Caelun’s First Day Of Pre-School At Cedar Trails

We had felt since about age 2 that Caelun’s speech and language and his motor skills weren’t developing at the ‘normal’ rate. Now I know that ‘normal’ has a HUGE range but this felt out of that range to us. As educators whose job it is to teach and spot folks who need extra help with learning issues and as people who both have learning disabilities ourselves that weren’t diagnosed until we were adults (me with dyslexia and Clint with Asperger's) we are probably hyper sensitive to such things. While not possessing the traditional  signs of hyper sensitivity to sensory stimuli the speech and language and the motor skill delays accompanied with some social awareness issues seemed like red flags to us of someone on the autistic spectrum. We brought it up to our pediatrician at his 3 year old well child visit but she needed some convincing. At the four year old visit she agreed to send us to a specialist, a behavioral pediatrician, for testing and the specialist agreed he is on the autistic spectrum. He is only on the spectrum by a few points, what used to be called Asperger’s and high functioning even for that, but he is on the spectrum and thus eligible in the state of Michigan for services through the public school system. This meant the second week of September he was enrolled in the ECSE (Early Childhood Special Education) program at our local public school. He receives speech and language therapy, physical/occupational therapy, and behavior therapy along with classroom academics.  This is him meeting Miss. V. his teacher on the first day. Hooray for the ECSE Preschool!

Kickin’ It In Pre-School

The end of August means the end of summer and the start of a new school year. This year we ALL went back to school. Caelun turned 4 back in April so this is the year to start pre-school. With the recommendation of some friends we chose Wee Folk in Rockford, MI the next town over for us and on my way to work. Wee Folk is a pre-school and a day care with all certified staff.  He was scheduled  to do afternoons which is the half of the day I teach but we stated with full days the first week While both Clint and I did in-service. He was pretty darn excited to go to school like Mommy, Daddy, and Abbi.

The pictures aren’t lit very well- it was dark out when we left the house.

Getting in the van and heading out.

Arriving at Wee Folk. Yeah for school!

Abbi’s first day of High School

The day arrived! Our Abbi woke up, got ready, walked out the door and became a freshman in high school. Of course “the momarazzi” had to take pictures much to her chagrin. She humored me with a begrudging if not some what annoyed smile on her way out the door. Yeah for high school!

 

Abbi headed across the street to Levi’s to get a ride- yes Levi is driving, folks. I know – how did that happen?

 

That is Levi’s truck he bought with money he earned this summer collecting scrap and turning it in. We gave him our old washer when we replaced it.

 

Brien opens the door and Abbi climbs in.

Here they are ready for high school.

Abbi’s first day at Cedar Springs

   My dear step-daughter recently switched schools from Traverse City to Cedar Springs. I never had to change schools during my K-12 education so I can only imagine the courage that takes – especially as a middle schooler. I am happy to report that things seem to be flowing smoothly. We are so happy to have her here where we can better support her academic and extra curricular activities. I  am really excited to get to become a full fledged “band mom” I promise to try not to embarrass her -to much.