WOW! Lila is doing soooo well!!!! She is interacting with all of the kids, raises her hands to answer questions, and is progressing in her writing, letter recognition and letter sounds. We are absolutely amazed at her progress and capabilities, as is her teacher. I had a teachers conference this past Monday and she is recognizing 21 out of 48 letters, has 50% of her letter sounds down, and is recognizing 6 different site words! I have been frustrated for three years over her lack of progress, and now she is finally ready!
Lila loves to pretend to be the teacher at home, read books to the class, ask math questions, and wakes up on Saturday mornings asking to go to school. SO exciting to see her finally becoming interested in academics! We are not even putting pressure on her to focus and grasp concepts, like we have tried to do in the past...Lila has come around...yay!
In the past, Lila would recognize a skill as difficult, and create a diversion immediately. Most recently I was wanting to do a homework page with her, and she said that she wanted to do some cutting instead..."because it was easier"- her own words! This is the Lila I have known for the past four years in school. Hallelujah, there is a GOD! She is excited about her letter sounds, feels proud of herself when she points out letters when we are reading a book, and traces the alphabet and her name in a matter of minutes. Boy oh boy, we are having a great year, and just started school on July 23rd! It can only get better :-)
There was an opportunity that was presented to us whereas Lila would be able to attend a private school, very near our house, for kindergarten only, as first graders go into the school district. We made the appropriate calls, looked into services for Lila, etc. however this did not work out. Nevertheless, what it did do was opened our eyes to Lila's current schedule at school. For this, I am forever grateful! Today I had a meeting with all of Lila's therapists, the principal, her one-on-one aide, and her resource teacher. I put this meeting together in an effort to see how we can all work together to keep Lila in the classroom as much as possible each week. We feel very strongly about her academics being critical this year, as we have decided to keep her back in full day, typical KG and give her the chance to catch up. It is working, and I don't want to see her stumble because we are putting too much emphasis on therapies rather than academics.
That being said, the meeting was a huge success, and we feel as though Lila is so well supported! We are very fortunate to be where we are in the school district, and all of this would not have become so clear to me if we would not have been presented with this private school offer.
Everything happens for a reason...I whole-heartedly believe this. I originally thought that this offer for Lila to be in a smaller program, be closer to home, and go to the same school as her sister was the perfect scenario. Well, since this has fallen through, something so great has come out of it. So, the original outcome I had foreseen was not the real reason that this offer was presented to us. Funny how things work sometimes :-) If we are lucky, Lila will be able to attend the private school while she is on her breaks, in order for her to stay on track and keep her momentum going. This would truly be the best of both worlds :-)
Thank you God for putting people, offers, and hurdles in our tracks...just to get to an amazing outcome, no matter which way this all would have worked out!
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