Sunday, February 22, 2009

Confused about Preschool!?!?

I am so confused. We are thinking about pulling Robbie out of Preschool. Preschool was never in our plan, a few professionals recommended it last fall.

My son has a great preschool the teachers are nice. But, several things are going on. He has just been assessed with a number of problems by a developmental team. He has some social skills problems, fine motor delays, learning style differences and trouble staying in his seat. I feel that most of these issues can be worked on outside of preschool. Preschool is helping him learn to stay in his seat, but that does not seem like a good reason to continue. As for the other issues, they are too busy a class, to take care of my son's special needs and my son does not have a shadow. This is not the fault of the preschool it is just life.

He goes to OT (Occupational Therapy) for his motor skills every week and they work intensely. He attended a group last fall for social skills and will be attending another in the spring (He loved these groups, loved the kids and the speech therapist that ran it). I feel like I can help encourage him with his social skills in groups and activities with myself to guide him, along with the social skills group in the spring. The same with his motor skills, I feel I can reinforce what he learns in OT. And I can help him with his learning style differences.

He is also unhappy in preschool. He has expressed it to me several times in the last few weeks. He misses going to playgroup and some of his other activities. He really wants to attend a cooking class that's time conflicts with preschool. He has not made any real friends in preschool, while he had several friends at playgroup and his social skills group. I feel like if he was happier, it would help development.

I also know that kindergarten is around the corner and their is only so much time for me to help him, before he is on his own in the classroom. I feel like preschool is not giving the skill he needs to be school ready, and we have the individual time to give him. I am feeling confused about the whole thing.

Not to mention I am playing with the idea of homeschooling. The professionals said in Kindergarten he would have trouble because of not wanting to sit still, because of his need for movement and because of his learning differences. I will give kindergarten a chance. But, my son is bright. If these factors interfere with him learning and loving school, I will pull him out. I think movement is natural and all kids should have movement in their school day. And hopefully the school will work with his learning differences. We all have different learning styles, I know I do. That is what makes us unique and human.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

You have to look everywhere when you have a 4 year old

Robbie has a little table and chairs. He eats breakfast there, meals if he has friends over, and snacks. We always clean the top and sides. On a whim we turned it over this morning, and OMG It was filthy. A little science experiment of dried food. We asked what is going on. Apparently he has been wiping his hand under the table instead of washing them It took 25 minutes to clean and lesson learned. I encourage others to peak under their kids tables too!