Open House Whirlwind

End of year is a crush of activities and events for the kids and their schools. Visiting James' classroom was a treat.It was fun to see projects I'd seen part way through completion and some surprises.

James is sitting at his aide's table, pretending to be her.

I loved the sea/tide pool theme. It matched the play they'd recently put on. The blue file cards contain wishes the kids wrote down for their world. Awesome!

The play! James was a lobster (left, or stage right)

Picasso project

School Project: I Like This!

This came home in James' backpack as my Mothers' Day present. Woah!

Third Grade: Allegro Tempo

Another school year is not so much winding down as it is rushing to the finish line: field trips! Plays! Open House! Teacher and Staff Appreciation! All the field trips we wanted to take this year but couldn't because we were cramming for the state exams!

And for James' school district: Campus tours! Because our home district is almost completely cluster schools. This will be my first campus with NO prior experience. If I wasn't so busy, I'd be a wreck (but I'd probably have already toured the campus and requested a teacher). Open house for this campus is this week. I am so there.

Extra topping for James: Transitional IEP. OMG, I cannot believe they actually brought to the table the suggestion that he go straight to the special day class. I was, however, gratified that most of the room  shot it down decisively. Very politely too.

The rest of the meeting was spent going over his aide's notes,  me advocating for his wonderful aide for next year and reminding the group that all the wonderful First Grade notes were completely ignored with disastrous results during the last campus transition to Second Grade. It was a pleasure to hear how each person talked positively about James, and I have food for thought for the coming Fall IEP, as well as some serious academic homework.

I feel so incredibly lucky that he had a strong, creative, and supportive teacher for this entire school year. His classmates have been a mom's dream come true: inclusive, inquisitive, energetic, and generous. His aide has been an essential partner to James' success in school. She gets that he's a visual learner, smart, and wants to engage with his peers. She's a fun person to be around, and all the kids love her. In consequence, James has really grown socially this year, and I loved discovering more of his personality coming out.

Still advocating for my guy, who learned from those around him and is still most motivated to be with and doing the things kids his own age do. Hoping for the best for next year. And enjoying this one, while it's still here.

Spelling Out Perception

Words and James have been fickle friends. For almost a year, I wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to verbally communicate. For many years after that, his words and speech were difficult to understand. James had extreme difficulty in holding a pencil, let along writing. 

This year, a lot of hard work from us all is paying off. James is expanding his expressive and social verbal skills. In a recent questionnaire, he said what he most wanted to learn in school is "vocabulary." 

Spelling homework, however, is still the bane of his homework experience. His teacher and aide do a nice switch-up throughout the week. Writing the words multiple times, sorting them alphabetically, creating sentences with them ... it's still tough to shepherd him through the practice ... and keep him in his seat!

James' wonderful aide makes him little spelling cards every week. He keys in on the colours and traces over her letters in pencil. They can sound out the components of the words together.

Spacing and control have also been issues for James. This year, we focused on getting him to start practicing spelling on binder paper. His O/T said that it was hard for him to visually keep track of the faint blue lines -- that was why his writing rolled like an oscilloscope. So I started to rule the binder paper with pencil, and when that was still not enough, black marker. And when the words get longer (and his patience shorter), I add smaller pencil lines for each letter. 

James is a visual guy. He does well on his spelling tests and has progressed from 6 words a week to 20. He loves reading signs aloud with the enthusiasm of a first grader whose world just grew another dimension: Words.

Breakthough

Over the past couple of months, James has become more interested in playing with other boys from his class. This is an exciting first.

First I heard the boys' names from James at home. I asked his aide, who told me I was hearing their names properly and that they were good kids who played football at recess. James watched them as the weeks passed. I heard when someone got "hit" and someone ran after the ball.

Then James moved closer, onto the field. Once of twice, they boys got carried away with their game and "hit" him as they bumped into him.

Today I heard that today, James chose playing with his classmates with some touch football over computers.

One of those sweet breakthrough moments that I intend to savour.

Planetarium Field Trip

Last week I got to help chaperone an honest to gosh field trip with James' third grade class. We visited the local JC's planetarium and sat through their show on our solar system and galaxy. Although the show is dated (Pluto is still a planet in a video), the venue is easy to get in and out of and a great place to be introduced to astronomy.

There was lots of oohing and ahhing, especially when they showed pictures over the constellations in the ceiling. James sat still through almost the entire show, which means he was interested.

I am trying to remember if I've been on a field trip with James and the best I come up with is a field trip to the pumpkin patch in preschool and kindergarten. Having me show up at James' classroom used to throw James off his routine to the extent that it would tank his day, so I haven't done one of these class activities in a while.

James is having some regressive behaviours. It's been a very stressful time outside of school and likely will be for a while longer. His reading regrouping teacher and case manager is going out on leave. His case worker from the Regional Center left and we have not yet been assigned a new one. I am working with his aide and teacher to keep him on track with practicing good behaviours and choices. We have putting leaves in the mouth, poking self with pens, and not focusing. Then on the good side, we have this on a field trip:

Planetary Project

James came home with an unusual homework assignment: choose one of the planets in the solar system to study and report upon. Mmmm hmmmm. Well, we did okay with the ostriches, so let's go planets! How to do this as a real study project? I grabbed my laptop.

James bounced right over "Can I do Decoration Hunt? I want to watch Lazy Town!"

He settled in with me on the sofa and we selected (courtesy of Google search) the following:

1. Martha Stewart creates a mobile!
   James' first choice
2. A "Solar system mobile in action"
   Our second choice; no noise - he was hooked
3. "The Solar System HD"
   James liked the HD; I loved the music. Just the perfect pacing to observe and have the chance to ask questions and talk.
4. "Our Solar System: A poster and index of best available planet images,"  by Dr. Steuard Jensen for the Alma College planetarium;
   this is the image that James used to pick his planet: Saturn
5. The Solar System - Tour the Solar System on Sea and Sky;
   fun to click through, and another eye-catching view of the planets in our solar system

Extra credit: National Geographic Live! Solar System Exploration: 50 Years … Too much talking (and some of it VERY fast) but still a good viewing. Learned some new facts myself.

Right now I am replaying The Solar System HS ... I really am enjoying the music (and the Star Trek connection).

It's really interesting to see how a different approach to starting a report project (more visual than verbal instruction) makes this more interesting to us both.

Courtesy of NASA and Cassini

Creative With Spelling

James still does not like to write much. For spelling this year he's having to up his practicing. His aide makes simple flash cards for him, tracing over his pencilled words with a coloured marker, to make them more interesting.

Tonight his assignment was to alphabetize his spelling words and practice writing them. Normally we work from the spelling list, which becomes a battle of wills. James does not deem alphabetizing words to be of general interest.

For the first time I thought to use the cards instead of the list. There were still several sticky moments, with James attempting to balk at finishing the project, but being able to put his finger on the cards at the first letter of each one as we wended our way through the alphabet  and turning over each card as he ordered it seemed to help a bit.

Finally I had James write the words as I read them from the stack of alphabetized cards. Sometimes we talked about what the word meant (progress!) and sometimes I had to work him through a mini melt-down over the spot on the paper ("It's wood pulp, Honey; you'll never be able to get it out - it's part of the paper.").

And for some extra credit, we found ways to use spelling words in during his bedtime story:

James likes George, but he's still a bit scared of dogs and puppies. Hmmm....

We got in cute, ate, made, safe, five, and rule. Not bad!

Smoother Sailing

This came home today in James' backpack:

Such a difference from last week. We are thankful all over again for the wonderful team James is working with at school this year.

James is doing his homework with us at night too with a minimum of fuss. It's modified, but we practice spelling, writing, math, and reading every night. He is choosing his books and asking what the spelling words mean.

Then I saw this wonderful graphic from Lizbeth, over at Four Sea Stars:

I thought about how far we've come since last year. And I am so grateful all over again for the people in our lives who allow us room to be ourselves. And how lucky we are to have some people in our lives that encourage and support us to be even more ourselves.

First Day, of the Third Grade

Well James has started back to school. Not our best start, but he's in a great classroom with an awesome aide, so I have a good feeling about this year.

“Life is about not knowing, having
to change, taking the moment and
making the best of it"

No back to school pictures today, as the sinus infection hasn't quite left yet and anxiety had him literally twisting with nerves. Once he saw the kids (girls, really) in his class, he perked up. One of his previous classmates greeted him with a "Hi, James!" and a big smile. She's one of his favourite people, so I know that helped.

His aide reports he did a lot of testing behaviours with her, before settling down to classroom routine. They did flash cards, reading, and writing. Thank you!

I was a bit frazzled myself. The morning commutes go through 3 of the 4 construction projects currently in full swing. We were stopped to allow sanding of a road and cleanup from a crash and new parents froze at intersections. Thank goodness his sister got to school on time, James' school expected first day delays, and I'd let work know I'd be in late.

I did pick him up early today so he could get some extra rest, and he was definitely happier than the past few days. I saw a few side looks too from some kids who are new to James and the noises he can make. It was the "weirdo!" look. It's always something, isn't it?

Looking forward to a much better year than last.