2nd Annual Back 2 School Bash

Posted by jOi-C in as the bell rings, homeschool, intermission August 24, 2009

Remember last year when we decided to have a Back 2 School Bash for the kids?? Well it’s that time of year again, and this Ormeo Family tradition is here to stay. Just like last year, we didn’t tell the kids what we were up to or that it was even time for another Bash, we wanted to keep it a surprise.

So after a slow start (another post for another day), we were headed to the beach! Fun in the sun always turns that frown upside down right?? RIGHT except Mr. Sun wasn’t making his appearance!

By the time we headed out to St. Augustine, it was time for another Florida afternoon storm. After driving around for while, we decided to park to figure out our next step. We didn’t want to waste the not-so-short drive out there! But God is good and He knew exactly what we needed to cheer us up and put us back in the mood to party! We ended up at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! where they had a 2 for 1 special for admission, plus a free Enzo, so we decided to drop in!

Our kids are at a really great age right now to do ‘stuff’ and we don’t have to chase anyone down or have to haul a stroller (although once in a while Enzo still opts for it and I don’t blame him, I would too if I could!). PLUS everyone is potty trained! The kids even got to commemorate our Back 2 School Bash with a waxed hand. Each one got a mold of their hand so we can all look back and remember how small and little everyone was!

First they lather lotion all over your hand and have you dip your hand in ice for 20 seconds. Then they repeatedly dip your hand in 140 degree wax until they get the thickness just right. Oh the kids loved it! I haven’t taken a picture of the finished product but Enzo did a peace sign, Lizzie signed ‘I love you’, and Ethan did ‘Rock on!’

By the time we were done, the rain had stopped. Outside the museum, they had a radio station with a few vendors with fun kid stuff. The kids were so excited to get goodies and balloons and they even got to play with djembes!

Mr. Sun eventually made his appearance so off to the beach we went! And the kids were so excited!

This day which started out so grumpy turned out way better than we planned! The kids had a blast, now we’re ready for a new school year. Till next year…

PS. Click here for more pictures from our 2nd Annual Back 2 School Bash.

To homeschool or not to homeschool

Posted by jOi-C in as the bell rings, homeschool August 1, 2009

School starts in a few weeks around here, 24 days to be exact. Ethan will remain homeschooled. That’s all he’s ever known and doesn’t feel like he’s missing out on anything (and I agree). Enzo will most likely be homeschooled. He would be a really young Kindergarten babe anyway. His birthday is at the end of August so he barely makes the September 1st birthday cut off anyway. Academically, we have no doubt Enzo can handle it, he’s been reading for a while now thanks to preschool! Emotional maturity, he could use some time. (Some places I’ve read say however many years a young child grows up in the foster system, is usually about the same number of years you can expect them develop emotionally. Not sure the truth behind it, but I do see Enzo having a slower adoption/emotional adjustment regardless of him coming from a wonderful foster home).

Lizzie, we’re so wishy-washy about homeschooling. I think I’m scared about reading and comprehension with her. Having a trach causes speech issues which in turn causes problems with reading and comprehension. She can read although she didn’t get a solid foundation like Enzo did in preschool. Lizzie was in public school for Kindergarten and it really didn’t do much for her academically. Yes she got some basic reading skills at school but most of it is from Enzo and speech therapy. Besides, how do I teach a child who can barely “speak” to read? A lot of times, it’s hard to know if she’s really blending words together or if we’re not hearing her right or if she’s just agreeing with you because she knows that’s what you want to hear.

Then to top of my reading fear, we’re still waiting for her Dynavox – it’s an augmentative communication device that will tremendously help her communicate in all aspects. It’s going through her insurance and we’re praying it doesn’t take much longer (we’ve been waiting for more than 7 months now), but funding is so funny with money and having to get concurrence stuff with the public school. I would hate for them to not pay for her device because she isn’t in a public school with public funding. They did say homeschooling shouldn’t affect getting the device, but government can be so technical with all that mess.

Or maybe I just need to feel like I have someone else to blame if something goes wrong academically with her?? *eeks*

So that still leaves us with, to homeschool or not to homeschool? We’ve always said we would homeschool our kids (even when we only had Ethan). I want all my kids to get the same opportunity to be home with me and experience the flexibility and fun of learning. Can I handle 3 kids tho??? Ethan can be independent for the most part. Really I could just use 1 curriculum for Lizzie and Enzo, because like I said, he’s capable of keeping up with Lizzie (even in the 1st grade). But that’s still homeschooling 2 younger ones.

We need to decide soon, because we need to start buying curriculum and looking through all my old stuff to see what I have left from Ethan’s earlier days. Plus, Lizzie has a nurse when she’s at school and the nursing agency is already scheduling her nurses for that. We wouldn’t get nursing during the day if I homeschooled, at least I don’t think we do. Then again, I don’t think I’d want a nurse during the day…it’s hard enough tiptoeing around our house at night (but that’s another post for another day).

So we have less than 3 weeks to decide, the sooner the better….When we decided to homeschool Ethan, it was 2-3 days before school started. Oh I hope it doesn’t take us that long to decide. So help us pray about this decision. Any thoughts or advice?

To be continued…(in the meantime, I’m shaking in my boots…I’m scared!)

Run Enzo Run!

Posted by jOi-C in as the bell rings, enzo, sensational kid April 11, 2009

Enzo and ‘run’ in the same sentence really is kinda funny (ok ‘was’ funny). As active and excited as Enzo is, he doesn’t ever have the stamina to keep going at any physical activity much less run a kiddie marathon!

Along with Enzo’s sensory issues and spatial (not knowing where his body is in space relative to gravity) issues plus low muscle tone (not something you can workout, its something that will always be that way), both his Occupational Therapist and Physical Therapist have said many times before that Enzo just won’t ever be an athlete, or a runner, or anything of the sort. He can barely finish an hour of Physical Therapy once a week.

All of that is perfectly fine with us since we are definitely not sports fanatics. Just look at Ethan and Toots, it’s all about music and instruments. So Enzo fits in the family perfectly!

Enzo’s school held a Boosterthon Fun Run last week. Enzo was so excited about all of it because of the cool prizes you can get when you get so many pledges for each lap you run.

We wanted to help him get pledges so he can get the prizes he was so excited about. Besides, how many laps could Enzo run anyway? We figured he’d go for maybe 2-3 laps, 5 if he’s having a really good day and someone really pushes him to keep going.

So we all pledged $1 each. Even Ethan and E pitched in together since they both have a little bit of money in their piggy banks. He even talked to his aunts and cousin. He even hit Ms. Sherri up all by himself. In total, he got 8 pledges at $1 each. No big deal right?

At the 3rd lap, Toots and I were just kind of looking at each other because Enzo had no signs of giving up yet. By the 5th lap we knew we were in trouble.

Ha! He finished 23 laps!!! Great job Enzo! You really surprised all of us!

Alright family, for those who sponsored Enzo for this run, thanks! Don’t forget to pay up!

Pretty cheeks

Posted by jOi-C in as the bell rings, enzo March 2, 2009

Every week in Enzo’s class, the teachers assign a boys and a girls line leader. Last week was Enzo’s turn to be line leader. He’s always so proud when it’s his turn to be line leader.

One morning last week, his teacher pulled me aside to tell me about Enzo’s funny for the week. Keep in mind, they aren’t really allowed to talk and move much when they are in the halls (he goes to a private school), so they are talking very softly to the teacher.

As told by Enzo’s preschool teacher:

Teacher: Wow, look at my 2 new line leaders. You guys are so cute.

Enzo: (Looks at the girls’ line leader and points to her) She has pretty cheeks.

Girl: (Looks at Enzo) He has cute hair.

Back 2 School Bash

Posted by jOi-C in as the bell rings, intermission September 10, 2008

Updates are long over due, but life happens and blogging doesn’t…School has been in session for 3 weeks now, at least for Enzo and E. But the Friday before school started, we decided to take the kids somewhere fun to kick off the school year!

So off we went to none other than “where a kid can be a kid”…Chuck E. Cheese!!!

The kids had a blast and it wasn’t as packed as we expected it to be. I’ll admit I was dreading how Enzo could ‘excitedly’ respond to Chuck E. Cheese and all its exciting rides and games, but he proved me wrong!

Enzo was mad we put the bib on for the picture, but that was the closest he was willing to let Chuck E. near him. E wouldn’t take a picture with Chuck E. either. So Ethan was their representative for picture purposes!

We do learn something new everyday about our kids, even while playing at Chuck E. Cheese.

Lessons learned at Chuck E. Cheese:

1. E’s afraid of heights (that was funny, well sorta not really, we had to work hard at keeping her from jumping off that bike thing).

2. Roller coaster simulators are great for Enzo’s sensory issues! The strong vibrations against his tiny body really did keep him mellow (is that how you spell that? it looks funny) and focused!

3. Notice anything about the pictures above?? Yeah, no picture of Ethan! He enjoyed his independence and roaming around without the parentals!

PS. Of course Enzo has to drive a car! What’s a Back 2 School Bash without his car obsession being satisfied?!?

School starts!

Posted by jOi-C in as the bell rings August 18, 2008

School starts tomorrow, actually in a few hours….i should really be sleeping since I’ll have to get up early to get E and Enzo to school…I’ve spent the last 2-3 hours talking with my night nurse and making sure I have everything E and the day nurse will need while she’s at school…I’m so scared I’ll forget something important!

~~1. Find school uniform for Enzo~~ (Thanks ate J! oh and Joshua too)

~~2. Enzo’s school orientation~~

~~3. Register E in school,~~ ~~but I’m still waiting to hear what school she will be assigned to.~~

~~4. E’s orientation.~~

~~5. Getting E’s medical supplies situated in class before school starts.~~ (Didn’t happen, didn’t need to get it there because most things will travel home with E anyway)

~~6. Get school supplies, but I have to wait to find out which school and teacher E is assigned to. (We got E’s backpack and lunchbox,~~ ~~still need Enzo’s lunchbox,~~ ~~and waiting for school supplies)~~

~~7. Coordinate new nursing schedule for day and night nurse (this one makes me nervous because they are so inconsistent)~~ ~~(Just got a call as I was typing this blog to let us know about our nurse; she has 2 nurses, 1 nurse (Thurs & Fri) i really really like and i’m excited!)~~

8. Make sure they schedule reevaluation for E’s IEP.

* 9. Need to get health forms for school (Her appt isn’t until mid September, crazy!)

*10. Bus schedule is all messed up. I’ll have to drive her and the nurse to and from school for a few days until they get it all figured out. But if the bus is wanting to pick her up at 5:45am, then no way!

5 days ’til

Posted by jOi-C in as the bell rings August 13, 2008

SCHOOL STARTS! We’re slowly getting things ready and hopefully everything will be in place and smooth sailing by Monday. (Hey, a girl can dream right?)

We’ve even started our school night routine going! Enzo’s down at 8pm, E at 8:30pm, and Ethan at 9:30….i’m sure we’ll have to tweek a little bit but at least we’re getting into the groove…

So this was our School-To-Do List before E’s surgery tomorrow:

~~1. Find school uniform for Enzo~~

~~2. Enzo’s school orientation~~ (I met his teacher today and she was really nice and very open to my ‘excited’ Enzo)

3. Register E in school, ~~but I’m still waiting to hear what school she will be assigned to.~~ (We got our school assignment and bus assignment, we’re waiting to here back from the school office so we can officially register. We even got her bus assignment and I talked to the driver today, he seems pretty nice)

4. E’s orientation. (May not happen unless our surgery time is later tomorrow)

5. Getting E’s medical supplies situated in class before school starts. (???)

6. Get school supplies, but I have to wait to find out which school and teacher E is assigned to. (We got E’s backpack and lunchbox, ~~still need Enzo’s lunchbox,~~ and waiting for school supplies)

~~7. Coordinate new nursing schedule for day and night nurse (this one makes me nervous because they are so inconsistent)~~ (Just got a call as I was typing this blog to let us know about our nurse; she has 2 nurses, 1 nurse (Thurs & Fri) i really really like and i’m excited!)

8. Make sure they schedule reevaluation for E’s IEP.

* 9. Need to get health forms for school

7 days 'til

Posted by jOi-C in as the bell rings August 11, 2008

SCHOOL STARTS! Not sure if I’m excited for the break or nervous to send E and Enzo off. Enzo is in VPK (K4) this year from 11:10a – 2:30p. E on the other hand is Kindergarten and will be all day, 8:30a – 3:00p.

This is also the first time I’m ever working with a school and the school system, and it hasn’t exactly been the easiest. Ethan has been homeschooled since Kindergarten; he went to K4 but I worked right next door to his classroom so it really wasn’t a big deal.

We have quite a bit to get ready before E’s surgery on Thursday, and this is just stuff to get ready for school:

1. Find school uniform for Enzo
2. Enzo’s school orientation
3. Register E in school, but I’m still waiting to hear what school she will be assigned to.
4. E’s orientation.
5. Getting E’s medical supplies situated in class before school starts.
6. Get school supplies, but I have to wait to find out which school and teacher E is assigned to.
7. Coordinate new nursing schedule for day and night nurse (this one makes me nervous because they are so inconsistent)
8. Make sure they schedule reevaluation for E’s IEP.

As the bell rings

Posted by jOi-C in "e", as the bell rings July 9, 2008

We’ve always homeschooled Ethan so we’ve never had to work with a school system let alone an IEP for special needs. So many things to consider. To start at least E will be mainstreamed in a regular Kindergarten classroom since she’s a medical/physical needs vs other types of special needs.

However, because of her trach there are 2 main things that we have to focus on:

1. She’s trach dependent (meaning if that trach ever dislodges or plugs, she isn’t not breathing) so it is critical that there is always at least 1 person with her that is VERY knowledgeable and VERY comfortable dealing with a trach (not just suctioning but also changing it out)

2. She’s non-verbal, meaning while her language skills are perfectly normal, her vocal speech is extremely affected. She clicks, quacks, makes sounds and even talks but none of it is considered really “speech or verbal” because she doesn’t use her vocal chords at all. The doctor told me yesterday that while all trach patients can ‘quack’ like E, she’s the ony one they’ve ever dealt with that doesn’t make ‘vocal’ sounds at all.

Other than those two issues, her pulmonologist isn’t putting any kind of limitations on her. They said to let her run, play, go to school all day because she will self-regulate just like we do. She’ll tell us when she’s had enough (or at least I hope she does because she LOVES to run around with Enzo)

As much as I want to homeschool E, for the first year or so, we think she would benefit more from going to a traditional school setting. Kind of scary to think about but how would I teach a non-verbal child to read? I need her to at least get the basics.

Plus with her being so premature, living in a medical foster home, and being in a special ed class last year, she needs the extra stimulation of being with ‘normal’ kids her age. Ok, so normal is probably not the word to use, but yeah…

So here we are, with not quite 6 weeks left till school starts….So much to do to make sure things are in place for her with so little time. Seems like doctors, nurses, and school ppl are saying that 6 weeks left with so many gaps to bridge is really tight….

Ready or not here we come…

Posted by jOi-C in as the bell rings, enzo March 7, 2008

So it’s official! eeeks! Enzo is officially registered for preschool (K4) for the upcoming school year….I’m not sure if I’m ready to cut the cord! haha ok enough with the drama….

School starts Aug 18th, so I guess we need to start the countdown?I’ll have him go to preschool for a year, that will give him a pretty good foundation to start with and he’ll have so much fun with new friends. The school that he’s going to is pretty strict and academic based even in the 4yr old classes. When Ethan was in pre-k 4, they had centers and they played around those centers. We did the school tour a couple of weeks ago and the kids sit “quietly” at their own desks…they don’t do centers, and they have a fairly lengthly list of academic goals for the year.

We’ll see how long they can keep Enzo in a desk ahahha they are in for a treat!!! or maybe I’m in for treat because they are strict about discipline. The principle may just want to go ahead and pencil me in her weekly schedule for the year because there is not single “quiet” bone in either of my kids!

That’s ok, Enzo is just free-spirited, creative, and “articulate”!

The Ormeo Family & Photography

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