Busy Hands

My hands are learning alot these days. If you had told me last year that I would be signing all day every days to my children, I would have giggled. It's amazing how the Lord transforms our hearts to His. Klaire is now signing almost everything she wants. She is also trying to verbalize everything as well. Some words come out clear as day and some come out looking more muddy. But she's trying and that's the key!

We discovered "Signing Time" with Rachel Coleman. Fabulous!

I am trying to find a playgroup for us to join that uses sign language. No luck so far. If you have any thoughts, please pass them my way. :)

I need to tell you something else too. I need to tell you what an INCREDIBLE job my husband is doing with sign. I have been so proud of him! I get tickled sometimes because he signs something totally different than what he says. It's hilarious! He is the greatest Dad in the world!

We met with the new Speech Path this last week. Can I just tell you what a relief she was to my heart?! She was open and listened to everything that was going on. She just sat and took it all in with me. I think she may be a believer too, based on her comments to my responses.

According to KG's new test (that included her signs), her receptive language was approx. 40 months and her expressive speech was approx. 12 months. These were both give or take a few months but I felt fairly accurate of her abilities. The SP thought that it was strange that KG could do more of the complex descriptions, categorizing and such with a limited vocabulary. She is a fabulous problem solver. Hence, the new door locks at our house. :) Some of the multiple word phrases, were actually made into one word. IE..."I did it" was really "ididit". We are going to have to slow her down and start breaking up the words.

We also went and visited the "3's and 4's" at the Regional Day School for the Deaf. I was very nervous to say the least. We wanted to see how they use sign as a educational method. It's so different than just teaching. There are defiantly methods to teaching kids with a hearing impairment. We went in knowing that KG would not attend for one reason...1)She is not profoundly deaf. So, we met the director of the school and began our observation. We started in the 3's. How precious were they!! I was very impressed with their oral skills as well as their signs. As the director was telling about the children, she came to one little boy who did not have hearing aids. I inquired as to why. It was like a light bulb went off in her head. She said that he was actually very similar to KG. When he turned 3 and left ECI, the district was only going to offer him a small amount of language and she felt it wasn't enough so the deaf school took him in. When he finishes pre-k, he will go to his regular school and continue with speech. All this to say, the school actually had 2 or 3 kids just like KG! It warmed me to know that this might actually be a possibility. We won't know what will happened until then but it was amazing to see the Lord shine light in a dark spot for me.

As of now, we are planning to home school Kindergarten and begin the University Model school in 1st grade. I am trying to keep my eyes open to what the Lord has for our family. I don't want to pray for what I want or what will be best for them in my eyes. I am asking the Lord to soften our hearts toward all methods of school and show us which route will bring Him glory.

Thank you sweet blog friends for your kind comments...our hearts are encouraged to say the least.

Our hearts are being stirred toward great things that are going to strip our pride. Pray with us as we explore what He has in store for the Billups family.

Until then :)