The Proof is in the (dye free) Pudding

When it was first noticed that Jericho was having some trouble in school, his teacher and principal suggested we consider placing him in their CICO (check in check out) program. Children in this program check in with various teachers to measure their progress at various times throughout the day. The total amount of points a child can receive in a day is 60, and each child has an individual goal. Jericho's goal was set at 48 points each day, or 80% of his total possible points. Each day a score sheet comes home to tell you what kind of day your child had. At the end of the month, a graph comes home showing you their progress for the previous month.

Recently I asked for all of the graphs up to this point.

Below are December and January:

 

In December, Jericho's point average was right at 80%. December was our meeting with his teacher when we realized how poorly he was doing in Kindergarten. At the beginning of the second semester was when we really started working with Jericho around the clock on both his academics and his behavior.

In January, his average rose to 87%.

In February was when we started Jericho's diet, making March the first full month Jericho was dye free.

In March, Jericho's average rose to 88%. In April, it was up to 92%.

It's also worth noting that each time in these 2 months that Jericho was below his average (indicated by the bold black line), he had a dye exposure.

These results alone would be enough for this Not Granola momma and even her not granola hubby to believe in what we've been working so hard on for the past several months.

Within the last 2 weeks, we've also been informed that Jericho has graduated from Title II reading. His recent assessment scores indicate that he no longer qualifies for the extra help he's been receiving up to this point.

Being dye free hasn't made our child smarter by any means. It's given him the tools to succeed. Being dye free has given him the ability to focus on his learning, instead of controlling his body. We always knew that he was smart, that wasn't the problem. The problem was that he couldn't control himself long enough to learn anything that was being presented to him.

In a few weeks Jericho will be done with Kindergarten. A few months ago we thought he would need to repeat the year. His hard work is paying off. This Not Granola momma is so proud of her dye free boy.