To anyone who actually keeps up with us, so sorry that I haven't blogged since the IEP went into place back in January; as always, life has just kept me very busy.
Maybe now that summer is here I can breathe a little, and then maybe share more often.
The IEP seemed effective at first. She had an initial adjustment period where she came home with bad marks or notes, but not long after the IEP was in place she seemed to level off. But then after spring break, Ellie once again seemed to show her true colors. Her behaviors once again hit a level that was not tolerated by her teachers or peers. Mostly safety issues like pushing and kicking others and hyper-active issues like running around the room during the teacher's teaching time or not staying on her mat during rest time -- things that were causing major distractions for the other students.
So as the story goes, her teachers and I decided to make a change and placed Ellie in the Resource Room full time and flip-flop her IEP. So since she was a student in a general education class with 2 hours of Special Education attention, that meant she would go into spec. ed. full time with 2 hours of reintroduction back into gen. ed.
And again, there was an adjustment period where she bucked the system, but after 2-3 weeks she seemed to gain the hang of it and honestly, seemed to do better in the spec. ed./resource room setting.
The plan is to re-introduce Ellie back to gen. ed. as her behavior improves. Unfortunately, her behavior did not improve enough to make that re-introduction possible before school broke for summer. So next year she will be passed to the first grade, but she will begin the year in the resource room, and upon improvements in her performance, she will eventually go back into a gen. ed. class.
Let's hope and pray we end next year in gen. ed., and that by the time she starts second grade we will have etched out some "normal" behaviors and conduct -- whatever that is. :)
Academically, Ellie is advanced -- I mean smart. She can read -- actually has been reading for a while. I don't know many kindergartners who can read on her level. She has a high IQ and knows more sight words, sounds, numbers and math equations than she is expected to. She brings home A-B report cards. She's a little sponge; she just absorbs information and retains it well.
I think she is just bored with school. I hope she will always be this smart. She's gonna need it for a college scholarship. :)
On an emotional note, she handled the miscarriage rather well. She was very, very excited to be a big sister, but I think it helps, obviously, that I was only 3 months along.
We've always told her that babies come from baby seeds. (Just an easy, G-rated explanation for now that seems to satisfy her curiosity.) When we sat her down and explained that there wasn't a baby in mommy's belly anymore, without batting an eye she told us to "just plant another one." And that was that.
It has made her a little more curious about death, but honestly she showed more emotion when Lady, her Grammy's dog, died.
She does still want to be a big sister, and Robert and I do still want to be parents again, so we will "plant another one" soon. :)
Until then, we plan on taking this summer as it comes and enjoying it. So far, though, it has come with rain and storms. Since her last day of school, today makes a week, it has rained and kept us indoors. Needless to say we are driving each other nuts!
Her daddy has some time off in July, so we may even actually take a vacation this year. Can't wait to blog about that. In the meantime, please enjoy this video of Ellie throwing a fake fit about losing her pet praying mantis. This on her first full day home from school!
Ah the joys of living with little humans! :)
https://www.facebook.com/HeyYaYa/videos/10206370795456128/?l=8901392726273158414
