Guess who walked the school district coordinator from his class to the conference room where the IEP was held?
Guess who proceeded to sit himself down, fold his hands on the desk and listen for the entire hour?
Guess who—when the teacher said "He's mine!"—pointed to me and corrected her?
Guess who nodded in agreement and said "Yeah!" to basically everything the teacher, OT, PT and speech therapist said about his progress?
Guess who can read and spell 100-plus words from his reading program?
Guess who beamed when he heard what a whiz he is on the iPad and that he brings in the best current events?
Guess who's doing a great job of answering comprehension questions after reading sentences and short stories, even if he needs questions repeated?
Guess who agreed he needed to find new books to read at home other than Lightning McQueen ones?
Guess who's interested in learning to play chess?
Guess who's game to try drinking thickened liquids during lunch, including lemonade and V8 juice, to see if that helps him better retain liquids?
Guess who needs to see an ENT just to make sure his swallowing is OK? [Sigh.]
Guess who winked at me in the midst of it all?
Guess who's doing a great job learning to climb down stairs and who is going to be even more solid once he has his new purple orthotics? And guess who picked the color?
Guess who's going to be selling food to staffers as part of a kids' café during lunchtime?
Guess whose smile lit up the room when his teacher said he is a "smart guy"?
Guess who signed the IEP form?
Max. Yay Max
ReplyDeleteWay to go Max!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThat is amazing to hear! What a guy!
ReplyDeleteOh, I heart this so much!!!!
ReplyDeleteGuess who made me smile? :)
ReplyDeleteI love this! Our school district also does student-led IEPs and they are awesome - I wish all schools gave our kids the ability to do this! Go Max! Keep making us all proud! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, all. And Marla, guess what? He CRASHED this, basically! There were no formal plans for him to come. I wasn't even aware kids could be there. But then he showed up. And it turns out that as kids get older, yes, they can come. His teacher said they are often excellent advocates for themselves. I will say it was maybe a little harder to concentrate because he was just so awesome throughout it all and I kept wanting to hug him.
DeleteWell then I give Max EXTRA SUPER CREDIT! He's such an important advocate for himself! My daughter is in kindergarten and has come to two IEP meetings so far (preK and K). At one, she used her talker to welcome us all and introduce each person (and then left) and at the next one she came in and said hi and gave us a card she made welcoming/thanking us (and then left, haha - we're not so much there with the attention span). I look forward to a day when she's able to be as involved in her IEP meeting as Max! :) :)
DeleteThe is awesome. Congratulations. The pride and joy you must feel - yay!
ReplyDeleteI love this post - great job Max!
ReplyDeleteI love that school so much. We had our IFSP meeting for my younger son last week and the service coordinator was asking about our preschool transition and I told her about my older son going to school. She was interested in showing us multiple options and I told her how much that school is helping my older son thrive and I'm super happy there. I'm so glad Max is thriving and it gives me so much hope about the progress they'll make there as they get older.
ReplyDeleteOh and there is a super cute pic of Max at the Valentine's Day dance on the screen in the lobby!
This is so fabulous!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome!
ReplyDeleteMAX ~ You are awesome! Rock on!
ReplyDeleteThis made me smile. Max you rock! So glad to hear of how well he is doing.
ReplyDeleteAwesome, just simply awesome!
ReplyDeleteYeah, MAX! That is so great! And he is a cute as a button so I can totally see why you were distracted during the meeting. :)
ReplyDeleteFabulous!! Can't wait til we get to that point with Jack!! You go Max!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome. Way to crash that party, Max! It must feel great to sit in a room and hear all of your favorite people talk about how awesome you are!
ReplyDeleteI'm doing the happy dance for you, Max! You ROCK!
ReplyDeleteSo great that he can help advocate for himself!
ReplyDeleteHooray Hooray Hooray! Go MAX!!! Love the wink too : ) Awesome share in your post. Thanks a million zillion times for bringing us this Win-Win moment! Warms a mother's heart. (I too have winner stories of my son at his IEP and I remember every moment - YOU GO GIRL!!!)
ReplyDeleteLOVE it!!!
ReplyDeleteEllen....
ReplyDelete"Guess who—when the teacher said 'He's mine!'—pointed to me and corrected her?". That was sweet!! Melt. My. Heart!! ;)
"Guess who's doing a great job of answering comprehension questions after reading sentences and short stories, even if he needs questions repeated?". I cannot do that!! Because of my premature short-term memory loss, I lack some serious reading comprehension skills!! ;-/
Love you later, Raelyn
Love all of this, but especially loving that he signed his own IEP! Have to show this to my coworkers tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteEllen I loved reading this so much x Max you are brilliant! I am so impressed with the reading and spelling part, so, so , so much!,,,
ReplyDeleteWho doesn't love knowing they achieved so many things?
ReplyDeleteAmazing Max! What a great job he is doing. Reading this gives me so much hope for my little man :)
ReplyDeleteI just about cried. Way to go Max and all the Team behind the SuperMax!!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! It's wonderful to hear about great news in a community where we truly understand how BIG accomplishments are for our kids. Celebrate every milestone!
ReplyDeleteWonderful post Ellen! Thank-you!
ReplyDeleteAwesome. Simon attended his first one last month too.
ReplyDeleteYay Simon!
DeleteI love that he winked @you - great muscle isolation LOL Good forhim attending his IEP. Congratulations, Max and Mom.
ReplyDelete