Cows on I-75!!!

This morning after dropping Leah off in camp, what do I see? A mommy cow and 2 babies were out of the fence and grazing on the side of the road. Of course I had to stop to get a few pictures. Hope someone comes and puts them back in soon. I did notify the "authorities".

Dance Recital Photo Shoot

July 13 was the End of Year Showcase for the studio. Leah takes three classes. Ballet, hip hop, and belly dance. Mommy loves ballet, but Leah loves hip hop and belly the most. The pictures came out amazing. Here are some, they are blurry because I took pictures of pictures from my phone.The last one is my favorite.

Lost our first baby tooth!

Lost

SOCIAL SKILL SUPERSTAR!

Leah started a summer camp program at a local university in order to prepare her for kindergarten. This "camp" is supposed to "iron out the kinks" . We recently received a diagnosis of ADHD so we felt this program would be perfect for Leah. We are on week 3. The first week was very hard for us both. The extreme boot camp-like discipline was very difficult. She faced many, many "time outs" the first 4 days. She hated it! I almost pulled her out after the second day. But here we are in the beginning of week 3 and she LOVES it. She woke up early this morning and actually asked me to take her to school. THAT HAS NEVER HAPPENED, EVER!  They use lots and lots of  praise, (by lots I mean a minimum on 30 every 5 minutes), and rewards. Each praise acts like a reminder therefore creating new habits because she has no time to lose focus. As a teacher, I found it difficult to separate the two roles of mom and educator. Often I was too "teacher-like" at home. This program has helped me parent her differently as it includes lots of parenting classes to show us how to play with children who learn like Leah does. She is one smart cookie, but because she was always all over the place, her teachers didn't know that she was absorbing all the information, just on her terms. Through this program I also learned that teachers have no clue how to deal with ADHD. The way you manage your classroom makes all the difference in the world. Everything I was taught in school about children and teaching is actually the opposite of all that is being done to reprogram my daughter to allow her to function in a regular classroom. Email me if any of you want specifics so this post is not so long, but to make a long story short, Leah is doing fantastic! 

So far............

She enjoys going to school

She has learned to stay in her seat

She has learned to play gently (not that she was aggressive, just a little rough)

 

At the end of the second week, they told me that some of the children were having difficulty socializing. One little boy in fact kept to himself in a corner and would not play with the others. Apparently Leah noticed this and went to him and the two played with blocks for the longest time. She has been the only person (child or adult) that has been able to reach this child, he now only plays with her and she is always around to help him if needed. They noticed this trait in her and they asked if it was OK with us if they used her to help other children. How awesome is that?

We are now working on new goals, like focusing, etc.but all in all, we are so proud of how hard she is working to meet her goals and she is doing great!

She was so excited she couldn't wait to show her sister the "badge" of her new class role "Social Skill Superstar"