Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Busy days

There is a literal tidal wave of activity this time of year. The weather is awesome so dinner and bedtimes has a dangerous tendency to be later and later. Where do the days go?

School activities and end of year parties, 2 pool parties, busking, field trips, skate park party, violin party all within the next week or two!

Add that to it being my seasonal busy time for my job.

In other words, I need about 4 more hours to my day.

I guess, that is my surreptitious apology for not posting for a few days but I will share a few tidbits.

Shea is a talking machine. He is no introvert. He talks all the time now. Articulation is still challenging but he is in there "holding his own" with all the other kids at pre-school. We had delightful Sophia over for a play date on Monday. Once we got over the fact that Shea didn't have any babies to play with and Sophia wasn't particularly interested in trucks and cars, they settled on horses and had a lovely time.

Not sure who I adore more, Sophia or her mom. So, I call that a success!

Just got back from a Special Education Advisory Committee meeting tonight. Some good news on that front. Through the stimulus money coming down but tied to IDEA, there is money next year for a training day for all staff to focus on Special Education issues only; inclusion, curriculum, parental input. We have the summer to develop our plan and can implement in the fall.

In fact, we are developing and implementing a parental survey and feedback form that will be able to go along with that as well.

These are the kinds of things are so helpful and useful. The parents always need more options for healthy input in a positive way. I consider this a win for everyone!

I also found out they are offering something different next year for Kindergarten. A hybrid pre-school/Kindergarten year. Apparently, there is a bubble of kids (Shea included) who isn't quite ready for Kindergarten. They are opening up another class that would be a group of kids who had Pre-school in the AM and then moved to Kindergarten in the afternoon. It is assumed that these kids would do this for next year then have would all have all day Kindergarten the next year.

So, I am really happy. I think that is great for Shea and encouraged that they are open and flexible to adjusting placement offerings for a bubble of kids.

It is one of the things that make me thankful for a small school district. They are able to make micro-adjustments. They don't have the macro infastructure and resources that larger districts have but they are able to really fine tune and devote quality time.

Notice all those are happy, up things!

Maybe my next post will be all the crabby things that are happening lately?

3 comments:

Henry's mom said...

Wow that is awesome about Shea taking up a storm. You must be so proud of him and yourself. I was just talking to Henry's ST yesterday, asking her do you really think will talk one day? Of course she said but, I still feel scared somedays of the unknown. To think he is getting ST 4x a week and the progress is so SLOW.

I love what they are offering Shea next year at school. That is truly the best of both worlds.

What is Shea doing this summer?

Best,
Carolyn

Anonymous said...

This would be a great oppertunity to let Shea know that the big kid school does not allow kids in kindergarten unless they have on the big boy underwear, specially since your success this last weekend! Great step forward Commando is better than a diaper anyday! He is moving in the right direction, great job Mom! :)

jonsmom said...

Everything about this post makes me smile!

If you would be willing to anonymously post about your school district, it would be such a great help to the parents over at www.jonsroom.com. When we were looking to move for better services, it was very, very hard to find information like this. The more parents share, the better. Please come over to post - our members can be a great resource, and you'll have a lot to share with them too.

Congrats on the talking and the progress with the school district!

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