Will's Update!

Back on Will's 4th birthday, I had a long post about how hard it is as a mom to have a child who has delays or struggles.
Today, I want to remind myself and others that with all of those struggles, comes twice as much joy when you see your child make so much progress!
When Will started preschool this year, we went in expecting him to be significantly behind his peers and had already planned to have him spend an extra year in preschool rather than sending him to kindergarten in the Fall of 2012.  We knew he would still have his therapies and I planned to use some of my SAHM time to work with him as well.
Well, we were more than shocked at his first parent/teacher conference when Ms. Tori told us that she thought he was doing very well.  She showed us his Kindergarten readiness checklist and we could not believe that most items were already checked off!  She said that she was already thinking that he would be very ready for Kindergarten next fall.  During his Spring conference, she said she was absolutely sure he was ready:)  In the fall, we were still skeptical, but after working with him myself, I found myself agreeing with her 100%.  He is now able to sound out words and read the BOB books we have been working through.  He knows close to 20 Sight Words as well.  His Math skills are great and he still surprises me at how much he understands about addition!
Most of all, I can't believe his fine motor progress.  He rarely has shown any interest in drawing in the past, but lately, I find little "extras" on his school work like this one:

He loves to ride his bike and decided to draw it.  I used to have to have him tell me what he had drawn, but that one was clear on its own:)  We have even decided to sign him up for a summer Art program to help him explore this area and learn to enjoy it even more.
His handwriting has also made a ton of progress.  Sorry this is turned.  Blogger won't let me adjust it now:(  The green writing was done in October and the red in April.  It doesn't even look like the same child did them both:)

 

 His gross motor skills are much improved as well.  He is so much stronger that he is able to ride his bike with ease and should be ready to take his training wheels off by this summer:)  We recently went to a birthday party where they had one of those huge inflatable slides and I assumed he would not be able to climb to the top and would be scared to slide down.  Well, he did it immediately without any trouble!  He now loves to climb pretty much everything at the park and only seems to have trouble with a few things that require a lot of strength like crossing the monkey bars.  He seems to feel very liberated with his new skills and level of bravery:)  I am happy that he no longer sits back and watches the kids his age, but joins in!  He is playing tee ball right now and will have his first game next week, something I did not think he would be ready for this time last year.

So, now we feel much more confident that this is the best next step:)

He will graduate from Preschool this Spring and start Kindergarten this Fall. 

I included this next picture because I just thought it was cute.  His picture taking skills have also shown a lot of progress!

As educators, we know that we still need to keep a close and careful eye on his progress, as we have always done with his sister.  We will always work with him at home to build on his strengths and help him work through his weaknesses.  We truly believe, at this time, that public school is a good choice for our children but also believe that it is a partnership with us, and we must do our part!  If we should ever doubt that he is not ready for the next grade or that he is not being served in the best way possible at his school, we will do whatever we need to fix the situation.  We are still blown away that he no longer qualifies for any therapies in the public school system, but will keep a close watch for any signs that he will need them in the future.  We are so thankful for the teachers and therapists who have worked so hard with him and have helped us to see that he is more capable than we thought initially!  It truly takes a village to raise a child and we feel blessed that our children have been surrounded by such a great village so far:)