Sounds to Words Class

Last night we went to another IAC class at Children's Hospital. This one was Sounds to Words: Making the Connection. Helping Your Preschooler Develop Pre-Literacy Skills. Both John and I thought it was a really great class. This one was taught by Sister Sue who was hired by the IAC last November to be their School Intervention Coordinator. The IAC was able to fund hiring Sister Sue with money raised at the Passport to Forever fundraiser last year. It is pretty cool the IAC choose to add this position and as far as anyone can tell Cincinnati's IAC is the only one in the country that has this kind of position. She does not like to call herself a school advocate because that title generally relates to issues involving a lawsuit. The only way Sister Sue seemed a little not nun-like was in her confidence in her ability to get schools to make changes so children get what they need to learn. John and I felt we both learned a lot. She covered current research on reading development. What skills children need to develop in order to read and which skills have proven to increase probability of enjoying reading. She also covered tools, many free and online, that help preschooler develop pre-reading skills. Plus we actually got to know who she is in case we need to hire her in the future. Also interesting were the other families we met in the class last night. It was a really small group just 3 other people. One couple from Dayton have a 5 year old son adopted from Jamaica whose name is Javon and sounds like a really cool kid. The other one was a father, lives in Lebanon, mother was at home with their sick 2 1/2 year old daughter adopted from Taiwan named Annaleise (or something like that). They were not surprised when I told them I had never met anyone with children from either of these countries. Javon's parents said they adopted him because of mission trips they took to Jamaica and it is an understatement to say it was not easy. A little heartbreaking too. Annaleis's dad said Taiwan is currently shut down but he said they expect it will open up again in the next year. They had almost exact opposite concerns for their children, gave interesting perspective and clearly adore their children. Javon's parents, who are also parents to bio kids in the 20's and 30's, said their adoption was the best decision they ever made. Sister Sue asked them to give us advice. Javon's dad said the highs you will experience will be incredible and so will the lows.