Do you hear that? It’s silence.
Today is Hazel’s 2nd day at preschool. Eli goes with her on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I get the house all to myself for 3 hours those days. Hmmm… what should I do with this uninterrupted time? I could clean or organize, go out for a run, or go spend money we don’t have.
I think I’ll blog. Writing and looking at pictures makes me happy.
Didn’t my two preschoolers look so cute this morning? I took this right before they left.
I love that Bennett and Anya, and now Eli and Hazel get to be in the same grades in school. I love that my boys can give me a full report on things and that my girls will always have someone to watch out for them and make sure everyone is being nice.
Here's Bennett and Anya with their teacher at their Kindergarten graduation last May.
A few weeks ago, Hazel had all of her required assessments with the school district to make sure she qualifies for special education services. As I pretty much expected, she didn't cooperate at all. Put her in a little room with people she doesn’t know who are focusing on her and asking her to do things, and she turns into a silly little monkey with her own agenda. (This is how she acted during our orphanage visits.) All her skills and knowledge went out the window. I think a lot of mothers with kids with special needs get really flustered and upset at these assessments because they know their children aren’t showing a true representation of what they really know. But I was totally fine with it. Why? Because the lower she scores, the more services she will receive at school.
I went to her IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting at our neighborhood school on Tuesday and they told me that she scored in the first percentile on a few things (pretty dang low.) I knew it wasn’t accurate, so I didn’t care. But was I ever happy to hear what she qualifies for… three hours a day, five days a week of preschool! YAY! I know this is going to help her so much! And the district even provides a bus for us, starting next week!
As far as services go, the speech therapist is only there two days a week, so it sounds like Hazel will only have one-on-one therapy once a week. She will need much more than this, so we’ll be looking into some private therapy. She’ll also have help from an occupational therapist once a week, working on fine-motor skills. She'll receive gross-motor skills help in their adaptive PE class.
Eli was already attending this preschool. They have tuition-paying, typically developing children in the preschool class because studies show that kids learn best from their peers. Ever since he started in September, he’s been asking on a weekly basis “Mom, when is Hazel going to come home so she can go to preschool with me?” Now she’s been home two months, and He’s been asking every day since she’s been here, “Is it time for Hazel to come to preschool?” He’s been just a little bit excited. Is this not a proud big brother?
Yesterday was Hazel’s first day. Her teacher reported that she seemed to love every minute of it, and cooperated much better than she expected. Yay for that!
-------------------------
More preschool morning pics, added a week later on 3/7/13:
Today is Hazel’s 2nd day at preschool. Eli goes with her on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I get the house all to myself for 3 hours those days. Hmmm… what should I do with this uninterrupted time? I could clean or organize, go out for a run, or go spend money we don’t have.
I think I’ll blog. Writing and looking at pictures makes me happy.
Didn’t my two preschoolers look so cute this morning? I took this right before they left.
I love that Bennett and Anya, and now Eli and Hazel get to be in the same grades in school. I love that my boys can give me a full report on things and that my girls will always have someone to watch out for them and make sure everyone is being nice.
Here's Bennett and Anya with their teacher at their Kindergarten graduation last May.
A few weeks ago, Hazel had all of her required assessments with the school district to make sure she qualifies for special education services. As I pretty much expected, she didn't cooperate at all. Put her in a little room with people she doesn’t know who are focusing on her and asking her to do things, and she turns into a silly little monkey with her own agenda. (This is how she acted during our orphanage visits.) All her skills and knowledge went out the window. I think a lot of mothers with kids with special needs get really flustered and upset at these assessments because they know their children aren’t showing a true representation of what they really know. But I was totally fine with it. Why? Because the lower she scores, the more services she will receive at school.
I went to her IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting at our neighborhood school on Tuesday and they told me that she scored in the first percentile on a few things (pretty dang low.) I knew it wasn’t accurate, so I didn’t care. But was I ever happy to hear what she qualifies for… three hours a day, five days a week of preschool! YAY! I know this is going to help her so much! And the district even provides a bus for us, starting next week!
As far as services go, the speech therapist is only there two days a week, so it sounds like Hazel will only have one-on-one therapy once a week. She will need much more than this, so we’ll be looking into some private therapy. She’ll also have help from an occupational therapist once a week, working on fine-motor skills. She'll receive gross-motor skills help in their adaptive PE class.
Eli was already attending this preschool. They have tuition-paying, typically developing children in the preschool class because studies show that kids learn best from their peers. Ever since he started in September, he’s been asking on a weekly basis “Mom, when is Hazel going to come home so she can go to preschool with me?” Now she’s been home two months, and He’s been asking every day since she’s been here, “Is it time for Hazel to come to preschool?” He’s been just a little bit excited. Is this not a proud big brother?
Yesterday was Hazel’s first day. Her teacher reported that she seemed to love every minute of it, and cooperated much better than she expected. Yay for that!
-------------------------
More preschool morning pics, added a week later on 3/7/13:
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