Rex's First Graduation

Last week, Rex graduated from the PreK/K program he has attended for four years.  It was a wonderful celebration of all the children in the class, but especially the eight boys who are moving on to new settings.

Everyone received awards for awesome accomplishments.  Rex was noted for his improvements in oral motor skills and for being the best diver - we had no idea that he can pick up dive sticks from the bottom of the pool, but we have since seen it ourselves.

Receiving his awards

Potluck graduation feast -
we were so glad Oma and Grandpa could join us

The therapists also gave us several great pictures from Rex's last year in the program.

Laughing

Learning

Playing

Cheering

And hiking with his best friend Harry

A part of me is sad that Rex has to leave a program that has been a safe haven for him for the last four years, a program where he was truly cherished and loved and where he has learned so very much.  On the other hand, it's time for Rex to spread his wings and explore new settings.  The next several months are a big experiment to figure out what's best for Rex in the years to come.

Congratulations, Rex, you're a rock star.

Summer Home School Week Three

What?  Three weeks of the girls's summer break are over already?  I can't believe it.  We did a lot of good school work here last week and I am proud of the girls for hanging in there with a rather tough teacher.

Ella continued with daily math, reading and spelling.  We made an underwater-themed collage and experimented with creating foam.  Per chance, we came across the subject of fractions and Ella very much enjoyed it and quickly understood the basic concept.  I guess you'll just never know what makes sense to a certain learner at a certain time.  Ella needed to write a thank you note for a lovely gift she received from a friend, so we turned that task into her main writing project for the week.  Our week-long theme was about plants and we did several fun work sheets and successfully grew chia seeds in our kitchen window.  Ella really had fun with this subject.

Week 3 Work Wall

Elephant Toothpaste Experiment

Emilia is doing wonderfully.  We are continuing to knock out the sight words and are now focusing more on her IEP objective of reading 60 words from the Fry First 100 list.  She is also learning about directionality of print by reading sentences made up of sight words she knows.  She's doing such a great job.  And, she's almost mastered identifying and naming all the numbers between 11 and 21, another new IEP goal.  I thought this would take much longer, but I guess I should never underestimate the power of Easter eggs.

My mom, Ella and I went blueberry picking last week and came home with over 12 pounds.  Ella picked more than one pound all by herself and really enjoyed the experience as well as eating lots of the berries in the car.  We've made blueberry pancakes and cobbler and are otherwise snacking away.  Emilia is a big fan of blueberries (and also watermelon this year).

Blueberry Loot

Blueberry-Lemon Cobbler

This week is our last official week of summer home school and a much shorter week.  Let's see how it shakes out.

Summer Home School Week 2

Last week was a shorter home school week because we went on the annual camping trip with Craig's extended family.  So we worked extra hard on the days that we were home and still got a lot accomplished.

Ella continued with daily reading, math and spelling.  She also wrote a letter to her friend Lilit.  Our art theme was symmetry which we practiced with coloring pages and using the wooden pieces of our pattern boards.  Ella impressed me by creating three-dimensional symmetric structures with them.  For science, we studied interactions with water, making mixtures and solutions, first predicting how each item would behave when placed into the water.  Ella said this was her favorite part of the week's work which made my science non-loving heart beat a little faster.

Learning how to make pizza dough from scratch

Work Wall Week 2

Emilia continued with her sight words and now has mastered her new IEP objectives relating to reading nouns.  She did a surprising job with 1:1 correspondence counting to 20 placing objects into a cup and is beginning to receptively identify some of the numbers from 11-20.  Emilia's worst exercise is tracing with pen on paper.  She does much better in shaving cream or sand or with play-doh.  We also got out our plastic and foam letters and spelled some sight word nouns together.  In the end, Emilia impressed me by independently choosing the letters LKE, placing them side by side and telling me, "I spell like."  There's truly so much in her head that we don't know yet.

Of course, our camping trip also had some educational aspects to it.  Ella learned to cast a fishing line and after having read a book about the Big Dipper at home, we found it in the night sky.  All three kids got to watch hot air balloons soar above the campground and Ella became quite a good dog walker for Grandma's dog.

All in all, another fun and successful week of homeschooling.

Summer Home School Week 1

We had a great first week of summer home school with both girls motivated and interested in their work.  It was fun to teach them.

Ella and I had two themes last week. In science, we learned about the scientific method and did some experiments following it. For reading, we focused on biographies.  Ella even wrote her own.  We spelled way more than 26 words per day and did daily math.  Ella learned how to make noodles (chocolate ones at that), completed with ease pattern boards using shape blocks (when she first came home she had no patience for this kind of work), and started her time trials with her 51 jumbo piece USA puzzle.  She's already decreased her speed from 15 minutes to completion to 13 minutes to completion.  It's great practice for her visual skills.  After she puts together the puzzle, we study the map and talk about the 50 states.  I tested Ella on the Second 100 Fry Words and she read 82 fluently, so we are going to focus on the other 18 for now.  This will go so much faster than sight words last year since Ella can read now.

Ella's work wall

Homemade chocolate noodles with fresh mango, strawberry and whipped cream

Emilia did really well last week and is close to mastering already two of her new IEP objectives from May 2016: reading 20 Fry First Nouns and matching them to pictures (she can read and match 19).  She has so easily picked up this skill, I am impressed.  Unfortunately over the last school year her special ed teacher, her classroom teacher and I all worked with different sight word lists which has led to some confusion about how many words Emilia can read. Therefore, we have all agreed to use Fry's First 100 (I had used Dolch) from here on out.  Emilia is supposed to read 60 words from the list by the end of her IEP cycle in May 2017.  She has already mastered 20 at home.

With her increasing sight word knowledge, Emilia has also begun reading some very basic leveled books this week.  This is a first and super exciting that I am the one to witness it and help her with it.  We worked on counting and number recognition and I am seeing just enough progress to keep me motivated as a teacher.  Emilia also did the pattern boards and we talked about simple patterns.

Both girls made people from shapes and Emilia really seemed to enjoy it.  And after picking over four flats of local strawberries (which in and of itself was an educational experience) over the course of the week, Emilia and Ella each got a turn to help me make freezer jam.

We also visited the Newport Aquarium where all three kids had great fun.

This week is a shorter school week due to some medical appointments and fun family stuff, so we shall see how much we get done.  It's not supposed to be stressful and we all did a good job keeping it so for our first week.

Diapers And Clothing For Gyumri

Just dropping in to let you know that a few fellow adoptive moms with kids from Gyumri are collecting diapers (size newborn to 6) and new clothing for ages 4 to 7 for the Children's Home of Gyumri where Ella and Lilit spent the first several years of their lives.  They are collecting physical goods in Pennsylvania and Georgia until June 10th or you can make a cash donation here.  Everything given will reach its intended recipients through SOAR.

Another item requested by the orphanage which is home to 125 children with special needs are pediatric walkers.  Craig and I purchased two to be added into the shipping container that will start its long journey to Armenia in a few weeks.  I am sure a few more wouldn't hurt as they could improve mobility for quite a lot of children.

Donations are tax deductible via SOAR.  For questions, do not hesitate to contact me.  Thank you.

IAC 350-356 Results

The following referrals were issued in IAC 350 which was held on March 11, 2016:

1) Irish dossier from February 2011 referred a female child aged 1 year and 11 months with features in health status

2) Italian dossier from October 2015 referred a female child aged 10 years and 6 months

3) US dossier from February 2016 referred two waiting children (#2618 & #2619) with profiles on the MOJ site

4) US dossier from March 2016 referred a waiting child (#2940) with a profile on the MOJ site

5) US dossier from February 2016 referred two waiting children (#2920 & #2671) with profiles on the MOJ site

6) Italian dossier from March 2016 referred two children, male and female, aged 12 years and 7 months & 15 years and 5 months


The following referrals were issued in IAC 351 which was held on March 17, 2016:

1) Irish dossier from September 2010 referred a female child aged 1 year and 10 months

2) US dossier from May 2011 referred a female child aged 7 years and 8 months

3) French dossier from September 2013 referred a female child aged 2 years and 6 months with features in health status

4) French dossier from August 2013 referred a brother and sister aged 5 years and 1 month & 8 years and 3 months with features in health status

5) Italian dossier from October 2015 referred two children, male and female, aged 9 years and 4 months & 6 years and 6 months


The following referrals were issued in IAC 352 which was held on March 24, 2016:

1) French dossier from March 2011 referred a male child aged 5 years and 11 months with features in health status

2) Irish dossier from August 2011 referred a female child aged 2 years and 2 months with features in health status

3) US dossier from September 2011 referred a female child aged 1 year and 7 months with features in health status and a family history

4) French dossier from May 2012 referred a male child aged 6 years and 8 months with a family history

5) Italian dossier from April 2013 referred a male child aged 1 year and 6 months with features in health status and a family history

6) French dossier from April 2013 referred a female child aged 6 years with features in health status and a family history

7) Italian dossier from January 2014 referred a brother and sister aged 4 years and 2 months & 8 years and 2 months

8) Italian dossier from December 2015 referred a brother and sister aged 9 years and 5 months & 7 years and 10 months

9) US dossier from March 2016 referred two waiting children (#241 & #50) with profiles on the MOJ site

10) US dossier from March 2016 referred two waiting children (#2527 & #2528) with profiles on the MOJ site

11) US dossier from March 2016 referred a waiting child (#3123) with a profile on the MOJ site


The following referrals were issued in IAC 353 which was held on March 31, 2016:

1) French dossier from February 2011 referred a male child aged 1 year and 11 months with features in health status

2) Italian dossier from September 2011 referred a male child aged 6 years and 6 months

3) French dossier from December 2011 referred a male child aged 6 years and 5 months with features in health status

4) US dossier from March 2013 referred a female child aged 8 years and 7 months

5) Italian dossier from March 2016 referred a female child aged 10 years and 4 months

6) US dossier from March 2016 referred a waiting child (#2013) with a profile on the MOJ site

7) US dossier from March 2016 referred a waiting child (#3015) with a profile on the MOJ site


The following referrals were issued in IAC 354 which was held on April 7, 2016:

1) French dossier from August 2011 referred a male child aged 5 years and 7 months with a family history

2) US dossier from October 2011 referred a waiting child (#2805) with a profile on the MOJ site

3) Italian dossier from July 2013 referred sisters aged 9 years and 9 years and 11 months

4) French dossier from November 2013 referred a female child aged 6 years and 7 months with a family history

5) French dossier from November 2013 referred a female child aged 3 years with features in health status

6) US dossier from October 2015 referred a female child aged 2 years and 5 months with features in health status and a family history

7) US dossier from April 2016 referred a waiting child (#2620) with a profile on the MOJ site

8) US dossier from April 2016 referred a waiting child (#3079) with a profile on the MOJ site


The following referrals were issued in IAC 355 which was held on April 7, 2016:

1) German dossier from April 2011 referred a female child aged 5 years

2) Italian dossier from December 2012 referred a brother and sister aged 9 years and 4 months & 7 years and 10 months

3) Spanish dossier from November 2014 referred a female child aged 2 years and 3 months with features in health status

4) US dossier from June 2015 referred sisters aged 9 years and 6 months & 8 years and 7 months

5) Italian dossier from February 2016 referred brothers aged 7 years and 6 months & 9 years and 2 months


The following referrals were issued in IAC 356 which was held on April 27, 2016:

1) Spanish dossier from February 2011 referred a female child aged 1 year and 7 months

2) Irish dossier from April 2011 referred a male child aged 1 year and 4 months with features in health status

3) Italian dossier from July 2011 referred a female child aged 7 years and 11 months

4) Italian dossier from May 2012 referred a brother and sister aged 7 years and 6 month & 4 years and 4 months

5) US dossier from November 2013 referred a female child aged 8 years and 1 month

6) French dossier from July 2014 referred a male child aged 3 years and 11 months with features in health status

7) French dossier from March 2016 referred a waiting child (#2660) with a profile on the MOJ site

8) US dossier from April 2016 referred a waiting child (#3160) with a profile on the MOJ site

9) US dossier from April 2016 referred a female child aged 10 years and 11 months

10) US dossier from April 2016 referred a waiting child (#3143) with a profile on the MOJ site

11) US dossier from April 2016 referred a waiting child (#3086) with a profile on the MOJ site

Hall Closet Redo

A few months ago I finally came clean and told Craig that I hated our hall closet.  We'd left it exactly as it was when we bought the home and just put our stuff in there and this is what it looked like - a complete mess:

Since my husband is a problem solver, he read my confession as a plea and offered to redo the closet with me.  We imagined and discussed various set-ups with the premise, as always, that form must follow function and finances, and then decided that the existing shelves really did need to come out.  What we found behind them was a little gross, so we sanded and repainted the entire closet.

A clean slate:

Our plan A failed once I saw it in the space, so we went back to the drawing board and thought up something even better.  Tah-dah, I am quite happy with how it all came together.

The kids' backpacks go on the floor beneath the lowest shelf, followed by Ella's bins, then Emilia's, then Rex's.  The next two shelves hold family things and some of Craig's and my stuff and then Craig and I each have a shoe shelf.  The brown bins on top hold odds and ends like art smocks and extra shoe laces.  There's plenty of room between where the kids' coats hang and the shelves to comfortably stand and move around to access the bins.

Other than some things we didn't need anymore, the closet still holds the same amount of stuff, just much more organized.  Some day I might even get around to putting labels on the bins.

Before & After