Summer Home School Prep

Does anyone else love the paint cards you can get at home improvement stores?  They are so versatile for home school activities.

This year, I put the girls' sight words on them so that the words can travel with us in a light weight and recyclable format.  This allows us to leave our nicer laminated cards at home and will keep the girls learning even while on the road this summer.

First Grade

Rex will be a first grader next year... can you believe it?

At his IEP meeting in January the school had told us categorically no on Rex leaving early each day in the 2017/18 school year to attend his medical ABA therapy.  First grade is full day and Rex was expected to spend seven hours in this setting.

I came home from this IEP meeting and began doing my research. I consulted with an educational advocate in our school district and made a game plan.  Multiple letters of medical necessity and supporting data about Rex's progress through ABA later, Rex has now officially received permission from the school to leave at 1:00 pm each day in the coming school year to complete his weekly 25 hours of ABA therapy.

I am so relieved that we can continue on with a combination of services that has worked beautifully for Rex since September.  I know we will continue to see big strides from our awesome boy.

Super Saturday

We had beautiful weather here yesterday which made our busy day even better.

We started with a birthday party at the always enchanting Highfield Discovery Garden where we got to celebrate with our friend A.  Happy fourth birthday, sweet girl!

Watching frogs and fish

My handsome boy enjoying the train display

After a refreshing family nap and cranio-sacral therapy for Rex and Ella, we headed to the zoo for member appreciation night.  We had so much fun with all the special activities the zoo was offering yesterday evening.

Emilia feeding the camel
with a little help from her daddy and big sis

Rex's turn

The kids loved the P&G Big Band

My Bulgarian girl never passes up the opportunity to dance with great joy:

We couldn't have asked for a nicer, more entertaining day.

Pictures Of The Day

I picked 25 pounds of strawberries in an hour today at our local U-Pick.

And I am not ashamed to say we had this for dinner:

Cincinnati Art Museum

The Cincinnati Art Museum recently started offering early hours on certain days for families who have members with developmental disabilities.  Today, we were able to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity for the first time.  We were lucky enough to have Ms. Brooke in tow, so each child had one on one supervision and we could tailor the visit to different needs and preferences. Ella and I split off for our own explorations and we had such a great time.

There were play/sensory/learning stations throughout the exhibits and here's one that was of interest to Ella.  She created her own piece of art in front of the original.

While working on it, Ella started a rather informed conversation with the docent to which I listened in amazement.

Ella: Do you have any Alexander Calders here?
Docent: Yes, we have one mobile on the ceiling in front of the cafe.
Ella: Good, I want to go see that.
Docent: Did you know that Calder made...
Ella: ... a mobile every day?  Yes, I knew that.  Ms. Carroll taught us that.
Docent: And did you know that he wore...
Ella: ... a red shirt every day?  Sure, I know that.
Docent: Did you build a mobile at school?
Ella: Yes, we used wire.
Docent: Well, you will enjoy the mobile downstairs then.  It's called 20 Leaves and an Apple. It was originally at a hotel here in Cincinnati. (I looked it up later and it's fascinating to read about the Terrace Plaza Hotel.)

Our last stop at the museum was the Calder mobile.

Thank you, Cincinnati Art Museum, for giving our family the opportunity to experience your collection in a quiet, sensory-friendly, and inclusive manner.

Three Years

What a difference three years can make!  Our Armenian spitfire the day we met her on May 5, 2014 and today.

Neurological Re-Organization 3 Month Update

We had our first follow-up with Bette Lamont this week and she was quite impressed with the progress, particularly for Ella.  She did some of the same tests again that she used in January and the difference in Ella was evident.  For example, with her eyes covered, Ella was able to touch specific spots on her arms within one inch accuracy from where Bette had pointed.  In January, she was about three inches off.

Here's a list of all areas in which Bette noted progress:

1) Outline perception/horizontal eye movement
2) Perception of vital sensation, heat, cold, pain and hunger
3) Crawling in the prone prone position culminating in cross pattern crawling
4) Appreciation of gnostic sensation/proprioception

In addition, Craig and I have seen the following positive changes:

1) More physically affectionate
2) Less physically rough
3) Grade average has improved by a full grade
4) Better understanding of math concepts
5) Overt expression and processing of trauma

Ella graduated from her two floor patterns and has been assigned a new one, along with continuing to crawl/creep, receiving vestibular stimulation and vibrations on her joints.

Emilia's progress was less pronounced because she is scared of some of the activities included in the program and reluctant to participate.  Bette has recognized this about Emilia and reduced her assignments for the next period to what we believe is most crucial right now and will give us the best results.

Emilia has improved in these areas:

1) Outline perception/horizontal eye movement
2) Crawling in the prone prone position culminating in cross pattern crawling

Craig and I have noted progress in:

1) Academics (9 IEP goals met and most of them in the last quarter)
2) Self-help skills (dressing, shoes, hair care)
3) Behavior (less screaming)

Emilia will continue to receive vestibular stimulation and vibrations on her joints, both of which she loves, focus on crawling and creeping, and we'll be trying just one floor pattern.

So far so good.  We're keeping on.