14 Days left of summer

Dang, time just flies. I can't believe it is almost August already! JP starts school in two weeks! We start incredibly early here. Can you believe we start on August 13th!!!! Doesn't that seem crazy! So many of you don't seem to start until after Labor day!

Our summer has just flown by. It seemed like we just went from event to event and then before we knew it the summer disappeared. We finished the school year then had two weeks before summer school started. Then JP had "Jump Start to Kindergarten" for a week. Now he is at (Day) Camp for another week. Next week he has absolutely nothing except two OT appointments. Then the week after he is an official Kindergartener!

So we have a whole summer to fit into next week. I want to go back to the Children's Museum and to the zoo again. Actually I really want DWAM to take off work and go with us because it is very hard to take both boys alone. We can do it alone but I won't be as successful at pushing JP to try new things. If I have to push him I have to give him 110% of my attention and that is not possible with the T man with us. Of course we could just go and enjoy ourselves but if you recall during our last trip to the zoo JP agreed to try the carousel and the train in August. Well, silly boy, it is now August!

I know that there are times I should just let JP enjoy himself and not push him to take that step forward. But I think this is a time he needs me to push. In fact, his camp is going on a field trip today. They are going to the zoo. And JP has spent the last 24 hours talking about riding on Thomas. He has agreed that if he rides on Clarabel it might be fun. (For those of you that need a translation Clarabel would be the last car. Thomas pulls two passenger cars--Annie and Clarabel.) I can't help but interpret his dialog as him letting me know that he is excited to do this and that he is ready. I still expect him to be anxious and scared but I think he is wanting me to nudge him. I just worry that I won't be able to pull it off if DWAM is unable to join us!

I also have news on our Kindergarten front. I need to update you on our news from the Special Education Coordinator. She called last Thursday to let me know that she "increased our para hours". I am still not completely clear on what that means. I tried to press but she kept it kind of cryptic. What I think this means is that they are planning to start with (the IEP stated) 18 hours of resource teacher in the mainstream classroom providing support during group activities and then use the para to fill in the other 12 hours. Then as JP gets more comfortable they will probably pull back and have the para be the extra eyes and ears for longer parts of the day.

The SEC danced around the issue a bit. Probably not purposefully but because we truly don't know how much time JP will require from the resource staff. I know she doesn't want to say one thing and then have it end up being different. However, I am happy with this news because she did assure me that there will always be two sets of adult hands in the classroom. I am assuming that the ratio of resource time will then be up to the school to establish as we see how JP does. I am very excited because so far the staff at our school has been amazing! Admittedly it has been a pain in the ass dealing with the special education administration but I have to thank them for stepping up and doing what is right. It may have taken the entire summer but we got it done!

So anyway, we now have 14 more days left until my baby starts kindergarten!

YIKES!