Update

Riley has done lots of things since I last posted for him.

In May he attended his first birthday party without parents. His friend's dad took him and some of his friends to a college baseball game. Riley was really excited to go and did very well.

At the beginning of June Riley finished Kindergaten. He is reading at grade level and did well in all subjects except writing. We are trying to continue to work together on his writing and his reading over the summer. We joined the Summer Reading Program at the library so that we can get a backpack for Riley to use next school year. He is doing very well and we are about a third of the way done, but he enjoys me reading to him rather than reading to me!

We also finally got a time slot for physical therapy. We only have it through the end of August, but some time is better than none. We got lucky with the physical therapy because he has never been evaluated for PT, but was somehow put on the waiting list. He did end up qualifying for PT because his age appropriate skills are good, but when he has to slow down and do more complicated steps, he cannot do them.

For a summer activity Riley has attended three weeks of gymnastics day camp. He enjoyed the first and the last week because there were a lot of kids that attended those weeks. The middle week, he did not enjoy because there were only four kids including him. His gymnastics skills have greatly improved this year. He is able to do some moves on the trampoline like the seat drop. He was hanging on the bar over the pit and was able to hold on with one hand and switch directions on the bar and put his toes up before dropping into the pit. He is able to do forward and backward rolls and jump over the mat with his hands in cartwheel position.

The clothing issue for this summer is Riley would like to wear pants everyday. He likes his uniform of white t-shirt and blue jersey knit pants. He tolerates wearing shorts on most days, but usually puts up some fuss.

Riley has a new friend in the neighborhood. He is a boy that is 3 years younger than Riley, but they have a lot in common and play very well together. They both have a crush on the same girl, but have kind of moved away from playing with her to playing together much to my happiness.

Sidewalk Chalk

Riley has never really shown an interest in sidewalk chalk. We have had some since last summer and the neighbors have played with it, and Riley has not really ever joined them in writing on the driveway. I have to admit I hate the stuff and never really encouraged its use either.

Well, last Sunday, Reese got out the chalk and starting drawing on the driveway. Riley decided that he wanted to help also and started drawing shapes. I let him draw shapes for awhile and then asked him to write a word that he knew. He wrote THE and then can, come, in, etc. He was writing the words, and I was happy to see that he was forming his letters correctly! He then wrote his last name and then wanted to add his first name. He wrote his first name backwards in order to get it in front of his last name that he had already written.

I was happy to see Riley show some interest in writing and drawing because it shows that he has a little bit more confidence and success in his ability to write.

First Phone Conversation

Riley had his first friend want to talk to him on the phone today. We met J at the indoor carnival at Riley's school earlier. I just got a message left over from last night that they had invited Riley to the movies yesterday. I thought that it was for today, but we made plans to go to another movie tonight. Riley says that J is one of his best friends and after J's dad and I made plans for the boys tonight, J's dad had to call back to say that his son wanted to talk to Riley on the phone.

They had a really short phone conversation where Riley was just talking his normal crazy talk. We look forward to tonight when Riley finally gets to go out with a friend. He was just complaining yesterday that no one wanted to play with him. I know that he needs to have friends and wants them to come over, but I have not really had the chance to go and volunteer or get to know any of the parents. We should have fun tonight...

Parent Teacher Conference

We went to Riley's parent teacher conference, and I was pleasantly surprised. He seems to do well in reading and has a great deal of background knowledge about everything, but has a great deal of trouble with writing and the sound he hears in writing.

Both of his teacher had stories of background knowledge that only Riley knew as a kindergartner. His morning teacher said that he was the only one who knew what a moat was in a Katy story. His afternoon teacher said that she read a book about the president and at the end there was a picture of the Statue of Liberty, and Riley was the only one who could identify it and tell everyone that it was in New York City. (He has never been to NYC.)

His reading level is a level B. He is expected to be at a level C by the end of the school year. He also seems to have a grasp on his sight words. He has 40 to learn this year and another 60 next year. He just got his last set of 10.

We discussed Riley's sideways vision issues, and I outlined what I have done with regards to specialists in dealing with this issue. We also talked about the sideways vision of the uncles and some of Riley's generation. I talked about how I had read once that it was a sensory issue; trying to block out too much visual imput.

The teachers felt that we should work on Riley's writing and writing the sounds that he hears in words. I believe that it is a good idea and will work on it with him. We are all at a loss as to what else to do and hopefully, IAT will have some new ideas.