I have had no experience with a public school whatsoever. Until this year. Last Tuesday we send Josiah off to Kindergarten (Monday was the meet&greet for the kids & teachers). Full-day. From 8-3:50. Hubby drove him in, showed him what his morning routine would be (after this, it's the bus to and from school!), took some pics, and left. He just left him at school. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. As excited for him as we all were, I knew I would miss him too. He's never been away from me all-day. Well, all the necessary paperwork was filled out so he could get breakfast, lunches, and ride the bus. Armed with a water bottle and morning snack (which I had to chase JR down after he left-he called me on the phone, I explained the crisis, grabbed an apple, ran across our parking lot & up the road to meet him {then I had to run back to the house so my younger two wouldn't think I just abandoned them}). Josiah's day was going to be great. It had to be. Kindergarten is fun, right??
Josiah getting ready to leave!
That morning I wasn't sure if I should be sad that he's growing up and moving on, or scared that his IEP plan wouldn't be implemented, no one would understand him, and he would come home crying. During the meet & greet Monday, I was all prepared to explain to the teacher about Josiah's Sensory Processing Disorder & speech delay. But I didn't. Turns out, his teacher was the one at his IEP meeting (when IEP {individualized education plan} meetings are discussed, and your child doesn't have a teacher yet, one representative from the grade level is there. This was the teacher represented)! I was soooooo excited! Because of this, she knew more about Josiah than I was expecting! So far, so good!
As the day rolled along, I kept worrying about how Josiah would handle the day. New routines, new expectations. I did notice that some of his friends from HeadStart were in his class, so that meant fewer new people for him to meet. My friend assured me that he would be fine, and everything would be fine.
I held in my panic until later in the day when the same friend called and let me know that he kids weren't riding the bus all the way home. They were getting picked up at the middle school stop (small town=approx 400 kids in the elementary school; buses carried kids from elementary, middle and high school {all within a five-mile radius}). This worried me because that meant her kids wouldn't be on the bus to tell Josiah to get off (he is slightly obsessed with anything that "goes", and one of my fears is him not getting off the bus because he loves them so much).
However, this all turned out to be moot point, because Josiah wasn't even on the bus! (Am I supposed to laugh or cry?? Since this kind of stuff usually happens to us, I wanted to laugh. However, he was lost, so I wanted to cry!) When my friend's kids got off at the middle school, they told "Mr. Mike" and things went downhill from there. Where was Josiah??? I called the number on the bus application and got a voice mail (it said to call if there were any problems or concerns. I did. No one answered. How does this help me??). Not knowing where your child is?? A parent's worst nightmare! Thankfully, it's a small town, and later I found out that they stopped all the buses that were coming to the middle school to find Josiah. He did make it on a bus, just not the right one. He changed buses and came home unfazed. He was soooooooo excited that he got to ride a bus!!! I'm not sure what all happened after that fiasco, but when he came home, he knew the number of the bus he is supposed to ride.
At least he was safe and sound....for another day.....
Josiah at school!
On the Kindergarten play ground!
Lining up!
Josiah getting ready to leave!
That morning I wasn't sure if I should be sad that he's growing up and moving on, or scared that his IEP plan wouldn't be implemented, no one would understand him, and he would come home crying. During the meet & greet Monday, I was all prepared to explain to the teacher about Josiah's Sensory Processing Disorder & speech delay. But I didn't. Turns out, his teacher was the one at his IEP meeting (when IEP {individualized education plan} meetings are discussed, and your child doesn't have a teacher yet, one representative from the grade level is there. This was the teacher represented)! I was soooooo excited! Because of this, she knew more about Josiah than I was expecting! So far, so good!
As the day rolled along, I kept worrying about how Josiah would handle the day. New routines, new expectations. I did notice that some of his friends from HeadStart were in his class, so that meant fewer new people for him to meet. My friend assured me that he would be fine, and everything would be fine.
I held in my panic until later in the day when the same friend called and let me know that he kids weren't riding the bus all the way home. They were getting picked up at the middle school stop (small town=approx 400 kids in the elementary school; buses carried kids from elementary, middle and high school {all within a five-mile radius}). This worried me because that meant her kids wouldn't be on the bus to tell Josiah to get off (he is slightly obsessed with anything that "goes", and one of my fears is him not getting off the bus because he loves them so much).
However, this all turned out to be moot point, because Josiah wasn't even on the bus! (Am I supposed to laugh or cry?? Since this kind of stuff usually happens to us, I wanted to laugh. However, he was lost, so I wanted to cry!) When my friend's kids got off at the middle school, they told "Mr. Mike" and things went downhill from there. Where was Josiah??? I called the number on the bus application and got a voice mail (it said to call if there were any problems or concerns. I did. No one answered. How does this help me??). Not knowing where your child is?? A parent's worst nightmare! Thankfully, it's a small town, and later I found out that they stopped all the buses that were coming to the middle school to find Josiah. He did make it on a bus, just not the right one. He changed buses and came home unfazed. He was soooooooo excited that he got to ride a bus!!! I'm not sure what all happened after that fiasco, but when he came home, he knew the number of the bus he is supposed to ride.
At least he was safe and sound....for another day.....
Josiah at school!
On the Kindergarten play ground!
Haha! Poor momma! At least he had fun :)
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