Becka's Letters

This past two weeks have been some of the toughest to keep up with  Nora's program. All of a sudden, it felt like I could barely keep my nose above water between work, Patrick being gone, hot sunny weather and kids wanting to be outside...Doing Nora's program WELL was a challenge. My office was  sauna and it was hard to focus when we both just wanted to be on a lawn under the shade of a tree. I wasn't as prepared as I wanted be as she and I sat down to do the sessions and she sensed it. 

After two days into the 11th week of her program, I called up her teacher, Becka,  and left a message on her machine saying we needed 4 days off and I would re-do week 11 the following week.  

After Becka received my phone message, she wrote me the following e-mail: 

Hi Zoya!
I got your message!  I am so glad you feel comfortable making executive decisions like doing a week over.  I think it is very smart, and I am more than ok with you taking a couple days to really get more comfortable with these exercises.  Starting next week, I have a break from 12-3:30 pretty much every day. Let me know when you want to chat next to go over any more questions.  I talked with Cindy, and I think her and I are going to film us (cindy and I) doing some of the pace auditory activities to make sure you have a really good picture of how it should look.  She thought it might be good to send that to you, give you time to get familiar with it, and then have a skype session that she can sit in on to watch you and Nora work together.  We really think the auditory piece is going to be SO good for Nora, so we want to make sure you know how to do them and can do them comfortably.  If it takes us awhile to get there, that is fine.  The auditory activities are going to help her soooo much with her reading and writing.  Go ahead and keep working with the AIC drilling like you have been doing until then. 

Let me know if you have any questions before the “week 11 remake”

You are doing fabulously Zoya.  Cindy and I just had a long conversation about what a model parent you are and what a difference it makes in doing this despite the distance between us.  You should give yourself a big pat on the back.  Daily. Seriously.

Talk to you soon!  Have a great weekend!

Thanks!

Becka


And my reply to her....

Hi Becka,

Thank you for your great e-mail. You said exactly what I needed to hear.

What happened this week was the first two days, I did all of PACE exercises, but missed several of the CORE exercises because of lack of time. I saw that there were more new exercises later in the week and I didn't want to feel like we were getting sloppy with quality of the exercises. My husband in on week 4 of a 6 week remote archaeology dig and all of a sudden I felt quite overwhelmed with lack of time. 

Also, my 6 year old son Stuey all of a sudden wanted mommy alone time, which he hasn't expressed until now. I've been amazed by how non-jealous he has been all these weeks with Nora taking off with 1:1 time with me. I felt I needed to pause and acknowledge his needs at this time also. 

Nora was bummed to hear we are going to take a few days off, but I"m so thrilled to be able to do week 11 remake.

 I love the auditory exercises, as does Nora. I can tell she is captivated by them. Two days ago when we last did PACE, Nora passed several levels which she had been working on for weeks, so that was exciting. And the BEAT activities involving bean bag, etc are getting so much easier! Yeah!

This past week I saw Nora working on sounding out a word at home, which I have never really seen before. I appreciate that you and Cindy see that I want to take my time and make sure I'm doing it correctly, so the sounds don't imprint on her brain incorrectly. I see the incredible value and potential in this auditory component as much as you and Cindy. A week of this already seems more beneficial than months of speech therapy. 

This weekend I am going to go over the CORE and PACE Cd's for activities in week 11 and excited to start those again on Sunday. 

Thank you Becka for your understanding and working with me so closely. Nora and I will be excited to start back on Sunday. And thank you for your kind words about my dedication--just gave myself a pat on the back, as advised. Hehehe. 

And Nora says, "I hope I can see Ms. Becka soon, because Ms. Becka is so nice"

Have a fabulous weekend and thanks again for working with us so closely!

Best wishes,

Zoya

I share these e-mails here because I love Becka's kindness and thoughtfulness, which really comes through in her letters. She is a good writer and when I see that I have an e-mail from her, I glow inside. 

 I would love for Nora to someday see in our printed blog some of the letters which Becka and I write back and forth.  And its a good reminder when I look back at this time someday to remember that it HAS been tough with challenges. And occasional tears or feeling like one of us (nora and I) can't do it. 

Tonight before bed, I will sit down with notes from the past two days sessions and write down all the questions I have for Becka. Tomorrow at 11 AM we have a phone date, where I can ask her the questions I have on the various activities to make sure I'm doing them correctly.  And then tomorrow afternoon Nora and I will continue along. 

Zoya