First day of school!

Today was the first day of our 2005-2006 school year. We started the day with Joshua's OT and ST. His OT went wonderfully. He spent the first part playing in a ball pit and then we went into a room where he played in buckets of rice looking for puzzle pieces, putting coins into a bank, stringing beads, and then putting on his shoes using his hands. He knows how to put on his shoes by manuevering his feet into the shoes and fighting with them to do so, but she made him actually watch what he was doing and use his hands. He was quite unhappy about it, but got over it quickly. :) Mindy also gave us a nice packet of vestibular and proprioceptive activities we can do at home. I really like her a lot, and Joshua LOVES her! LOL

ST went ok. I am not sure who we are going to have next week. The therapist we have seen for the eval and the past two sessions, Roni, is not listed on our schedule as who we will be with. Instead, they put in the name of a woman that isn't even there anymore! I asked what was going on, and it turns out they are getting three new therapists and we may be split into one of their groups. We can't get Terri, who was recommended to us, because she is now administrator of the STR dept and she had to give up several of her patients to fulfil her new responsibility. Kind if stinks since Mrs, G said she is really great with Autistic children.

The session itself went ok. We went in and Josh immediately wanted the "magnets". We had no idea whta he was talking about for a good minute and finally he showed us a shape sorted that plays music when you put the shape in the correct hole. At the end of the session, I mentioned to Roni that I noticed that last time, and then occasionally this time, she would leave out the word "the" in sentences like "I want man", and I asked if we were supposed to do that or if it was some type of technique they use. She said she is just used to working with a lot of kids on making 3 word sentences and didn't really realize she was doing it...it isn't necessary. She mentioned several times that he has a lot of good knowledge and skills. They worked on opposites and getting him to answer her questions. He is defintiely smart, I know that! It is simply a matter of not being able to pull the knowledge from him when needed. I guess it is just me, but I feel like we haven't really gotten much so far from the two sessions...maybe it is that she knows she isn't going to have him after today, and she isn't worried...or maybe it really is just me! LOL

After we returned home, we started school. As I mentioned before, we are starting the year with a unit study on Space since the boys are so interested in it. We started the day with them getting their school boxes and misc supplies. They were so excited! Then I showed them where each of them were to keep those supplies when we aren't using them. Our first part of the lesson involved reading Psalm 8 and then discussing how amazing it was that God could make such a marvelous thing as outer space and how it is so big that we can't even see all of it...and yet we can still praise Him for all of it. We then moved to Genesis and read the first chapter and discussed the Creation. Each day this week, they will be drawing a picture coresponding to one of the days. Jacob's picture wasn't exactly correct, but he did say he knew that. I went ahead and made him redo it. He had a picture of the Earth and the Sun and the water and land were seperated. All of that comes later. Once I re-explained that, he understood a little better. I'll have to scan his completed project later and post it here. :)

If you were to look at Joshua's picture (and Cassie's too), you'd think I had told them about the Big Bang theory or something. LOL I think tomorrow I am going to print out some coloring pages to help them out a bit. I mainly hadn't given thought to Joshua doing the coloring since he usually has a major aversion to crayons. Seeing him actually take interest though, I definitely want to be sure to encourage it, and I will make it more interesting and a little easier for him now that I know. Don't get me wrong, he will definitely be getting his fair share of coloring and writing this year, but I wanted to be sure the first day went smoothly. :)

Tonight, we will finish the lesson, provided the skies are clear. We are supposed to go out and look at the sky and they are to draw what they see. So, day 1 went pretty well. Pics to be posted soon!