It's hard to believe, but Dew1 has officially started Junior Kindergarten.
He has been going to a typical preschool since he turned 2 (he's an August baby by birth but was a September baby by due date ...) His first year went well - it was 2 mornings a week, and his delays were not as apparent as there were not many demands placed on them that year. It was more social, and getting used to be away from Mommy for a while. They did activities and such, but didn't have circle time or anything. He had a great time and it was very good for him socially. It was during this year that we took him to the Easter Seals Step-Up program as well. (more about that another time.)
Then last fall he started the 3 year old program. We decided to keep him at 2 mornings a week because we had to register him in February and he was transitioning in the Early Intervention program to the Intermediate Unit. We didn't know what they were going to provide for him in the way of therapy and we wanted to keep his schedule as open as we could. Turned out that he got 3 hours a day of in home therapy so it worked out well. He did alright, but by December his Behvioural Consultant determined that the situation wasn't working as well as it could be. We looked into switching him into an IU Classroom, but really wanted to keep him as "Typical" as we could. In the end, we got an Aide into his room, and it was the perfect solution. He started coming home with completed assignments, he was joining circle time, he was being more social with his peers, and having fun.
We registered him for 5 day a week 3 year old programs for the fall. We decided to do a combination of 2 day and 3 day programs and keep him back a year to let him catch up with his peers. Then, the year after, put him into 5 day 4 year old preschool, then off to Kindergarten a year behind his age mates but in with his developmental peers. He wasn't potty trained yet because his language wasn't ready for it yet, and we weren't worried about this.
And then it happened. We decided to move back to Canada.
Suddenly it was a whole new world. Instead of 2 years before Kindergarten, he was going to be going to Junior Kindergarten this fall! Whole day, every other day, alternating Fridays. And he had to be potty trained!
We had contacted the school in June, as soon as we knew where we'd be living and made as many arrangements as we could for him. We prepared them for his special needs, and while they weren't able to get him his own Aide (mostly because it was June and that planning happened in April, but even more mostly because he's not officially in the system yet for service. .. and that could take years...) but they paired him in a classroom with a little guy who does have an Aide, so that Aide will work with both of them. Which is good b/c I don't believe that he needs a Full Time Aide, but just one to keep an eye on him and guide him a bit.
So it's been a busy summer with the potty traning (another post to come!) and this past week he he had his orientation. He did really well (or so the school told us.) He didn't use the potty while he was there and they were concerned that he was holding it (which i think he was.) They gave us a great booklet that they have prepared that is a photograph tour of the school. He loves to read his "school book" and I'm going to put a template together to share here for everyone to see. I think that all kids, typical and non-typical alike would benefit from it.
I can't wait to see how things go next week!
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