A and N had Math Playground, where they did odd/even numbers, something about chinese jump roping and read “Even Steven and Odd Todd.”
Both went to Bookworms (got all that transferred ok) and made lap books about “ME”. Aarons had a picture of our house, family and favorite thing (Bionicle), color (red), food (strawberries) place (Lego store) and some others. Naim forgot to bring his home so hopefully I can see it next week.
Legos was snake building and Science for Naim was food chemistry. He brought home a little tube of Naim made butter, so we had biscuits and Naim butter with dinner.
I took Avery to his first Head Start “socialization” class which take place every two weeks. Socialization is a bit of a misnomer because these kids are too young to socialize and the parents speak at least three different languages. But I still think it is good in that it really is open ended and tailored towards kids in the 1-3 range.
We took the big, yellow school bus that stopped in front of my house. They even provide a carseat. (They also provide snacks, lunch and DIAPERS…I really didn’t know what to pack!) Avery and I, as expected, were the only white people and probably the only native English speakers. The bus ride was LONG on the way (I was first on, but also first off, so back was much better.) They say that legally they can’t keep kids on the bus more than an hour, but we clocked in at right about an hour. The stupid thing is, every single person we picked up was in Hillsboro, and then we drove all the way down to Tigard for class when there is a Head Start in Hillsboro.
The schedule goes:
Snack, free play with open ended centers (water table, paint, shaving cream, etc.), circle time (short) bathroom break, outside, lunch reading/free play, go home.
Avery did well and seemed to like it once we got there and he had a few minutes to acclimate. Having him in Little Villagers definitely helped because he sort of got what was expected of him as far as coming to circle time, washing his hands, etc. One thing I wasn’t expecting is that they make you brush your teeth after lunch with a toothbrush they provide. You are supposed to model teeth brushing, but it is a little weird to brush your teeth in front of a room full of strangers. Still, Avery was all into it and tried to brush my teeth, too.
One aspect of “socialization that we get a chance to work on there is Avery’s penchant for hitting other kids when they get in his way. We are trying to teach him your turn/my turn, but it doesn’t always go down well. Once I walked about 20 feet away from him, which was TOO FAR and he actually whined “MaaaMaaa” for the first time.
I told them that I couldn’t hear them when they told me and a few other new mothers the policies. So…and this has never happened to me before…everytime they would say something to the whole group, they said it in English, then in Spanish, then they walked right over to me and said it again to me loudly in English. I was amazed. No one has ever been willing to do that for me before. It was always, tough shit, you figure it out.
So, I think it is good and will be good for him and is not too big of a commitment. The Head Start teacher is coming tomorrow and so is the EI teacher, for a half hour or so, which I’m kind of dreading. She is so useless and the head start teacher is pretty good, so it feels like she is wasting my head start time. God I hope I was never that utterly useless when I was teaching special ed.
Oh, and they only had cups so Avery drank out of a cup about three times and did very well and got better each time. We are soon to see the last of the zippy cups.
Note: yesterday Naim went to Sky High with Ruoda and Aaron went to Outdoors in with Nik, so a little PE time there, then they went to D’s to visit his mother and visiting aunt.
Another Note: NO PICTURES in head start (tell Nik) because of women from domestic abuse shelters need to protect their identity, sad.
Filed under: ADLs, Communication, Early Intervention, Language Arts, Math, Physical Education, Science, Social Skills | Tagged: behavior issues, Bookworms, fieldtrips, Gooey Science, Head Start, Legos, Math Playground, playdate perplexities | Leave a comment »
Acquara Independent School 