Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Phew!
Yesterday was Ian's Kindergarten Orientation day. Needless to say I was pretty much a nervous wreck Monday night. All I could think of was to find someone to talk to. Strange for me, I know. I switched on Yahoo and the only person I would want to talk about this kind of thing to who was acually online was Nan. I met her through my women's group. She is a great friend. And she's a mom and a gramma so she's been there done that. She really helped me feel a bit better about the whole thing. Love ya Nanners. :oD
I am letting my baby boy go a little more again. It hurts. I feel fear and guilt that I am turning him over to other people I don't know, who don't love him and care about him as much as I do. They don't have time to listen to him ramble on about salamanders. It's not their job to make him feel like the best little boy in the whole world. They won't have the patience to wait for him to process his way through a new concept.
*sigh* But this is a good thing. I keep saying that I want him to be prepared to function on his own in the real world. That I want him to be an independent, contributing member of society. That won't happen if I don't expose him to it. Let him learn for himself how to deal with it. He has to be able to create his own coping mechanisms, strategies that work for him. I can't give him that. All I can do is be there when he gets home at the end of the day and help him process the input he got out there. Some of it is not going to be good. And I have to try to help him understand that. Or at least place it in proper perspective for him. Or try to. All I can do is try. And love him. Let him know that when he's home he's the best little boy in the whole world. And salamanders are incredibly interesting. And there's no hurry about anything.
He has been so excited about this. When we went to get his school supplies he was positively gleeful. When we got home, we took everything out and wrote his name on all of it. Then we put in all in his backpack. He carried that backpack around with him for a solid week. All around the house. He even had it sitting next to his chair at the dinner table. Monday night he kept getting up after I had tucked him in. In the morning he was awake when I went in to get them ready. He told his teachers at daycare that he was so excited about the "practice day" that he couldn't sleep. ROFL. They all got a kick out of that. He got up and got dressed pretty quick, went downstairs, ate and got his backpack and lunch box. He walked around with it on until John came down and we left. When the bus came and we all got on, he just looked everywhere. I asked what he thought about riding the bus by himself and he said he thought it would be lonely. So I told him that maybe one of his friends would sit with him the next time. there are about 6 kids from his school catching the bus at the daycare so I'm hoping it will work out. Evan is going to his school and so is Elise and Andrew. Andrew is in his class actually so maybe they will get to be friends. The actual orientation was pretty much barely organized chaos. We got there and had to sit for a while on the bus while Mr. Bill (the busdriver) explained some of the rules of the bus. Then we went inside and down to the cafeteria for a snack. The principal introduced the all the kindergarten teachers and their aides. Of course Ian's teacher's aide wasn't there that day. It's actually a good thing John was along. I did have the presense of mind to make Ian go up by himself to get his milk and Teddy Grahams but once he got back John had to poke me when I tried to open Ian's milk carton and again when I started cleaning up the paper bits and whatnot. He didn't do a perfect job getting the carton open but John said "That's good enough to get the straw in" so I let it go. *sigh* That was a difficult process for me.
Then it was time to group up with the teachers and follow them down to their classrooms. Ian's teacher seems really nice. Mrs. W. Her aide is Mrs. E. Mrs. W knew all of the kids names and identified Ian almost immediately and said hi. That was cool. The classroom was nice and neat. And right by the nurse's office! Just in case Ian needs to take his asthma medicine. Phew! She had stations all set up, discovery table, computer station, writing area, art area, etc. The first thing she did was get the kids down on the floor in the calendar area and hand out their nametags. These have their names, the teacher's name and the number of the bus they are supposed to get off of in the morning and get on in the afternoon. They have to wear these for the first week or so, just to make sure no one gets lost. Also very cool. Then she read them a story, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie". At first, Ian was wandering and not sitting with the group but I finally got him to sit down. He didn't have his squishy toy and it was a new space so I don't blame him too much. After he got set down he got into the story and everything was fine. He participated and raised his hand when she asked questions. Then she told them some of the things they would be doing every day and showed them some of the other things in the room. And after that she let them wander around the room a bit to explore. Ian went straight to the discovery table where there was a pink conch shell and some butterflies in little petrie dishes. And she had a birch trunk nailed to a board that someone had carved to look like a beaver had chewed on it and a little stuffed beaver at the bottom of it. He thought that was pretty cool. LOLOL I spoke to her breifly but there wasn't a lot of time. She had to make the rounds of all the other parents that were there too. While we were talking she introduced me to Theo's mom. Theo is the other Aspie in the class. I can't believe they put two in one class! His mom is pretty nice. She asked about getting together and I told her that would be great. Mrs. W said that because of there being two in one class the special ed department is putting a tech in the class to assist. It's not going to be a 1:1 aide situation, just an extra adult in the room. Her primary function will be to keep an eye on the boys and help out where needed but not to hover. So there will be a total of 3 adults for about 13 kids. I didn't get a good count while I was there but it's not more than that. I actually feel pretty good about that. I don't think they will need it for the whole year but up until he gets into the routine, he could need a little extra cueing.
And then it was time to get back on the bus. I was PI**ED!!! I didn't get to address any of my questions or concerns with ANYONE! We went on to the parking lot at the VFW so the kids could practice crossing in front of the bus and watching the busdriver for signals and that kind of thing. Which was good, Ian will need lots of practice with that. They said the bus drivers do other practice sessions and come to the classes to give talks and all that kind of thing. The fact that all the kids Ian is with get on/off together at the daycare makes me feel MUCH better too. And Mr. Bill knew Ian's information as well. He knew what Ian's bus route was and what bus he would ride to day care and what one he would ride if he came right back to the house! WICKED COOL! We like Mr. Bill. Then they dropped us back off at the daycare and Ian went back with his class.
I was not happy on the drive home. John was asking me if I felt any better and I told him that actually I felt worse! I was hoping I would have time to discuss things with people. Get some reassurance that the things in the IEP were being addressed in his actual classroom. So while I was fuming in my room checking my email, John went down the hall and called Mrs. W. He arranged for us to go back in and talk with her one on one that day! She wanted to wait until Thursday but he said "Nope! This is her last day off and it needs to be today" And we did! We like John too. :oD I went over all of the things that I was concerned about and she was taking lots of notes and asking lots of questions. That was really cool. She didn't seem to be put out by any of the accomodations. She knew about everything that was asked for. The only thing they don't have set up is the picture schedule. She said that they really don't have a set schedule. I am going to see if they can at least make up cards or pictures for the different activities so she can at least have that to show as a visual cue when it's time to transition. She also has an eggtimer which will help with that issue of transition. She asked about just having the words for the activity on the schedule and I told her that he really doesn't recognize many words yet so until he does that really won't help anything. We'll see how it goes. I gave her my email address and she knows about the journal in his backpack. I also told her to put assignments and things they were working on in the notebook so I could do preteaching with him at home and she seemed really enthusiastic about that. ;oD They go to different activities in the mornings, art, music, gym that sort of thing and that kind of worries me. That's a lot of transition and variety for him to handle. But at least they do the same activity on the same day. Art is on Monday, music Tuesday etc. Hopefully he can settle into that.
I feel much better than I did about things, but I'm still nervous. I hope she will follow through. Email me when there are issues and keep up the journal. She seems very nice and like she really wants to work with Ian. Keep your fingers crossed.
My next task is to meet with the OT and ST that the school is providing for him. Mrs. W said that they were going to try and do some of their work with him in the classroom which TOTALLY ROCKS! I wasn't sure if they were going to be able to pull that one off or not. She seemed a little unsure about how that was going to work, but I think once she sees it in action she'll be ok with it. I want to see if they can participate in the notebook as well, or send me home weekly progress reports, just so I know what's going on with him.
Well, that's enough for today. I've gotta get back to work. I'll write about my wonderful *cough* experience with the Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner later.
Peace.
posted by Unknown
at 12:59 PM ::
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(4) comments
4 Comments:
Hey! I was searching google for hermit crab stuff and I came across your blog.
I am the happy owner of 43 hermit crabs. The woman you talked to is a little misinformed. Carribean crabs are the most common hermit crab available and they are the most docile and easy to care for. There are several other species of hermit crabs and I have some of each (with one exception) they all live together and have never harmed each other.
She is referring to a shell fight which will on occassion happen but if you keep enough empty shells available it shouldn't be much of an issue. Sometimes a crab will insist on having another's shell.
I could go on and on but I think the best bet would be to invite you to www.hermitcrabassociation.com and you can check out our forum. The association president also has another site that is just information www.hermit-crabs.com
You can find my hermit crab blog at www.foreverpurple.com/blog/crab_blog.php or email me at foreverpurple3@msn.com
I'm going to blog roll you on my regular blog and check back to do some more reading!
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, at
3:16 PM
