IEP

Gregory had his IEP meeting a few weeks ago. All in all it went really well. Kind of big one since this is the one that will carry him into Kindergarten!!! Cannot believe my little boy is going to be in Kindergarten!!!! 

I'll try and give you just a general idea of how it went. Although Gregory has made progress, he is still delayed cognitively, in speech articulation, and motor skills. 

We all worked together to come up with goals that will best help Gregory in all these areas. The IEP was very detailed so his new teacher will know exactly how to best help Gregory. He will benefit from the use of a part time aid. He will receive speech therapy and Occupational therapy. I'll keep you posted on any new information!

We made it this far.

So, at 2:00 today I got the first call of the school year to come pick up Gregory . . . won't calm down . . . won't comply . . . being too physical . . . ect. Thats improvement right? I mean, last year the first call was in August and this is December! Go Gregory! (sense the slight sarcasm)

You know, this year, Gregory is in a "special" preschool class. You would think all the problems would go away. They don't. Don't get me wrong. For the most part, yes, its been a walk in the park compared to last year's school experience. Even on top of some changes that have been going on in our personal life, Gregory all in all has been thriving. Thank you Lord! 

But I still have "the talk with the teacher" . . . most Fridays . . . when I pick him up . . . we talk about behavior issues and such. 

Will he be ready for kindergarten?

He wants to touch others but does not want to be touched. 

Attention seeking behavior. Ignore or not ignore? 

Need more of his rice milk because he doesn't drink cow milk like the other kids. 

You need to get him evaluated to see if we can rule out autism. 

When will we know if he is ready for kindergarten? 

If he is ready, will he be in a mainstream classroom with strongly urged use of his own aid? Or a special needs classroom?

Where will he go to school? 

He needs to master certain things for Kindergarten like colors, letters, cutting, pasting, ect. 

He does know how to spell "Greg" right now. Makes mommy happy. 

And randomly on Saturday he just belted out his A,B,C's!!!! He'll be 5 in February and I have never been able to teach him this. I almost started crying! So exciting!

All in all he's doing much better this year than last year. This time of year I'm remind that this time last year, his teacher had the talk with me saying she can't keep him there any more. Ugh. So glad to not be there again.

First day of school

Gregory had his first day of school today. He was a little nervous. His teacher said he had a great first day! I'm so proud if him!

Summer coming to an end.

Today is Tuesday. School starts Thursday for Gregory. He'll be in preschool and has is IEP all in place. 

Here is just a wrap up of what we've been doing these last few days of summer. 

We went to SkyPark . . . an indoor trampoline place here in town. It was the first time he was brave enough to climb up this slide and go down by himself! 

Daddy and him got back to school hair cuts! Didn't cry this time! 

Him being silly asking me to take a picture of his "boota" a.k.a. butt.  

Mamo & Momo sending him back to school/half birthday presents! Cloths and his first "SkippyJonJones" book!!! Which is totally weird but he loves!!!

Him eating celery and "sunflower seed butter" for the first time with daddy. Never wanted to try celery before and saw daddy eating it and loved it! 

 

Not paying attention one morning and coming out to find he had "eaten" 5 apples!

 

Walking in on him doing this one morning . . . trying on all my flip flops from my flip flop basket. 

Summer went by way too fast! I'm looking forward to a new year! You're gonna do great things honey! I love you!

Christian vs. Public

Gregory's old school was a private Lutheran school. Tommy and I wanted Gregory to go to a Christian school if financially possible. Private schools don't usually have resources for kids with special needs. So now Gregory goes to a public school.

He has only gone 3 days and 2 things have already stood out. Now don't get me wrong. U have nothing against public schools. I always went to a public school and I think I turned out pretty well. :)

But it is interesting . . . Gregory has already been heard saying, "Oh my God!" Which may not sound bad to most of you buy in our family that is just something you don't say. Very disrespectful towards our God.

The second thing was on Thursday when GT was leaving he went up to his teacher to give her a hug and she kind of didn't know what to do and just grabbed his hand. :(

Not bad. Just different.

IEP

I can't believe I forgot to post about this! Gregory's first IEP meeting was Wednesday. And then I've been out of town ever since. Gosh! 

So, all in all it went really well. I think it did. It was my first. Spent the first (and longest) part of it going over the report that spells out in detail everything about Gregory. They took everything I've ever said, they've observed, I've wrote down and summarized it all up. It was so weird seeing Gregory all spelled out on paper in every little detail. 

We went of the IEP which was a summary of the first report and went over his goals for the next year. An IEP is a living breathing legal document and can be changed at anytime. We won't plan on meeting until this time next year though. 

Goals for the OT:
-To be able to cute a circle

Goals for Speech:
-To help with words with more than one syllable with in the word. In stead of saying "lemonade" he says "la la lade". 

-To help him not talk like "Sid the sloth from Ice Age".

Goals for his teacher:
-To learn how to take turns
-To complete a task from begining to end
-To be able to express when he has to use the restroom
-To recognize his name in print
-To be able to identify 4 letters in his name

He starts tomorrow. He'll go M-Th from 9:30-11:30.

I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks for all the prayers! 

He quallified!!!!!

We had Gregory's evaluation through the school district for special ore school and he quallified!!!!

Thanks for all your prayers! When I heard the news I started crying. They wanted to know if I was ok. I told them it was happy tears. I'm sure most patents don't want to hear there child needs "special" preschool. But we want what's best for gregory and God must think this is that!!!
We go back April 25th for one more meeting and then a week later to set up his I. E. P. (individualized education program). Then he'll start the next day!

Thanks for all the prayers and support. I'll pass along more information as I get it!

Preschool update

I need to update you in Gregory's preschool. I need to do so with out saying the wrong thing since this is on the World Wide Web. You feeling me? ;)

Long story somewhat short. . . I finally heard back from his teacher a week and a half after my first email. They are willing to keep him until march 2nd evaluation under certain circumstances. One being I'm the one to drop him off every morning. I now have to change my work schedule and hire a sitter for if the afternoons. All of which God totally made possible. And other things. Blah. Blah. Blah. I get the feeling maybe they are trying to make us leave rather then kick us out.

We're really only talking about February. And a few days in march. Hopefully he'll qualify for something and if not try and find him another school. God is in control. This I know.

I'll keep you posted. He's been having some good weeks at school aside from some choking others here and there. No big deal. Right? :)

Update on preschool

Just an update on my little stinky boy. The first week and a half Gregory did really good at school . . . just one potty accident . . . one bite on his teacher . . . then comes week 3 and he had a really hard time. Very aggressive. Not listening. Pushing. Pinching. Then last week he made some improvements! His teacher said he was doing "pretty good". Pretty good for Gregory. He's getting the hang of it. Sunday at children's church they could really see a difference. 

Still waiting on insurance to approve him getting OT. Keep you posted! 

4 more days until Pre-school!!!!!

This Thursday, August 11th, will be Gregory's 1st day of Preschool!!!!! And I am so excited for him! I'm sure I'll be crying come Thursday but right now I can't wait! We've got his school supplies and some new tennies. He'll be going every Tuesday and Thursday morning from 8:30-11:30. We'd like him to got M-F but as of right now they are all booked. See if that changes once school starts. I'll post pics of his first day but until then, please pray for an easy transistion for him! Hugs!