Summertime ... it's HOT !!!!

We are having record temps in Arkansas.   It has reached 105+ degrees several days in July.
Matter of fact, it is so hot and dry that we have statewide burn bans.   We have had very little rain.  My yard is dirt and rocks ... even the weeds are dead .. LOL.

It's been so hot, that we haven't been able to enjoy a lot of outside activites.   The pool water feels like warm bath water.   We walk outside and immediately begin to sweat.   The goood thing about the heat is we've had the chance to look for unique bugs outside.   We've had lots of locust shells and dragonflies. 

Let's see ... what else is going on here?   I found out July 5 that the company I work for is being sold to Walgreen's.   I've worked for this company 21 years, so it was a shock that the sale is taking place.  I won't know until September 1 what will happen to my job.  In the meantime, it's business as usual.

Mari-Grace is doing great.   Her speech is progressing nicely.   She is putting together 2 and 3 word phrases now. 

Here are some of her favorites:
     More milk please.
     Thank you.
     Come on
     Be quiet
     Hold on
     Luv you
    
Her letters /p/ and /b/ are coming out great now.   I'm hearing them almost all the time in the beginning and middle positions of words.   She is still working on the final position of the word.

She  is still having trouble with her /t/ and /d/ sound, but she can do them with coaching, in isolation.  If I know MG, just all of a sudden,  they'll be plain as day.

She had some developmental testing done.  She tested out at 36 months on some fine motor skills, like cutting and drawing shapes.  She doesn't know her alphabet, and has trouble counting.
MG will start some occupational therapy in the next few weeks to help her catch up on these skills.
Just in the last 2 weeks, she has decided she likes to draw.  She went from drawing squiggle lines to drawing intelligible faces. 

We are cutting up a lot of magazines these days.   Every weekend we pick a couple letters and look for them in magazines.  She cuts them out and glues them to a piece of paper.  It seems to be helping.  She can recognize capital and lowercase A, B, and C now ... anywhere.

At school, she is doing great.   She has moved into a new classroom.  She has started socializing with the other children really well.   Matter of fact, her teachers say that she is actually starting to get in trouble once in a while.   They are all so proud of her progress, but I have to keep reminding them not to let her get away with things she should be getting in trouble for.

I made the decision to hold her back a year in school.  She's only 4, so I figure it is best to let her do an extra year in preschool to get caught up on everything.  That means she'll start kindergarten when she is 6 instead of 5.   All of her teachers, and her preschool directors, were in agreement that this was the best decision for her.  I couldn't imagine allowing her to start kindergarten without the ability to express herself and not be able to make her friends and teachers understand what she wants.   According to the preschool director, holding her back now will let her be one of the older kids in her kindergarten class.  That will give her confidence to be a class leader, instead of a quiet follower.   It'll help her be able to assert herself when needed, and it will help her be more independent and mature when she is 18 and ready to go to college.

Education is extrememly important to me.   I don't want to set her up to fail in kindergarten.  If she doesn't do well early in school, then it will a battle to play catch up later in her school career.  
Face it, she is asian.   She will be sterotyped into the "Acheiver" category.  She will be sterotyped as "smart".   I don't want her to be pushed too hard to achieve and not have the maturity level to handle it.  I want her to understand that she has to do her best, but average is okay.

So, with that being said ... she will get to attend the world's greatest preschool for 2 more years !!!

What else is new?   My laptop died ... that is why I haven't posted in a while.   The computer doctor was able to perform a technological miracle and he raised the computer from the dead.   It is working great now, so I hope to be able to blog a little more frequently.

I'm also working on a blog as a lifebook for Mari-Grace.  I have the lifebook blog set to private so only my eyes can see it.   When I finish the blog, I can have it published in a hard bound book for her.  That makes me HAPPY!

I don't reallly know anything else, so as for tonite, I think I'm finished here.

Goodnight,   and I'll check in again soon.