Serenity is all set to start school!

Our baby girl is about to turn 3, and is now all registered, tested, and ready to start school on her birthday! She will be going two mornings a week; Monday and Friday, and sharing teachers with Edward.  (Edward goes to Kindergarten in the mornings, and then switches to Pre-K at lunch time.  I will be picking Serenity up at the time Edward switches classes, so they won't actually be in class together except for special events.)  Last Friday, Chris and I took Serenity in for Pre-K testing, and today we got to go back for our first IEP meeting (for Serenity). Both of our kids now have an IEP (Individualized Educational Plan, which are similar, yet different.

The one big difference with Serenity's IEP meeting, verses Edwards, was that the school district special ed department lady wasn't at today's meeting. She was there with us last week, but she's been at each meeting for Edward. Serenity is only starting preschool though, so it's not like she's going into the full blown school system.  An IEP will normally last for 1-5 years, but Serenity's is only designated to last for 3 months because she is starting school about 3/4 of the way thru.


I pulled this image from Google, but this is what an IEP team looks like.

I may post Edward's IEP at a later date, but for right now, here is Serenity's.

As a a team, Chris and I discussed each of these pages with the team of teachers and specialists from the school.  We added a couple things to Serenity's plan, but otherwise, this is what her IEP looks like.  It details the things she is interested in and good at, her testing scores, strengths, weaknesses, and what help she will need to catch up to where she needs to be. 

It was pretty interesting going over Serenity's testing scores today.  She actually scored a lot higher than I expected her to.  I've always known that Serenity is smart, but I guess I've never given her credit for how much she really knows and understands.  I was pretty surprised and proud of her.  She likes to be like Edward, and do everything he does, so I guess it isn't too surprising that she scored so well.  Both of our kids are similar, yet they both land at different places on the Autism Spectrum, and a lot of the time it can be kind of confusing to determine just where each of them lands in comprehension of different things.  They are best friends, and do everything together, so a lot of the time, I guess I've just assumed that Serenity is just following Edward's lead, but never really knew what exactly was going on. 

The one thing that I did realize today, was just how far Serenity has come in the last year.  She's gone from not talking at all, to never stopping and driving me completely crazy!  We can still only understand about 50% of what she says, but she is doing incredibly well!  I think she is also ahead of Edward as far as hand eye coordination goes.  Edward isn't as coordinated at a lot of things, the way that Serenity is.  Serenity definitely scored higher in those areas than Edward did, but then again, I'm sure the testing is different for Edward's age group than it was for Serenity.  Serenity actually doesn't need occupational therapy the way that Edward does.  I don't know if it's because she's doing so well in the therapy that she is currently getting, or if she's just ahead of the game, but Edward is definitely more delayed in that area.

I think this IEP is pretty self explanatory, so if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to leave me a comment, or send me a message and I'll be happy to address it right away.

Family Updates And Report Card Time

It's been a long time since I last posted.  We had a really great holiday season.  The kids were super excited for Christmas, and for the very first time, weren't afraid of Santa!  The city we moved to over the summer, brings Santa through town on a fire engine the Sunday before Christmas.  I was super excited to find out about it, and couldn't wait to take the kids outside to see him.  I was a little bit nervous because my kids have been afraid of Santa for years.  The only time we've had a positive Santa experience, was when Edward was 5 months old, and Chris and I took him to get pictures with Santa. That was the only time we haven't been faced with kicking and screaming.  Last year, we avoided Santa altogether, because we knew it wouldn't go over very well.  But this year, was a complete game changer! With Santa coming to our turf, things went super smooth.  The kids were super excited, and watching out the window with their shoes and jackets on, while I was watching online, waiting for Facebook updates from our city mayor, about where Santa was, and what neighborhood he would be hitting next.  When I saw the post that our neighborhood was next, the kids were already trying to get the door open to run outside. Edward took off toward the fire engine as it was coming down the street, and climbed right up to see Santa as soon as it stopped in front of him. Serenity was a little bit nervous, but once I assured her that everything was ok, and lifted her up to join Edward next to Santa, she was thrilled to be standing on a fire engine. I got some cute pictures, and the kids had a great time! We are hoping that next year will be just as great.

We've learned a huge lesson in the Autism life lately.  Shortly after Edward started school, I canceled all of Serenity's therapy appointments with the new therapy center that the kids had started going to, because they just weren't making much progress, and the therapists that the kids were seeing just weren't connecting with my kids, the kids weren't happy, and it was beginning to be a HUGE hassle to go there.  Plus, I swear the speech therapist had it out for me. Every single time she saw one of my kids, she had a problem with them that she would bring to my attention.  Whether it was Serenity having muscle tone issues, or Edward having something else, I was getting seriously annoyed.  Never once, in the entire time that I've been a mother, nor in the year or two that I had been taking the kids to get therapy, had I ever been bothered with any sort of problems, much less things that were so quickly dismissed by both Chris and I, as well as our pediatrician, as non issues.  I finally asked the doctor to call the therapy center and basically tell the lady to shove it and do her job, because I was so annoyed with her idiocy. A couple weeks later I was told by Serenity's ENT that I needed to call the state Early Invention office to get help for Serenity, so I did that, and she's been getting all of her therapies thru them, and the therapists come to us!  I never have to leave the house for therapy, and it's been so much easier. Serenity is responding a lot better than she was, and making a ton of progress. She gets both Speech and Occupational therapy, in home, twice a month.  Speech for 30 minutes, and occupational therapy for an hour.  It has made a world of difference having the therapists come to us.  Serenity is always super excited to see them, and opens up really well.  Before, when we were going out to the therapy office, some days were better than others, but a lot of the time Serenity would take 90% of each session to finally start to open up and participate.  But now that her therapists come to us, she is definitely more comfortable and excited to participate.  She actually starts to get upset when her time is up, and the therapist needs to leave to go to their next appointment. It's such a huge improvement from before, and it's been great to watch!

Getting Serenity's therapy thru Early Intervention is about to come to an end for us in the next few weeks.  The state only provides the services to children under 3 years old, but they work with the local school district to integrate the kids into the school system.  Next week, Serenity goes in to do all the testing for her to start Pre-K, as soon as she turns 3 next month.  We are excited because she'll be sharing Edward's Pre-K teacher, who we absolutely LOVE.  Edward still goes to Kindergarten in the mornings, and then switches to Pre-K after lunch.  Serenity will be going to Pre-K in the morning, but then I'll be picking her up at lunch time when Edward switches over.  The only time they will be together in Pre-K will be for special events.  Having them both in school every morning will definitely make my life a little bit easier.  I am looking forward to going back to bed for a couple hours.  I may eventually get myself a gym membership, and attempt to go exercise while they're both gone, but I'm not sure.  I'm kind of lazy.

Edward's report cards came home the last few days.  Yesterday was officially report card day, but because he's got several teachers, and an IEP, we've been getting reports sent home all week.  Edward is doing really well in school.  He's definitely not at all the same kid that he was when he started school back in August.  He has grown and changed so much, and it has been such a privilege and blessing to watch.  He is learning to read, write and spell, count, etc. Lately, Edward has been asking how to spell different thing that he wants to do on his tablet.  There are so many different apps on there, that it gets tedious having to scroll thru the endless list to find what you want.  I recently taught Edward how to hit the search button, and he now types in what he wants.  He knows how to spell Mario, Everleigh & Cole (he LOVES watching the Labrandt family and Everleigh opens toys on YouTube), Ryan (Ryan's world also on YouTube), Bounce Patrol, and a few others.  It is so exciting to watch Edward learning to spell.  We are so proud of him! Every day he is asking us how to spell different things.  As I sit here typing, Edward just asked me how to spell YouTube. He doesn't quite realize that he doesn't have access to YouTube on his tablet.  He only has access to select videos that both the Amazon Freetime department have pre-approved for him to view. Having the tablets for the kids has made a huge difference in our lives.  There are so many educational apps available to them, and it has really helped both our kids.  I'll do blog about the Amazon Fire Tablets that we got our kids at a later time.

Here are Edward's report cards that we've received this week.  He's definitely made some really great strides over the last 9 week, and we are so proud of him, and excited to see how well he does in the next 9 weeks.