Back to School

I am determined to get this thing caught up before the end of the year so here we go! Way back in August Troy and the kids minus Sophie went back to school. It was so nice to have Troy home for most of August and it was a HARD adjustment when the new semester started. It makes for a long week having him gone so much and doing bedtime by myself. I know many people that do that all the time though, so I will survive I suppose:) He also started a new job at the beginning of September after working for US Synthetic for 16 years! It was so hard to leave such a wonderful company that was so good to us. I got to attend a lunch that his department put together for him as a farewell and it was so awesome to hear many of the people that he has worked with talk about him and what an influence he had been to them. I cried many tears about him leaving. He worked with such great people including so many of our family members. He loved his job there and loved the people that he worked with everyday. The new job opportunity came up way back in July, and after lots of time and prayer and even turning it down once, he accepted. It has been a crazy time with him in school and also trying to learn a new job. Here we are in December though and we are down to one year left of school!

 

Kenadee started 3rd grade this year. She was super excited for school to start. She is a great student and has loved 3rd grade. She just found out last week that her teacher is retiring so when she goes back to school from Christmas break she will have a new teacher. Kind of crazy but I think it will be a good thing.

 

 

 

Last year when Reese was still at the school for the deaf we didn't know what we were going to do with her for the upcoming school year. Troy and I really wanted to see her mainstreamed at our school here with Kenadee. Her teacher was very much against this and it was really hard as her mom. I spent so much time agonizing over what to do. I felt really strongly that we needed to just do what we felt was best but it is really hard when the professional makes you feel like you are crazy for wanting to do so. I loved her teacher and she was a huge part of how far Reese has come. I know that she wanted what she thought was best for Reese. In the end it came down to us making the choice that we felt was right. We decided that we would mainstream her at our school and repeat kindergarten so she could adjust to the setting while repeating stuff that she mostly knew. After getting so much resistance on wanting to mainstream her in the first place we thought they would think we were insane if we put her in first grade. I took her for kindergarten testing on the first day of school and by the time she was done I was questioning whether or not we had done the right thing. She did so well with the testing. Long story short I contacted the principal and set up a meeting with him to find out if we could put her into 1st grade. He was so great and so supportive of our decision. The school has been so wonderful to work with and they have helped Reese be 100% successful. She has a team working to make sure she has all the support she needs. She works with Dale, who is from the district as a deaf educator, for 30 minutes on Mondays. He works with her on her listening and language skills. Her teacher uses an FM system which is a small microphone that she wears on her shirt that amplifies her voice on the classroom speaker system. It has helped with Reese being able to hear her really well. She also works with the speech language pathologist once a week. And she also spends a little time everyday do some extra math and reading with a resource teacher at the school. At her parent teacher conference her teacher was so happy with how well she is doing. We haven't had a single concern or complaint from anyone! She is becoming a great little reader. She was so happy to be starting school with all of her friends from church. She couldn't wait to ride the bus with Kenadee and it was for sure an emotional day for me to see how far she has come. She is so happy and is doing so well.The kids have all accepted her and she has made so many new friends.  We are so glad that we put her in 1st grade.

 

Jensen started his first year of preschool right after Labor Day. He is going to a preschool that is just a few roads down from where we live. She is a lady that is in our Stake and he absolutely loves it. It helps to have his best friend Abby there too! He is learning so much and loves his teacher. She is awesome and has been very good for this wild and crazy four year old!