Britt Monthly Summary: April 2017

We are simply BLOWN AWAY by Britt’s reading! She came home this month with a reward for completing all of her reading books for the school year. It makes me SO excited to watch her grow and learn even more, I see what an amazing reader Kye is and how much he LOVES to read. Well, he didn’t even complete all those books when he was in her class and he wasn’t considered in the top reading group, even in kindergarten. I purchased a set of the Abeka reading books for us to continue working on this summer and next school year as I don’t want to stop this ball from continuing to roll!

She had an AWESOME end of the year report!

Finally did her charting in our laundry room for her height!

I know I talk a lot about Kye’s competitive nature, but Britt is right up there with him. She loves playing games and she plays to win. And it’s funny because a lot of the time she’ll start off behind and then will catch up and end up passing everyone 😉

I’m also proud of a lot of the personal growth taking place with Britt. She’s really doing better with delayed gratification. When we make grocery runs she will save her cookie for the car ride home (and we always get the cookies at the start of the grocery getting). We had a rough month with some lack of appreciation/entitlement issues and really worked with her in these areas.

Sometimes as a mama you just get a gut feeling about something. For me with Britt it’s always been her speech. She’s been attending school for three school years now and NONE of her teachers have mentioned it. It’s also never been brought to my attention by any friends or family or any drs etc. I just have always had a slight concern about it. I brought it up to teacher friends and they agreed that if I had concerns, it’d be best to get her evaluated prior to entering public school. Since she is doing so well academically and her speech isn’t affecting her in the classroom, I guess it’s hard to get the school to actually evaluate it? I figured it wouldn’t hurt to get things checked out. I felt a little silly about it because I can’t even really describe what I think is concerning about her speech. Just something about it. I talked with her teacher about it prior to going to get her evaluated and she agreed that it wouldn’t hurt but that also it wasn’t an academic concern.

I’m SO glad I took her in! I left there feeling like I’m not so crazy after all 😉 The lady who did her evaluation was super sweet and explained things to me as she went. And Britt did awesome!

She said that basically the issues Britt has with her speech are all things that may auto-correct themselves within the next year. Usually by age 5 they seem them corrected, but sometimes kids just take a little longer. The reason it’s hard for me to place a finger on what the issues are…is because Britt isn’t consistent with them. Sometimes she says “fing” instead of “thing” and sometimes she doesn’t. This lack of consistency shows that she knows the proper way to pronounce things and that when she takes the time to think it through first that she can say it correctly, but that often times it’s simply a lack of thinking it through first.

Here are the areas she noted:

s, s blends
l, l blends
z, f
r, r blends
voiced and voiceless / th
She does some backing, gliding, and adds vowel sounds at the start of words.

She said physically she also uses her lower jaw a lot and doesn’t fully lift her tongue. It’s almost like her tongue is “too heavy” and she struggles to lift it. Especially in the middle area.

I’m taking her to the chiropractor as I know there are benefits of chiropractic work and speech concerns and since it is a jaw displacement issue I feel like maybe an adjustment will help. I know they will try to get me to come regularly and I’m not sure that’s something we’ll be doing.

Our insurance also doesn’t cover speech visits and since the evaluator does feel it’s something she’ll most likely “click” with over time, I can’t justify spending that sort of money right now (between MS and Adoption we’re pretty strapped ha!) Thankfully our local college has a great program and the lady who evaluated Britt said it’d be a great fit for her since she only needs minor help. And it’s only $5 a visit! Whoop whoop! I’m working on the paper work for that and plan to, hopefully, knock this out over the summer and get her in a good place for kindergarten!

I made each of the kids a shutterfly book for Easter and Britt LOVED hers. Like loved loved loved it. So much so that my new go -to gift for her will be gifts of a similar nature. I think she may be a gift giving love language (along with physical touch!) because it meant SO much to her to have this book with memories from our Disney trip!

I let Britt pick out her own clothes for the first time for school…I about died haha

She also had her first time helping to paint! Baby Brother sure is loved!

Since Britt will be doing public school kindergarten in the fall I know I’m going to have to wean her from nap. But I’m DREADING IT. Child LOVES her sleep and still sleeps consistently from 1 pm – 430 (which is when we literally WAKE HER UP).

We had a fun birthday party for her friend Vivi this month!

I bought a cap and gown when Kye first “graduated” in k4 and it’s come in handy! Britt was SO pumped about graduation and took her graduation practice very, very seriously.

We made strawberry shortcake and y’all I can’t ever make it again haha WAY too yummy for me!

I also found Kye’s bday cake in the freezer haha it was still yummy!

I am always on the hunt for ways for Britt and I to coordinate. I know a bunch of people have suggested Mommy and Me outfits but a) they are expensive and b) I don’t typically love the looks? Luckily Britt thinks just wearing similar colors and styles is matching so I try to rock looks that go with hers! I love this stage and that she wants to be just like me 😉