I'm not gonna lie. When Ashlyn's teacher sent me an email with "today" as the subject, I got a little nauseous. My first thought was that she smuggled a pomegranate into school and wailed on an unsuspecting classmate like she did to her sister earlier this week.
But I was pleasantly surprised... And got a little misty-eyed myself after reading these precious words from her sweet Teacher Angela, who we absolutely adore. She and Ashlyn share the same birthday.
"Hi Jessica and Dave,
I didn't get an opportunity to say a proper goodbye or tell you about Ashlyn's day. It was so exciting and now makes me a little misty-eyed when I reflect on it. Ashlyn loved connecting these bunnies at our table activity. She played peek-a-boo several times with them. She has been affectionate a little more lately with me and often runs up behind me giving me a hug. I view that as a sign that she loves school and what we all represent here. During circle time, she told us where the child was by saying "Sam a home" which was her way of saying "Sam at home" or "Mylon a speech Nikki" which means "Mylon at speech Nikki." She knew who had what prop and would say the name of the child or would immediately cue in when it was her time to act. For example, we counted green animals, then each child got an animal. When I asked for an animal, she said the name of the child who had that animal or raised her animal to be dropped in the box. Snack time was precious. Today she ran through all the words and sentence structures she knows. Today, she said/signed together: 1-Angela, I want more round crackers; 2-I want yellow water (I gave her the response of "Oh, Ashlyn you want water in a yellow cup, alright"); and 3-Angela, I want more water in cup yellow. We played outside and when it was time to come in she ran to the rings and walked back to the classroom (no more negotiating or playing her game). During story time, she participated in Brown Bear, Brown Bear and when her animal was read in the book, she placed it on the board. It's so cool to see her so excited about learning and using what she knows and has learned. You guys are doing a great job of supporting her language, listening, and speech development.
Enjoy your weekend and see you on Monday,
Angela"