Alphabet Parade

Yesterday was Nathan's kindergarten Alphabet Parade. He drew the letter Ii. Not a mom's first choice but he is an incredible kid and made it work. The first challenge was show and tell Wednesday. His teacher suggested "inches" or "insects". I could tell he was less than enthusiastic... although teaching his class about inches was a little intriguing. He remembered the "Indian" shirt he wore to school for the Thanksgiving feast. His teacher wanted them to share about what they brought in so he asked me when he got the shirt. I explained that actually someone made it for Justin when he was in second grade and he wore it for a report on Native Americans that he presented. Hmmmm.... talking about your big brother is sometimes cool but not on YOUR special show and tell day. So we thought some more. I googled "show and tell for the letter "I"" and got one idea of an ice pack for an illness. Nate got a flicker of excitement, "I want to be a doctor when I grow up so I could bring in an ice pack." Then I got a flicker of excitement and came up with, "How about bring in your cast from when you broke your arm and use it for injury?"
That was the idea we'd been looking for. He was so excited. I wrote the word injury on a piece of scotch tape and put it on the cast so his teacher would understand what he is saying.

I don't know if I've mentioned it but Nate has a pretty severe speech impediment. When he was screened we found out he was at the 1% for his age which means that he speaks as clearly as a 2 year old. We also found out during the screening that his cognitive level is in the 96% for his age. So we have a 6 year old boy who has this incredible vocabulary but he can only pronounce parts of words (leaving endings off etc.) and can not make certain sounds like "g". It makes me sad to know how much of his world we are missing out on because of this but he also has the patience of a SAINT. He will repeat himself a half dozen times, slow down, act out what he's trying to say and even is starting to SPELL what he is trying to say (he is a very good reader and speller) to help us understand what he is trying to share.

So he was set to go with show and tell. Here he is holding his cast. He ususally holds it up to his nose as an elephant trunk... this is more of a musket look. (okay I can't seem to get the picture off from the teacher's page without posting ALL of the kids' show and tell. I'll keep working on it.)

In the mean time here are 3 of my favorite pictures that I took with my computer. We were just hanging out after school and ended up with these pictures. So my Indiana Jones boy is quite the character. I especially love this hat because I just bumped into it at Michaels for $3.99. I so thought we'd be paying much more for a real Indiana like hat but we were all happy with this one. OH and by the way during the parade each child went up to the microphone and got to tell what they were for their letter. I saw his speech teacher before the parade and she mentioned that they had been practicing just as we had been at home. There were 3 kids she had been working with for the parade. Rob and I were so proud of him as he so clearly said, "I is for IN DE ANNA JONES" It was a proud moment for us all.

We're 5 & 2....


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