Today is Jordy’s last day of what we’re calling “summer camp”! In his SpEd Pre-K, he has (for the last 2 summers) been qualified/chosen to continue the school year in ESY, Extended School Year. Kiddos who’ve been identified as those who are likely to regress academically/developmentally without the structure and learning environment during an entire summer, get to extend the school year for an additional 5 weeks. It’s 4 days a week, 8a-12p and started June 13 and the last day is today.

Jordy has been in district Pre-K starting at age 3 at Canyon Vista Elementary School, due to his needs and an IEP (Individualized Education Plan), which made his preschool absolutely free. The summer “ESY” program is also free. Kiddos have to qualify developmentally to be included in these programs, and he had to go through a series of assessments with the district psychologist and nurse. He receives speech therapy and occupational therapy during school hours, working towards goals to set him up for academic success. The overall goal is to essentially get him in General Ed once he’s in early elementary. Ideally that would be Kindergarten, but we’ll see how he does progressing through this next year of TK. He’s in what’s called STARS TK, which is that lower ratio supportive program on-site at the (different) elementary school, in its own classroom. Speech Therapists and Occupational Therapists come into the classroom and work with these kiddos one-on-one and in little groups, simultaneously working on these kids’ goals from their IEPs.

In Pre-K, his special program was called SEALS (I can never remember what the acronyms mean), and at the elementary age (TK and up) his program is the STARS program. More about what TK is in our school district, here. Because of Universal TK (UTK) legislation becoming active this upcoming fall, they shifted the birthday timeline from turning 5 on or after September 2 through December 2nd, to NOW September 2 through February 2 (quite a jump) which essentially meant Jordy qualified by 3 days before the cutoff. Now with UTK, there are TK programs at every single elementary school in our district. But there are only a couple locations in the district for the STARS TK program. We also moved to Mission Viejo, so our closest STARS TK program shifted. This Fall, his school day is 8a-12p also, and Jia will be 8a-2:30p. At least the same Elementary though.

BACK TO SUMMER: It’ll be a bummer to no longer have the four hours to myself (especially since last summer and this summer, Jia has been with her grandparents during that exact timeframe), which means I have to actually figure out what the kids and I do on my non-work days. Other than playing Mario Kart all day.

You’d think with a private pool, he’d be eager to get all the wiggles out in it every day being that it’s such a great sensory experience for kiddos on the spectrum (jordy loves splashing and jumping off the sides of the pool), but it’s actually kind of hard to convince him to get into it. I think I’ll make it my goal today to get him in the pool. Or at least, maybe I’ll hold off and see if Jia being home will help that. Being that she’s gone into about half a dozen different pools on her road trip…

Jia, still on her epic road trip cross-country with my parents, arrived to the Grand Canyon on Tuesday afternoon. Yesterday they woke up and took a helicopter ride and flew over the Grand Canyon. Today they’re driving to Las Vegas for a couple nights, then she comes home Saturday.

Some gorgeous pics of the Grand Canyon at sunset:

One of the cooler things Jia got to do on this road trip was become the Junior Duckmaster back at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis Tennessee! My parents made this reservation in advance, knowing they were taking the Southern route to California, which meant that she got to take the five ducks (1 male and 4 females) from their little house (? hhahaa coop? what do you call a duck home?) and lead them into the elevator from the penthouse level of the hotel that opens to a packed lobby full of tourists. She then got to lead them to the fountain where they all bathe and people cheer in awe of these cute little ducks. She got to keep this Duckmaster poker/guide she’s holding, too. They use the guide poker to direct them along the path.

I was afraid that she’d never want to spend a summer back east with the grandparents again, since it meant she had to sit in the car spanning 3000+ miles when a 2-hour drive here at home makes her feel fidgety, possibly carsick, and bored. Luckily, according to my parents, she hasn’t even asked “are we there yet?” or “how much longer?” during any of the legs of their trip. She even asked if she could do a cross country road trip next year too! She’s had rear entertainment to keep her occupied, with movies, YouTube videos, Taylor Swift music… Lucky girl. She gets so much attention from both sets of grandparents, being the oldest and the only girl. Back in Virginia she had crafts upon crafts to work on, which is her favorite, plus Jeff’s parents took her to the Van Gogh Experience in Washington DC, Natural History museum, Mount Vernon Fireworks, made homemade ice cream, and more.

I sure hope she’s journaling her experiences, I made her bring her diary with her to do just that. We’ll see.

Wellp, I’ve got 2.5 hours left of my free morning before I pickup Jordy for his last day of Summer Camp, then onto speech therapy. I better get this workout in before I run out of time this morning. I need to get back into shape!! I have had zero discipline in the last six months (that’s being conservative) when it comes to goodies.