One More Vision Update

I just received an estimated visual acuity in the mail today from the ophthalmologist. Lily is 20/200 and Nathaniel is 20/400. This is their corrected vision. It will be interesting to see how that changes over the years. I must admit that I was surprised by both of them. I thought Lily would be worse and Nathaniel better. Even though they are legally blind, I know that they will conquer all they set their minds to.

Vision Update on Nathaniel and Lily

After waiting five months, we finally had Nathaniel's vision looked into. The visit was very strange. We got into an opthamologist that no one can get into. The Dr. seemed to have forgotten that she allowed us in and questioned me how we were able to make an appointment. Once that was cleared up, we were able to get on with the visit.

I walked out of the office frustrated. Lily's last opthamologist said she had an astigmatism and prescribed glasses that would correct that. This doctor says she does not have an astigmatism. That is a huge difference! Maybe this answers why Lily was not wanting to wear her glasses. Hopefully, we now have the correct prescription.

It appears that Nathaniel does not need glasses. The unexpected was that he has a small optic nerve. This can possibly go along with the fact that he is so tiny. We will be referred to an Endochronologist. I'm not sure what all that means, but plan to get to the bottom of it.

We still do not know their visual acuity. I keep hoping that each visit will tell us but, that is not the case. I guess they need to get a little older before they can assess acuity. So, we don't know how bad their vision is. I have no idea if they will be able to be print readers or need to learn Braille. I'm praying that large font and magnification will be all that is needed. I'm trying to trust in the Lord and not jump ahead to the possibilities and what ifs.

A Field Trip and Preschool Plans Week 3

It took us two weeks to get through my last set of lesson plans. It seemed like we were pretty busy. One thing we did last week that was really fun was a field trip to the grocery store.

We started off by having a lesson on the food groups, now called My Plate.

 

Then we headed to the market. We found different food that would fit in the categories of My Plate.

We were a very noisy group.

Samples from the deli were yummy.

But, the free cookies were the best!

I'm really looking forward to preschool this week. I have teamed up with my neighbor and good friend, Jenny. She will be bringing her girls down to my house four days a week and I will bring my clan to her house once a week. I love to teach circle time and she loves to do crafts. It's a win win situation! It will be like a real preschool! All five kids are pretty close in age; Ava is 5, Nathaniel is 4.5, Lily is 3, and Darcy and Mae are both 2.5.

Our verse is Philippians 2:14

Our theme this week will be cats.Our new vocabulary word is claws.

Books for the week are:

Mama Cat Has Three Kittens by Denise Fleming Three Little Kittens by Paul Galdone Curious Kittens by Roy Volkmann Kittens Are Like That by Jan Pfloog The Little Kitten by Judy Dunn Five Little Kittens by Nancy Jewell Kittens Love by Lisa McCue

Our poem is:

Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been? I've been to London to visit the Queen! Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you there? I frightened a little mouse under her chair.

We will be studying the letters A-D and numbers 1-4.

We will continue to review our colors, shapes, and name recognition.

Gross motor will be rolling a ball back and forth to each other.

We'll make patterns with our pattern blocks.

 This link and this one tell more detail about our preschool plan.

Update on Mae (Brachial Plexus)

This last Wednesday Mae and I headed up to Sacramento to visit Shriners Children Hospital. We had just been there three months before and I didn't understand why we were returning so soon. During the last visit, I got the impression that all we needed to do was some occupational therapy to keep her current mobility. There wasn't anything they could do to further her arm and hand function.

We traveled along the long, boring route amidst constant rain. It was not a very enjoyable trip. Mae was absolutely perfect on the drive.

We arrived to our appointment early and went almost right in. The occupational therapist came first and started to play with Mae in order to asses her arm and hand movement. A few things were better from our initial visit and a few were worse. I assumed they would send us off with an encouragement to just keep stretching her tight spots. Imagine my surprise when the doctor walked in at the end.

Surgery.

Yep. We are headed back to the hospital on April 5th for Mae to have surgery on her arm. Her forearm turns out instead of towards her body. They want to reroute her bicep in order to keep her arm from contracting more. The goal is to keep her arm as it is for as long as possible. The doctor told me that her brachial plexus damage is actually quite severe. This surprised me because Mae uses her arm so much. The usage she has is the reason why the doctor considers doing this surgery. The want to keep her using it.

My response?

I took it all in stride. It's hard to get too worked up about it when I had just recently spent some time at the hospital with a friend who's daughter had one leg amputated and the other reconstructed. That was intense. Mae's surgery is so minor compared. Don't get me wrong. Any surgery is a big deal. Mae will be under anesthesia for at least an hour. They will be cutting into her arm and muscle. It's just that I know we will make it to the other side. God loves my little one immensely and will see her through. Prayers will be spoken for my little one by friends and family at home. She is in good hands.

What will be the outcome?

After the surgery, Mae will be in a cast for seven weeks. (I'm sure she will pick pink!) I completely blanked  on asking about the incision. I have no idea where that will be or how long. I may call next week to find that out. However, it doesn't make much difference. Once the cast is off we will not see much difference. She will not have more mobility. It probably won't even look different. However, it will keep her arm from twisting up on her causing her to lose what she has. For this I am thankful.

So, keep my sweet Mae in your prayers. Pray that her mama will stay calm while waiting for the surgery to end. (Jon will be in LA that day and the next.) Pray for the pain management. Pray for Dr. Bauer as she navigates muscle, tendons, and nerves. Pray for the seven weeks after that the cast will not frustrate her.

tenacious: persistent in maintaining, adhering to, or seeking something valued or desired.

That's my girl: tenacious, persistent, sweet, loving, beautiful, and bright. I know that no lack of mobility will ever slow her down. She's ready to take on the world!

Preschool Plans Week 2 (With links and pictures)

Well, it took us a few weeks to get through week one of my lesson plans. We had many disruptions to our schedule which caused us to not get much done. We are back on track, and it makes such a huge difference.

Here's my plan for week 2.

Bible time- Sing This Little Light of Mine and Jesus Loves Even Me from WeeSing Bible Songs. Read a bible story. (We love The Beginner's Bible.) Go over verse for the week. (Matthew 5:9) The verses are on this blog. You need to scroll down the page a bit. Review past verse. Pray.

Theme- This weeks theme is- Jungle. The vocab word will be vines. Books for the week are: Slowly, Slowly, Slowly, said the Sloth; Splash. The Bird, the Monkey, and the Snake in the Jungle; Rumble in the Jungle; The Loudest Roar.  All of these books are available through our library. I LOVE the library!

Gross Motor- Act out different jungle animals while listening to Carnival of the Animals. Elephants, tigers, monkeys, birds.

Letter of the Week- We are learning the letter B and the sound. I'm using these printouts for introduction. I also made these great felt letters.

These are wonderful for my visually impaired kids. They are big and tactile.I'm working on a lower case set.

 

I also have these felt finger puppets that like to come out and play.  Each one corresponds with a letter.

 

The kids love them. I made them long ago when the boys were in preschool. I've since lost the book with the patterns. I have a few left to make and was fortunate to get the patterns again from my aunt who had copies.

Number of the Week- We are on #2. We are counting to ten with counting bears, and learning to verbally count to 20.

Patterns- Simple patterns with counting bears.

Prepositions- Review previous and introduce inside and outside.

Poem- Once I Saw a Little Bird

Once I saw a little bird

Come hop, hop, hop

So I cried, Little bird,

Will you stop, stop, stop?

I was going to the window

To say, How do you do?

But he shook his little tail

And away he flew.

Colors- Review color cards. (I went to the paint department and picked out color card samples.)

Shapes- Introduce Star. Review past shapes. I use these flash cards. I have some other cards we use, but I can't find the link.

Name, Age, and Gender- I made name cards for them so they can start identifying their written names.

Songs for the Week- Six Little Ducks, ABC's, Kookabura.

 

It is so easy to fill up an hour with these little kids. They are sponges! I'm amazed at how well they sit and participate. I'm also going to slowly work on getting them to use a crayon tracing letters and numbers. Heck, I'd settle for just learning to somewhat color them. Fine motor is not a strength in this house. We'll see how productive we are this week.