Week in Review

Nope, I didn't fall off the planet and stop updating Ryan's blog, just been pretty busy round here with trips to Ireland for Christmas and then getting back into the swing of things after the new year. I promise to go back and write about all the Ireland happenings when I get a chance, but in the mean time a little update on how things are going in Weeman Land. We had a pretty busy week this week. Ryan's school held their annual art and jazz function night. This is a really great night where they auction off artwork completed by each class. Believe me it can get pretty brutal when some parents don't win what their kids made, but its all in good fun and makes some money for the school. Ryan's class painted a copy of a Van Gogh painting, 

This pic doesn't really do it justice, it was really excellent up close, and I was more than sad we didn't win it. Turns out Ryan and his teacher Mr Mickey had painted most of it, as the other kids were only interested in throwing the paint brushes etc, and Ryan was the only one actually interested in painting. We all know how much Ryan likes to draw. In school hes doing really well with his pre-writing skills and can copy a horizontal line, vertical line and a circle. I found this nifty little list that outlines the steps a child makes to pre-writing. He is also able now to draw a line from one picture to a matching picture and Louise the behavioural therapist for his class has started sight words with him. . 

Stage 1- Child scribbles randomly

Stage 2a)- Child scribbles spontaneously in a 
horizontal direction.

Stage 2b)-Child scribbles spontaneously in a 
vertical direction.

Stage 2c)- Child scribbles spontaneously in a 
circular direction.

Stage 3a)- Child imitates a horizontal line.

Stage 3b)-Child imitates a vertical line.

Stage 3c)- Child imitates a circular line.

Stage 4a)- Child copies a horizontal line.

Stage 4b)- Child copies a vertical line.

Stage 4c)- Child copies a circle.

Stage 5)- Child imitates a cross.

Stage 6)- Child copies a cross.

* Eventually child should be able to imitate and
then copy diagonal lines, an “X,” and basic shapes

I was also at the school this week for moms yoga. Ive been making a conscious effort to try to minimise some of the stress in my life and have been finding yoga is a great way of doing this. The moms yoga class also gives me the opportunity to spend some time with other parents with kids at Ryan's school. Its amazing what you can learn at one of these nights, eg I found out that one of the moms is having their school district pay for her sons Medek therapy twice a week. Its on my list to ask for this at Ryan's next IEP coming up shortly, I don't actually hold out much hope I will get them to pay for it, but its worth a try, right? 

Ryan started a social skills class this week. Its with 7 other little boys from the area all aged 3-5 years with various special needs mostly social skills, and speech. I was so proud of Ryan being able to sit Indian style in circle time, and join in with the class, he was actually the best behaved and the most attentive, even if he had a small fit about having his name stickered to his shirt. During the game portion of the class it was very surprising to see Ryan be able to keep up with the other boys, understanding what the game was all about, matching the correct pictures even to things I didn't even know he knew like bus window wipers and waiting his turn. This little fella continues to amaze me with what he can actually do. I think this group will be great for him and its really nice he gets to spend time with boys his own age. 

I also found a little library group a few towns over that I think Ryan really enjoyed, well for the first half anyway. As the group is for 3-6 year olds the story was quite complicated and long. Ryan did a great job holding his attention for the first story but a 1/4 way through the second he was starting to become really uninterested and was wanting to play with all the other books on the shelves.