Ian's 3rd birthday party was a success. Bill was the voice of reason and talked me out of a party at the house. Instead we opted for our favorite jump place. We invited Ian's friends from school and our neighbors. Ian outlasted every child at the party by a full hour after everyone had left. My friend Eileen of Sugar Mama's cakes made these super cute monster cupcakes.
Ian had his 3 year old check up this week and clocked in at 31 lbs and 37 inches, 50% for both percentiles. He was especially proud of his new Spiderman underwear and mom was equally proud to say that he has made leaps and bounds on potty training.
Sunday we headed out to Touch a Truck and climbed all over anything with wheels. Ben didn't believe me when I told him that my Push up trumped his ice cream sandwich until he tasted it! Once again Ian proved that he is the poster child for ice cream enjoyment.
Yesterday I met with Ben's teacher for his end of year conference and then met with his counselor at LDC later same day. Both were productive meetings in which I didn't feel like a giant parental failure for once. On the academic front Ben has moved from being behind in reading at the start of the school year to being right on target and reading on a beginning 2nd grade level with 2 months left to go in this school year. He has asked for copies of several books we keep checking out for his own growing bedroom shelf collection. His teacher gave us several suggestions to keep him reading and moving to harder books over the summer.
On the behavior front he has made progress and his teacher noted that the most recent med change reflects better attention overall and some appetite at lunch. After much discussion, we are not going to pursue any type of IEP or 504 designation for him. Both his doctor, counselor and now teacher all agree that they don't think the school would classify him as needing services as he is on grade level and has made measurable growth since last year. Bill and I agreed but also want to keep it on the front burner should things change in the 2nd grade.
We have been blessed with two strong teachers in a row and again asked for a teacher placement and recommendation which was brought up before I could even ask at the meeting. His teacher this year also is passing along some of the modifications she has been using all year like preferential seating to his 2nd grade teacher. If at some point we need to move to a legal classification, we will. We are ending the school year in the best possible place, and for that I am very thankful.
Tomorrow I'm leaving around 4:30 am with 55 high school students en route to Philadelphia, Gettysburg, and the Amish country. Before you an even get in line to slap sense into me, I wanted to go and jumped at the change to chaperone along with 5 other members of my department. I have taught many of the participants and frankly they are good kids whom I'm not worried about having to make middle of the night phone calls to parents. Simply be along just as a chaperone along for the ride with my own room, 8 full children under 7 free hours to read or watch movies on the bus, and did I mention that I will be at Gettysburg on the 150th anniversary?
Call me crazy if you must, but do wish us some good travel karma and for our general safety while gone. I've already promised Bill a t-shirt from the "Amish Experience" attraction we are hitting up on the drive up. Somehow "Amish" and "experience" makes me think churning butter will be involved or maybe making us help build a barn. Something tells me as we pass through Intercourse, PA the bus will be filled with potty humor, likely lead by yours truly.
2 comments:
YAY to good news all around.
Also something I learned - if his teacher is already making modifications, then to get any of those modifications for third grade EOG testing, I believe you need to have a 504 on file a year before EOG starts. You might know more about this as a teacher? Not that a 504 is required for everyone, but that's one of the major reasons we got it on file for Alex. He gets NO services from the school, but it's in place so that he has a history in his record for standardized testing. Something to consider in second grade along with everything else.
Enjoy the trip!!
That field trip actually sounds like a lot of fun! I am jealous! :)
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