After a long day of playing outside in the warm weather, there aren't too many things that are better than eating watermelon!
Phil's birthday was on Friday and Ryan is excited that we will be celebrating it on Memorial Day with our families. He's been talking about it all weekend and was happy to go buy a cake for daddy. Our family chipped in to buy Phil a new barbecue grill for his birthday and Ryan was happy to help daddy put it together. We used it this weekend to grill turkey burgers and we'll be grilling corn on the cob, chicken, steak, hot dogs, and zucchini on it for Phil's birthday celebration.
To follow up with last week's blog, we attended Ryan's CSE meeting on Tuesday. First thing on Monday morning the school psychologist called me to smooth things over and try to reverse the damage that the speech therapist did on Friday. So after a long phone conversation with the psychologist we felt much better going in to Tuesday morning's meeting. Ryan will not be going to Fishkill Plains, but to Gayhead, as we had planned all along. They do not have an Integrated Kindergarten class at Gayhead, so he will be in the regular education classroom, but he and another little boy will be sharing a Teaching Assistant. This is a much better situation than him having the benefit of a Special Education teacher, but needing to share the teacher with up to 11 other special needs students. With that kind of ratio, we felt Ryan would get lost in the crowd. And it would be very difficult to anticipate situations that set Ryan off while trying to manage all of those children. He is in a full day program now but Wappingers does not have full day kindergarten, only half day. We're currently working on arrangements for the other half of Ryan's day.
His speech services will end at the end of the school year, but there will be screenings done in the fall again. He will continue with O/T but rather than twice a week like he gets now, it has been reduced to once every 6-day cycle. His counseling will continue. He is in a 5-1 group counseling now and he will get a 3-1 counseling session each 6-day cycle. While we realize that the frequency of his services have decreased, that ultimately is the goal. And if things are not going smoothly in the fall, then we can request another meeting to address issues, and we are dealing with the Committee on Special Education, not the Preschool Committee on Special Education anymore, which is chaired by a woman who is cut and dry and in our experience does not seem like she is there for the good of the child.
On Memorial Day Ryan will attend his first soccer practice. We signed him up for U6 soccer in the fall and they asked us if we would like him to join a team this spring that works with special needs children. We thought it would be a great way to get Ryan to understand the rules of the game and play with other children before he plays on a team in the fall. We bought him a soccer ball and shin guards and he practiced dribbling the ball around the outside of the house this weekend. He did a few laps before becoming bored with it. And he wasn't crazy about wearing the shin guards but I think he'll be more apt to participate in all aspects of the sport when there are other boys there doing the same thing.
Also coming up this week, Ryan has an appointment with Dr. Bock on Tuesday, and the walk is on Sunday. It's still not too late to sign up to join our team! The walk begins at 11 am and we're gathering at 10 am. If you need details, please let us know, or visit our team page. The Ryan Express
And I can't write this blog today without mentioning my cousin Cara Ann, who would have been celebrating her 25th birthday today. She passed away 4 months before her 16th birthday, an amazing feat since her family was told she wouldn't see her 1st birthday. She survived all of those years with a rare genetic disorder called Trisomy 13. Her family, especially her mom (my godmother Aunt Lucy) gave her great care, showered her with love, and never gave up on her.
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| Love you, Cara Ann! |
DC
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