Kindergarten graduation

Liam has had a wonderful year at Frazer Memorial Kindergarten.  I had a lot of angst about putting him in private school and losing his IEP, but given the school situation here in Alabama, it was the best choice for him.

Mrs. Struthers reports he is ready for 1st grade and has done wonderfully.  She said his fine motor skills and writing have developed and improved.  Despite being the youngest in the class, by quite a bit, he is academically near the top of his class.  She said in the beginning of the year, he was more of an observer but now he socially engages with all his classmates.  He does become tearful easily but is working on controlling his tears with deep breathing and counting.  She said that one day she became tearful thinking how much she'd miss her class, and all of the kids started yelling "Do the breathing Liam does; it helps him!"  So he is clearly accepted as part of his class.

I am proud of him and his hard work this school year.  I will miss Frazer and his wonderful teacher.

Chester, the kindergarten bunny spends Columbus Day weekend with us

Liam has been loving kindergarten, and even spontaneously shares some bits about his day.  Every Friday a name is drawn for who gets to bring home Chester, the class stuffed bunny.  I often hear who Chester is spending the weekend with.  On Friday, Liam hopped into the minivan with lots of excitement and showed me Chester.  Having Chester is work for the parents as he comes with a journal and his activities with the family are written out with accompanying photographs.

Below are some photos of Chester's time with us:

Social Breakthroughs

Liam continues to develop by leaps and bounds and amaze everyone who meets him.  We have had two social breakthroughs recently.

First, Liam has a female friend from school....one he made on his own without my help.  It is reported she saves seats for him at lunch and she has gotten him to play Barbies.  I took them to the ballet and to say they were adorable to watch is an understatement.

 

 

Second, Liam initiated a conversation about something that interested me.  He tends to talk "at" you and not much wait for you to respond.  He also has tendency to ask repetitive questions and to focus on only things that interest him.  I was shocked Friday morning when we had the following conversation:

 

Liam: "How was your beer tasting last night, Mommy?"

 

Me: "It was a wine tasting, not beer.  I had a wonderful time.  Thank you for asking."

 

Liam: "How many wines did you try? 5?"

 

Me: "No, I tried 7 wines."

 

Liam: "Oh, 7 wines!  Which one was your favorite?"

 

Me: "My favorite was the Pouilly-Fuissé."

Liam: "Oh, the Pouilly-Fuissé (I giggled inside as he said that like he knew what I was talking about).  Was it the number 5 wine?"

Me: "No, it was the 2nd wine."

Liam: "Well, we should buy some if it was your favorite."

Me: "That is a wonderful idea and I did bring some home so Daddy could try it."



I have a kindergartener!

Liam has started kindergarten at only age 4!

He went Wednesday to meet his teacher and classmates.

He is one of 15 kids and has a great teacher.

Since he has no IEP, I wrote a letter to the teacher explaining Liam and a copy of this book: book about Asperger's .  I'd be happy to share the letter if anyone is interested. 

The teacher said he is doing well.  The first full day.  The class went on a treasure hunt to find pirate's treasure box and learn their way arond the school.  It might be a private preschool and kindergarten that is part of a church but there are 470 students and 44 teachers!!!!!!

The school is such a positive place.  The teacher uses positive discpline techniques (i.e. rewarding good behavior) which fit along with ABA principals.  Liam will do daily PE and recess and get weekly music.  He will work on all the academic skills I'd want him working on.

Another positive is that Ben loves the play area inside the atrium:

I am hopeful for an amazing year and feel good that all my research and worry is being rewarded with a perfect fit for Liam.  The fun part is that when we find out where we move next summer, I get to do it all again.

The great Kindergarten debate, debacle, and finally decision

The last 6 months have been very stressful while deciding where Liam would attend school for the next school year.

The simpliest solution would be for Liam to attend our neighborhood elementary school less than a mile from the house.  Initially, my biggest concern with sending him to kindergarten here was due to the fact his birthday is less than 2 weeks from the cut-off, meaning he'd be the youngest in the class and likely the whole kindergarten.  I considered holding him back a year, but the neuropsychological evaluation specifically advised against it and I was counseled that Liam might even need to skip a grade in the future.

The other concern I had about the neighborhood school was based on special education services.  Another JAG family with a son with autism will be placed at a different school in a special education classroom and his family was told the nearest school did not have the support he needed.  I asked for Liam to be placed at that same school, but was told that since Liam will be mainstreamed, they will not place him in a different school unless he struggles.  By law, Alabama has to follow his current IEP for one month, but after that, all bets are off, and based on my experience the last time we were here, I know the support offered with not be adequate.

The third concern was based on where Liam is advanced.  According to his testing, he was doing math, reading, spelling, passage comprehension at the 1st grade, 7 month level in March.  He needs to be working at the 1st grade level in many areas, while making accomodations for his developmental delays.  The neighborhood school's answer to this is to take advanced students out of the kindergarten room and send them to 1st grade. Liam does NOT handle transition well so this solution would have been disasterous.  Liam never did adjust to visiting the kindergarten room with his speech teacher last year in his special education preschool.

This was basically 3 strikes against the public school and made me decide it was not the right placement.  This, however, caused alot of doubt and anxiety as private placement means losing the IEP. 

In May, Liam had a chance to test for a slot at the academic magnet here in Montgomery.  There were lots of issues with this process. I think I vented my frustration about it earlier this month.  In the end, Liam WAS offered a slot at the academic magnet, which claims to work one grade  level ahead.  After arriving in Alabama, we visited the magnet, and Liam would have been able to manage EVERY requirement BUT ONE.  They have student do copywork and write 4 sentence paragraphs that need to be illustrated.  The students do this completely independently while the teacher does small reading groups.  A kindergarten teacher watched Liam write his name and due to his improper grip said he would not be able to meet this requirement.  I asked about accomodations, and it was clear the school would not work for us.  In describing a student with a fine motor delay she had last year, the teacher mentioned that the student's mom mentioned she'd be wearing noise-cancelling headphones at school for 1st grade and the princiapl basically acted like that was an unreasonable thing and the student would be forbidden from doing so.  I don't have the time, energy, or patience to battle that level of ignorance.

So, we called the academic agnet and declined Liam's spot.  It was the right decision for Liam, but I worried that turing that spot down meant Liam would not be challenged.

Way back, I regsitered Liam at a half-day private kindergarten (the public kindergarten programs are full day).  This kindergarten is part of a preschool program, and has 3 kindergarten classes of 15 students each.  The school is at a large Methodist church and teacher reading and math by the A Beka method, and included social studies and science learning centers that rotate each week or every other week.  They formally teach Music weekly and Physical Education daily.  If Liam stayed for 6 hours rather than 4 (optional and offered twice a week), he will get TWO recesses.  It seemed to meet all the needs I had, and given the small size minimizes the transition issues Liam sometimes experiences.  Because it is half-day, Liam will have his afternoons free.

Here is the BIG decision, I will partially homeschool Liam this year.  He has completed the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum THREE times, but still struggles with handwriting and does not use the correct writing grasp.  I am going to attempt teaching his the curriculum myself in order to improve his writing skills.  I hope that ABA and OT will continue to work on this, but I would like to be able to say that I personally did all I could.  I also have ordered some science kits and a multi-sensory grade 1 math program (Math-U-See) in order to teach enrichment in the afternoons and ensure he is challenged academically.  I have a multi-sensory reading program picked out in case I feel like he needs more teaching for reading.  I don't know that homeschooling is in our future, but I do know that it will be difficult to find a school environment that can support Liam's delayed areas and challenge him in his advaned areas.

Now I can finally get excited over the fact that my first born is starting kindergarten....KINDERGARTEN!!!!!!!!  Where has the time gone?

The Gambler

When I moved in with my grandparents when I was 9, I spent a lot of time doing farm chores with my grandfather, listening to Kenny Rogers.  I knew every word to "The Gambler": You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.  You never count your cards when your sittin' at the table, there'll be time enough for counting when the dealin's done.

Dealing with MPS department of special education or even MPS at all reminds me of this song.  I dealt with them in August 2010 and the result was a poor evaluation (now that I have seen Ben evaluated and know how much better it could have been done) and an awful IEP.  Liam had the good fortune to move to Alaska where all his needs were met despite this.

I am not in Alabama yet, but I am already wondering if the fight is worth the outcome we'll receive.

In addition to already feeling bullied by the special education department, I am just angry in general.  Montgomery has a very small number of magnet schools.  In every year before 2012, there was a January and May application period.  This is important as Montgomery has such a large military population.  When the January 2012 magnet application period happened, they filled EVERY slot in the magnet school.  There was no notice this was happening.  Who does this impact?  Military families!

After pressure from several sources (including another JAG family who moved to Montgomery in February), MPS said they'd do a May Application period if you had military orders showing you were not present in Montgomery in January.  They said that additional school slots would need to be approved. I anticipated only a handful of kids would be applying.  As I am in Alaska. I had to go to Liam's special education teacher and eventually the lementary school principal.  They made personal time to ensure Liam could test.  In the meantime, my friend in Montgomery said they ended up doing testing for 2 weeks, testing 30+ kids and at least 5 kindergarteners at each testing time.

This week we all got letters, saying that while our children were "qualified" to attend the magnet school, there were no slots.  They did that testing, supervised it, and clearl never intended to open any more slots. I don't know what it cost MPS but I know those resources could have gone to the special education program which they keep claiming in under-funded.

To say that I am furious is an understatement.  To say that I have not an ounce of trust or respect for the adminstration of MPS is a truth.

I have some ideas swirling around my head about options for how to best protect Liam, but I think the end result is that I will send Liam to the private half-day kindergarten I enrolled him in months ago.  Now I just need to find the belief in myself to trust that this is the right decision and not beat myself up.

Kindergarten visit, take 2

I think the e-mail from Liam's teacher explains it all:

I was just going to email you!
He did great today! He came in talking about it and we went over everything with him. This time he did not have to leave his work unfinished (although we're going to teach him a file folder trick. It's for unfinished work. He can keep it safe so then he can finish it at the first opportunity). T went with him and the speech therapist and they took a visual timer with them (in case he was worried about when he'd be coming back :-) Since he was so upset last week, we tried to cover all of the things that could possibly turn into a problem; so today was only a five minute introduction to the class. They are doing this in Mrs. N's Kindergarten room. It's free play time during Liam's scheduled time in there so they can work on social skills. When Liam came back he was all smiles and both he and T seemed excited. Liam said they had fun toys and that he liked the rocks with leaves (fossils) and the dinosaurs the best :-) All of the children were in there (probably about 20 kiddos) but in the area where Liam was playing there were only about 3 others. His time in there will be expanded up to 30 minutes asap. I think this will be good for all of the boys going to Kindergarten. The OT may also work out some time with Liam and W on Wednesdays but first we'll see how the Mondays go.
I just love Liam's general attitude! He came in today loving everything! When he asked me what we'd learn about today I told him the planets and he said "I just love the planets, especially the Earth". Then he also said he loved everything else I brought up. It sure is wonderful to have a kiddo who's so positive all of the time!!
Thanks Michelle! Have a good evening.
Miss J

Big changes ahead for my big guy

I am still struggling with the Kindergarten decision and trying to find someone, anyone in Alabama to answer my questions about the transfer process from 3-5 to kindergarten and how private schooling affects the IEP.

In the meantime, we re-wrote Liam's IEP here in Alaska.  He has a great IEP team here and between his special ed teacher, his speech therapist, and the school OT, we came up with some great goals.  One of the goals is to expose him to the "open play" time in a kindergarten class.  Since Liam's special ed preschool class is located within an elementary school, there are kindergarten classes right down the hall.  The speech therapist suggested she could take him into a kindergarten class to help address his IEP goal of maintaining a conversation for 4 exchanges. 

Today is the big day!  Liam will be escorted into a kindergarten class so he can get exposure to more transitions and so he can practice conversation with some older and more advanced peers.  It will also provide us with some feedback about how he manages in that type of environment and will highlights any additional supports he might need in order to succeed in a kindergarten classroom.

In addition, in mid-March, Liam will have neuropsychological testing to look at areas of skills versus achievement.  I am hoping this testing will highlight splinter skills, as Liam often tests in the "normal" range while lacking age appropriate skills. 

Liam's IEP goals:
-Upon request, Liam can give his first and last name, school, grade level, name of teacher, parent's name's, parent's phone numbers, and address with 80% accuracy.
-Liam will participate in group activities by sharing ideas, making comments, and asking questions in 4/5 opportunities.
-Liam will use proper eye contact and body orientation (baseline is he only does 20% of the time)
-Liam will maintain a conversation for 4 communication exchanges.
-Liam will independently identify and use socially acceptable ways of managing stress and anger (teacher specifically mentioned this being useful in Kindergarten while waiting in line or transitions)
-Liam will remain on task and complete tasks in the same time frame as his peers by demonstrating sustained attention to task or teacher (biggest struggle at the moment)
-Liam will use a tripod grasp 80% of the time (baseline is 20%)
-Liam will use developmental appropriate drawn lines to draw a recognizable picture.
-When provided a completed model, Liam will manage his materials to complete a 3 step visual motor task.