Nora started back to school and is doing well.
It's her second year of preschool and I was initially apprehensive about the fact that the school switched teachers, but so far, it seems great. Nora grew socially last year, but there wasn't really an academic focus for her, since it was geared towards things that she already knew. This year, she's starting to identify lowercase and uppercase letters. I can tell that things are clicking with her when we're reading books now! She can recognize letters and even a few words (mom, dad and her name for now). It's so exciting!She misses our school districts cut off for Kindergarten next year by 9 days, as the cutoff is Aug 1. They'll test her, but from what I understand, pretty much no one passes their tests. One woman told me her daughter was short for her age and didn't get a point for height and ended up one point short. For reals. I am a public school product and really thought that we would go that route, but it's now looking that at least for Kindergarten, she'll be going to our Parish school. I'm not entirely upset about this for now. It's five days per week full days, whereas the local school district is split into two groups, the Monday/Wednesday class and the Tuesday/Thursday class. They go all day on their assigned days, plus every other Friday. Can you say scheduling nightmare? Especially since I should be in nursing clinicals by then?
Josh is still receiving early intervention through the Help Me Grow program, for his speech delay. Cognitively and Gross Motor skills are ahead of the pack, Fine Motor skills are the only other area that he is even close to borderline on, and I'm told that it's common for a speech
delayed child to have some Fine Motor skills that are slower in emerging. And, let's face it, this boy is all about the Gross Motor skills at this point. He climbs, jumps, does stairs, etc. Josh has several words that he uses very regularly: mommy, daddy, 'kay, go, kitty and his new word that emerged this weekend was sissy! Yay, so happy to hear that one. :) He also signs, with his big ones being please and more. The EI Specialist and his EI Coordinator are impressed that despite his speech delay he is able to readily communicate his needs. They note that he shows his emotions well (his smile does light up a room if I do say so myself) and he's generally just good about pointing and letting people know his needs.All is going well with this pregnancy. I think I'm 23 weeks along (yes, I said think....that's what happens when you have a few to chase down, you can't keep track as well). We're members of Team Green (and no, I'm not talking earth friendly here, rather the want to wait and find out group). :)
