Back to Kindy!

Although the school holidays were a success as far as living with an ASD preschooler goes; it is still great to be back into the swing of things now she's back at Kindy.

I have to admit, I prefer a routine myself. I'm such a Virgo in that respect - I like to plan my week out on a Sunday (if not earlier!) - penciling in visits to the gym, appointments and coffee dates with friends (while Amy is at Kindy).

I think many of us like to know where we are at day to day, week to week. Yet I managed to wing-it these holidays with Amy - often not planning our day til around 9am. Except for a couple of prearranged playdates, I pretty much just decided on the day what we would do. So long as Amy knew we were doing something, or going somewhere ; she seemed to be happy.

There were a couple of meltdowns in the first week. I think it took Amy a week to get into the swing of a more relaxed schedule ie: no racing out the door before nine every morning! But by the second week she was going with the flow.

Personally I quite enjoyed the school holidays. Amy had just had her first term at morning Kindy so it was nice to spend some days together. We had a couple of mother-daughter outings to the mall, and out to lunch. She had several playdates and we spent the better part of a day hanging out with some friends of mine who live by the sea.

Amy is pretty rapt to be back at Kindy this week. One of her good friends started morning Kindy this week and although they haven't been inseparable; they certainly have their moments when they sit close together on the mat or walk around holding hands together.

This term Amy is doing RDA (Riding For The Disabled) again as well as gymnastics. I took her to a school holiday gymnastics session in the holidays and she loved it so much, I thought I'd re-enrol her (she did a couple of terms last year). She has high energy and gymnastics certainly provides her with an excellent physical outlet.

Today was Amy's second IP (Individual Planning) session. Special education, the Head teacher at Kindy, Child Development Services, her teachers aide and myself were present. Things have been looking very positive for Amy lately. Her first term at morning Kindy went so well and she's started off this term on a good note too. The focus this term will be on communication and group play - encouraging social engagement at Kindy. At the moment Amy joins in with kids outside when they are climbing or playing on the slide, or will play Go Fish with a small group of children, but she's a little unsure of how to strike up a conversation with other children at Kindy. The idea is to use the teachers and her teachers aide as meditators as often Amy will start a conversation with something that is completely out of context and the other kids don't know how to respond.

All in all she is doing so well. Today at her IP meeting we were talking about her starting school next year. As she has a late March birthday, it looks like she'll be starting school Term 2, which starts after easter - in April. So she only has three terms left at Morning Kindy! (including her current one).

My feeling is Amy probably will be ready to go to school at the age of five since she is so keen to learn. She is very interested in spelling, adding, and even multiplication at this point!