School Part 3

The 3rd part of the school consideration process was for Deane to be evaluated and observed.  In our district and in accordance with our schedule and the staff schedules, this meant two visits.
The first visit was in the preschool classroom.  In the domain meeting, we discussed that I wanted to be present for all of Deane's evaluations.  I felt it was important to see how they were evaluating him.  When I arrived, the speech team met us and planned to have me meet with the social worker and school nurse in a separate room while the speech team evaluated him in the special education preschool room.  I just reminded them that we had discussed being in the same room and they accommodated me.  I just completed most of the forms/questionnaires myself (to avoid interrupting the class) versus being asked all of the questions.

After speech team felt they had enough information, it appeared we were going to be done.  I asked whether both teachers (both special education and general education) would observing Deane or if this was not part of the process.  The team didn't seem to know so after asking, we moved over to the general education preschool room for a little bit more observation. 

For me the lesson of that visit was that the staff was not trying to provide me any less of an experience than I wanted, but that I needed to ask questions and gently remind them of what I wanted in order to get it. 

On our return visit, Deane was evaluated one on one (versus in a classroom observation setting) by the occupational therapy provider and the school psychologist.  In this instance, this looked like Deane performing tasks like stringing beads, drawing lines and circles, doing a puzzle, etc. (for OT) and identifying objects in a book and attempting block formations (for psych; intention was to evaluate cognition).  This visit gave me the opportunity to speak to Deane's skills when he wasn't interested or compliant since (as so many providers acknowledge), you will never see a young child's true abilities in one 2 hour visit with him in a strange environment.

I have found all of the staff very easy to work with.  I think it's important for parents to be informed as to what they are looking for, be prepared to ask questions, and understand the process in order to be comfortable.  In districts where staff cuts and budget restrictions have left staff doing double duty in steering this process, there may be times when they don't know how to handle the situation because they have not seen it before.  I wanted to write this from a factual stand point, but would be happy to discuss more details and opinions with other parents. 

Making Memories

Update on September so far (warning: picture smorgasbord to follow):

1. Labor(less) Day
We spent Labor Day 2011 at home.  It was beautiful so we tried to spend as much time as possible outside.  We took Deane's new bounce house outside and laid out blankets for Kate and I to play on.

I may have been lounging a lot and taking pictures of the sky and yard.

This early bounce house play was of course followed by ball chasing, kicking, and throwing.



2. September 9th/10th Visit to Floortime Therapist in Northbrook, IL - We didn't actually take any photos at our session (which was great), but we also had a little fun in between our two appointments....At the Kohl Children's Museum

totally fascinated by how this works; stared for about 15 minutes

kissing the butterfly he pulled out of his book immediately after buying it in the gift store

Visiting Rainforest Cafe (which Deane indicated he wanted to do), but it was clearly more excitement than we could handle after a long day

And we finally accepted that Deane was going to be up until he decided he was tired (after we tried to put him to sleep at 8).

3. Returning from the Chicagoland area on the 10th, I turned around and headed to Iowa City to celebrate my sister's birthday (a couple weeks after the real deal since she was tied up).

4. I returned with my parents from Iowa City on Sunday morning, September 11th, to head to Grandma Frye's 80th birthday party at 11AM.

Kate in the midst of her cousins

Deane and Uncle Andy playing cars

The kids starting to pose in front of Grandpa Deane and Grandma Lois

Frye Family 2011 (missing just 3)

We spent the evening at home, outside...picnic blanket dinner and playing with balls in the yard

5. Monday, September 12th - Dinosaur Baths on the deck

Deane is using his pockets a lot lately and I love it!

And Kate is a happy girl who knows what she wants

6. Saturday, 17th - We journeyed to Iowa City for a small college reunion of my two besties from UI.

Group tailgate moment

Chris and I enjoyed the game downtown with sister Nicole, boyfriend Virgil, and cousin Chloe.

And then my family has been sick since Sunday.  Deane actually fell asleep at 4:45 PM and slept for 14 hours!  He has just started saying "sleep" instead of "weeps"...happy for him, but sad to see some of this baby cutesness disappearing.

They look sick, don't they?  :)



Toilet Paper "Art"

Some months back, I came across this post on a children's craft site, and I thought this could be more than kids art.  From there I began with my first toilet paper/paper towel roll "art" piece, seen here:

I generally followed their concept. 

I'm working on a much larger project now, but here are the step by steps:
1. Use TP or PT rolls that are clean of paper remnants and flatten with your hands.

2. Measure out and mark desired width of petals.  For the above project I used .75", but pictured is about .5" petals.

3. Cut apart into petals.

4. Arrange petals into desired shape.  For the above project, most of my flowers were 5 petals, but some were smaller.  I used Tacky Glue to adhere the petals to each other.

5. I used bobby pins to hold them together.  I typically let whatever I worked on each day sit overnight, but I'm sure it doesn't require that long to set.

6. I made about a dozen flowers before beginning to arrange them.  I then filled in sparse areas with a petal here or there until I liked the design and began glueing the larger design together.  For this project, I used approximately 225-250 petals.



This is one part of an ongoing decorating project on the wall above our family room TV cabinet.  It was easy and free since I already had the glue and TP/PT rolls.  Since I started doing this, I've had a few people provide their rolls to me as well so I won't soon run out of supplies!

There are endless possibilities with shapes that can be created, painting the piece, etc.  I've started a Pinterest board of TP art ideas.  My current project is a take off of the turquoise project pictured there.