3/17/11 Happy St. Patty's day

The boys had a spectacular birthday! I can't believe they are already 5 years old, oh how fast time flies by!

Ben is in love with his new Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle and Tyler got a Toys Story Hot Wheels kit that he loves. They are looking forward to their birthday party this weekend.

I haven't posted in a while so I'm forgetting what I have already mentioned but for those of you who do not know, we stopped private speech. We have spent nearly $100,000 battling autism over the past few years, we've given up our home, and the small town community we once thought was our dream to be somewhere that Tyler could get the services that he needs. the road to kindergarten for Ty requires a lot of meetings. During one of those meetings, I had asked the team about TYler's chances of ever being able to talk (verbally) and they responded that the likelihood is pretty slim. Ty's been in speech since he was 13 months old, now at age 5, he still isn't saying any words. Babbles (yeah) but no words. Luckily his dynavox has helped his communication tremendously, in fact, I attribute his IPAD and Dynovox as being one of the main reasons Tyler has been so successful this year at school....

so successful that Tyler gets to move up to a Level 2 classroom next year, YEAH!!!!!! There is a lot involved with the road to kindergarten for a child with special needs. I had no idea the meetings, observations, meetings, etc. that would be required. Tyler has made tremendous progress this year and I'm so glad the team agreed that a level 2 classroom is best suited for him. Now, let's set the goals high and perhaps he can move to a level 3 the following year :)

Ann Arbor only offers half day kindgarten, so we are going to opt to pay for the extended day option for Ben. Tyler will go from 8:45 - 3:45 since he is in special education. This way both the boys will be bussed to their after school care (annie's) and arrive at the same time. I'm excited to have them together even if it's for a only a couple of hours. I had round up for Ben earlier this week adn meant the extended day option k teacher for Ben. I really liked the way they described the extended day option. It's considered child care however, the teachers reinforce the curriculum through other activities and I think ben would love that environment. I thought we'd finally be done with all of this expensive child care stuff, we chose the most economical schedule possible with one of us still going in late to work so we can drop off the boys and not have to worry about before care costs but it's still close to $1000 a month when we add up their after school costs and Ben's extended school day option (which was cheaper than the child care facility by the way). One more year and maybe we'll get back on our feet, lol.

Ok that's all from us, we are on the road to kindergarten :) I have an IEP scheduled for Tyler next month with the team from his new school and his current team (3 hour mtg) to write up an IEP for next year and work on transitions. I'm really really really happy that he is going into a level 2 classroom.

xoxo