Two More Days of Summer Vacation

Last night was Meet Your Teacher night at school.  We took all the kids school supplies and met their teachers.  We already knew Cassidy's teacher, as she was Caleb's homeroom teacher last year.  Although he didn't spend much time in her class, just for social studies and science and special activities.  All of his other academics are taught by his special education teacher, in the FAA class.

We met Caleb's homeroom teacher, but just like last year, he will only be with her during social studies and science and special activities.

Cassidy has a new IR teacher, where she will go for an hour a day to complete work that she was not able to finish during class.  Her IR teacher will also administer her modified state testing this year as per her IEP.

Caleb, over the last couple of days, has been asking me if I would take him to school on Monday to show him where his class was.  I kept reminding him that we'd be going to the school Thursday night.  I also reminded him that Mrs. K. would be at school on Monday and would help him.  Mrs. K. is a wonderful para that has worked with Caleb since his moved to that class in February of second grade.

I thought Caleb was excited about school until tonight.  Tonight he said, "I'm not going to school on Monday!"  Um, that's not an option, buddy!  I did find out today that his bus will come about 20 minutes after Cassidy's, so at least I won't have to be getting them both out the door at the same time.  That was a huge challenge some days last year!  

So, Saturday and Sunday are the last days of summer vacation for 2010.  I'm ready for a regular routine!

Six More Days of Summer Vacation

When you have special needs children, structure is very, VERY important!  Vacations are usually very difficult at our house because of the lack of structure that usually occurs.  Trying to keep the kids occupied and from totally aggravating each other just wears me out!

Well, I have made it through this summer and only have six more days to make it through.  It has been quite helpful having 20 hours of extra help with Caleb last week and this week in addition to our regular amount of 54 hours a month of supportive home care.  We were able to get a high schooler from our church, who has helped her mom who is a speech therapist and also volunteered in our church's special needs Sunday school class.  Caleb really took to her and doesn't want her to leave when her four hours are done each day.  Friday is going to be a sad day for Caleb, because I don't know if this worker will be able to work any hours during the school year due to her schedule and softball commitments.

I am really ready for school to start, though.  I have done so much running this year getting the kids to and from their camps, that I have not had a lot of time to rest this summer and Steven's schedule has been so out of whack all summer.  I'm looking forward to getting Steven back on a real good schedule and having some time to get some things done!

Thursday is Meet Your Teacher Night.  The only new teacher we are going to meet is Caleb's homeroom teacher, since he will have the same special ed teacher that he had for part of second and all of third grade.  It's our understanding that the plan is that he will have the same teacher for fifth grade as well.

Cassidy will have the teacher that was Caleb's homeroom teacher for third grade.  Although we know her and she knows us, we don't know how her class if run, since Caleb was only in her room for early morning activities (like choosing lunch) and science and social studies, since all of his other academics was in his special education class.  So it'll be interesting to see how Cassidy does with her.

I'm praying that the kids have good school years!