He did it!

Logan passed a MAJOR hurdle this week.  He combined 3 sounds in a cvc format (consonant/vowel/consonant) and read his very first word.  His first 8 words, actually.  Bat.  Mat.  Cat.  Hat.  Sat.  Nat.  Pat.  And rock.  (Yes, I know—’rock’  doesn’t fit the word list or the pattern.  Don’t ask…)  We’re pretty excited here. :) 

I have to say…after a very rough start last fall and many many ‘tearing my hair out’ days when it seemed that we would NEVER get there, passing this mark is an amazing thing.  He struggles so hard to put everything together, and the light in his eyes when it all came together for him was worth every lost hair.   I don’t expect to see progress come in giant steps from this point forward, but that’s okay.  He’s a ‘slow and steady’ kind of learner.  We’ve already decided that we’ve worked too hard all year to lose anything during a traditional summer vacation, so school here will continue on a light schedule 3 days a week for most of the summer.  I’m not necessarily thrilled about it (I’d like a break!) but I can’t argue with the reasoning, so summer school it is. 

And another hurdle was passed this week too.  It’s not quite as much fun but it’s every bit as important.  Logan’s IEP (Individualized Education Plan) was rewritten last Friday.  He’s qualified for Occupational Therapy (OT)  as well as speech.   He’ll see Leslie once a week for 30 minutes, tacked on to the end of his weekly speech sessions.  That’s a good thing, but the best news is that his new IEP includes ‘accommodations’ for assistive technology, otherwise known as a request for the school system to purchase Logan an FM system for his personal academic use.  We should have an answer early next week; I can’t imagine they’ll turn it down since federal law is VERY clear in the district’s responsibility to provide the equipment.  The recommendation comes from his pediatric audiologist, who pointed out that he’s already had hearing aids and they don’t help.  There are no other options for him…and he needs to hear to have access to language.  We just muddle through right now.   That may all change soon.  There aren’t words to tell you how excited I am by the prospect:  my little guy won’t have to struggle so much to hear the difference between similar words like forty and fourteen and for the first time ever he’ll have regular ‘access’ to many sounds in the English language that the rest of us take for granted.  Sounds like ‘z’  and ‘v’ and ‘m’ and ‘n’ and ‘b’ and ‘p.’  That’s HUGE.   It has the potential to make my job as teacher so much easier and his job as student much more enjoyable. 

Things are settling in to a new normal with Emily home from school.  I’m still trying to work around all the new stuff in the house…while I will miss my children when they finally move out completely, I will NOT miss this stage of ‘move-in, move-out’ and leave all sorts of things at Mom and Dad’s every time.  Makes decluttering home an interesting task, to say the least.   We’re still learning how to juggle more drivers than vehicles and more places to be than cars to get there.  Someday soon I hope we get a handle on things… 

In the meantime, I’m going to sit back and enjoy time with Em, Logan’s incredible progress, and the last 8 days of Kindergarten for my dynamic duo.