Kindergarten: The First Few Weeks

Nolan loves Kindergarten. "Loves" might be an understatement. He is absolutely thrilled to go to school each day. He loves his teacher and he loves his TOD (teacher of the deaf). He's doing really, really well.

He is getting some help from the Occupational Therapist. His fine motor skills are lagging and his hyperflexible joints/hypotonia in his hands does create a few minor issues. It is something we're monitoring and we haven't written the OT into his IEP yet, but that is on the table. Hopefully a few sessions with the OT will help him develop some coping skills for his weak(er) hands.

He knows all of his letters (except for G, which he has apparently forgotten over summer vacation). He knows most of his letter sounds, with the exception of E, L, U, X, and Y. Not too shabby, though I'm a little bummed that he forgot a few of his sounds over the summer. We did work on them, but we also had a lot of other experiences (like fossil digging and swimming) that I feel are equally important to creating a well-rounded child. We'll work on the forgotten letter sounds and he'll have them down pat soon.

His FM system is working wonderfully. He came home today and recited the following poem to me:

"I am mother circle, round like a pie.
I am baby triangle, three sides have I.
I am papa square, my sides are four.
I'm cousin rectangle, shaped like a door."

This thrills me for a lot of reasons. Firstly, he is hearing his teacher very well. Secondly, his auditory memory is excellent to remember the entire poem. His hearing aid batteries died at school last Friday, and his teacher changed them without incident. I love her.

His eating is hit-or-miss at school. He often only eats a couple bites of his sandwich at lunch, a Go-Gurt and a small clementine. Sometimes he manages to eat more of his sandwich. He does eat all of his snack in the afternoon. On the days he doesn't eat well, he'll often come home and eat a large after school snack - which then impacts dinner. We're not too worried about it - if he's hungry, we give him food. If he is bloated or simply "too full," we just let it go. We can always make it up at night.

I can't wait to see him blossom throughout the year. He absolutely loves everything about Kindergarten, and is happy to be participating in gym again. Now that things have quieted down on the medical front, we can relax and enjoy the school year!