The Next Chapter

Mattie's last day of daycare was yesterday. I wasn't quite sure how I would react. It's one chapter ending and another beginning. It doesn't even seem like it has been three years already. I will miss seeing her smiling face during the day, but I know she is going to learn so much at her new school.

It is amazing how things fall right into place! One of our dilemma's was what we would do with Mattie when she gets out of school and we are still at work. Well, I happened to see my neighbor out playing with her kids. Mattie wanted to go play with them. We really never go over there since we are always on the run. My neighbor is also a teacher and we started talking about school which led to talking about Mattie's new school. I was telling her how we didn't know what to do about after school care. She tells me that her daughter, who is also Mattie's age, goes to a daycare that just so happens to be down the road from Mattie's school. And only 20 minutes away from my work. She loves it there and highly recommended it so I decided to give her a call. I am so glad I did!

We went yesterday to visit and loved it! It is a small country daycare that is run by a retired teacher. I was so impressed with all the little details. She had an imaginative play area, a music area, an art area, a very extensive science area, story time area, indoor rec. area, quiet time area, snack area, and an outdoor area that was like a mini-amusement park. And after all that, she let us know that she would be glad to focus on Mattie's IEP goals as well. Wow! And.....no worries about that peer modeling since she will get that there too. So it looks like everything is falling into place just fine!

Evaluation

I took Mattie for her evaluation on Thursday. She had a blast! Who wouldn't love a room filled with books, toys, stairs, paper, crayons, markers, a slide with a ball pit, and so much more! Mattie especially loved the stairs and slide. The OT was very impressed with how well Mattie did with her motor skills. As far as speech went, she didn't really use a lot of words or signs. She tends to use more words and signs at home with us then with other people. That being said, she still has a long ways to go. She is starting to imitate more and more single words but not really stringing two word phrases together. I'm not too great at keeping up with signs for everything she is trying to say either. I find her pointing at things and babbling a whole strand of sounds. Then I try and figure out what in the world she is trying to say. We've gotten down our basic needs and wants but need to work on expanding our vocabulary.

Now we just have to wait 2 weeks for the results and see what her placement will be. That is the part that makes me the most nervous. Just not knowing where she will be. I guess I need to clarify from my last post too. Mattie won't be 40 minutes from our house for school. I will be 40 minutes away from her. I teach in another county and my commute is 40 minutes. Right now, Mattie travels with me to the daycare we have set up at my school. Once she is placed in the county we live in, then she will be much farther away from me. My husband will be near by so really it is me just being selfish and knowing I will miss having her with me. What is most important to me is that she gets placed in a class that will have the services and resources to help her grow and learn.