The Ryder children are doing great! Alayna is going to be 12! Aiden is 9! Brooklyn is 5! And Isabella (Bella) just turned 4!
The most exciting news about Alayna is that as of June she will be living with us full time! We're share the summer 50/50 with her mom, but she will be living with us for school. She'll still go and visit her mom every other weekend, every other major holiday, and half of the summer. We've been speaking with the school psychologist about an IEP for her. I've just made a million copies of information the school will need to meet Alayna's needs. We're VERY hopeful that things will turn out very well for her. She's finishing up 4th grade and is doing well. She's a self proclaimed "book worm", which makes my book lovers heart glow! We're still working on math, she knows her stuff, but has a really hard time with confidence. We've set her up with Khan Academy and it's helping.
Aiden is finishing up his second year home schooling. His math is AMAZING! He's started 4th grade math early. He's been struggling the most with spelling and writing, but the last few weeks have really showed a BIG change in his skills. He loves reading, his current favorite books are the Fablehaven series (which Alayna and I also love). He'll be going back to public school next year with Alayna.
Brooklyn has recently been diagnosed with ADHD, it's been a struggle for all of us. We just saw a new doctor about a second opinion about an evaluation for Aspergers/high functioning Autism. We're getting ready to start up with a program that can offer Brooklyn group behavior modification therapy. Hopefully that'll give us the information we need to force the insurance to approve more evaluations. The doctor has the same concerns as me. Sensory Processing Disorder, ADHD, and Aspergers symptoms all overlap. She's VERY smart! She's already reading, she's spelling, she can count to 100, she can do double digit addition (without carrying), she can do double digit subtraction (without borrowing), she knows all of her colors, letters, shapes... Overall a super genius.
Bella is VERY jealous about not getting to go to school with all the other kids. She's learning to write her name, and is working on identifying her letters and learning their sounds. She can count to about 14 before she starts skipping around :)
Joe is still working the same job, he doesn't exactly love it, but in this economy one can't really be all that picky.
Me (Morgan), I'm still a stay-at-home-mom. I'm hoping that once Bella goes to school I'll be able to find a part time job during school hours (9:30am-2:30pm)
