Ellie's End-of-the-Year Kindergarten Program

Just hours before picking Nathan up at the airport, I was pleased to attend Ellie's Kindergarten awards program.  Her class performed 3 or 4 songs.  Ellie's was last.  She was the alligator in the song, "5 Little monkeys".  You can watch her stellar performance here (seriously -- she did her part with no prompting.  I was so proud!):

With classmate, Lillie

Ellie and Ms. Paula, the teacher's aide

Ellie and Mrs. B -- an amazing Kindergarten teacher who went above and beyond.  We are so grateful!

Ellie and her special ed teacher, Mrs. Moberly -- this wonderful teacher has come up with some creative strategies for Ellie that have been great!

On Tuesday we had a meeting with Ellie's team, this time to discuss the possibility of retention.  Before I share what we have decided to do for next year, let me give a little background: The day before Nathan left for Japan we had Ellie's annual ARC meeting to plan her next IEP (individualized education plan).  We went into the meeting wanting one thing for Ellie, but left with our ideas for her next year of school even more muddled.  Because of state requirements for Ellie to continue to receive special education services, she needed a "label" for her needs.  After lots of testing, it appears that she is landing somewhere on the autism spectrum.  This was shared with us at her ARC meeting and allowed us to have some time to mull over all of her results before her retention meeting at the end of the month.

While the pros and cons for holding her back to repeat Kindergarten appeared to be pretty equal, it appears that she likely has a lifelong disability that more time to mature won't cure.  We also began to realize that in order for Ellie to face the fewest numbers of educational transitions (which transitions have historically really disrupted and delayed her learning), she probably needs to move on to 1st grade. Due to school policy, she can not repeat the same teaching team she has had this year -- but she theoretically could repeat her 1st grade teaching team if deemed necessary.  Her IEP has some very specific requirements which will ensure that the learning strategies which have been successful in Kindergarten should continue on at her new school for 1st grade.  Her Village teaching team has also expressed a strong desire to help her new team at Wilmore Elementary so that she can have as successful a year of 1st grade as possible.

Through these meetings with her teachers, we've gotten a clearer picture of our Ellie at school.  We heard lots of positive things about her from a social perspective that were new to us -- probably my favorite word was "charismatic."  I think it explains why she appears to be so well liked by everyone who knows her (and at her school of more than 800 kids, it appears that EVERYONE of the staff knows her!).  They said she seeks out social interaction with her peers (something we did not witness in pre-school) and her classmates enjoy her company (I've heard this from teachers as well as parents who say their children have "Ellie stories"). This kind of feedback also helps alleviate some of the fear that accompanies a possible diagnosis like autism which has a lot of social implications.  But it is precisely because Ellie is so well liked, that there were fears that she might not receive the positive peer modeling she needs should she remain in Kindergarten (where she might be rule as queen bee of her class). Whereas in first grade, her peers would be more likely to give her the social correction that she needs to understand appropriate behavior.  Additionally, she has met all the content benchmarks for Kindergarten and with some individualized instruction they assured us she has the intellectual capacity to handle 1st grade material.  So... we move forward and covet your prayers for us as we prepare her for a new school and all that it brings.  After three years at the Early Learning Village, I think Mom and Dad are more nervous about her new school than she is!

On a final note, we learned this week that Ellie will be evaluated at Cincinnati Children's Hospital in early December.  While that may sound a long ways off, we're hearing that it's actually about half the wait time for most kids awaiting evaluation by them.  We're on a cancellation list and have been told she's been given "priority status" -- by whom, we don't know, but we're not arguing!

Check back tomorrow for some fun bicycle pics and video!  And maybe for a slightly better edited version of this post.  It's late.  I'm tired.  I'll fix my mistakes later. ;-)