Monday, December 19, 2011

Advent Day Twenty Three

Today's ornament:  a candle
This was another Etsy find.  That is a great place to shop, especially for handmade gifts.  Love it.

"I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life." John 8:12


I also love this verse - especially when it comes to Finley.

Today Mat and I went to a meeting at the school to talk about Cainan.  No worries - it was a scheduled meeting.  When school started, we knew Cainan would need speech therapy, but the school also did many other tests as well just to get a well rounded picture.  They did some psychological testing, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and general education.  I was grateful because - of course - Mat and I have always worried about him.  But after the conference we had with the teacher a few weeks ago, we are very pleased at his progress.

Today's meeting went very well.  There are a few things with working memory they are going to keep an eye on, which made sense (he shows some of the same issues at home), but at this time, they are not interferring with his schooling.  So - he will receive speech therapy once a week just to kind of deal with some expressive language issues he has, and we will keep and eye on him.  They will want to look at him again next year in first grade when the work gets harder, to make sure he is still in a good place.  In the mean time, we will continue to work with him at home and make sure he stays on track.

His teacher is a great fit for him this year, and I hope we get just as lucky next year.  She has a highly structured classroom and that fits him perfectly.  He needs to know what is going on, and then he does great.

Last year at this time, we were getting ready for the Haddam/Killingworth Holiday Telethon to benefit our RDH12 foundation and Finley.  Do you remember that awesome telethon that raised nearly $45,000 for our foundation?  This year they are doing another local family which makes me so happy.  In the past they did larger charities, but I am glad they are doing another local little girl who needs the help.  It was great to see how the kids reacted to Finley and getting to know her - how it changed them.

We got a call from them the other day that we needed to make a little video and talk about how our year has been, how Finley is doing, and how the telethon changed things for our family.  We made a video of me talking about the year we had, but I also did a little filming of Finley that they wanted.  I put them below.  She played Twinkle Twinkle on the piano without any help (which is a new skill!) and she read a few words in her braille book by using her fingers.  So I wanted to share.




Arlington had her last student council meeting today.  She has really enjoyed it.  She is hoping that next semester she can join the drama club.  We shall see........

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