Back to School

Brynn is in 6th grade - officially in middle school! The thought of subjecting her to all the unsavory parts of public middle school absolutely terrifies me! So, she is doing home school. What this actually involves is probably not what you imagine when you think "home school". I do not supply the curriculum, I simply supervise and motivate. She is working online with a program called Florida Virtual School. She is technically still part of the public school system, but has more freedom.

Since Adam is working at home now, we have some computer scheduling conflicts. We are hoping to buy Adam a new computer soon. Until then, Brynn is doing her schoolwork on a computer at my parent's house down the street. If she plans her time well, she can be done by lunchtime each day. :0)

Ellany is in 3rd grade...again. Although her lowest grade last year was a "C", she did not pass the FCAT and continues to struggle with reading comprehension. Deciding to have her repeat was a very tough choice. Then I stressed all summer about how to tell her that she wasn't going to 4th grade yet. Ellany's summer school teacher suggested I tell her she was going to "practice" 3rd grade again. What a brilliant idea! I wrote her a social story about it, and she handled it very well. She is at a new school this year (the entire autism program got moved) which brings lots of change, but she seems to be adapting well.

Here is a cute story from Ellany's first week of school:
The class read a story about a boy who went to dinner with his parents, and was served salmon and mushrooms. The class talked about whether they thought he would eat the food or not. The aide asked Ellany, "Would you eat salmon and mushrooms?" She quickly replied, "I don't eat fungi!".

Ryker came down with some tummy troubles last week, and was still sick on Monday and Tuesday this week. Wouldn't you know it? I count the days until the first day of school, and then he can't go! He is still in the same Pre-K autism class, but has a different teacher this year - Nadia Mir. I was very relieved when I found out, because we like Ms. Mir a lot! She was Ellany's teacher for the second half of Kindergarten when we moved back to FL. There are currently only 3 kids in the class, so he is getting lots of one-on-one attention. Ryker is doing great academically...he knows phonics and is spelling out words. We hope he also makes some good progress in his social skills this year.