Bridges Preschool

For the past school year, Connell's been attending preschool at Bridges Preschool on base, which is a special preschool for kids with different disabilities paid for by the county. Connell qualified because of his severe speech delay. He just had his last day on Tuesday, and I just have to say that they have worked wonders with this kid! He is a completely different kid from 10 months ago, in that he can have actual conversations with us and his level of understanding and speaking ability have increased so much! We had our big meeting a few weeks ago with all the wonderful people who have been working with him, and they all gave glowing reports of how wonderful Connell is at learning and art projects. He is always so excited to learn, and he picks things up really quickly. He will be starting Kindergarten in the fall at our neighborhood elementary. I'm excited that he's improved so much, and that he doesn't need to stay in a special needs program. He still has some quirks and social things that he'll have to work on that come with late speech development, but we're hopeful that he'll catch on quickly and make one or two good friends to help him out. He'll also continue with speech therapy. This kid is so special and we just love the blessing he is to our lives and our family. Here's a list of some of his most current favorite things:

Favorite food: tuna fish sandwiches or pizza
Favorite drink: chocolate milk, apple juice or grape juice
Favorite treat: M&M's, and anything with M&M's in it!
Favorite toys: Thomas the train, Cars, Angry Birds, Potato heads, or legos
Favorite pasttime: Looking at toys on you tube, playing games on Disney Junior, looking at books or playing learning games on the Ipad, and playing with Callister or friends outside on the playground.
Favorite thing ever: Spending time with our family at home. The other day after I came home from some church activity, he said, "Mom, I love to see you! And I love our home!" He's the most loving son and the best brother ever!

 Here are most of the other boys in Connell's class. It was very small, so he got a lot of one-on-one attention, and these boys became like brothers! Asis (Azeez), Connell, Caleb, and Peter.

 What a cutie pie! I love this picture!

 They had a bunch of butterflies in a contained area that they had watched turn from catepillars. He's looking at one in this picture!

 Valentine's Day glasses!

 Sorting shapes. He knows all of his shapes and colors, even the weird ones like octagon. He tells me all the time when we see a stop sign, "Look Mom, it's an octagon!" I love it!

 Painting. Everyday he'd bring me home lots of beautiful pictures and art projects that he made.

This is his main teacher, Ms. Kristen, in the picture with Connell, Peter, and Caleb. They did a Christmas program for us where they could dress up as anything they wanted. Of course, Connell was a pirate! Ms. Kristen is originally from Australia, so it was always really fun to talk to her and hear her awesome accent!


I was hoping that they would have a cool preschool graduation, but they didn't. Instead, Connell's teachers put together a super cute laminated book of a bunch of his art projects he did through the school year, with pictures with his teachers and speech therapist. I'm so glad they did that! They also sent home a cd with over 200 pictures of Connell they had taken through the year. I love these ladies! They go to so much work to make this school fun for the kids and they know and love Connell so well. We will miss them!