Phew....

Well, okay!

1. If anyone is looking for a general practioner who is great with everyone and anyone ( I know that a friend of mine takes her child who has Autism to see him and I just saw him myself today), I can highly recommend Dr. Chambers in the Bull Run practice by the hospital. They take all different kinds of insurance (my friend has Kaiser and I have Anthem)....almost the entire staff of Weems goes there. Our school nurse's husband is also a doctor there. Anyway, he's my top pick of doctors ever, and I'm really picky about doctors!

That being said and out of the way, conferences are coming up. Do you have a time already? If you do and need reminding, just me let know.

I had the conversation yesterday and now I need to know as parents where it rates on your scale. Many of the goals in the IEPs of the boys talks about making them use eye contact to have a conversation. I argued yesterday that some times, you don't have to use eye contact to show that you are indeed paying attention. Most people that I know with some degree of Autism in fact don't look at whatever it is that is the focal point for most other people but can tell you exactly what you're talking about. I didn't know if eye contact is something that you expect from your children. Do they show you that they are listening without it?

I filled out the referrals for APE today. If you didn't hear about it, your child doesn't need it.

Try fitting the word "above" in at home. It's something that we're focusing on at school and it's quite a difficult word for them to understand because typically, it's not something that we use everyday.

We talked about Christopher Columbus today. I believe that it went over most of their heads. It was the end of the day (our first with our new schedule) and I tried teaching until almost 3 o'clock and they were fried.

Darius lost another tooth today! Two in two weeks! We can now see straight into his belly when he smiles!

During PE today (we're walking "to China" to help the homeless) Grant walked and ran the entire time. He was one of the only kindergarteners to do it. He stopped for a moment because it appeared that he walked funny on his ankle, but then he "shook it out" and kept right on going. I was so impressed that he kept his own pace no matter what other kids tried to get him to do. He did exactly what he was told to do by the teacher and he did it well!

We started our fire-education-week. In speech, we discussed what firefighters wear and what is on their truck. Then we added a new poem to our personal readers.

David, Patrick and Luis had a fantastic time in Ms. Albert's room today and just as they started to get fidgety, it was time for specials. A huge improvement from last week where they needed a break a half hour and sometimes forty five minutes beforehand!

We put the marble racer together again (and followed the directions this time instead of trying our own way) and had a great time with that as a class downtime.

Book orders should be going home, I'm hoping tomorrow if everyone shows up. I really do recommend them compared to Barnes and Noble which is where I was tonight. However, if you enjoy Barnes and Noble and have a membership card, there are great books in their kids bargain section with letters, numbers, colors, and more that have magic pictures. Also, in their main section of bargin there is another section of bargin books with holiday books for kids. I know, it's hard to think of the holidays when Halloween isn't even here, but they are there.

Should we have a Halloween party in the class? We haven't heard yet about the approval of the field trip which should be on the 30th. Then we'd have a party on the 31st. Is it too much? What are your thoughts?

Alright, I should go find my suitcase and contemplate packing....enjoy your night!

9-1-1

We're starting fire prevention teaching. In the song (on your cd) there is a song "firestation pete"....it talks about 9-1-1.

We will talk in our class about dialing 9-1-1 for an emergency but I'm asking that you do some teaching at home for this concept. The last thing that I want is for our boys to go and pick up the phone and dial and cause a ruckus. Believe me, I'm not a ruckus maker (usually).

So, go over why they might. To help you with this and your entire family, we'll be sending home a HUGE poster, thanks to Ms. Lunsford, all about safety and there is a place to put the numbers on them.

Just curious

As I was looking at the analytics of this blog, who is everyone who reads this? It's been read in 16 states so far! I can claim some of the NY readers (I think) but not all of them. I know that Grant's Grandparents and "favorite" aunt are reading from out west. You'd be happy to know that you are in second place in terms of readers with Virginia being in first. However, there is a huge group in PA, NY, Connecticut, Georgia and more!

It's impressive I must say. I'm half tempted to link it up to my other blogs (not that I really ever update those!) And I say link it up, I mean have my fiance do it...he's the one responsible for all my technology including building my websites (so far, I only have one but I'm out to conquer the web someday).

Okay, so that's my question today. Who are you? Is there something that you'd like to be reading here that I'm not posting? (My readers that I know are reading are also more than welcome to respond.)

Enjoy your day off tomorrow. I miss NY for the fact that they give their teachers the long weekend as well!

Our own Mrs. Robertson won the "Pear" award from Weems today. What it means is that she was nominated and voted by the faculty and staff as the IA who does a great deal for the Weems family. We all appreciate and know that we are the most fortunate to work with her.


Other than that excitement, it was a fairly non-descript day.

We had no Mrs. Robertson, Darius or Luis. Good times in inclusion for everyone. Music for Albert's class and Art for Ms. Spencer's students.

We worked on putting together marble racers in our class. Lunch and recess were pretty lovely. There was a lot of duck duck goose during recess and playing in dirt. Two distinct groups, but still exciting that everyone was with at least one other person playing.

In speech we talked about out a poem regarding our feet. Then we took our shoes and socks off and talked about different descriptors about our shoes.

Then, Ms. Stern had us PAINT WITH OUR FEET!!!!!! We painted leaves with our feet and then did something that we can't post here and used our hands to paint.

We took out our trains and marble racers again. We reviewed over, under, and on some more.

We're going to talk about fire safety next week and start talking about pumpkins!

Don't forget, NO SCHOOL FOR KIDS ON MONDAY!

Thursday

We moved the furniture around yesterday after work. Sorry for not posting last night...

We worked on over, under, and on today in math. Difficult but we had fun climbing on our desks and under them.

also, we played with trains today!

Some of us got really dirty playing at recess today. It really was hysterical and goes to show how much fun they are having!

Tomorrow we'll be finger painting so I hope you're feeling my excitement!

October 15th at 6pm. Parent night, bring a baby photo! We'll be talking about our roads to here...

Next Thursday after school I'll be leaving for NY for the weekend. If you need something, send an email.

Enjoy your Thursday.

Best bulletin board....

Robyn created a bulletin board with the boys pictures on pumpkins looking like jack-o-lanterns in a pumpkin patch!

We played football in speech today and spoke about top, middle, and bottom. The scarecrow that we had made was wearing a football helmet and when we threw, we were trying to identify if we hit him on the top, middle, or bottom.

Library for Spencer and Music for Albert today.

We explored magnets, did songs in the afternoon.

Still working on eye contact and looking at the people that you are speaking to.

We're doing a fantastic time in inclusion! I'm hearing great reports from everyone!

Tomorrow, we're starting math centers in the afternoon after speech. They will have 2:1 instruction from me, a small group of 3 with Robyn and then a choice activity independently. We're excited!

Next week is Fire Prevention Week.

Also, in terms of life skills, we're going to start out by remembering when our birthday is. After that, our phone number and then our address.

In terms of social skills, we're still working on greetings, closings, and eye contact.

Disney Sing Along Videos seem to be a great hit if you're looking for something new at home. They have different songs from different movies and the kids love to hear the songs and watch the characters dance.

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Happy October!

I'm under an allergy attack right now so I'm going to keep this brief.

We worked on eye contact again today. When talking with your child, please ask them "where are my eyes....talk to my eyes" It seems to be working. Hopefully, one day we won't have to ask.

We had music (spencer) and computer lab (albert) today.

In speech we worked on finishing our scarecrow.

WE ARE ON for our PARENT night. October 15th is the same night as the PTO meeting. The PTO meeting is at 7pm, would you prefer our time to be 6 or 6:30. I'm hoping that we can do a rotating thing of providing a light refreshment. Also, is there a particular topic that you'd like to talk about or focus on? Kids are welcome.

We talked about shapes today. We're going into unit four for math starting tomorrow because we're beyond where we need to be. (Gen Ed kindergarten is in unit 2).

Alright, the tissues and I have a date. Have a great night!