Category: Life Events

Important Events

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Nov 24, 2013:  William was born at Fountain Valley hospital.

Jan 2014 – Jan  2015:  William was sent to Babysitter at Mrs. Loan’s House (Westminster) when he was 2 months old because Mom had to go back to work.

Apr 13, 2014: William was baptized when he was 4 months old at La Vang Church, Santa Ana, California by Father Bảo Thai.  William’s Holy name is Paul.

Jan 2015 – Nov 16, 2015: Stayed home with Dad because Dad was laid off from work.

Nov 16, 2015 – Aug 16, 2019:  Day care at Children’s World Preschool in Westminster, CA.  He started at the daycare two weeks before he turned 2 years old (because Dad came back to work).  He goes 5 days a week from 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM.  Mom drops him off and Dad picks him up.

When he started school on 11/28/2016, Mom picked him up from school then drove him to the day care and then went back to work.  For those days that are no school, he’d spend the whole day at the day care.

From 8/20/2019, his aunt Lily picks him up from school then babysit him at our home until we get home from work.

Nov 28, 2016 – May 31, 2018: Mitchell Child Development Center in Santa Ana, CA because he’s diagnosed with Autistic.  He’s 4 years old as of May 31, 2018.  This is a special education school for children with Speed Delay.  The school principle is Mr. Bello . His first school teacher is Mrs. Hana Suh at room 309.  School schedule is from 8:15 AM – 1:10 PM.  Hot breakfast and lunch is provided.  At 8:30 AM, there will be DTT (discreet training trile)  session for 30 minutes.  And there’s 15 minutes a week for Speech therapy.  So in the morning he goes to Mitchell school;  Mom picks up at 1:10 and then drops him off at Children World Preschool; Around 5:30 Dad comes and picks him up at the day care.

May 2017 – Feb 2018: ABA sessions with ABEST.

Feb 13, 2018 – Sept 2021: Started Speech therapy at Providence Hearing and Speech Center, Fountain Valley branch; every Monday for 30 minutes.

Apr 2018 – Now: ABA sessions with TasKids.

  • Supervisor: Huy Nguyen (4/2018-3/2019), Elizabeth (4/2019-now)
  • PC: Jody Nguyen (4/2018-now)
  • BT:  Alex, Anthony, Brenda (5/2019-9/7/2019), Thomas (4/2018-now), Maria (9/5-now)
  • 8/2021: Thomas became ABA supervisor, Mari is the BCBA, and BT is Marilou.

Aug 2018 – Apr 2020: Australian Swim School, once a week, 30 minutes per session.

Aug 2018 – Oct 2020: Abraham Lincoln Elementary school (Santa Ana) in Special Ed class.

  • Transition Kindergarten (2018-2019) : 8:00 AM – 1:00 PM. Room 54.  Teachers: Mrs. Newman Heather, Ms. Birdie, Ms. Sandy.  The class has about 7 children, all boys.  Breakfast, Lunch is provided.  The school is right by our house so we walk to school every morning.  Then pick him up by car and take him to Children’s World Preschool so that I can go back to work.
  • Kindergarten 2019-2020:  8:00 AM – 2:00 PM. Room 54.  Teachers: Mrs. Newman Heather, Ms. Birdie, Ms. Sandy.  The class has about 7 children, all boys.  Breakfast, Lunch is provided.  The school is right by our house so we walk to school every morning.  Then pick him up by car and take him to Children’s World Preschool so that I can go back to work.  Starting 8/20/2019 Aunt Lily picks him up and then takes him home and babysit him until we get home.  This arrangement is really great for William because he can sleep on his own bed until 4 PM or 5 PM.  Aunt Lily loves him; she always brings something for him to eat after school (pizza, mac & Cheese, noodle soup) before let him go to bed.
  • Sept 2019 – Mar 2020: kindergarten, in person class
  • Mar 2020 – May 2020: kindergarten , online class due to Covid-19 pandemic.  William did not get to have the Kindergarten Graduation, not even a picture! :(.
  • Jun 2020 – July 2020:  Summer school, kindergarten, online class due to Covid-19 pandemic.
  • Sept 2020 – Oct 2020: 1st grade, online class due to Covid-19 pandemic.
  • Mrs. Newman said William is much more advance in math and reading than his classmates so she transferred him to Thomas Jefferson elementary school which has “moderate” level.

Nov 24, 2020: William is 7 years old.  Because of Covid-19, no gathering is allowed inside so William did not have a birthday party.

Nov 2020 – Nov 2021: Thomas Jefferson Elementary School (Santa Ana) in Special Ed class

  • Mr. Castaneda, Ms. Crystal & Ms. Dora
  • Nov 2020 – May 2021: on line class due to Covid-19 pandemic; first grade.
  • Jun 2021 – July 2021: Summer school, in person
  • Aug 2021 – Now: In person, 2nd grade, room #4.

 

 

Second Grade 2021

Posted on by MICHELLE N

This school year William will be a 2nd grader. How fast time flies!  His  teacher is still Mr. Castenada from the first grade.

First day of school Aug 16, 2021.  This year Santa Ana district decided to start school earlier than previous years: usually the first day of school began after the Labor Day but this year it started before the Labor Day.

Unaware of this change, we planned our trip to Hawaii from 8/12-8/16, thus William missed the first day of school.  Then when we got back, the school said William has to self-quarantine for 14 days, which means he cannot go to school until Monday 8/30/2021.

Not only school, TasKids where we have the ABA sessions, also demanded that everyone in our family to take a Covid-19 tests after 3 days we got back from our trip; and they resume sessions only if the test is negative.

We made appointment with Walgreens for all 3 of us on Saturday 8/21.  Today is Monday but still have not received the results yet, I guess because we were tested on the weekend, it’d take longer to get the result back.

New School – Thomas Jefferson Elementary School – First Grade 2020

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Thursday Oct 29, 2020.

We had the annual IEP meeting few days ago thru the Google Meet with Mrs. Newman Heather, Mrs. Principle, his speech and OT teachers from Abraham Lincoln elementary school, and Mr. Castaneda from Thomas Jefferson school because William would turn 7th year old soon.  At first I did not know why Mr. C was there but soon I found out the reason; and that came to me as a surprise.

I think it was about a month ago when the Mrs. Newman asked if I had any input/suggestions/comments about this whole thing of distance learning because of the Corona virus; I said that William might be bored because the routine is the same every day.   All I was hoping that Mrs. Newman can run the class a bit different each day so that it’s less boring.   Back then when he went to school in person, I have no idea what was going on in the physical classroom.  Now that William is at home learning thru the Google Meet; and I’m there with him every day, I know exactly what’s going on.  He most of the time tried to get off the chair and play with his toy: I always had to re-direct him back to the chair,

“I don’t want to sing!

I don’t want to select a song!

I don’t want to talk about feeling!” – It was almost everyday that William refused to participate.

That’s why I made that comment to his teacher.  Mrs. Newman then said if I was thinking about moving him to a different class.  I felt bad because I thought she took it the wrong way; I did not mean to hurt her feelings at all.

Then after that Mrs. Newman did not mention anything about the new class; and I also forgot about that conversation.

Back to the IEP meeting, just like last year IEP meeting, Mrs. Newman went thru William’s goals and said that he mastered all his goals; and she set the new goals for him.  Then all of sudden she introduced Mr. Castaneda!  Mrs. Newman started with William’s reading level is at the 2nd grade; he can count to 100 with no problem while his classmates can only count up to 30; he can do addition and subtraction math with single digit fine.  And then she recommended to transfer William to a less severe school, Jefferson elementary school.  That was when I realized why Mr. C was invited to the meeting, because he was gonna be William’s new teacher!  Mrs. Newman asked if I agree to transfer William.  I hesitated for a bit because I was worried that William might not like the change, that he would not fit in with the new class; but I also knew that if William stays in this class, he will not learn anything new because his level is higher than his classmates.

Mr. Castaneda started to talk about his class, that this class is for moderate autism; the class size is small also but the difference is that it focuses more on the grade curriculum.  I’ve been always wondering what would they teach in the normal class; and if William can go to the normal class so that he can learn the same thing that the 1st graders are learning so that he will not be behind on his academic level, but at the same time I’m worried that William cannot survive in a 25 or more children classroom: I did not know that there’s class for Autism kids that focus on the curriculum!  Mr. Castaneda’s class is what I’ve been looking for for William all along; so I agreed!

Which also meant that was the end of Mrs. Newman’s classes for William!  Tears came to my eyes!  I said “Thank You” to Mrs. Newman and everyone else, knowing that I would not see them again.   William was expected to be in his new class the next week which meant  he had 1 last day with Mrs. Newman and his classmates on Friday.

Later at night, I told William about his new class, he said “OK”.  He took it so well that I was kinda surprised.  I was not sure if he really understood what it meant.

Friday came, toward the end of the class, Mrs. Newman played a song to say good bye to William. She’s so thoughtful; Ms. Birdie and Ms. Sandy too.   We love them all!  I’m sad to say good bye to them.  They’re very dedicated teachers who are willing to go out of their way for their students; I still can’t thank Ms. Birdie enough to pick up the Chrome book for William at school and dropped it off at our house.

Monday Nov 2, 2020

William was supposed to start the new class today (school still conducts classes via online due to Covid-19 pandemic) but we still had no information about the class.  Mr. Castaneda promised to send us info over the weekend but he did not.  It was 7:00 AM in the morning, I texted Mrs. Newman about my concern. She got back to me right away saying that she’d contact Mr. C for me.

Later Mr. C called me and said that it’s best for William to start on Tuesday because he did not have the class materials yet; and that I we could come to the school to pick up his material around noon.  I said Yes.  So at noon, Tim drove William and me to the Jefferson school; it’s about 15 minutes away from our house.  I met Mr. C in person at the gate, he looks more friendly in person than from the online video meeting :).   He gave me the class materials and an enrollment form to transfer William to this new school.

Tuesday Nov 3, 2020

It was William’s first day with the new class.  Mr. C introduced William with the class, there was only 3 more kids about his age; and I don’t think they really paid much attention about William’s presence.  They all seemed very talkative.  Mr. C has 3 teacher aid but they’re very passive: all the time Mr. C was talking while the teacher aids just sat there and listening, unlike Ms. Birdie and Ms. Sandy.

The class starts at 8:30 AM.  Mr. C played some Good Morning songs from You Tube, then followed with the Social Story which was about using the Polite words. This first session ended at 9:00 AM.  Then at 10:00 AM it was math, and reading and some grammar about Noun; the class ended at 11:30 AM.

William survived the first day of class with no problem.  Now that I know what’s Mr. C is teaching in the class, I’m relieved because I know William can handle it: reading is about his level; he might have a hard time with words math because it’s the first time for him.  But I know William is a very smart boy, with a little bit of help, I’m sure he can understand words math soon.

So that’s how William got transferred to a new school to be at his academic level.

As a Mom, I could not be happier :).

 

 

Back To School Nite – Kindergarten 2019

Posted on by MICHELLE N

It’s “Back to School” night at Lincoln school. I took off work early around 4 PM and got home around 4:30. William was on bed but aunt Lily already woke him up. Around 4:45 we walked to school.

In the Multipurpose room, the principle Ms. Veleta introduced the teachers. Then we walked to William’s classroom, room #54. Nothing changed much since last year. Ms. Newman put some cookies and bottle water on the table. William ate some chocolate cookie and ran around with Ethan. We stayed and chatted with Ms. Newman and Ms. Sandy and Ethan’s mom for about 10 minutes then we left. Not sure if anyone else came after we left.

Ms. Sandy and Newman (from left)
Daily Schedule

Last Day at Children’s World Preschool

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Now that William’s aunt Lily (Tim’s sister) is available to babysit him after school, we’ll stop sending him to the daycare, starting 8/20/2019. This for sure a great arrangement for both William and me. For me, I don’t have to use my lunch time to go pick up him at school and drop him off at the day care and then driving back to work. Every day I have to rush to do that in order to finish the whole driving loop within 1 hour; every minute counts. For William, after a long day at school, he can sleep on his own bed till whenever he likes; and he can eat something and have milk before going to bed; which means he will never be hungry when he’s ready for his nap.

When I pick him up at the school, I usually bring something like a cheese sandwich or hot dogs and let him eat that in the car for about 10 minutes before driving him to the day care. He’s a slow eater so in 10 minutes he can only finish a few bites so if he doesn’t eat much at school, he’d be so hungry while napping at the day care. This always bugs me because I can’t stand the fact that my boy is hungry from 1:00 PM until he gets home around 5:30 PM. Even though I pack some cookies/juice in his lunch bag but he rarely touches it. I keep reminding him to open the lunch bag after nap; and also asked the teachers to remind him that but not sure what’s going on. He’d not go get his lunch bag unless someone remind him to do so.

So the new arrangement is Mrs. Lily will pick William up at school at 2:00 PM, and then walk him home. She’ll stay with him until we get home around 5:30 PM. She babysat William few times before when William was younger; I know she loves him and she’s really good at feeding him.

I just hope that she’s always available to stay with us. I’d hate to send William back to the daycare (any day care).

William’s stuffs at the daycare. The pillow and blanket has been with William at the day care for almost 4 year. The lunch bag with the Pokemon character has been with him for about 2 years. I bought him a new lunch bag but now that we don’t need it any more; I returned it to the store.

When I dropped William off at the day care on Friday – the last day; I said good bye to Mr. Gary, Mrs. Rose Marie and Mrs. Angelina. I can’t believe it has been almost 4 years! I know Mr. Gary loves him; he let William to hang out in his office a lot; and William loves him too. He said if we ever need him/daycare, just give him a call. Saying goodbye is never easy, I had tears on my eyes.

I know for sure William will be happy to stay home with Aunt Lily; that’s all that matters the most! I’m trying my best as a mom to keep my baby healthy and happy. Love you son!

Transition Kindergarten – First Day 2018

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Mon 8/13/2018 8:00 AM

William was born in Nov so he’s not ready to go to Kindergarten yet; they send him to TK instead; and today was his first day at the Lincoln Elementary School.  He started to cry when I pushed the stroller pass my car.  He pointed his hand toward the car signaling that he wanted to take the car.  I told him “The new school is near so we can just walk”.  He cried all the way from home to the class room. It was so crowded with students.  We stopped by the office first to find out his room number: 54 with Ms. Newman Heather.

It was a surprised to see Ms. Birdie in the classroom too.  William stopped crying once we got inside the room but refused to get off his stroller.  After a while, he came sit next to me at the breakfast table.  Ms. Newman brought in  breakfast: juice and mini-donuts and asked if he wanted donuts; he kept saying No but I took one chocolate donut anyway because i know he loves it.  After a few times saying No, he reached to the donut and had 1 bite.  Then eventually he finished it!  I encouraged him to go play, and he ran over to the Legos.

His class is from 8:00 AM – 1:00 PM.  Breakfast is served around 8:00 AM in the classroom (he doesn’t need to go get it like at the Martin school); and lunch is served around 11:30 AM.

He was sent home with homework on the first day of school! (it’s 4 pages of learning about letter A).

Refused to get off the stroller

Eventually he finished the donut, and drank juice that we brought from home. He didn’t want to try to juice in the carton that Ms. Newman gave him.

With classmates, some are in 1st and 2nd grades.

Ms. Newman (black and white stripes blouse) Ms. Sandy (black & white flowers blouse) in the background talking to parents.

After breakfast, he went under a table to get to this play mat and legos.

Breakfast: Orange juice in carton box, Chocolate milk in plastic bag and mini-donut

One corner of the classroom

 

Another corner

His classmates already finished their breakfast; William still taking his time…

Graduation From Preschool

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Mrs. Hana took this picture in the school just right before the little ceremony.

This week is William’s last week ( and 4 other friends) at Mitchell Child Development Center after about 1 and 1/2 years going to this school so Mrs. Hana threw them a little ceremony around 11:00 AM on Tuesday, after we returned back from Memorial Holiday.

William refused to stand up when Mrs. Hana called his name and people were starting to clap their hands.  Then finally he got up and Mrs. Hana handed him the Certification.  After that he lost it and started to hit himself on the face using his palm when he got back to his seat.  I think he doesn’t know how to handle all the attention so he felt frustrated.  He hit him few more times after that while eating lunch until we left the room.

More pics:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/L6MtPcAQs7KZ9uwp2

William with Mrs. Hana Suh in classroom 309

Loving notes from the teachers. Thank you!

Singing songs

Receiving the Preschool graduation certificate

 

Lunch time – pizza and juice

Mrs. Hana getting the foods for the children

William and the school sign

Can’t believe my baby boy is graduating from Preschool. He’ll be in the Transition Kindergarten next year at Linhcon school which is near our house.

 

 

First Day at Mitchell Child Development Center, Santa Ana

Posted on by Moonie

Wiilam didn’t cry on his first day at all, not until 3rd day then he cried when I parked our car in parking lot and got ready to the classroom.  He cried again when we got to the classroom.

His schedule is: 8:15 AM – 1:15 PM in room 309 with teacher Hana Suh.  Mrs. Hana has 3 assistants: Ms Susan, Ms Yoana and Ms Analiz.  Everyday he has 1 hour of one-on-one session in a different room at 8:30 AM to learn about behaviors.  Breakfast and lunch are provided.

At 8:15 PM Mrs Hana and assistants come out to pick up the children who are dropped off from the bus,  so we can either let them take William to the room or we take William to the room ourselves.  When the class ends, at 1:10 PM they take the children out to the curb side in front of the office (same place when they pick up the children) and we pick up William from there.

The reason we let William goes to this school is because he’s 3 years old now but still doesn’t talk.  William was using Regional Center of OC services for speech therapy for 1 year.  When he reaches 3 years old,  RCOC referred him to Santa Ana School District for evaluation.  They set up a meeting at Mitchell Child Development Center with a psychologist, a nurse and 2 more ladies whom I forgot what their roles are.  They observed William while asking him to do different tasks and asked me questions about his behaviors.  Then 2 weeks later we had a 2nd meeting with Mitchell school to discuss about William’s evaluation result.  They said he’s 3 years old but he’s like a 6 months old; so that he’s qualified for special programs provided by Santa Ana school district, all the fee are paid for including the bus transportation if we need.  This is why right after his 3rd birthday we’re sending him to this school with the hope that he can learn more to speak.  His birthday is Nov 24, so he started on the next Monday which is Nov 28, 2016.

Inside school, William classroom is on the left

Teacher & assistants

Room 309

So this is our daily schedule now:  I take William to Mitchel school at 8 AM; class at Mitchell ends at 1:15 PM so I pick him up and then drop him off at the Children World preschool because I have to go back to work, then Tim picks William up after work around 5:20 PM.

Too much driving around; and it’s tougher when there’s so much rain lately, but we believe Mitchell school can hep him get better at speech.  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

W’s First Day at the Children’s World Pre-school

Posted on by Moonie

Daddy got back to work after 1 year of unemployed so we had to send William some where.  2 more weeks then William will turn 2.

I called & visited all the babysitters who put their ads in Viet Bao newspaper but could not find any one at all; some houses are so dirty, some babysitters look old and not in good health, etc.

A good friend (Nam Quan aka William Trust on Facebook) introduced me to babysitter Thuy, who was taking care of his children .  I was so happy because I hoped William would have some friends about his age to play with at Thuy’s house.  1 week passed by and I sensed that Thuy was not happy.  On Friday when I picked him up; she told me William was too difficult to take care so she would not be able to babysit him anymore; she said William cried too much and so clingy that she had to hold him all the time and didn’t even have time to eat lunches.  I just think that William just needed some time to adjust to new environment; he was barely 2 years old, of course he’d be scared to spend the whole day at a new place all by himself.   I wish she could give William another week to adapt!

So I called babysitter Loan, who babysat William when he was little (from 2 months to 1 year).  I was so happy that she said ok because I know she’s a good babysitter with a clean and roomy house; it’s just that her house is a little bit far from our house.

I was happy to drop William off at babysitter Loan’s house and went off to have a meeting with Love2Learn staffs about William’s speech sessions.

15 minutes later while I was waiting for my appointment at Love2Learn office, Mrs. Loan called and asked me to come to pick William up!  She said William ran and felt on his face so his nose was bleeding; and that he made so much noise that would wake up the 3 months old girl that she was babysitting too.  So 1 hour later, after the meeting with Love2Learn counselor, I picked William up at Mrs. Loan’s house.  His nose was still bleeding lightly; he didn’t cry but he looked so sad.

That means I need to find a babysitter FAST!  My sister introduced me to a friend’s mom’s friend, so I called her up and came to her house to check it out on Friday’s evening.  It was a small and old apartment with a small living room that was only big enough for a couch and a TV.  Next to it is a small kitchen with full of stuffs.  Next to the living room is a room that was rented out to a woman who made a living by sewing; that explains why there was a huge stack of fabric on the couch. Which means there’s no place for William to play!  But I really had no choice because I needed someone to take care of William starting on Monday!  She agreed to babysit William with the rate of $30.00/day from 8 AM – 5:30 PM.

Monday afternoon when I picked him up, I found William was standing inside a crib.  She said that he ran around and pulled things down so it was better to put him in crib.  That was where my poor little 2 year old boy spent his whole day!  He ate, slept and played in the small crib!

On the 3rd day, William refused to go! He cried & kicked his legs when I made a left turn to her house.  I felt bad because I knew he was not happy at this place at all.  So the term “Pre-School” came to mind; and his Dad also mentioned that as an alternative.

After work I checked out Sun Flower preschool in Westminster; At 5:30 PM there was a long line of cars waiting to get to school, I guess parents were coming to pick up their children, and there was not that many parking spaces at school.  Anyway, they said it was full and that they had a long waiting list; so I put William’s name down in vain hope.

Pre-school and the play ground next to it, under the big trees.

I looked up Google to find any pre-schools around our area.  Not that many unfortunately.  Then I suddenly remembered that some of my nephews & niece went to Mr. Gary’s Children World Preschool when they were little; so I called him up.  He said he could only accept 2 years and older kids; and William was not 2 yet!  I tried to convinced him that it was only 1 more week before William would turn 2; and that my nephews and nieces came here; and they learned great things from this school.  Finally he said yes and told me to stop by the school to pick up the paper works. How relieved I was because I knew William would be better off at this school then at any babysitters houses.  My only concern was that he could not feed himself yet but Mr. Gary assured me that his staffs will try to teach the boy self-feed.

The Children World Preschool rate is $175.00/week which is fine with me.  First few days William cried and threw himself on the floor but then 1 week after he was fine.  The only concern I had was that he didn’t each much at lunch time, the daily report most of the time said he ate “some food only” which means that he had been hungry; that explained why when we picked him up he’d drink a full bottle of juice in a jiffy and ate whatever we gave him like banana, cookies, etc. (which when at home he would not want to eat voluntarily).

Update 2/10/2017:

The little door that William goes thru every day.

Now it has been 1 year and 3 months we’re still sending him to this school but only half day because he goes to Michell Child Development Center in the morning.  I dropped him off at 1:30 PM after picking him up at Mitchell; it’s nap time here at Children World Preschool so he is put to bed right away.  I can hear his laughing on my way out when Ms. Mo or Ms. Leila tickle him trying to pull up the blanket to cover him.  For sure he’s happy here!