We have had far fewer colds around here this year, but the stomach bugs seem to have hit us much harder. We are in our third one this year. Kitten threw up this weekend in the middle of the night and we just talked her back into her bed tonight. She has been sleeping on the floor because she was afraid her bed was going to make her throw up again.
Back in January, Kitten failed her kindergarten screening. I was heartbroken and embarrassed and angry and never mentioned it. Well, Kitten had her first appointment Monday for her special education referral. They will come to daycare tomorrow to watch her play with the kids and talk to her a little bit more and Pants will take her in on Friday for what I think is her last appointment. But the paperwork I have had to fill out, I tell you, nothing can make you feel so horrible as these questionnaires. Part of it is because the questions are meant for kids all the way up to 5, but you don't know that when you're filling in the ovals. Some of it is because there are a few things you don't ask your kids to do in front of you, like hop on one leg at least twice. I don't know if she can do that! The rest is the realization of where we should be at with some things are aren't because we don't make Kitten do them. Apparently she should be completely dressing and undressing herself by now. I tend to just do it for her because it's faster in the morning. So yeah, we have some work to do.
They gave me a good tip though. Put a black dot on the inside heel of each shoe so they can get them on the right feet by themselves. They really want them to be able to get dressed completely independently. It works, though.
I've been in a cooking frenzy this week: pot roast, chicken alfredo (cheated from a box), chicken and corn stew, barbecue beef in the slow cooker. Mmmmm.
7 comments:
The nice thing is that that once she's into school, you can blame her development on her teachers. I kid (mostly), but really, there's no blame or shame involved with this (although I know you felt bad about it). It all changes so quickly. For example, beginning of this year, Monkey's Paw was at the bottom of his class in math and as of this week, he's the "Math Master". I don't completely understand, but it involves him getting another plastic lizard, and you have to love a kid that can be bribed into mastering multiplication that easily.
Well, mine only dresses herself when she's stuck in her room for "quiet time" and decides to put on her dance class clothes, or her favorite skirt, or some other "princess" outfit. So she can do it, but I so hear you on the no time in the mornings! Maybe pick up some cute dress-up clothes at Goodwill/rummage sales 'cuz then it's play and fun and not practice? We've got to work on buttons and snaps.
Wishing you luck on not stressing too much, even though I know that's kinda impossible. But each kid has such varied strengths and weaknesses & there's SUCH a range for normal development. (I mean, some kids walk at like 8 months & others - like Pumpkin - wait until 16 months.) We signed up late for 4K, so Pumpkin never did a screening... but I have noticed my kid is definitely the slowest climbing the stairs & sometimes still does both feet on each step.
Good luck with it all.
I wish they would give out cliff notes for raising kids. Especially for those more random skills. There are things that they focus on at daycare that I wouldn't have ever thought of.
Don't worry about it too much, and good luck with the screenings.
I kinda know what you mean about the questionnaire thing- not the same, but I once let the U use Attila for a child psych research project and the questions were for ages 3-5. I didn't know exactly which ones she should have been able to do and which ones were for older kids. Same with the "I have never asked her to do that, so I have no idea if she can or not" thing. There was less pressure in my sitch, but it still made anxious.
Ditto what Ms. H said about the wide range of normal and that kids develop different skills at different rates. That's absolutely true. And if she does need intervention? Better to know about it early on rather than later. I hope her follow ups go well.
Try not to worry- I hope someday when she's accepting her PhD. you'll be able to look back and laugh about it. ;)
Agreed. Try to relax. Kids are playdoh like things - from their mind to their bodies. Always changing and pretty easily so.
You could always say you have a Chinese ayi (maid/nanny) and that's why she's not dressing herself. =) With the one kid policy here, kids are doted on to such an extent that they pretty much can't/don't do anything for themselves. You'll even see 10 year olds still being fed.
Wait, isn't she just about to turn 4? Do they do kindergarten screening already? Or am I all wrong?
It's funny, some people used to complain that I was pushing the toddlers too hard trying to teach them to dress themselves. Don't feel too bad, there are some kindergarteners who are still throwing fits and pretending they can't dress themselves when there's someone new around. I'm assuming they also failed their screenings but their parents must not have worked too hard on their "deficiencies". I don't think many people work on self help skills like I did with my kids (daycare kids, not so much my own...). I think it's because to parents their kids are babies. We don't know how much our kids are capable of so we just keep doing everything for them like we always did.
The important thing is that you're starting to catch her up now. She's a smart kid so I assume she should be caught up in no time.
Peanut failed the first screening when she was 3 (or was that she refused to cooperate?), but passed the 4 year old time without paperwork or referrals. Everything will be fine.
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