Today was a true test for me--it was the first day it's just me and Garrett. For the past two weeks, I'd get up early and let Bob sleep in. Garrett enjoyed saying, "shusssh mama" and then close his eyes and put his little hands together by his face to remind me that papa was still asleep. (Way cute.) By 10ish, I'd let him wake papa. Well things would be different today. Bob left for work early this morning while Garrett was still asleep. To be honest, I was concerned how he'd react to finding papa not upstairs in bed. So I began breaking it to him slowly, telling him that papa was at work. He repeated the word "work" over and over. (I'm certain he had no clue what "work" meant.) After breakfast, we went upstairs and he raced over to papa's side of the bed. He looked up at me to confirm that papa wasn't there. I suggested we call him at work and that seemed to do the trick. Besides hearing Bob's voice, he got to talk on the phone (he totally adores cell phones). All I can say is I was so relieved not to have an angry little boy on my hands.
Also last Friday was Garrett's Early Childhood Screening. Before we were able to get very far into the testing, he shut down. Rather than risk a meltdown, the nurse stopped after exercise number one. She agreed with me that he wasn't ready for kindergarten. (No surprises there.) Our next step is to have a special needs coordinator visit our home and assess the situation. The school district offers speech therapy but not PT. Personally, I think he needs a lot of help with his gross and fine motor skills. Does anyone know if the city or state offers special needs intervention? We also applied for his social security card. FYI: it takes 8-10 weeks to get a number. That's because the adoption decree and birth certificate needed to be re-translated again (we did provide translations, but apparently the U.S. government only trusts their "people" to do it). Also got tested for TB. Both Garrett and I were negative. Bob felt he doesn't need to be tested. In his mind, if I don't have it then he doesn't have it. (Not sure I agree with his logic, but then again it's his choice.)
Yesterday, we visited the daycare center with Garrett for the first time. He'll be going three afternoons a week, starting mid-May. We had some concerns. After seeing all the children would Garrett think we were returning him to an orphanage? (He's never been to school, so we weren't sure if he understood the concept.) But he put those fears to rest. We started out with both of us in the room then moved to just outside the door (the door had a small window so he could still see us). Comfortable with that we stepped away from the door. Ten minutes later, we returned and he seemed happy to see us--a good sign. But our bigger concern now is whether this center is right for him. While he does get to socialize with other children, there isn't much learning or structure going on. The truth is, this place is more daycare than school and frankly that troubles us. But we're having a hard time finding a preschool, like a Montessori, which allows part-time status. At this early stage of attachment, we didn't want him to be away from home five days a week. It's the reason why Bob changed his shift. But now we're not sure what to do now.
Any suggestions?
5 comments:
If you are not happy with the daycare, keep looking for something else.
Sean needed help with fine motor skills too. I wasn't sure if it was because he was 5 weeks premature or if he was just because it was a boy thing, or his thing. His teachers had me working with him with lego's, playdough, and we tried lightbright too. He had a hard time learnign to write too because of the grip on the pencil. He still has horrible writing.
There are a lot of things you can work on with him at home. When school starts, you could get him into pre-k if he's not ready for kindergarten. Sean learned a lot in pre-k.
However, just playing in daycare right now and learning to get along with american kids will also help him in the long run. Socialization is important too.
I'm not much help on what is available from the state, but I'd ask around. I am sure there are things they'd recommend doing with him-occupational therapy would be good.
The pics were adorable.
Garrett is just so handsome! Glad he is doing well.
We put Nick into a small preschool and he has done great....only two days a week for 3 hours. He has done great and we will probably keep him in the same "level" for next year and then advance him so he has more time to catch up on all of the things you mentioned.
Nick does speech thru the school district but for other therapies he would have had to go elsewhere. We have a rehab type hospital near by and they offer preschool for kids that need several types of therapies so you could check into some of those type places. Hospitals sometime offer preschools too. I am not sure what we would have done if he had tested out for more therapy...since he did not, we did not look further. My husband works in the "therapy" part of our University. You might check and see if they have test labs or such that the students would love to work with Garett for practicums. We still have the option of taking Nick up to the university and letting some of the speech students work with him if we want....I bet you could find some OT or PT student/teachers that would love to do a case study or something and you could get some free therapy.
Just some ideas....karen
I wish I could give you an advice but I am at the stage when i am learning differences btw preschool, kindergarden, etc.
I scheduled an appointment for Gabi to be evaluated in Russian when he comes to US, and they will advice us what to do. Most likely (and I will try hard) he will start the special program first and we will aim for preschool only next year. I think is very important for him to learn as much as possible in the first year, bcs from what I am being told, depending on his performances and progress he will be accepted to a good school next year. For us, part time is not really an option, but I am not concerned about this, I want him to benefit as much as he can from as many special services as soon as possible.
Best of luck, he is so cute....
I would say if you are nto comfortable with the day care then look for another option. Although i do know ttha alot of the pre-schools are more laid back in the afternoon with much of the learning done in the morning. But you can try some Church pre-schools, alot of them have part time programs. My boys had some issues with gross & fine motor skills to -- definitely a boy thing. You might want to look into what Occupational Therapy your insurance covers.
He's adorable and will catch up in no time.
I had your same concerns about daycare as most of the ones we looked were more childcare than developmental center. We are going with The Goddard School (they have a website but don't know if there are locations in your area). Even for young children, they have lesson plans and developmental goals. And they have a pre-K and a kindergarten program and allow part-time. My friends at work use them and their kids come home having learned something new everyday. So you really should take Susan's advice and look until you find something you are very comfortable with. Another idea is to tap into a grad student studying child development to help with Garrett's skills.
Garrett looks really happy with Papa and it sounds like he is adjusting really well. All the best!
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