Revival :)

It's been YEARS since I posted here, but a friend of mine from years ago started a blog about her sweet boy with CMV and it reminded me of how wonderful it is to record and remember the challenges and miracles of having kids with special needs.  I can get overwhelmed with the daily grind, but writing helps me see the bigger picture once in a while.  And I need that more than any of my readers (all 2 of you - ha!) need this blog.

Sorry not to fill in the last 2 years with perfect detail.  Not gonna happen today!  Here's where we're at right now.

FIRST GRADE.  Wow.  Once I remembered that kindergarten is really just practice school, I stopped worrying about how that would go and started worrying about 1st.  :)  Kindergarten was a lot like preschool had been - he was pulled for OT, PT, Speech and Special Ed.  He still spent time with his class and went to PE, computers, music, etc...   He loved school.  Morning kindergarten was probably a good fit for HIM, but hard on me since he came home tired and it was a LONG time til dinner/bedtime.  He did swimming lessons all year with Grace and was making great progress - but he doesn't swim at ALL like other kids.  We're working towards "not drowning" sorts of skills.  He could swim the short end of the pool if he didn't turn around part way there to reach back for his teacher.  :)  He loves to dive to bottom and he finally learned to jump into the jets at the deep end.  Just the physical ability to jump was a hard thing for him at the beginning, so jumping into the water made my heart happy every time he did it.

I have found that I can measure his progress by summers.  At the end of his first year of preschool, I was in an absolute panic thinking of him home all day - all summer.  Those were hard times.  But now we have routines that work and he is much easier to keep happy.

So this year, he has a perfect teacher.  The kind that is loving and kind, runs a smooth and organized classroom and communicates well with parents.  I am so grateful.  She advocated for more time in the "star room" (resource room) with a couple equally wonderful teachers in there.  His day includes an hour of math and an hour of reading/writing in the star room.  He still gets OT, PT and speech at school and sometimes a social skills class, too.  He isn't in his main classroom a whole lot, but doesn't seem to care or notice that most kids just stay in 1 class all day!  I wonder when he'll realize how different he is and it makes me sad to think of it.  His resource teachers and therapists all talk about how hard he works, how cheerful and happy he is.  And I shake my head in wonder because that's not how he is at home most of the time!  They also talk a lot about how easily distracted he is, how it's hard to keep him on track.  Some other time, I'll write about ADD and SPD....

Big accomplishments... he can write his own name.  That we can READ!  He's been working on that for a good 4 years now.  And it's absolutely miraculous to me every time he does it.  And he is learning to read.  It's taking longer than most kids, but he remembers sight words best and with prompting can sound out words (especially if he actually LOOKS at them).  This is huge.  He learned to ride his bike without training wheels... sorta.  It's incredibly scary.  He rides very fast and doesn't look where he's going.  I should probably consider a full face motorcycle helmet for this kid.  :)  He wasn't 100% solid at the end of the summer and now it's yucky outside, but next summer should be a good year for biking.  I think it'll be good for him and I'm excited about family bike rides.

More to come on homework, ADD, routines that work, things I should've known or done differently...