.

The love of a brother

Chance has had a steady and passionately devoted right hand man as he has traveled this path of deafness.

When Chance was first diagnosed, there were some friends of his brothers in the neighborhood who would complain and run away when Chance would come to join them in play. Chance's brother told them that if Chance didn't play, then he didn't either.

This past year at school, some girls were constantly hitting and poking Chance's brother. It was all supposed to be fun and games but Chance's brother did not really like it. He endured it. One day these girls decided to start doing the same thing to Chance. His brother stood up and said,"Nobody hits my brother!"

When Chance was first diagnosed and entered preschool through the "School for the Deaf," Chance was traumatized and cried and cried when I dropped him off each day. I would watch through the two way mirror heartbroken as my baby struggled. The school asked me if Chance had ever been away from home for a night. I told him he had not. "No weekends away with grandma or grandpa?" they asked. I replied that he had had no such weekend. I had a new baby that prohibited me from staying at the school for long and it was devastating to see how Chance struggled. His world had been turned upside down seemingly overnight. Chance was having multiple tests done to check his hearing, he had just received hearing aids and now he was thrown into a world with lots of people that he had never seen before. Plus he was going through the summer when other kids his age were at home playing.

Chance and his brother dressed up for Halloween

Enter Chance's brother who volunteered to attend the older class in the same building as a model for language (kids who hear normally and can model language for the little deaf children). Chance and his brother did not attend the same classes, but they saw each other at recess and during lunch. The teachers told me Chance would run to his brother when it was lunch time and his brother would take him under his wing and help him feel secure.

This meant that Chance's brother was also missing out on summer playing but he never complained once.

When Chance signed up to sing in the Alexander Graham Bell Association's Speech Fair last year, it became apparent that though Chance knew the song quite well, it was a difficult song with many shifts and he had a hard time staying on tune during some parts. Chance's brother who was in chorus with Chance volunteered to go up on stage and sing with Chance. He sang real soft, just enough so that Chance could stay on tune. Chance's brother knew it was Chance's moment to shine and simply stood back and smiled as the applause came in after the performance.

Chance's brother has always made sure that in settings with large groups etc. that Chance was part of things and knew what was going on. A neighbor who used to watch the kids while I had appointments etc. said that she was so impressed with how Chance's brother and sister looked out for Chance to make sure that he knew when they were being offered snacks or knew what was going on in the game etc. She said that you could see the love between them.

This past year Chance has been in a school that is a little different than most schools for kids Chance's age. Instead of being in one class all day, Chance rotates through several different classes with different teachers in each class. It is the first year this school has been open and there have been lots of changes and adjustments to be made during the first several months as things get going.

Chance has struggled some with all of the changes. Enter his brother once again. Staff at the school worked out a deal with Chance that if he attended each class he earned points that he could redeem for a little time during the afternoon with.....his brother.

Chance has been a little trooper and forged ahead in an astounding way through his deafness. He has had a most devoted ally during the process in his brother and it has been a great blessing to both of them and a wondrous thing to watch as a parent.

Chance learning the guitar

Chance's guitar lessons are coming along quite well. As an added bonus, he is learning the words and tunes to many new songs and learning to keep time as he plays.

If the implants are off, just whisper

I witnessed a fascinating occurrence at our kitchen table this morning. Chance was playing Legos with his brothers and sisters without implants on. Ironically, the game required communication between the parties as one child was operating the airplane, another the police station and so on and so forth.
Chance could of course communicate his preferences just fine. He just couldn't hear if anyone disagreed with his line of thinking.

At one point, his sister took issue with where the runway for the airplane was. Chance looked up at her when she landed the plane in the wrong location according to his way of thinking.

So they argued:
Chance's sister whispering her opinion,  "Chance, there is not enough room there!"
Chance: 'Oh yes there is! It needs to land next to the police station where I made room!"
Chance's sister:  " No! Let's have an airport over here!"
Chance: " We have to leave room over there for the fire station!"

I'm not quite sure why Chance's sister felt the need to whisper. She knew he couldn't hear her, but maybe it freaks her out a little just to mouth the words to him so she whispers just so there is still sound coming out of her mouth. Chance tends to be loud sometimes when his implants are off. He has no idea how loud he is of course.

It was an interesting method of communicating. I sat just watching them fascinated and wondering how it would all end. They eventually came to some resolution with their little brother and sister code of communicating. I wonder if they'll do it again?

Note to self....

Note to self:  NEVER just pick up Chance's ipod and tune in to see what is playing. This act could cause some hearing loss for the hapless victim who wanted to know what Chance was listening to. Since Chance listens to the ipod through a NoizFree telecoil cable, we don't know exactly what the listening experience is like for him. But I now know, that he has that ipod volume cranked to the hilt as I casually picked up his ear buds and turned it on. Woo Hee, I may hear that song ringing in my ears for the rest of the night. Or possibly forever.

Sooooo, the next time I pick up Chance's implant to listen in, I am turning the volume down first or I may experience some hearing loss myself.

I don't think Santa heard me

I can honestly say that we rarely have major mistakes or misunderstandings due to the fact that Chance is deaf anymore. Chance can hear so well with his implants combined with his being the ripe old age of 10 that we rarely have those heart breaking incidents that make our hearts cry because Chance missed some major event due to his deafness.

We had one of those during the children's program at church when Chance was about 5 years old. One of the songs the kids were singing had signs to go along with it and Chance loved that song. Unfortunately, Chance missed the first few notes of the song, so even though he was sitting right out front, he did not start with everyone else and it was kind of his song. As all of the kids around him started singing and signing, Chance looked around and burst into tears. I quickly joined him on the stage and tried to catch him up to speed, but he wanted them to start over so that he was ready. Programs usually don't stop and rewind though. He was heart broken.

We had another one of those moments on a train bond for the North Pole this past week on the North Pole Express. We had cookies and yummy hot chocolate, read stories and sang Christmas carols. All of this culminated with our arrival at the North Pole where Santa boarded the train and visited with each child. You can imagine the excitement and bustle that accompanies a train car loaded with children who are visiting with Santa.

When Santa got to our seats, we hurriedly gathered all of the kids together for a group photo. The lighting in the train car was dim and it took us a few seconds to get our camera on the right setting. After getting a very cute picture, it was time for each of our kids to tell Santa what gift their little hearts most desired for Christmas. Santa was a little bit in a rush this year and unfortunately, Chance was the child closest to Santa and he missed the question of "What do you want for Christmas?", and instead sat grinning his pleasure at being right next to Santa. Chance's dad and I had to point out to Chance that he needed to hurry and tell Santa what he wanted, since Chance had not heard the cue. If only only one of his siblings had been next to Santa to get the ball rolling with the gift requests, because it took Chance a few seconds to realize that it was his turn and he only got one little sentence out before Santa was hurriedly on the move to the next child.

It should be noted that we have ridden on the North Pole Express train several times over past Christmas seasons and usually the visit with Santa goes off with out a hitch. I think Santa was in a hurry to make sure he got to visit with all of the kids since we were on the first train car and their were many more cars loaded with waiting children.

It should also be noted that Chance is a dedicated believer, wondering over the magic of Santa and his reindeer and delighting in the whole Christmas season. He was therefore a little crest fallen at Santa's hurried manner since in all of the bustle and noise, Chance did not always hear things the first time they were said.

After Santa had moved on to the next row of kids, I saw that Chance looked a little bewildered and upset so I pulled him down next to me and asked in a cheery voice what he had asked Santa for. Chance hung his head as he tried to hide the tears that were forming.

"I didn't get to tell him I wanted a rubber band gun." Chance whispered. " I don't think he heard me because he was walking off."

This was the first I had heard about a rubber band gun and it turned out that Chance was hopping to rely the message to Santa that he wanted a long board AND a rubber band gun for Christmas.

When you are a true believer in the magic of Santa, this is a devastating development.

Luckily, Mrs. Claus comes through the train a bit after Santa, so after I explained that Chance was not able to tell Santa all that he wanted, Mrs. Claus got down at eye level with Chance and told him that she would give Santa the message with assurances that Santa really listened to her and she had some pull as far he was concerned.

So Chance is hoping that the message did indeed get passed on. He has been talking about the wonders that a rubber band gun would bring into his life and used the topic as the basis for his persuasive paper he had to write in 5 grade writing class.

I guess we'll see when we come out to see what is under the tree on Christmas morning.

The apology

Chance came home from cub scouts and I could tell that something wasn't quite right. I called him over to where I was doing the dishes and asked him what was up.
He told me that after scouts, the boys had all been playing on a trampoline and he had touched the football and one of the boys had shoved him.
"Then what happened?" I asked. "Did any of the boys say anything?"
"I don't know." Chance said,"because my implants fell off when he pushed me."
At this point I realized that this must have been quite a shove if it made Chance's implants come off.
"Did any of the boys say anything when he did that?" I asked.
"I don't know because I was getting my implants." Chance said.

This is where the beauty of having a deaf child comes in. I know the boy who shoved Chance and there has never been an issue with him before.

"Maybe he apologized while you were getting your implants." I said.

Chance shrugged.

"Ya, maybe he apologized and you just didn't hear it."

Since that really could have happened and we will never know for sure, I thought it was good for Chance to end our conversation on a positive note:)

The blessings of technology

One of our adult deaf friends saw Chance at a music conference and said that she was amazed to see that even with the noisy hallway and bustle, Chance was able to carry on a conversation with a woman she introduced him to with out looking at her the whole time.

Yes, we are thankful for technology and what it has done for Chance. He was truly born at a good time to be deaf, with the invention of implants and all of the technology that is available. From computers to texting to subtitles, being deaf isn't as isolating as it once was.

We feel very blessed to have Chance in our family and to all of those who have helped Chance and continue to help Chance blossom into an ordinary 10 year old boy who is not held back by being deaf.

Sometimes, I want to remind Chance that he is indeed deaf when he tries to tell me that he does not need his FM system in every class or when he lops questions at me through the shower curtain when his implants are off. Oh the funny stories we can tell when Chance has children of his own.

"Remember when you used to ask what we were doing that day as you lathered up in the shower and I came in to throw a towel over the rail? As if you could hear anything I said in response?"

"Remember how you would ask us about our conversations first thing in the morning when you weren't going to be able to hear any answer we gave?"

Good times, good times.

It is a good time with Chance. We are so grateful for him and for all that he adds to our family. And we continue to grow in gratitude for the devices that allow him to hear and mingle with all of the kids his age in school, at cub scouts and in the neighborhood.

I am so grateful to the man who invented implants. I hope he realizes what a blessing he is to kids like Chance.

It's not over 'till the deaf kid sings

Chance has begun his journey into the world of singing lessons. We want to be very careful as at this point, Chance has no issue with singing and is quite confident is his abilities. Chance tends to sing monotone at times, but we think that is a situation that can be unlearned as Chance is exposed to music, taught how it works and learns to listen for the difference in the various notes.

I have never wanted to post anything that will cause Chance embarrassment and cause reason for Chance to enter therapy as an adult:) Chance knows that I am posting this video of him singing and is fine with it. He is quite confident in his singing abilities and we are quite happy with that. Chance sings in school productions, at AG Bell Fairs and at church without a second thought. As has always been the case, we want Chance to be able achieve all that he is capable of and believe that singing can be a real strength for him in spite of his deafness. He hasn't been held back so far in anything he has attempted!

I post his singing now to show where he is as we are starting this journey and will add other samples of Chance singing as we go along. My hope is to chart his progress and document how far we have come.

Here is Chance reading/singing the story of "Frosty the Snowman", to some of his siblings for a bedtime story. He is a great big brother.