Funny Little Karsten

Karsten is so funny. I take Seth to the Maryland School for the Death for their Infant/Toddler program. Siblings are allowed to join as well. So I tell Karsten he gets to go to a new preschool. He will join the older children in their group. I tell him it will be a deaf preschool. He leaves the room and goes in his room and I hear him say, "I don't want to go there." He then comes back into my room and says, "but Mom, I can hear." That made me laugh. So I explained to him that it didn't matter, he would learn to sign like the rest of the children and he would have fun. Needless to say, on Friday, he had a fun time and he calls it his "deaf preschool". When I walked into the class on Friday they were playing a game in the gym. It was the quietest group of kids playing a game that I've seen! From what I can tell, there are about three others with hearing aids, so they have some level of hearing, one girl had a cochlear implant, and the others I assume are completely deaf? There were a couple of parents there who were deaf as well. A couple of the teachers are deaf as well, so because we are new and don't sign very much at all, one of the teachers interprets for us. The school teaches both ways of speech, the speaking and listening side and the signing side. Seth was either practicing waving or the sign for milk the other day. Or perhaps he was just checking out his fingers! Every Saturday I drive down to Alexandria VA for Seth to see a private speech teacher. She is very good. I am so surprised at how well Seth listens and responds to her. He does things for her that I never thought he could do! I wish she could come just live with us! She is definatley talented and I try to rationalize that even though it's such a far drive, it will be worth it in the end. I hate accidents. That's the worst part of the drive. Accidents back up traffic so bad and makes the drive so much longer. I only made one wrong turn this last trip out! I'm getting better!

Karsten has started reading the Dick and Jane books. I love those books. I always grab one if I see a copy at the thrift store. He is very good at reading. He loves to read Funny Little Sally. And Puff, the cat. It's amazing what words they can remember. I've done some sounding out words with him as well, like cat, hat, sat, etc. He's also starting to learn basic addition. I will miss him when he leaves for Kindergarten! He's been a joy to have at home with me!