Thank you to all of you who come by regularly to check in or who are subscribed to this blog through your email or a feed reader. I enjoy knowing that there are people out there who enjoy reading about our family and and find the informational articles and card sets useful.
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Michael has had (relatively mild) eczema since he was a baby. It's better now, but occasionally in the winter he still gets flare ups. I've been noticing an area on his chest that's been rough the past couple of weeks, but suddenly it has spread all over his chest and over to his arms, he is actively complaining about being itchy, and we're having trouble keeping him from scratching. I am beginning to wonder what chicken pox looks like if it is caught by a child who has had the vaccine. Anyone have any thoughts? If he really does have chicken pox I probably shouldn't send him to school on Tuesday. Boy it would be a shame for him to miss his first day.
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I fine tuned my idea about slipping worksheets under glass to use as repeatable dry erase activities. Now I'm slipping them into sheet protectors which I've taped to the top of the glass. Taping them down prevents them from sliding around when the children draw on them and erase them. Having the worksheets on top of the glass in sheet protectors lets me switch them out much more easily.
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Our new kittens continue to be wonderful. They are actually pretty good about taking their medicine and it seems to be helping. They are each getting four syringes of oral liquid medications a day. One of the medications tastes so bad they foam at the mouth. And yet they still come when I call. I am amazed and grateful.
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We live in a house where our back yard is connected to five other back yards. Every other house has dogs. We frequently hear lots of barking at rather annoying hours which bothers my husband more than it bothers me. The children often don't seem to notice either. However, this weekend my parents are out of town celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary and we're dog sitting their two chihuahuas. This evening when we were in the backyard (my husband working on the deck, the children in the sand table, and the dogs playing relatively appropriately and quietly) one of our neighbors let out their dogs. Much chaos and barking ensued. I managed to chase our two guests to the other side of the yard and keep them there quietly, but the neighbor's dogs continued to bark very loudly for at least the next 20 minutes. Finally, my husband walked over and politely asked them to bring their dogs inside because their barking was scaring the children (which it was). Ahh, neighbor relations are always so much fun.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
IFSP - Transition Meeting Edition
I was pleasantly surprised by the transition meeting. Of course, my expectations were low, so I had lots of room to be pleasantly surprised.
So here's the summary of how the transition process works (here in my area, at least). Approximately six months before your child turns three a transition meeting is scheduled. You meet with your Early Childhood Service Coordinator and a representative from your local school district's special education program. (In our case our Parents as Teachers teacher was also there to give information about our specific school.) The purpose of the meeting is to familiarize you with the steps involved in transitioning from Early Childhood Services to School-Age services and to get your signature on a bunch of forms that allows the school district to talk to a variety of people (your early childhood SLP, OT, any preschool teachers you might have, any doctors that might have pertinent information, etc.).
The process, as I understand it, will go like this: About three months before Ava's third birthday I will take her to be evaluated. I will find out on that day if she will qualify for services. If she does not qualify, she will continue to get services through Early Intervention until the day before her third birthday and then it will be my responsibility to arrange (and pay for) any services I feel she might still need at that time. If she does qualify, we will hold an IEP meeting within 30 days of the evaluation to decide what services she will receive once she turns three. Then, when she turns three she will begin to receive those services.
Potential service options will be individual speech or OT sessions, a special preschool program, or both. If we get individual therapy sessions, instead of coming to our home we would bring her to our local school for those appointments. If the IEP team decides the preschool program is appropriate we would bring her to school either two or four days a week. If she gets both, the SLP and or OT would see her in the preschool classroom or possibly pull her out of class for therapy.
Because Ava's birthday is in March, there is a final twist. The IEP team might decide that it is too close to the end of the school year to transition her at that time. If so, the schools would contract with her current early childhood therapists and pay them to continue to see her until the fall.
Everyone at the meeting was very professional and extremely nice. They seemed genuinely interested in Ava and her best interests. They seemed to understand her specific issues (speech and sensory) and how they interact and effect her life. They seemed to want to help. Now we just have to wait and see how the evaluation goes and if she will qualify.
So, in summary, the transition process looks like this:
So here's the summary of how the transition process works (here in my area, at least). Approximately six months before your child turns three a transition meeting is scheduled. You meet with your Early Childhood Service Coordinator and a representative from your local school district's special education program. (In our case our Parents as Teachers teacher was also there to give information about our specific school.) The purpose of the meeting is to familiarize you with the steps involved in transitioning from Early Childhood Services to School-Age services and to get your signature on a bunch of forms that allows the school district to talk to a variety of people (your early childhood SLP, OT, any preschool teachers you might have, any doctors that might have pertinent information, etc.).
The process, as I understand it, will go like this: About three months before Ava's third birthday I will take her to be evaluated. I will find out on that day if she will qualify for services. If she does not qualify, she will continue to get services through Early Intervention until the day before her third birthday and then it will be my responsibility to arrange (and pay for) any services I feel she might still need at that time. If she does qualify, we will hold an IEP meeting within 30 days of the evaluation to decide what services she will receive once she turns three. Then, when she turns three she will begin to receive those services.
Potential service options will be individual speech or OT sessions, a special preschool program, or both. If we get individual therapy sessions, instead of coming to our home we would bring her to our local school for those appointments. If the IEP team decides the preschool program is appropriate we would bring her to school either two or four days a week. If she gets both, the SLP and or OT would see her in the preschool classroom or possibly pull her out of class for therapy.
Because Ava's birthday is in March, there is a final twist. The IEP team might decide that it is too close to the end of the school year to transition her at that time. If so, the schools would contract with her current early childhood therapists and pay them to continue to see her until the fall.
Everyone at the meeting was very professional and extremely nice. They seemed genuinely interested in Ava and her best interests. They seemed to understand her specific issues (speech and sensory) and how they interact and effect her life. They seemed to want to help. Now we just have to wait and see how the evaluation goes and if she will qualify.
So, in summary, the transition process looks like this:
- Hold transition meeting (6 months before 3rd birthday).
- Have child evaluated by school district (3 months before 3rd birthday).
- If child qualifies, hold IEP meeting (2 months before 3rd birthday).
- Transition from getting services from early childhood to getting services from school district (on 3rd birthday).
Friday, August 12, 2011
The Weekly Review: Week 22
Blog Post that Made Me Laugh
It takes talent to take a routine experience (trying on a shirt at a store) and turn it into a hilarious story. Linda at All & Sundry manages it though. Ironically, I actually didn't think the shirt looked all that bad.Weekly Article that Puts Things In Perspective
I read an article about a family with 11 children between the ages of twelve and one. None of her pregnancies were twins. It makes me rethink complaining about having handled two under two.The Weekly Michael
This was Michael's last week at daycare. Next week he starts preschool. He knows he's going to "big kid" school starting next week. So far, he is taking this news with complete calm and mild interest. I am so hoping that next week goes beautifully for him. I hope it will be the beginning of a wonderful relationship between Michael and school. Our district is small. There is only one grade school, one middle school, and one high school and they are all together on a single campus. The buildings have all been recently renovated and the campus is beautiful. We have no plans to relocate, so Michael may well spend the vast majority of his waking days in this spot from the time he is three till the time he is eighteen. That is a pretty amazing thought and I want it to go well.Ava this Week:
There are transitions everywhere. As Michael transitions from daycare to preschool, we are having Ava's transition meeting to begin planning her transition (if she qualifies) from early intervention to school district services. We had Ava's transition meeting yesterday. I'll write more about how that meeting went tomorrow.Weekly Lesson: Buying Store Brand Doesn't Always Pay
As part of my attempt to eat better, I've been making lunches from steamed veggies. I usually get a name brand mix of broccoli and cauliflower in a microwave steamer bag, but they are a little pricey so I decided to try the store brand in a non-steamer bag. Well, steaming it was definitely a pain (compared to the steamer bag). It took longer, didn't come out as well, and dirtied more dishes. But the real problem was the quality. Almost half of the bag was broccoli stems. Just chunks of the stems. I actually threw them out because I find them tough to chew and not very tasty. Guess it wasn't such a great value after all.
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