I was featured!

CPD Blog - CPD Legacy Story: Becca Crookston

I was asked to write an article for the Up to 3 Early Intervention program that we have been involved in for both Emma and Laura. Check out the link above to see what I decided to say. (Or I've also added the article below.)

Emma's first day of the Lil' Aggies Preschool in July 2009.

Laura's first day of the Lil' Aggies Preschool in July 2011.

CPD Legacy Story: Becca Crookston

September 7, 2011

This CPD Legacy Story is written by Becca Crookston whose two daughters have been involved with the Up to 3 Early Intervention program at the CPD.

Part-time Therapist, Full-time Mom


As a mother of children that need extra help, I am busy. I love the Up to 3 Program. It helps me solve the current problems I deal with everyday. But, it also adds to my busyness. They have also helped me find other services in the community for my children to benefit from, such as great interactive story times, and Signing Time products, and even a Rachel Coleman concert. These events also add to the busy in my life, but it is worth it. I am busy for my children. I am busy because I’m a mom.
My husband and I have four children and they, of course, all have different needs. All of them have been in speech therapy.

I have elementary-aged boys. I volunteer in their classes at school and serve on the PTA board, so I can ensure they know I care about them and their education. They know they can tell me so-and-so did such-and-such and that I know the personalities in their classes, so I believe them and can help them brainstorm a solution to the problem if needed. They talk to me about things that are concerning them more than they would if I wasn’t in the classroom. (I know because I spent half a year not volunteering in the classroom.)
Speaking of talking to me…that within itself is a major milestone for my autistic son. We lived out-of-state when we were doing early intervention with him, so we didn’t get to use Up to 3, but at least we did have help. Now that I’m familiar with the classes offered here, I wish we had been here. He could have benefited from the Leap Frogs class (Let’s Eat And Play). New food has always been a challenge for him. It’s not like we were trying to make him eat crazy stuff either, just “normal” things like eating a cookie without eating around the chocolate chips, or putting milk on the cereal, or eating grapes without peeling them, or eating a strawberry with the seeds and all. He has made great progress and I am extremely proud of him, however we are not out of the woods yet.
Last year my second son was in a speech program at his elementary school. One day when he was sick, I went to get his homework. His speech teacher wanted him to work on a certain sound, but when she pulled open her file with that letter, she realized she was out of the pages with the words she wanted him to work on. I explained that I could pull words out of my file, and stick them in a game to have him practice. She was impressed, but I wasn’t trying to impress. I was just being his mom.
We first learned about the Up to 3 program when my oldest daughter failed the hearing test at age 2. We were shocked as could be. We set an appointment for surgery and called around looking for a early intervention speech program. We got the initial testing done over the phone. Kathryn, our service coordinator, asked me questions about her speech and I said she has two sounds. She says “ma,” and “ba.” She made those two sounds stand for, mom, milk, more, bottle, ball, and bird, as well as anything else that she could get away with. She was in the program for one year, until she turned three. During that time we attended most of the classes offered, but her favorite class was Signing. She picked it up so fast. She knows more signs than I can count. She learned about 200 signs in a month. She had found her way to communicate. She would see it and start using it. I would study each word and try to figure out where to put my fingers, review the words, teach the words to my family, and keep a list of words we still needed to learn. When a college-age person saw that I was signing, she told me that she took a signing class and it was hard and asked how could I keep the signs straight? The difference between us, was she wanted a good grade and I wanted to communicate with my daughter. I did it because I’m a mom.
I’m sure we had a few too many potty training accidents that were my fault. When someone signs they need to go and you don’t look at them, because dinner is important, too, you end up having to put dinner on pause anyway. We still sign in our home, mostly out of habit. I don’t really realize I’m signing most of the time. Signing helps us clarify words. “Thirsty” and “fishy” sound the same when my daughter says them, so to know if she wants crackers or a cup, we rely on sign. I have to really focus sometimes and realize how much signing we use. The times that she signs without vocalizing too, we know to have her ears checked. She is on her fourth set of ear tubes.

As we approached the time we were going to need to exit the Up to 3 program, many of the teachers told me we would be back. My second daughter was following the same pattern. We caught it earlier with her and she had her first (and so far, only) set of ear tubes placed at 16 months old. She will exit the program next month when she has her third birthday, but we know what to do at home and in the community because of the Up to 3 Program.
Sometimes attending different classes and hearing different approaches to behavior and speech was really frustrating. If one teacher tells me to require and push sounds, and the next teacher tells me to use picture cues, and the next teacher says to accompany a sign with each routine, it can be a little bit–well, really a lot–confusing. I have to remember that I am the mom and these ideas are suggestions. It is up to me and my husband to try them, and work them into our daily life, figure out what is working best, and know when to push a little harder.
As we have another birthday around the corner, I sometimes feel like we are being dropped from the system on the school district side. With our oldest daughter we went from ten hours of classes a week at Up to 3, to forty minutes a week at the school district! I know we have made wonderful progress and I don’t want to only focus on the things we still need to work on, but those needs do need to be addressed. I address the needs because I am the mom. When we transition to the school district and they don’t see the need to provide as many classes, I know we can find the help my children need by relying on the information I already have put into practice and made into habits.
The Up to 3 Program provides so much. It is easy to take it for granted. I wouldn’t be able to provide these services to my children or know what specific testing to request if I hadn’t been trained from Up to 3.  Kathryn is frequently asking me about our whole family. She has given me ideas that work with all of my children.
Maybe some of the best advice I’ve received was a few months ago from one of the Speech and Language Pathologists, Stacy Sessions. She reminded me that sometimes a child needs to be a child and I need to be the mom. Maybe the days get too full of therapy. Maybe snuggles need to be given and the book needs to be read without any therapy requirements. Maybe sometimes the juice needs to be poured without requiring the articulation of the word be practiced. Maybe I should push her in the swing more than three times before stopping the swing and having her request more. All of the things we do for therapy daily are habits. We push and always require a little more. Do we really congratulate and enjoy the small advancements? I think we should also enjoy being a busy mom.
After all, I am a part-time therapist and a full-time mom.

Buddies

Most of the time all of my kids get along with each other. But lately Laura has loved hanging out with Andrew. They are really cute together. Laura likes to sleep on Andrew's floor, but one night she was upset and he let her sleep on his bed. When Lee checked on them as we were getting ready for bed that night, he found them like this...

A Biking First: Night Ride

Lee went on his first ever Night Ride with our neighbor. Lee has been finishing up a trail as it started getting darkish before, I guess that could be called a Dusk Ride. But for this ride, they didn't even leave until 9:30pm. Zac told him to make sure he brought a light. Lee attached lights to his bike with zip ties.

  They went to Green Canyon, which is a ride they are familiar with, but they could still quickly out ride their lights. They had to cross a creek, but it was hard to tell how deep it was. They threw in some rocks before deciding to just ride through it. I'm glad they made it, even if they got their feet and legs wet.

About a mile and a half from the truck on the way back down, Lee hit a large unseen rock and popped his tire. They decided it was faster to walk the bike down rather than patching the tube in the dark.

They made it home about 11:30pm. They had enough fun that they have gone again, but I only took pictures that first time.

Gem Jar Date

Emma has a gem jar. When she makes good choices, she gets to put in a gem. When she makes bad choices, she has to take a gem out. (Time outs were not working for her, she needs to SEE consequences, good and bad.) She has to/gets to tell us what the gem is for (ie: washing off the table, getting jammies on fast, or yelling at dad, throwing her shoes, etc.) and puts in or takes out the gem herself. It is amazing to see how much a little glass rock can make her understand her own behavior.

Emma worked really hard and filled up her jar. So, as a reward, she got to pick something to do as a date with mom or dad. She is a smart girl and picked "both!" She also got to pick what she wanted to do. She went back and forth a lot about this. She finally decided, and feeding the ducks just barely won over going to the fun center.

 Not  a single duck ate any of the bread she tossed. Luckily, she didn't mind, and then we played at the park.

The key (besides remembering to use the gems) is lots of praise. (The three positives to one negative rule!) Andrew and Tyler have both wondered about also earning gems. This was a little bit hard to figure out. I finally came to the conclusion that the gems are like a treat or sticker type of reward for potty training. They are only used for a little bit to establish the correct behavior. I did tell Andrew and Tyler they will have individual chances to go on special activities (they don't want them called dates) with mom and dad, but they don't need the gems.

Package in the Mail

A package came in the mail with Lee's name on it. It was a shirt from his brother Bryan. Doesn't it suit him perfectly? "Where there's a hill, there's a way."

Lloyd Elliot Rich (1919-2011)

Lloyd Elliot Rich was born in Brigham City, Utah, on May 27, 1919, the fifth child and fourth son of Alice Redd and Abel Sargent Rich. He died May 28, 2011.

He served a mission in England, finishing it among the Assiniboine Indians in America after World War II broke out in Europe. He served in the Navy teaching radar, retiring from the reserves as lieutenant commander.
Elliot taught civil engineering at USU for 30 years, retiring to the golf course and ski hill. He served as bishop twice and in a stake presidency.
He married Fay Chadwick while in Massachusetts during the war and she preceded him in death. Elliot is survived by his brother, Wayne, and their six children, Jacque (Duane) Evans of Salt Lake, Pat (Kent) Crookston of Ogden, Alison (Dennie) Christensen of Riverside, Calif., Scott of North Salt Lake, David (Heather) of Henderson, Nev., and Curtis of North Salt Lake. There are 16 grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren. Funeral services were held Saturday, June 4, 2011.

 

 

Grandpa was still skiing in March. The cancer was really aggressive. He had only been diagnosed for six weeks. He died at 1am the day (or really, an hour) after his 92nd birthday.

 

I remembered to take the camera to the church and cemetery, but didn't remember to get it out of the van. (Family members: If you have a picture of the pallbearers or other pictures from that day can you please send me a copy?)

 

We spent a good week and a half cleaning out grandpa's house. The kids thought it was the perfect place to find awesome treasures to bring home. They even packed a box for Father's Day presents! Lee's mom is one of six children. All six siblings were there for almost a week!! (This made the process of getting rid of stuff slower...everyone had to agree that each particular item could go to the DI, or trash, or to someone's house, etc.) It was fun to spend so much time with relatives we don't normally see too often, both the ones that live out-of-state and the ones that live in state too.

Memorial Day Hike

We had a BBQ with Lee's family at his mom and dad's house for Memorial day. They have lived there for about a year, so the exploring still feels like an adventure. Actually, I don't think it will ever get old. Tyler often comes down from the hillside with his pockets so full of rocks that his pants are only staying up because he is holding them up. We actually got to the house a bit early that day, so we could try to hike to the waterfall.

 This is not the waterfall. It is just the river at the first bridge.

 This is taken from the same spot as the one above, but of the other direction. The house you can see is mom and dad's.

 Following a trail. It was the end of May, but still quite chilly, hence, the jackets.

 Rocks! That must mean we should sit down and take a picture. Actually, Lee, Andrew, and Laura were ahead enough that this is where they waited for us to catch up.

 We took a picture of the kids, so the kids took a picture of us.

 Emma wanted to go back to grandma and grandpa's house. They weren't there when we started our hike, but we could see that they were back now. When we were almost down Emma said that she could smell dinner. Oh, now I know why she wanted to go back. Dinner wasn't really ready, but she was good at helping get everything ready for it.

 The view of Ogden from part way up.

 The trail turned into big boulders.

 The waterfall is seasonal, winter run off. It is in the top right of the picture.

 Camera on self timer perched on a rock.

On the way back down.

The camera got put away during the dinner. Why do we do that?

Missing Ms. Roz

Emma as been telling me over and over this summer that she misses her preschool teacher, Ms. Roz.

Emma will attend Riverside again next year, but she might have a different teacher. She would probably miss seeing Vee, her bus driver, too, but she still gets to see her because she is in our ward. (Maybe that's who she was waving to when she was suppose to be singing to Lee for Father's Day.)

During the preschool "graduation" program Emma earned the Good Friend Award. Her teacher said she always wants to play with and include everyone. The classes sang songs during the program. Emma's favorite song was the Hokey Pokey.

"All I need to know I learned in Kindergarten!"

The kindergarten classes had an end-of-the-year program before school got out. They sang songs and each student told their favorite thing about kindergarten. Andrew's favorite thing was the field trips.

Andrew was also a narrator. I'm glad he stuck with his assigned script. Most of the time when he was practicing at home he ad-libed a little bit. When he got to the part introducing the song Six Little Ducks, he talked about going to see the ducks and ducklings at Willow Park Zoo. The script said they loved seeing the ducks, while practicing, he added "but not as much as I love jet packs!" The pictures are a bit fuzzy, but he looked great, and did a great job. He loved kindergarten!

"My mom is the PTA."

I overheard a girl telling her friend that she couldn't go home yet (even though it was after school already) because, "My mom is the PTA." I thought I would share some of what you do in the month of May if you are the PTA.

It actually starts at the end of April with the Woodruff Wildcat Run Fundraiser kick-off assembly. I'm not sure why women wearing crazy clothes and dancing around gets kids excited, but it does! They even joined us in a conga line. Maybe it's okay I don't have any pictures of this event.


Then we decorate doors for Teacher Appreciation Week. Lee helped me decorate the two doors I was in charge of this year. We did Tyler's third grade teacher and the school SLP (speech teacher). Both teachers will be moving and not teach at Woodruff next year. They will be missed.


Mrs. Corry's door is suppose to look like a book with book rating forms, like the ones she used in class, on it. It matched the book that she got on the last day of school from the class that had a list of reasons why each student thought Third Grade was Fabulous.

Ms. Holt's door said, "No matter how you say it Ms. Holt is /Gr/eat". It had different synonyms of the word great all over it.

Then we spent two weeks counting money daily from the fundraiser and delivering bookmarks, shirts, water bottles, and tickets to the swim party and dinner with our Prize Patrol shirts on. The kids did a great job. They almost doubled the school goal!

Lee took off work so I could spend a Thursday and Friday in Provo for the Utah PTA Convention. In reality it was two days filled with classes, meetings, and networking, but I don't have any pictures of that. I only have this picture of us in the hotel with chocolate masks on. I don't have pictures of being picked up at six in the morning or the other retreat type things we did, like dinners at Brick Oven and Applebee's, soaking in the hot tub, making bracelets, and playing the card game Spot it! It was an information packed weekend.

I popped into Tyler's class a couple times to take individual pictures of each student and a group shot of the class. I even sent the camera to school with Tyler a couple times so he could take pictures at recess. He did a good job of making sure he eventually took a picture of everyone and even had someone take a picture of him. I made a book. (I had help getting pictures from Mr. Corry too.)

We started setting up early the morning of the Wildcat Run. We had a great turn out from parents and the community. We set up volunteers throughout the route to help cheer on our runners and make sure nobody made a wrong turn. We actually had two fourth graders break the school record. The new school record for one mile is 6 minutes and 12 seconds.

We cut Old Grist Mill Bread and made McDonald's punch for the runners to have after they crossed the finish line.

Lee, Emma, and Andrew ran the Kindergarten Dash.

We passed out last year's prizes to the kindergarteners, since they didn't have a chance to earn them and we didn't want them in PTA room taking up space.

Lee ran with Tyler in the third grade race.

I was running around doing lots of different things. For part of the time I was helping at the finish line. Lee took a picture of me and Mrs. Corry.

Andrew wanted to run the full mile, so Lee and Andrew ran with the fifth graders. (Lee also ran with the second grade too.)

Doug, our Modern Woodmen representative, came up from Ogden and ran several of the races.

After the run we had a needed girls night out and stayed and talked at Chili's until closing time.

We had 30 students earn the Star Dinner. These students raised at least $100 during the fundraiser. They got to go to dinner and have the teachers serve them. I didn't think to take a picture until after it was over and more than half of the teachers had already left. We decorated with star balloons and I made gift packages with star shaped sunglasses, Starburst candies, and a cool glow stick straw. It was great! The kids loved it. Golden Corral printed the tickets wrong and we got creative while we waited the extra hour, just in case someone else came.

We had about 150 students come to the reward for raising at least $50. We had fun with lots of pizza, crafts, limbo, musical chairs, a candy toss, and a bounce house.

Then we walked the students about a mile East to the Aquatic Center.

We handed out 600 free snow cones at the Woodruff swim party. We had to stop when we ran out of cups.

We hosted the fifth grade graduation party with water games, lots of cake, and more snow cones.


I distributed the sponsor donations that I was in charge of. We passed out Texas Roadhouse kid meal coins and also delivered the check from Modern Woodmen.

We delivered ice cream and Mrs. Corry's book during her surprise birthday party the last day of school. I delivered the rest of the ice cream to the office staff and other third grade teachers and had them also sign her book.


I have great plans for next year. Do you want to be the PTA?