Caden's P/T Conferences

This has been such a crazy, emotional week! I completely spaced all of my homework that was due Tuesday night. I had it done, but never once even thought about going on the computer and submitting it. So, I have a few zeros now. No worries though, I'll still pass.

The kids had P/T Conferences this week, so they get a four day weekend. I went to Kenzie's yesterday, Cierra didn't need one because she is doing really good, and then I went to Caden's today. I have been worried about Caden's because his teacher and I don't always agree on Caden's progress and how he's doing. I know that he is doing great at school and making great progress, but he still has some serious learning disabilities that he will probably battle for the rest of his life. For example, Caden has every movie we own memorized. Not just I-watched-it-so-many-times-that-I-know-some-of-the-lines-from-it kind of memorization. He knows EVERY SINGLE LINE. He knows what voice that they say it in, he knows the expression that they have on their face when they say it, etc. But if you ask Caden what happens in the movie, he can't tell you. He can repeat all of the lines, but he cannot tell you the the basics of the movie. He knows, but for some reason Caden struggles with taking information in, processing it, and then explaining it in his own words. He also will use movie lines in place of his own thoughts or answers during a conversation. So you might think he's answering appropriately, but in reality, he's just repeating a movie line. This is something that happens at school and home frequently. Another example, if you ask him what an object is (such as a house or a bike or a leaf,) he can't tell you. He knows what they are, but he can't describe it to you. Right now in preschool with ten kids and three teachers, he is doing great. He gets a lot of personal attention and is excelling. But come August, he will be in school 7 hours a day, 5 days a week with 25+ kids and one teacher and we have been really stressing about it.

So I was worried going in there today. I was worried about kindergarten. I was worried that they were not going to renew his IEP without a fight and I was worried about Caden and what's best for him. I was pleasantly surprised when I got there and discovered that not only will they be renewing his IEP, they are working on getting him an aide that will go to school with him 1/2 day, everyday next year! I could not be happier. Caden will do SO good in kindergarten if he has an aide with him everyday. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

So nice to have some happy news this week :)


This is how Caden eats all of his meals lately. Breakfast, lunch, or dinner you can find him squatting on the table like some kind of jungle man, hovering over his food like someone is going to come along and steal it.