Reading, Writing, and Arithmitic

We got some sad news the other day. A kindergarten teacher at Jack's future school is retiring this year. I'm sure no other mother who has a child starting school in two more years has thought much of this event (or maybe they have cause she's a fantastic teacher), but part of the reason we decided to send Jack to my alma mater instead of Ben's was this teacher. The whole school ordeal - a HARD decision. We had always planned to send our child/children to the much larger city school in our area that Ben attended. But when we got Jack's diagnosis, we really started to think and pray about which school would fit him best - the one we were planning on or the small county school that I attended. We eventually went for smaller for a lot of reasons, but this particular teacher was a big one.

I was just really excited about Jack's first experience being with her. I knew how patient she was and how caring and I thought she would be perfect for Jack. Also, she had a child with Jack's same differences this year and they had a WONDERFUL experience. I am aware that the new teacher may be great as well and I don't have a clue who it is. I also don't know anything about the other Kindergarten teacher that is already there who I'm sure is fantastic as well, but I'm still pretty bummed. I already "don't know" so many things about how Jack will react to school and that setting so the fact that I DID KNOW about this teacher was a big source of comfort to me as a mom.

Honestly, I haven't been excited about Jack starting school for so many reasons: the schedule we will have to keep; the mornings that are going to be a killer for the Foreman family; the programs and field trips that are just not my thing. But since Jack got his diagnosis and we have an IEP, I'm really not feeling it. I just dread all that... I do all that in my job and I know how extensive it can be and how difficult to get children everything they need - not because the schools and school officials aren't great, but just because the resources aren't readily available. When I think about school, I just think we may have lots of long, hard battles ahead of us. It's a little intimidating to think about honestly. I do it all the time at work but this will be MY child and it will be different and probably not the easiest thing we've ever faced - no matter how great the school and teachers are.

As I was thinking all these things lately and about how bummed I am that my choice teacher isn't going to be around in a couple of years, I have noticed that while my child isn't all that excited about getting up early and going to preschool every day, he does love "educational" stuff. He loves words and any game that has to do with them. He loves Math and numbers and can gt to town on the addition and subtraction on all his games. He's always "working" and "taking tests" on his Handy Manny and Cars computers. He loves testing. I hated testing - I have a Master's degree and never even took the ACT or SATs. I just took a placement test b/c testing - especially standardized testing has always freaked me out. I've been made aware of this great site lately (http://www.studypoint.com/sat-tutoring/) that provides SAT tutoring for kids. How cool is that, right? Maybe if I had known about something like that, I would have had the courage to take the test. Needless to say, I didn't and I'm not looking forward to going through this whole "school" process with Jack.

And since Jack's diagnosis, I have realized little by little how MUCH I'm going to have to be involved in his day to day schooling. It takes a parent to really advocate - not b/c school officials don't want to, but b/c they have other students and they need parents to help them see what the child needs and help them reinforce what they are teaching at home. So, I've been blue about it lately b/c I really thought we were going to get to start the process with this particular teacher and it was going to be so fantastic and now she's not going to be there. But it still may be fantastic, it still may be a wonderful experience - who knows? Either way, Jack is going to be so excited when they get ready to give him a test:) In addition, he's not at all concerned or anxious about starting school. Of course, he has another year before he has to and it's really not his style to get concerned about much of anything. I guess he can be my support when I get a little overwhelmed with school, right? Maybe Jack's future teachers will read this post. Can you imagine how excited THEY will be to see me coming?? :) Feel free to share all of your WONDERFUL and UPLIFTING experiences with your kids starting Kindergarten - horror stories will not be welcome!