In So Many Words

Although I have been pretty fortunate so far with Michael’s teachers and other staff (with only a couple of notable exceptions), just the mention of this topic still raises my stress level a couple of notches.

The relationship between parent and teacher can be difficult to navigate, especially when you have a child with special needs and several other teachers and staff thrown into the mix. I’m always curious about what system or arrangement other parents have worked out, and that’s why Communicating with Teachers and Paraprofessionals is the subject of this week’s Try This Tuesday over at 5 Minutes for Special Needs.

I’d love to hear what works for you, or what hasn’t worked for your. Please pop on over to share your thoughts or, better yet, post about it on your blog and link up to the column. You can also visit the other participants to hear their thoughts on this topic or another issue they have been dealing with in their own lives.

The last couple of weeks I have been sharing about some of the ideas that came out of our recent team meeting at Michael’s school for Try This Tuesday:

• TTT#16: Micro Schedules
• TTT#17: Brainstorming

I am still hoping to expand this column to include more of our readers’ ideas and even their challenges that they need some ideas for. For anyone who may be interested in sharing something they found to be helpful with their child who has special needs, or who has an issue they are needing some input on, please get in touch with me at trish[at]anotherpieceofthepuzzle[dot]com or through my contact form.

If you are sharing an idea, I would like for you to write the post, but if you are asking for help, you could either write it yourself or I could just share the details, with or without identifying who you are.

I would also like to say to my regular readers that I know I have still been largely out of touch and I apologize. I even wrote out a post about how stressed I am while sitting in the waiting room at the psychologist’s office today but didn’t get time to type it up due to all the other things I had to take care of today. Plus it sounded really whiny, even to me!

I have no intention of disappearing but ask for grace as I deal with some of the stuff I am dealing with right now. Your kind thoughts and prayers mean more than you can know.

If you’re interested in seeing what Michael’s visual schedule for kindergarten looks like, I have it posted over at 5 Minutes for Special Needs today.

He likes it so much that I pulled out the whiteboard we have with the days of the week on it to write out our schedule for this week. We had gotten out of the habit of using it over the summer, but now that we have different activities in the mornings, it was really needed again.

As a way of introducing the concept of homework, my son’s kindergarten teacher has the kids bring home a coloring page with the new color for that week. This is to remind them to bring in a picture of something that color. It can be cut out of a magazine, printed off the computer, a drawing or even another coloring page.

This first we he only wanted to trace the outlines, and last week he filled in the character. This week he added a second color and even finished the whole thing at school – yay!

Head on over and post your own Magic Marker Monday!

I can’t tell you how happy seeing this picture makes me! He cut out all the pieces and pasted them on by himself and, not to brag, but the BSC said it was just as good or better than the rest of the kindergarten students. I am so proud to see him doing so well in kindergarten – it makes all the hard work everyone has put in (including him!) worthwhile.

Head on over and post your own Magic Marker Monday!

Well, I finally downloaded the pictures from the first day of school, and here is Michael showing off the bear pin his teacher asked him to wear.

Since we live only a couple of blocks from the school, I walk him to school and then come back and drive to work. Actually, about 90% of the kids in our school are walkers; there is only one bus!

Share your own inspiration in Special Exposure Wednesday!

Wow, I can hardly believe we made it through the first week of kindergarten!  I’m sounding off about it over at 5 Minutes for Special Needs today if you want to hear more.

The hardest part of writing the post was figuring out how to show my excitement at the progress he has made.  I finally found my answer at this great list of Commonly Misused Words in the English Language.  Here is the part that answered my dilemma:

Yay vs. Yea vs. Yeah 

Incorrect: “How do you vote, yay or nay?”
Correct: “How do you vote, yea or nay?”

Yea is an archaic word that is rarely used any more. It rhymes with “nay,” and the only time you’d really want to use it is when you’re voting. Or when you want to say “yea verily” or something like that.

Yeah is that casual version of “yes” that we use all the time.

Yay is an exclamation of joy or excitement.

 Phew!  I’m glad that’s resolved.  Now we can all go have a great holiday weekend!

Well, today is the first day of kindergarten for my little guy, and his teacher asked all the children to decorate a paper bear and bring in a stuffed bear for the first day. They also have a bear pin to wear with their name on it.

Here is Michael’s bear:

A tiny bit of explanation:  the red, blue & yellow on the face represent each of our favorite colors, and the purple, yellow and red stripes are the pattern on his shirt. 

Hopefully today will be a good day.  His behavioral health agency delayed some paperwork and is also having staffing issues, so he will not have a support person with him for at least the first couple of days and he will not be able to attend the social skills program after school either.  On the positive side, he will get to have a playdate at his best friend’s house today instead!

Head on over and post your own Magic Marker Monday!

Wow, less than a week until kindergarten starts! Michael is a bit nervous about it; he has been doing his little hair twirling thing for the last few days, and I haven’t noticed that since he finished preschool in June.

Pop on over to 5 Minutes for Special Needs to see one strategy I implemented to help him get ready for this new adventure.

What a weekend! I couldn’t find childcare for part of this week, so I was supposed to work both Saturday and Sunday to make up for the fact that I can’t go in today or tomorrow. But I had periodontal surgery on Wednesday (my second one) and by Saturday was really swelling up and feeling uncomfortable.

I got through the four hours on Saturday and even posted a very brief Saturday 9 post, but then just came home and slept. Sunday morning I felt even more swollen and in more pain. I worked for an hour and then gave up and came home, after calling the dentist to complain. I couldn’t even sleep because it hurt too bad.

Well, he called in a prescription and I am slowly starting to feel a little bit better. I’m glad because today we are going to Michael’s elementary school for a tour with the principal; it will be good for him to look around on his own and we will take pictures to make a little book for school.

I can tell Michael is really nervous about school because he has started twirling his hair a lot, which he hasn’t done since he stopped going to in June. He is also now telling me that he doesn’t want to go and is just going to say “blah, blah, blah” the whole time we are there. Guess I need to come up with a good motivator for this one, even though I really just want to come home and go back to bed.

Our new TSS may come over later, so that would be a big help. The last couple of days have been so frustrating, and I don’t really feel up to playing all day today.