Progress Reports

Ane came home with her progress report/report card last week – the elementary school is on a trimester system and it was the end of winter trimester.

Unsurprisingly, Ane came home with a glowing report.  She and Ms. V. get along so well together, and academically Ane is just where she should be.  I wish we could see more effort on her part at home with the reading end of things, and less griping about her homework, but I know that she puts her best efforts in at school and her teacher is pleased.

Tad is another story altogether.

I had his parent-teacher conference on Friday, and the boys had to come along with me.  The teachers and speech therapist were eager to meet Rerun, and it was just easier to bring Tad along at that point.  Rerun was a huge hit – Tad’s speech therapist was actually in the main office when we arrived, and got first dibs on the baby.  Tad introduced his “baby bruvver” to her, and then we all walked to the classroom, though Tad wanted to go to speech therapy.  “We go speech?” he asked his therapist.  Then he paused, looked at the baby in her arms, and said, “Rerun go to speech?”

I had a long talk with the speech therapist and Tad’s teacher, while his paraeducator played with Tad and Rerun got handed around.  The bottom line is that Tad is much improved in speech, and has met his receptive language goals.  His expressive language is still a work-in-progress, and will continue to be a big part of his education for as long as necessary.  However, the biggest problem with Tad right now is his behavior, not his speech.  He does fairly well in the classroom setting, but as soon as he is given choices – or a recess – he becomes wild and almost uncontrollable.

As a result, and because his teachers think that he definitely needs more one-on-one attention in a classroom setting, they have decided to recommend him for the CLC kindergarten program instead of the transitional kindergarten.

I was kind of surprised, especially since when the Webmaster and I attended the informational meeting, Tad’s teacher was really advocating for the TK.  When I asked what made them decide that CLCK was the best choice for Tad, his speech therapist said, “We want to give him the help that he would need on his worst days.  And we know that he can be a completely different kid from day to day.”

The CLCK, besides being a stellar program, has a 8 children to 3 adult ratio (one teacher, two paraeducators) and designated one-on-one time with a teacher to do class work.  Tad will still probably continue on with an individual speech therapist as well.  For those in the know about the school district, Tad will attend Woodmoor Elementary because of where we live (the district is divided in half, and we live in the west side, which funnels CLC students into Woodmoor), and be bused there every day (and I’m sure it will not be a short bus ride).  It is a half-day program for kindergarten (I’m not sure if it is 4 or 5 days a week).

It was a lot to take in at once, but the Webmaster and I are okay with this.  Grandma summed it up perfectly when she said, “Better to get him more help than he needs than have him in a class with less help and a frustrated teacher.”  And that is the bottom line.  Tad will probably thrive in the attention that he will get in this setting, plus the fact that we’ve been told that swimming lessons are a part of the class schedule there (the school has a swimming pool) and Tad will LOVE that.

I mentioned this to Ms. V. when I picked Ane up from school yesterday.  She knows the teacher that Tad will have next year and recommends her highly – she taught Ms. V.’s disabled son as well.

Okay, enough school talk.  Cuteness fix!

Rerun has a bit of baby acne at the moment, but I think it’s getting better.  His cheeks are still quite soft and kissable, though.

And he’s outgrown a couple of the preemie outfits and has begun to wear newborn-sized sleepers.  My baby is three weeks old and growing!!!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 at 5:38 am and is filed under Children, School Days, Speech Therapy Saga.
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