Jacob Parent/Teacher Conference

Had Jacob’s parent/teacher conference tonight. They say he is lots of fun to have there! I bet he is! He can be such a character and so cute when he wants to be! I can feel they honestly love having him there though. Got to see some of the testing they do. Not surprised at any of the results being on the low side. Still hate seeing it on paper though. Some of it is harder for him since he still can’t identify the entire alphabet so “writing” is not easy for him. He is writing his name very well now. Funny how he is now writing his name JacobA. Not sure why or where he got the idea of the A at the end! He loves drawing people. He came home last week with a picture that had 11 people on it. I asked who it was and he said our family! I had to ask who everyone was and was glad to find he added some grandparents to it! I thought we were going to have 5 more kids! He loves listening to stories and has some comprehension skills. We are not sure what we are going to do about next year. He is almost 7 1/2 and in 1st grade. He is at a Kindergarten level with some back at pre-K. His class is currently a K/1 split and his best friend is in K. We are looking at the possibility of keeping him in 1st again. They can adjust to his needs if we advance him. We just want him to be happy. We know we can’t always hold him back as he needs to be with his peers too. Still, if we hold him back, it would be a bonus having his friend there. He is not doing well in math. That is a big struggle for him. He can count to 13 consistantly but identifying other numbers, adding (with exception of some hands on with help), telling time….are not there. 
He is still sleeping a lot. The week before he got sick, the teacher said he fell asleep on a bench outside the classroom after getting off the bus while waiting for her to get there with some other kids. She said Mr. Mcgewin (the para pro) has to wake him up when they go on to other areas of the building even knowing he could easily sleep a couple more hours. They can pick up on his cues of being tired. Wish I could keep him awake more. I feel like he is missing out on so much. We did have lots of laughs talking about how Jacob loves to play school at home and as we talked about what he does, she admits is how she does some things! In addition, at home, he pulls out a blanket and pillow since he also associates school with sleep! 

Talked to his speech therapist and he is doing very well with her. Looks like they have a lot of fun! I am pleased with what she is doing with him. We also talked to his occupational and physical therapists. He is maintaining. He is pretty static as far as improvement. I would rather see that then going down so we will keep up with what he is doing. His OT pulled me aside talking about his strength. She showed me what she is working on. She sees him tire so easy and then he starts to shake and he closes his hands. She showed me a device they measure strength with. She had a chart that said his age should be around 22-24. She said that a decent function would be in the teens. Jacob’s last score was a 4 on one hand and 6 on the other. I knew he was weak but seeing it in this perspective is different. I asked just what does this mean. She said it is basically how long he can do a task. He can’t do things very long at all. I see that at home. We have to keep working on building strength with different tasks. 

They do not see the behavior we have at home. In fact, we brought Katie (our CLS worker) with us tonight and she was shocked and agreed he is different at home! Of course, we were not even out of the building and he had started up. Got really bad when he was home. He had his demands and things were just overwhelming for him. We had a hard time bringing him back to calm. We still know that part of the reason he does better at school is because it is predictable. He has a routine. At home, with 3 siblings, we can’t be that strict with a routine. The kids are all growing and doing things at different stages within 10 yrs age difference. He can recognize a lot and knows when things are different. I can’t imagine how he feels. I know some is just how things are to him. He does not know it any different. On the other hand, he can recognize what the other kids are doing and knows his limits to an extent. I just wish he had a friend to play with at home. Someone to have come over or him go to their house. Be like a typical kid. That is what he wants. He sees Nick doing those things and having sleepovers. He would love to participate in things like that. I know that part is going to get worse when he sees Sophia doing the same. I need to find someway to make part of that work for him. 

Rob has been asked to run for the board at the BDSRA. It is a postion that we feel would benifit them and us. It would require travel a couple times a yr. but everything else can be done from home. Please pray he gets this positon. We are excited about this opportunity! 

Thank you all for your support! If you get a chance, drop a note to Jacob in the messages! 

God Bless, 
Chris