We've made some good progress so far this summer. Dylan was very fearful and unwilling to wear headphones, which is part of the computer class in kinder. We tried for several weeks to ease him into them by using them along with his favorite songs and videos on the computer. No go.
Since he will be required to wear them for 45 minutes in computer class we had to try something else. I held him while my hubby put the headphones on. He cried, kicked and flailed for 10 minutes or so. Then he calmed down and started listening. He loves them now. In fact, when it's time to move onto the next activity he doesn't want to take them off. He just needed to wear them for awhile and get accustomed to the feel and sound. It was so heartbreaking to see him crying and afraid during that 10 minutes. I really hate taking that approach but it always works.
He has also learned the token system and we use it all the time. He earns tokens for good behavior and when the chart is filled with tokens he gets to choose a reward from the basket. We've had to take away potato chips as a reward option because he has become obsessed with them. Throwing fits and demanding them all the time. But he has wind up toys, light up balls, tops, balloons, bubbles etc to choose from. So far so good. This is something they can use to help him stay on task at school.
We had to cut the summer program short due to a freak illness that sent my hubby to the hospital. His left arm around his elbow began to swell and become painful. Long story short, it was a bacterial infection. He had a tiny, barely visible scratch on his elbow and apparently that was the entry point for a nasty bacteria to enter and set up house. He had to be hospitalized, have surgery and remain on IV antibiotics in the hospital for 3 days. Did I mention we have no health insurance. Yeah, fun. Anyhoo, he missed 3 weeks of work. Which means I had to end the program early. I was so sad, but with hubby home, he took over the program and was actually the one responsible for progress in potty training and headphones. It was some great daddy son bonding time and I am happy for that. But we still have a few weeks before school starts so Dylan will not have the intense 6 hours a day I wanted him to have during this time. All I can say is we did the best we could and will continue to plug away as best we can.
We have been working with him to learn to sit on a carpet square. So much of kinder is spent on the floor. Listening to the teacher read a book, doing a class-wide phonics lesson, etc. But whenever he isn't in a chair, he tends to wander. He's doing much better staying put with the carpet, so I plan on giving one to his teacher so she can use it with him. I just hope this will work!
In a few weeks, my oldest goes off to college six hours away. I've decided it is important for the whole family to be there to help him move into the dorms. I want the younger kids to have a visual idea of what happens after high school. But that means bringing Dylan. The dorms have narrow halls and tiny rooms so this will be a huge challenge for him. Luckily my son will probably be working on campus which means they'll open his dorm up for him a few days before most of the other students. So if we make a spectacle of ourselves at least it will not be in front of a crowd of people. I'll take lots of pictures and tell you how it goes.
Overall, I'd say we're having a successful summer, even with a few bumps along the road. The school has agreed to open up his classroom a week or two before school starts so I can bring him in and get him use to the room before the first day. I'm hoping to have time to talk to the teacher and aid about his progress and challenges. In preschool, the teacher hand-over-handed him through a lot of activities with no apparent goal of having him learn the activity. She did this for two years, often front of me, which tells me she thought it was the right thing to do. I don't want that to continue in kinder and the only way it won't is if they have a firm grasp on his developmental level. It's hard to discern what he is absorbing and what he isn't so they need to hear me out and pay close attention to him. This is my biggest fear going forward. His kinder teacher is wonderful but the verdict is still out on the aids. My fingers are crossed.
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