Hail hail the gangs all here!

I think I'm crazy .... do you?

Rainy Days

Rainy days that are suppose to happen in April but instead are in June make for great painting times. Here we have been learning all about Bugs. Caterpillar/butterfly is the end of our unit. We've covered ants, grasshoppers & crickets, spiders, beetles, ladybugs and now the butterflies. The sole purpose of doing this was to help 2 of the boys I watch get over their fear of bugs before the summer ... and it worked! No longer do I have screamers running and yelling "spider" every time the see an ant.

I've been busy here with the daycare kids and Charlie. There has been so much going on that its just been crazy. I will try and give a brief overview of where everyone is and what they've been up to and then I'll just start going from there.





Aaron has been officially diagnosed with ADHD ... big surprise there, not. That was back in February and it has only taken until now for his parents to accept it and move on with helping him. He will be starting meds this weekend while with Mom. He will be going to public K in September and will be going to the special K prep program in the summer, too. When that happens, that will probably be when he leaves the dayare here. He's been pretty rough to handle lately. His biggest problem here is bullying, he is awful!





Austin, even though he is old enough for K will not be going. Mom and his therapist asked if I would be willing to work another year with him. The hope is maybe he will be ready for 1st grade next year with an intensive 1 on 1 K here with me. If not he can start K next year because he is a late Sept birthday and only makes the cut off by days as it is.



Justin is his same old self. Pretty average for a 3 1/2 year old. Since he started speech in February he has improved tremendously. I often just have to remind him to slow down when he's talking and usually people can understand him pretty well. Cognitively he still has a way to go but he's getting there.



Charlie .... as far as the Asperger's goes, there is so much to go over that it would be a post, in itself. We have put him on a casein-free diet and it has made a difference. Right now we are having a problem with him being teased by the others sometimes. It can be heart breaking.

Academically, Charlie is way ahead of the curve as always, and he has gotten really good at the phonics games on the computer and at almost 3 1/2 he knows all his uppercase letters by name and can connect most of the sounds with the letter. When it comes to hand work like scissors, coloring, writing, etc. he is really lacking. His gross motor is behind a bit as well. He can not catch a ball, throw it too well, or pedal at all yet. Toileting is another problem. He really has no idea if he is wet, has a poop, or a dry diaper. From what I have learned about AS, it seems all these issues are related to it.

So, as far as the daycare/prescool days go, each boy definitely are working on very different things and we just try to keep on moving forward.

Wow! It's been awhile.

Wow, has it really been since the beginning of March since I've posted? I'm gonna start writing at least once a week, even if its just to recap what we've been up to here.

Many things have changed around here, the least of which, this weekend Jenny and the 2 kids are moving back home. Its gonna be crazy for awhile I'm sure but it will work itself out in time, I'm sure.

Reflecting

For the past week now I've spent alot more time sitting back and observing the boys and Charlie than I normally do. Normally our days are filled with routines that include "preschool time", story time, structured play (all which are somewhat teacher directed) as well as free play both in and out. It has really opened my eyes.

Charlie very rarely plays with the other kids. He is usually playing near them but never with them. He does sometimes think he's playing with them, I think, but he really isn't.

Also throughout this week, behaviors that have always been apart of Charlie, seem to be taking on different meanings. Like is "doing laps". That has been something Charlie has done since he was a little ove 2. Often, last spring, when he had had enough of the rest of the gangs, bickering or just "preschool boy" type play, he would start running laps around the yard to tune them out.

He always followed the same route.

Then, when we moved here to the new house this past summer, he still did the same thing when he had had enough. Only this time he used the perimeter of the yard as his track. Occassionally the other boys would ask why Charlie was running and we just said he was exercising. They occassionally would join him and turn it into a race but Charlie never changed his running or acknowledge that they were running/racing with him.

Now that winter has been upon us we spend less time outside. When Charlie starts jogging, as he calls it now, its for the same reasons, to tune the others out. Inside his route is a loop through the playroom, tv room, kitchen and to the end of the galley kitchen and back again.

In the past, it didn't occur to me that this behavior could be a sign of something, heck both his sisters were on track teams and Charlie did used to go to their meets when he was a toddler. We knew he used it as a way to not bother with the other kids when things got too much for him but we always thought it was a good thing he found a way to handle situations without getting all worked up like most toddlers did and throw tantrums. Now I see it as possibly his form of styming. Hmm

Boy its been awhile

Boy its been awhile. There is so much going on between the girls, the daycare and Charlie that who knows where to start.

Charlie had his 3 yr old check up last week. For the most part it was pretty standard. At least physically, that is. As usual he is still in the 5% for both height and weight. He's always been such a peanut.

We have been having other issues that we discussed with the Dr. Charlie has been very reluctant to leave the house for the past few months and when we do it is only about 30 -45 min later before he really starts showing signs of anxiety and wanting to go home. It doesn't seem to matter where or what we are doing it comes on all of a sudden. In light of this new quirk in his personality, the Dr. thinks we might want to think about having him assessed for PDD/Aspergers Syndrome more specifically. This was just the final decision maker. He has always been way ahead of the curve intellectually it seemed, always has had strong fixations on specific topics, and an incredible memory for detail info, as well.

Lately, socially, it seems he does quite get how to play with the other kids. He'll be playing (reenacting skits) from his newest craze The Imagination Movers and not care or seem to notice no one else is interested. Yet, he still continues. He looks forward to the kids coming over or get togethers with his cousins, but once there he really doesn't play with them but hangs on hte outskirts playing his "Movers" characters or just mostly associating with the adults or just playing alone. Adding in the new agoraphobia tendency to this really makes us concerned.

So for now I'm doing lots of reading, researching and talking about it with Chuck and we'll probably go with getting an evaluation in a month or so.

That's it for now.

A Boy and his Dog

Meet Izzy! Charlie has a new puppy. Izzy is a 4mth old shepard/lab mix. We got her on Monday from a couple that is no longer able to care for her. So far so good. She's kind of low key and seems very even tempered which is real import around here. With a house full of preschool boys during the day she seems to be taking in all the excitement very well.

The cats, on the other hand, haven't shown their faces down stairs since the 1st encounter Monday night. But I figure they'll work it out soon as eventually they will get hungry.