Kindy for Miss L

So hard to believe that Miss L is at kindergarten this year. In WA the year you turn 4 before July you go to kindy. I personally feel it is too early to start school, especially as the Finnish start at 7 and have one of the highest education systems worldwide. Even Petra our Finnish au pair was shocked at how early they start and that we don't teach languages! So here is tiny Miss L, just toilet trained off to start school. She is the only one of my 3 never to go to day care or pre kindy before starting school.

So the year started off with some bad news. Last year the Government cut funding to all schools and changed the funding models, this includes special needs. So last year the paperwork was sent off for a special needs assistant for Miss L and it was rejected. The new system requires detailed evidence including test results before they will approve it. The admin of the school were amazing and had been ringing people in every department asking for help. I fully expected them to say L couldn't be at school until it was sorted. Nope. They were passing ideas around on how they could make it work. In the end I said I didn't mind staying with her until it was sorted. Being a teacher myself I know how stressful it is getting to know each child let alone getting to know all the needs of a special needs child.

So before school started I am running around contacting every Doctor and specialist I can think of to get the paperwork we need. The downside of it all being that they have to hand them in and write the reports. As if these Drs aren't busy enough... A week later and I am still waiting.

This year as Miss L didn't get a place at our local school she going to a community kindy, which isn't attached physically to the school. They use a council building and are run by a parent committee. So of course on parent night I put my hand up to help, cos it's not like I don't volunteer enough anyway lol. So I am now the secretary of the kindy. As a board we work with the teacher to make decisions on how the kindy is run. We decide on the speakers for the year, where the money goes and any improvements to be made. It's fantastic to see how hands on we all can be.

So for the first week L went for a few hours on 2 days. It was good to see how she fitted in with everyone and what challenges there would be. The biggest concern is her choking and aspirating. Sure enough on both days she choked on food and had to be stopped putting things in her mouth. Today was her first full day. She doesn't tend to attach herself to me and she has a good friend with her. At fruit time she choked on watermelon and at lunch 3 times she choked on food. At mat time she found a tiny bead and went to put it in her mouth. You have to be so vigilant and on top of her. I spoke to the teacher who is the loveliest person ever and let her know. She said the problem with me being there is they will begin to rely on me and won't know what signs to watch out for to see if L is in trouble. I 100% agree. They need an aide asap so all the staff can get to know her without me and they can all act together.

After lunch it was time to go home! I didn't think L would last all day especially as she still sleeps 2 hours in the afternoon. We left around 1pm for a quick sleep then time for pick up with the big kids.
I am so looking forward to seeing L grow and progress this year and hopefully reduce the gap between her and her peers.

                     Getting ready on our first day and she actually tried to eat breakfast and let me tie her                                            hair up. She later took the elastics out and ate them :(

Merry Christmas

I want to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
2014 has been a big year for us and I for one am glad we are moving forward. With selling the house, genetic tests, sickness and hospital visits, procedures and sleep studies, school let downs and finding a kindy spot this year has been stress after stress.

Yet we have moved on. We have a gorgeous short term au pair now who will be a great help on the holidays. Unfortunately she leaves just after school goes back. Next year brings the worries of how Miss A will cope in year 1. How will Miss L go at kindy? What will the results of my genetic tests bring? Do I go back to teaching and do we move house again?

I look forward to starting a new stage in life. For the first time all 3 kids will be in school even if not the same one. I will be squeezing therapy in around the girls hours and shuffling PMH appointments.  I look forward to time to look after me and hopefully time to spend with friends.

Who knows what the next year will bring.

Transition to Year One- Miss A

Today we had a meeting at the school to organise the transition from pre primary to Year 1. I met her teachers who are the same 2 that Mr J had. I love them both and in a small twist of irony I taught one of their daughters in pre primary :)


The bad news came straight away....we have the same special needs assistant.
I knew straight away in kindy there would be issues and sure enough there was. They don't get along and Miss A performs badly when she is there. After requesting she not be there in pre primary surprise surprise we got her again. She cant even turn up to work on time, Miss A doesn't want to speak to her and the teacher had to intervene. She said she gave up and separated them. The assistant doesn't do one on one work with A anymore and she floats around the room. For Gods sake the funding to employ her comes from having special needs kids in the class and she cant even do her job.

I am so angry I don't know where to go from here. Andrew and I will meet with the principal but with all the issues we have had this year trying to get L into kindy I don't know if he will listen. In the meantime we wrote a list of things we were concerned about:

Multiple teachers and moving to different lessons.... ie sport and art
Free play in the school,no more enclosed play area
Making friends
Getting tired sitting at a table
Letter formations and handwriting
Specialised seating ie a Bambuk chair
Transition in the morning and afternoon. no more waiting until Mum arrives before she can leave
Speaking to the teacher when she is upset or hurt
Learning her sounds and blends
Being able to follow instructions from the mat to her table
Using a slope board or other writing assistance
Learning social cues and how to make new friends


This list goes on. The jump from pre primary to Year 1 is one of the biggest she will make and we are unsure how it will all go. In the meantime I will spend the 6 week break working on her social skills and handwriting and talking about how things are about to change.....

Busy times ahead

I can't believe yet again it's been so long since I have blogged...
In the last few weeks we have:
Enrolled L in a nearby kindy
Started with a new au pair
Been to numerous social gatherings
Started intensive therapy for Miss A
Started basketball for Mr J


It feels like each day is going so quickly and with not enough time to do everything. School enrollment means new forms and paperwork for L. Miss A is changing from Early Intervention Services to School Aged Services which ridiculously means reapplying for a therapy spot. Plus A has started Speech and Physio sessions again plus transitioning from pre primary to Year 1. So in between filling in forms and looking at paperwork I have barely had the time to do the day to day stuff. It feels like this year is so close to being at an end and in reaity I don't want it to. I worry about how A will cope in a desk at Year 1. Will she keep up academically? Can the teachers meet her needs? Is L ready to start kindy? How will the school deal with meeting her needs? I feel like my mind is going round in cricles most days.


In between the worrying the appointments pile up and trying to fit daily life in is a struggle. Petra gave notice 2 weeks ago saying she wasn't coping and couldn't look after the 3 kids. So in the mad rush of those 2 weeks I still had our daily appts while starting the search for a new au pair. Then my mother in law went in for major surgery and Andrew has been busy splitting his time between us all while worrying about end of year reports for school.


I have been so lucky though to find a new au pair who was already in Perth and she literally started the day Petra left. Although I won't speak badly of Petra as we got along so well I don't think she was suited to being an au pair. Our new girl Nicole only started on Sunday and it has been a huge improvement. She has a natural affinity with kids and is happy to tough them and pick them up. She is affectionate and caring and on her first day she played with all 3. She never has to be asked to do anything and naturally goes with whatever the kids want. She creates activities, plays pretend and loves to be with them regardless of whether she is on the clock or not. she helps with housework and dishes and spends time with us at night. This is exactly what I needed and expected from having an au pair. Sadly she is only here until February when she is back to travelling....


For now we are swimming madly keeping our head above water and I can't wait for school holidays!

Where your head at?

The title is appropriate in that my head is all over the place but also in the sense that I'm looking at some people going "What the?"

The school saga continues. It envelopes me. I've started dreaming about it. I wake up hopeful some days if it was a happy dream and others I literally start the day feeling sick to my stomach. The stress is now like a daily living thing. The more this goes on the more I feel like we are targeted. This isn't an issue of following policy or trying to stick to the rules. This feels like they are doing everything they can to keep Miss L out. I've spoken to friends, fellow teachers and Deputy Principals, therapists and Doctors and all of them have said they have never heard anything like it.

I look around our house now (we are renting) thinking I wish we had never moved. We had a rent inspection last week which added to the stress. We have owned our own home for 5 years and haven't had to be responsible to anyone else. We had our own space, a large house and room for everybody. Although this house is nice being a 2 story with all the bedrooms upstairs has meant a lot of disrupted nights. Moving put us under stress for a few months, especially financial and we thought we would be rewarded in the end....hasn't happened.

Although I enjoy being closer to school it's bitter sweet. I would never have moved and under such a tight deadline if I knew we wouldn't get a kindy spot anyway. Now I have started looking at the school in such a different light. If this is the leadership from admin how can it be a great school?  As good as the teachers may be and as well resourced as it is if they aren't going to accept Miss L, what now?!

It seems every few weeks the next challenge starts and anther slap in the face. After finding out last week that a family was moving and a spot was available......but given to another family...well that was like the last nail in the coffin. We were told we were first on the waiting list and have it in writing. Only to be told the school decided differently. Like this was their last chance to prove they were following rules and guidelines and here they are given the opportunity to let L have a spot and they don't.

We are following it up now but we are both so disheartened we know that they will not budge. They will likely come up with some guideline that says they can do it. After reading every policy document available and not finding anything I still don't have faith that they will do the right thing.

Today we had therapy and I told her therapists what the next development was. They have been following from the beginning and even though they deal with schools regularly they also haven't heard of a child being treated like L has. Schools have the option of saying they don't think they have the educational program to meet a special needs child but then they have to prove it and go before a school executive board. This is obviously the easier way.

Through the whole thing the school hasn't communicated with me at all. The principal hasn't bothered to explain his actions and the only time I hear anything is from the Education Department. So for now we wait for the final answer of why she wasn't given a spot and then we move forward.

Looking at L now I marvel at the changes she has made since we first enrolled her for kindy. She is eating small amounts of food regularly now. She is fully toilet trained. Says 3 to 4 word sentences and can be understood by most people. She uses sign and words together. I would love for the school to take the time and actually see her and recognise she is more than capable of starting school. Otherwise there is no way 2 teachers would be pushing as hard as we are.....

                         Miss L in February this year learning counting on her own. Age 2 yrs 10mths

 

Learning animal names and sounds at the same age.

3 weeks on with the au pair

I can't believe it's been nearly 3 weeks since Petra arrived. I have had so many questions about how it's going and how it worked and I kept saying I will blog about it....

We went through an agency to find our au pair as we wanted all the background work done for us. It seems simple but after talking to Petra I realized how much scrutiny she was put under. They interview her, ask for references, police and background check, first aid, check for qualifications and then match her to families. They support her to get her visa, international drivers licence and all immigration questions answered. For us it meant we knew everyone on the list had the right intentions and really wanted to be an au pair. They weren't going to back out or go in with blinders. Even though it took 3 months to find someone suitable it has been an amazing fit.

Personality wise Petra really fits with our family. She is 19 now (she had her birthday here) and from Finland. She has a great sense of humour and gets our sarcastic wit and joking. Within the first week we had gone shopping alone together and we chatted like we had known each for a while. The kids can be overwhelming when all together so we made sure she had time alone with each child. I gave her lots of info on how each child is and how they will act around her. Miss A I thought would be so happy she is here but overall Mr J has been the most excited. He seems to really crave 1 on 1 attention at the moment and she provides it. He chats non stop to her when in the car and will often tell her when he is upset.

Miss A has been her usual stand back and assess personality. She likes to read people first then trust them. She has enjoyed the extra time with me and Andrew and has accepted her being here so well. She loves hearing things about Petras "world" and how different it is. Miss L has been testing her boundaries and trying to run riot over her. It's been an interesting few weeks with the 2 of them working each other out. The most surprising has been how upset L was when we left. Twice when left alone with Petra she got very upset and took a long time to calm down. So that has been a hurdle we have been working to get over. In the meantime we have been easing slowly into leaving Petra alone with the kids. Last week Andrew and I went out to dinner alone. L was in bed and the 2 big kids were ready for bed when we left. It was such a great feeling to have them looked after at home, comfortable and happy. Even better Petra managed bedtime with no issues unlike when they play up for the in laws. The next day they weren't tired or grumpy and it made it even more enjoyable!

So far we have been easing into jobs and getting the house sorted and this week has started well. Petra did the dishes this morning while L played and I unpacked boxes. We are finding a great rhythm that means I can get so  much more done. I am so happy with how it's all going and I will keep updating as we go.

                                             Celebrating with Finnish chocolate cake

The au pair has arrived!

So in between dealing with beurocracy, moving house and settling in the au pair arrived. After 3 months of searching I was so happy when we chose Petra. She is 18 from Finland here for 6 months. She was due to arrive Tuesday night but due to an 11 hour flight delay we picked her up Wednesday mrning. Miss L and I made the trip to the airport in the rain to meet her and L loved the aeroplanes. After travelling for 30 plus hours it must have been a relief to finally touch down in Perth.  Driving through Perth we had a chat about the main differences she could see. How small our trees are, most houses are single story and how different the terrain is.

After a quick bite to eat and a tour it was time to sleep. It was hard trying to figure out the best time to sleep to get over the jet lag without getting into a bad routine. After a few hours I snuck out quietly to do the school run. The 2 big kids were so excited that she was finally here. Petra woke up not long after we got home, no doubt due to the noise. While Mr J was straight in their talking away, Miss A stood back a bit and waited. Interesting to see the 2 different approaches.

After a short while A had warmed up and decided it was time to talk to Petra. It has been fun over the last few days watching how each child interacts with her. While it hasn't been the best timing with a new house and a new person moving in the kids handled it well. J and A both liked having a new person to talk to and it means each child can have an adult and no sharing!

For me it has been great to have a person with me during the day. L can be so exhausting and demanding another pair of hands and eyes is very helpful. L and Petra haven't really been alone yet but they do seem to get on well.