The Preschool program

Andrew's Early Childhood Special Education class had their graduation last night. Man was it cute! All of these little kids getting up on state to get their certificates. Andrew's class got theirs first, they were worried how the kids would do. Andrew did awesome, as did most of the other kids! Poor guy though. They gave them their certificates, then released them to their parents. But Andrew was so set on going back to the seat they had practiced having him in, he went back there instead. So he sat with his teacher until it was all over, but he was so good and so quiet the whole time.

We asked her how she did that, and she said chips, lots of chips for rewards this week. :)

I was so proud of Andrew. Multiple teachers came up to tell me how great it was to work with him, how good he is. And when we were done and we told him it was time to go, he walked us back to his classroom. His teacher came in and said hello, and then she showed us how she sings the ABC song with Andrew, and he did so well with her, did all the things he was supposed to! He's such a little trooper, and he's making such tremendous progress. He sang the ABC song all evening, and he's been singing it with me this morning too. I just can't explain how exciting it is to see Andrew making this kind of progress. He's doing amazing things, and I just know he's going to continue to amaze me as time goes on. :)

Here's a picture of my angel coming in to the auditorium with his teacher.


This is Andrew sitting so quietly in his chair at the program. I want one of these chairs please! hehe


And this is Andrew being patient while we all wait for the program to end. He had a little toy snake in his lap, it helped keep him occupied through the 15 minute program. This was after he got his award and was released to sit with us, but his habits wouldn't let him leave the row he practiced sitting in for so long!

Teacher discussions

OK, so on Thursday afternoon Andrew's teacher came by my office to pick up some paperwork and we visited for a few minutes. I don't get to see her often, because I'm at work when she's got Andrew, and he rides the bus (which he loves) back and forth to school. I was excited to get to talk to her, and she gave me some great information.

We talked about Andrew's singing. Everyone tells me Andrew's a little songbird, he sings all the time. She told me about a few songs they sing in class, and suddenly all the things he does at home fell into place. It was just wonderful to hear all of this!! They sing an alphabet song that's very repetative and fun, and it repeats words and then makes the sounds of the letters. For instance,

Apple, Apple, A A A
Apple, Apple, A A A
Baby, Baby, B B B
Baby, Baby, B B B

you get the idea I'm sure. Well I've heard andrew running around the house making noises that now make sooooo much sense. So I visited with a coworker the next day, and she knows the song!! She wrote out all the words for me (obviously not difficult) so I can sing it with Andrew at home! We're having a ball with it.

Greetings and such

So as I've mentioned, Andrew is getting words. And they are so very much fun. We can now get him to say "morning" in the morning, and he says "ove you" on request, and he blows kisses (which is totally cute!!).

So the other morning he's off to the bus, and I'm trying to get him to say bye. And he looks back for a second and says "see ya" very clearly, then heads to the bus. Apparently, he's ready to go. *smile*

Twinkle Twinkle

Well, it's been about a month since the little man started school. He has made SUCH tremendous progress. But this is about one of my new favorites.

Andrew has started singing!! Now this is wonderful for a number of reasons. First of all, I sing, so it's nice to see him doing so as well. And most imporantly, this means stringing WORDS together! I mean, actual words! OK, so it's not sentances, but it's a start.

Now Andrew sings like a small child sings, with about 1/3 of the words, and those not entirely clear. But the tune is obvious. It's pretty much

Twinkle twinkle lil star (yeah, little has one syllable here)
(nonsense) wonder (nonsense) are
(nonsense) high
(nonsense) in the sky
Twinkle twinkle lil star
(nonsense) wonder (nonsense) are

I mean, how can you not totally love this??? :)

Oh yeah, and the bus driver and aide tell me he sings to them in the mornings too, but they don't get twinkle twinkle. They just get lots of nonsense with pretty tunes.