Transition to Year 1

We had our meeting last week. No surprises - in fact some fo the tenor was pretty much what we got last eyar - you know how the other kids 'just take off' in kindy and how the gap between Hannah and her peers will get wider yada yada yada - but you know upon reflection it occurred to me that with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions there isn't a bigger gap between Hannah and any other of her peers than there is between her and Kit - so yes we live with it, we see it - and we can also see that for now - it is not a 'problem'.

The meeting itself was positive. The twins have had a great year and we are very pleased with the school. The principal hadn't confirmed who would be teaching Hannah next year so we will have a follow up meeting later in the term. I will take photoes etc of the Year 1 classroom to prepare a social story for her and we'll try and get the spec ed teacher to take ehr into the Year 1 room for an occassional visit (her resource room is nexxt to it) so that Hannah gets abetter idea of just what we mean by Year 1.

She knows something about it because after the last school holidays when I was talking with her about going back to school - she said "Yes, Hannah Year 1" and i had to break it to her that she didn't go into Year 1 untl after the long holidays of Christmas.
She loves the ipod touch she got for her brithday but I haven't loaded any communication software yet - am hoping we will be successful in our funding application for an ipad and the proloquo2go - then we can start including it in her IEP goals.

The twins had a fantastic birthday - the gymnastics party went really well. Hannah has started referring to one little girl as 'my best friend' which is of course just fantastic. She is also getting more tired at school in the afternoons because she is more actively engaged in play with the other children at recess and lunch.

A New Term

Ten weeks left of kindy. Wow. October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month which means that lots of resources and links have been flying around fb. One was a short video based ont eh story of My Friend Isabelle. It can be found by clicking on the title - if this copy and paste doesn't work.... http://www.ndss.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=232:everyone-counts-my-friend-isabelle-video&catid=74:video&Itemid=120

Anyhow if that doesn't work - google Everyone Counts My Friend Isabelle and it will come up on the ndss website.

I mentioned it to Hannah's teacher in the communication book today - and she showed it to the kindy kids today.

It would have been great at the start of the year - but is no doubt a timely reminder for them. This morning when we got to school you wouldn't know that they need reminding though - one gorgeous little girl came running over to take Hannah by the arm - to show her her zhuzhu pet, another came over to say hello and our young friend (who visited in the break to make pasta at our house) came over and immediately lifter her up off the ground in his joy. Then one of the girls held her hand and away they went to the other side of the playground. Lovely. When it works, it works... I hope it works for a looong time...