Today is Lily's last day of Kindergarten. But before we go into that, let's check out a before and after photo comparison, shall we?
Before:
After:
Seriously, how much has she grown up?!
Lily has had the best teacher we could have ever asked for. She's made lots of friends. She's made great grades. She's developed a huge love for books. She's learned how to use computers, iPads, and smartboards. But perhaps best of all, Lily has learned to love learning.
Highlights of Kindergarten
- Being able to volunteer each Friday while Ben stayed home with the others. (Lily told me this was her favorite part of Kindergarten).
- Going to specials and trying new things.
- Cooking almost weekly with Mrs. Lockhart in the classroom.
- Getting surprise lunches every day lovingly made by Ben. Almost every day he'd carve a special shape or letter for her out of her sandwich.
- Playing at the bus stop with friends.
- Celebrating the different holidays with her class.
- Getting extra play time in speech therapy (I'll talk more on this in a minute)
- Getting a few Chick-fil-a/Sonic surprise lunches from Mom and Dad.
- Having Ella walk her to the door before she leaves and saying, "Have a.... day!" or "Buh-bye! Gway day!"
You may or may not remember that Lily had a rough start to Kindergarten. She's always been the happiest kid but it turned out that she was crying every day and she was hesitant to try new things. We worked with her teacher, speech therapist, school counselor, and principals to figure out what was going on. After a few months of testing (which covered everything from emotional issues to learning disabilities to physical disabilities -- it covered everything), we discovered a complicated result. Lily is on target or ahead in everything but was in the 13th percentile for speech. A lot of people around me tell me they don't notice it, but it's definitely there. I could write a book about how much I hate that the government is in charge of schools, but I won't go there. I'll just say this: there was a law written that said that Lily had to be behind in so many areas of her schoolwork if she wanted help with her speech. But since she's doing so well in all of her work, they weren't able to offer her full-blown speech therapy. Instead they were only legally allowed to offer an "intervention" which is a once a week (for 6 weeks) lesson out in a busy hallway. She wasn't legally allowed to go back to the speech room. Anyhoo, we met with Lily's school several times and about a month ago I got an excited letter from the speech therapist. She had found a loophole in the system where she could offer Lily full therapy for the next year. So Lily has been working on her speech the for the past month and will continue throughout first grade. We are so thankful. This isn't the same kind of speech she had when she was 2. This time we're working on forming full sentences and thinking before speaking to form a clear and focused thought.
What a year it has been! But it has been a great year. But I'd be lying if I said that I'm not thrilled for the summer!
4 comments:
We love Lily! She's growing up!
The way the system is set up to provide services for kids is just so frustrating. Averie was in the same boat as Lily - smart as a whip in everything else, but no speech. The ones who just need a little help can slip through the cracks too easily.
The right therapist made all the difference for us; it sounds like Lily has a good one too!
I loved it when we would get ready to eat something and Lily would ask "It that healthy?" and if it waan't then she didn't want to eat it. I wish I had her will-power.
The contrast between her before and after pictures is amazing! She really had grown this year in so many ways. What a delightful and beautiful child! She makes my heart glad.
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