What's Maya been up to?
Maya loves dancing! I knew this from an early age, but now Maya is enrolled in a dance class. A little dance studio opened up a year ago in our neighborhood and I heard good things about it from friends. So over the summer I enrolled Maya in a beginning dance class. It's not very formal, but they have their little routine they do. The amazing thing is that Maya follow directions really well and enjoys every bit of it. She stands where she is supposed to stand and tries with all her might to mimic the dance teachers. I'm hoping that she can move up soon to the beginning ballet and tap class.
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| Dance class. |
Maya's speech has taken off! As always Maya teaches me so many things. The greatest things she teaches me is acceptance and to have patience. Maya always does things in her own time and way. It's been this way from the moment she was born. I always want her to reach her milestones in a timely manner, but my darling Maya will not do it until she is ready. She is ready now for speech. Slowly and surely she is improving her speech. She is repeating words and saying phrases. She is even reading. I'm not the only one saying this so it's not just mama pride. It's pretty awesome!
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| What did you say? |
Maya wears glasses! Earlier this year I took her to a new eye doctor. I had heard about vision therapy and was curious about how Maya might benefit from it. What we found out is that Maya is very farsighted. Well we knew this from the previous eye doctor but he said it was no big deal and that it was normal. The new doctor said that she needed glasses. After some thought about which doc to believe, and a second opinion, we ordered the glasses and decided to give it a try. At first it was hard, she just didn't want to have them on, but now she wears them about 90% of the time. I'm not sure if I see any difference, but the doctor says that her prescription is improving.
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| Dancing! |
Maya is in kindergarten! In August Maya started to attend school as a kindergartner. It's an exciting step for us. She's full time in school, so there's all the wonderful struggles that come along with it, like eating lunch at school, getting through the whole day and then coming home to do therapy. But so far I really think that she is having a great time. The team involved with Maya are so helpful and really want to make her experience the best. So far Maya is in general ed 70% of the time and pulled out for resource work the rest of the time. The resource teacher has really been creative in helping Maya adjust. Because I mentioned that Maya does well with lists, she has created a list for the whole day. So now Maya can cross off each task that is completed and will see what is coming next (the teachers and aids make notes on the side). It's like a communication book which I also have them fill out. Because Maya can't tell me how her day went, this list and communication book help me know how she is doing.
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| Ready to go to school. |
One last thing about Maya and school, she gets to ride the bus! She loves riding the bus. We are really lucky to have such a great team, including the bus driver and monitor. They are very patient with Maya getting on and off the bus. She really looks forward to riding the bus. I see it when she smiles and her eye light up. The bus noise was bothering her a little so I ordered her some noise cancelling headphones. I don't know why I didn't think about this before. It's the perfect thing for cancelling out loud noises that bother her. I've started to even use them when there is a lot of noise going on at parties or get togethers.
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| Bye school bus! |
Now that Maya is in school, I am hoping to have more time to do all the things that I've put aside. Slowly I'm getting into a new routine, the house has been neglected and so has my art making. Not to mention this blog. I also hope to volunteer at her school and help the FTO with the wonderful work they do for the community. So much to do but that's the way we like it. =)
