Catching Up With Netanel

With the end of the grape harvest I've started spending more time with Netanel. Not enough, but I'm trying. Now that our schedule's are more regular I am trying to give him more attention. We still need to go bike riding. He needs to learn how to ride without training wheels.

We went to the PTA meeting for Netanel's school. Now we have a good sense of what he does. First of all, last week I brought him to the stop for his bus ride to school. He chose the earlier bus. It's closer to home and sometimes has Dudu as the driver. Dudu puts on movies for the ride. Anyway, seeing him climb onto the bus all by himself and sit down nicely is very strange. He's only 6. When did he get big enough to do that?

Netanel is not in the usual school in Katzrin. We put him into a brand new school that is much more open. We feel that it is better given his inability to sit for long periods. The children learned all the letter in 2 ways: movement - they can make the letters with their bodies (YMCA style) and drawing - they copy their teachers drawing. Here they draw a picture and then find the letter inside. Of course it is all thematically related.

When he was younger Netanel's drawings were mostly scribbles (קשקושים). But hey had meaning. He could explain what was happening in the story, and the same scribbles meant the same thing each time we examined that picture. Ayelet was recently recounting this to someone while Netanel was drawing. "Mommy," he said, "I never did kishkushim." He always knew what he was drawing. Now he just has the motor skills to draw it.

Also, at home Netanel makes a lot of paper airplanes. They have gotten more complicated, involving scissors. He also was cutting a cardboard sword. He was cutting freehand and did a great job. When one sword was lopsided he immediately changed it to a candle for Chanuka.

In seeing Netanel's many many drawings and cuttings I am reminded of his nursery teacher. She was very worried about him. Netanel was clearly very smart and very ADHD. In addition, he showed signs sensory processing difficulties. At the teacher's insistence we had him evaluated. The results confirmed her suspicions. Three years later he is doing just fine. His scribbles are pictures and he can cut out shapes without following a line. If only Morah Lisa could see him now.

For more recent tidbits about Netanel's amazing personality see Ayelet's blog here: http://milkandhoneymomma.blogspot.com/. Scroll a bit.