Magic Marker Monday: "F"

Because James' regular school was off last week and his second school was not, there was no SHAPE and I got to sit in on James' Friday morning preschool class. There I got to help James sit for circle time, play at recess, and work on his crafts.

The feather project was awesome! But in the flurry of glue and feathers I dared not get out the camera. The Frog book was much easier, as only crayons were required. We all read this charming little 4-page book together (twice) and then social sciences swung into action!

The table with all girls coloured their frogs purple, as 2 of the more outgoing girls loudly declared them to be cool. Our table had some variety. James decided that at least one of his frogs needed to be red. I helped rearrange his fingers so his hold on the crayon was less of a death fist grip. Once he finished colouring all the numbers and his one frog, he swirled both hands on the page with 2 different colours. He liked this so much that he continued on the back of the page. And then he wrote his name in yellow!

We are gearing up for our walk this coming Saturday at Infineon Raceway. If you haven't heard about Walking for Autism, please take a moment to look at my pledge page and consider helping Autism Speaks advocate for more research and answers for our children and ourselves.

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Magic Marker Monday: Letter Y

I like this picture. I like the way James' art combines with the morning light shining in through the leaves in the backyard.

Each week, James is learning a new letter at his new school. This picture represents his handiwork from the week that covered "Y." The letter contains pictures of y things, like yaks, yarn ... chromosomes (kidding on that last one!). James then got to practice crayon colouring and using scissors (he needs a lot of help with cutting) to cut up bits of yarn and glue them to his letter.

I like the fact that he's getting some tactile exposure to the alphabet.

This week is dedicated to the letter "G." I'll keep you posted.

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Mission Improbable: Potty Training

Warning: Potty talk ahead.

Good news: James has met all but one of his IEP goals and his next meeting for next year's goals has been moved up 6 weeks!

Not so good news: That elusive goal is Potty Training. James is happily ambivalent when it comes to Potty Training. Other people on the potty are fascinating. But sitting on that seat? No way! He literally digs in his heels and locks his knees, yelling "NO!"

It's small comfort to me that the school has been encouraging James to use the potty since he began preschool last This January. I have been shirking my duty. I have encouraged interest in going potty and check in with him verbally if he's gone pee-pee or poo-poo. He became rather good at telling me as the events occurred and I praised this. But trying to take him to the bathroom produced distinctly lackluster results.

So his teacher, SHAPE aid and I all agreed -- potty training starts NOW. I set up his potty seat in the bathroom and have started dressing him in big boy underpants (hand-me-downs from his cousin) and a diaper cover under his pants. We periodically take him to the bathroom, even though James prefers to continue bodily functions under cover, as it were. My stealth guy!

Soon he stopped talking with me about pee-pee & poo-poo, parrying all queries with a "NO!" He stopped having bowel movements until he was in his night-time diapers. Sigh. So then we'd do diaper change #2 for the night and make a kind of burial-at-sea ritual out of tumbling the diaper contents into the toilet, and saying "bye-bye" as they were flushed away.

However, on Thursday, his teacher reported in his handy dandy school notebook that he told her that day as soon as he'd gone pee-pee in his underpants. Progress? I'll take it!

I am also writing a letter of support for his teacher's request to move their classroom to a location that has a bathroom attached. I cannot believe I haven't done this before. I would have gone raving bonkers trying to get a small group of kids potty trained across a school campus and down a corridor from where I was also trying to teach said class. Gah! and Duh! (Two words that I will, of course, not use in my letter).