First days back to school...

[Guest guest]

Well, had a wonderful week last week. This new program feels so good. She started 1/2 days last Monday and worked for 2.5 of the 3 hours. Not bad since she has been out of the routine since May. The teacher was so excited about the day that she called to tell me what a good job she did.

Last Tuesday she had her 2nd session of private speech therapy. On the way there, she started signing school and getting all excited. She was slightly disappointed when I told her speech first, then school, but willingly went into speech and worked for the full hour. When I took her to school, she was so excited just pulling into the parking lot that I wasn't sure she would be able to catch her breath again. That day, she hardly took any breaks. In fact, she would skip over the breaks in her schedule and picked to move on to the next task. It was reported that she had no behaviors all day Tuesday until they told her it was time to go home. In trying to get her ready, kept going back and getting things to work on. She wasn't ready to come home. It took 3 adults to get her out of the classroom so that she could catch her ride home. The teacher again called, but not!

to report the behavior at the end of the day, but to praise on her good work and her wanting to keep working when her day was over. The teacher said that while they were waiting for the other kids to be ready for swim class, waited patiently with her. She also mentioned that whatever they were doing, she felt like she and really bonded during that time.

Wednesday morning, I had a little girl that couldn't wait for school. At 3 a.m. she got up and went out to the car to wait for school. Trust me, she was upset when I made her come back in. It was only 20 degrees out and it was cold! By 9 she was completely ready to go. She even had her socks on! She HATES to wear socks. She patiently waited until 11:20 for her driver to get here. She kept looking out the door and window watching for her to come down the road. Once she saw her, Jess was on her way out to get in the car.

This morning she didn't think the driver was ever going to come. I could hardly keep her in the house. She was ready 2 hours before time to leave. She watched from in the house, she tried to go out to wait at the end of the driveway several times but it was too cold to wait outside. When she saw the car turn the corner at the highway, she was heading out the door.

She LOVES this program. It is so cool to see so excited to go to school again. She has always loved it, but has never been this eager to go. They are trying to figure out what she knows and does not know. The teachers have intentionally not read her prior school records so that they can make their own decisions. After they feel they know her, then they said they would review her records to see what the previous school did or did not work on. So far, she is accomplishing the activities they are presenting to her. They are reporting that she is spontaneously signing more and more each day she is there. She has gotten frustrated a few times, but they say she is doing a very nice job of working through the communication gap and keeps at it until she gets her point across to them.

I'm not sure how long the 1/2 days will last. I know they want to make the transition as smooth as possible, but if we don't go longer days soon, then I don't know if I will be able to control her in the mornings, but this is a good thing that I will live with!

I promise that I won't report what does every day at school. But this has been such a long time coming that I am so excited! For the first time in 4 or 5 years, I feel like this is going to be a productive school year for !

Sheryl

Mom to Mitch 15 and 14 CHARGE

Central Iowa