AIG work came home!

William brought his first AIG work home.

The first is a "pieces of me" wooden puzzle.

From left to right and top to bottom, William's pieces are:

Ollie and a drawing of Ollie
SPP (Southern Pines Primary)
AIG (the gifted program)
Ben
a soccer ball
Liam
a musical note
a drawing of his brain (LOL)
August 20
a drawing of New York Strip Steak

As part of AIG, they are learning Habits of the Mind which I am excited about as that was also expressly taught at the highly gifted school in Anchorage.

The puzzle activity focused on thinking flexibly and metacognition.....neat stuff!

The below is blurry but I thought it was super-cool. 

Liam circle in red words that described him:
-brown hair
-doing puzzles
-talking with friends
-friendly
-boy
-having a pet
-tall
-curly hair
-blue eyes
-tan (as opposed to brown)

Liam circled in blue things he enjoys doing....his list was long!
-drawing
-running
-using a computer
-dancing
-doing puzzles
-talking with friends
-arithmetic
-science
-swimming
-helping at home
-reading
-listening to music
-writing
-hula hoops
-computer games
-painting
-helping at school
-having a pet
-gardening
-collecting things
-biking

Liam circled in green words he does well (there were not so many which makes me worry about his confidence)
-ice cream (LOL)
-girl (this had me rolling in laughter)
-science
-having a pet
-gardening
-collecting things
-flowers
-yogurt
-kittens
-steak
 

First Meeting with William's teacher

One positive about this blog now being private is I can process feelings without being afraid someone stumbling over my blog and being hurt by how I feel.

I scheduled a meeting with Liam's teacher to get an idea of how he is doing in school.

I showed up about 10 minutes before class ended.  Liam took one look at me and went into a screaming meltdown about wanting to take the bus.  It was awful.  All the 1st graders were staring at us. I did get to see the little girl he keeps mentioning, Ashlynne.  She sits next to him and brought over his notebook and bookbag.  I wanted to hug that sweet little girl.  Soon after the class left, he settled down.

Ironically, Mrs. Lee started off with how nothing about Liam sets him apart from the class.  I brought up the meltdown and said my fear is behavior like that at school as he did it in preschool.  She said he has not shown any issues with transition, dealing with change, or noise.

She does not see issues with his handwriting.  It is messy and below average in the class but does not think he needs accommodations.  However, when testing his reading level and reading comprehension, he could answer correctly orally but wrote something different on paper....a wrong answer, resulting in a lower reading level group.  Both of these things yell dysgraphia to me and need to be accommodated.  Otherwise I am liking the school, but I feel Liam's giftedness is hiding where he struggles.

He is reading at Level J, but his reading comprehension seems to be about the Level G area.  I did not ask how he compares to other children as that does not matter to me.  I just want to make sure he is working at a level that is challenging but not too hard.

A large part of the meeting consisted on how they will meet Liam's gifted needs.  They are pairing him for group work with one of the other AIG students, a little boy named Graham.  In addition, they are willing to allow him to test out of 1st grade material and work at a different level instead.  I suggested math as an area where he needs to be working at a different level.

I like his teacher and it is clear she wants the best for Liam but I am afraid she is missing the big picture when it comes to writing.

Watermelon mini-session

In looking for a new photographer, I chatted with one who was doing a mini-session of kids eating watermelon.  I decided to brave the heat to see if she could handle my wild boys.  These photos were the results.  They were either eating, running, jumping, or wrestling, but I think she got some good shots.

Benny Boo:

William the Conqueror:

 Eating oranges and watermelon (the 2nd and 4th are my favorite of this series):

Running:

Watching chickens at Malcolm Blue Farm (where all the photos were taken):

Flag photos:

Pure joy and brotherly love (the 2nd and the 4th are my favorite of this set):

Dave's first trip is scheduled

and it will be tax free.

He is only going for 3 weeks, not even, but he will be in Afghanistan.....and he will miss Liam's birthday.....and Ben won't yet be in preschool.

I had hoped to have a party for Liam but there are not any party places closer than 40 minutes away and I cannot manage a lot of work all by myself.  I am still trying to figure it out.

Feeling lost

We have arrived in Southern Pines and I love the town and I love our house.  The town has a main street with cute shops and restaurants and everyone seems to know everyone else.  There is a farmer's market, good CSA co-op, and first Fridays with beer/wine, and live music.

But I feel lost.  Literally, I keep getting lost without my GPS and constantly find I have taken the longest way or gone in a big circle.  There is no local Target or Costco.  I am not sure how I'll manage.  This is the first time on Tricare Standard trying to find doctors and it is more challenging than I expected. 

The boys are doing amazing.  Ben is day time potty trained and Liam has been dry 5 nights in a row.  Liam started school and immediately befriended the child in the class that was noticeably different due to a hearing aid with wires that connect to electrodes on his head.  Everyone that meets Ben falls in love with him.

What to do about therapy?  Last year I was feeling Liam did not get much out of ABA.  Now school is full time.  Do I discontinue him?  The school has a military kids lunch bunch and social skills groups start in January.  Do I rely on those?  With Ben, the preschool department said he does not qualify for services.  What to do about private speech and OT?  Services are limited in our little town.  Is it worth the 50 minute drive to Fayetteville?

Liam qualifies for AIG services.  Due to the fact his intelligence is SO high, he gets 3 pull outs a week.  One is with his classmates for differentiated instruction.  His class has a large number of gifted students and the AIG teacher is also working with Liam's teacher, Mrs. Lee to make sure the gifted students are being taught at their level.  In addition, Liam will get pulled out for independent research with a mix of grades.  The AIG teacher was amazed he was only 5 years old.  She will be a good advocate.

At the moment Liam has no IEP.  The school wants to observe him for a few weeks.  Of course, his behavior reports are perfect, he is sweet, and seems to love school.  I am worried they won't see his issues and I hate uncertainty.

Why the secrecy?

There are two reasons....In 2010 when I was struggling with Dave's deployment, I posted a rant which was reported to the JAG school and caused senior officers and spouses to accuse me of lying and Dave was called in Afghanistan.  The whole thing was a mess.  It made me a bit paranoid about what I put on the blog,  I considered going private then, but wanted to reach other autism families.

The second reason is more pressing....Dave recently took a job in special operations.  He has worked special operations before, but at our current location, it is a different level of special operations.  I cannot have his TDYs open to public knowledge but I don't want to lose this blog. 

I am thinking maybe I can decide to make it public again when his job changes.

First movie ever and sleepovers

Quick post as our movers come today to start the process of going to our next home.  Liam's (age 5) 5th home and Ben's (age 4) 4th home.

Yesterday they saw their first movie in a theater.  Liam is very sensitive and Ben gets overwhelmed by sensory stimuli easily, so I was worried but they did great.

Buying tickets for Monsters University:

Ben LOVED movie popcorn and hogged the bag, and then ate almost all of it.

Liam gave the movie two thumbs up:

In other news, they have been obsessed with sleeping together.  They call it "having a sleepover."  They'll be sharing a room in our new home, so they might as well.