Off She Goes

This..........

.....is my ticket to freedom. Isn't that terrible? I admit it....I've been looking forward to this day. All three of my kids are finally back in school as of today. Sure I get a little sad when I think of how quickly they are growing up. And I do miss them a little for the few hours they are at school but the benefit of being a stay at home mom is that we get a LOT of together time. And Ainsley still has 2 years of preschool before she goes off for full days of Kindergarten.

Ainsley looked a little confused when we pulled her out of bed far earlier than usual for a bath and then again when she saw the school nurse this morning. It's been 3 months. I think she'd forgotten about school.

She got pretty excited when they went out to wait on the porch for the bus. I think she finally remembered.

He's a very nice guy and we're lucky to have him.

When they got back at noon he reported that Ainsley had a good first day back at school. She raised her hand at circle time to be the kid to "walk" around the room and show all the other kids the the picture for the month (September). Happily participating on the first day! Awesome!  Now that she's out of the wheelchair after recovering from hip surgery it will be nice to be able to let her use her legs. At recess I want her to do more than just sit by and watch the other kids play. So he walked her around a bit.

There are some kinks to be worked out as the old teacher (who had a hard-of-hearing background, ie. lot of sign language and was fabulous) left and the school didn't get around to hiring anyone to fill the spot. That means we have a substitute for a few weeks. It stinks to have to get acquainted twice but that's life. Especially for special needs kids.

She came home with her first art project. A VERY adorable lacing project from "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."

The only thing I don't look forward to about the kids going back to school is the onslaught of paperwork and art projects that come home every day. Though the caterpillar is very cute.

I'm hoping that this few hours of extra time will equal more blog posts and things checked off my to-do list.

Aside from me (ha, ha) I think it's great for Ainsley to be back in school. Typically a curious kid gets into all kinds of things at home, but a kid that has impaired motor skills can't go where they want or do what they want without help.The problem is compounded when the child is also non-verbal and cannot say what they want.  Having a few hours a day of school is basically like 2 1/2 hours of intense therapy. Everything in the class is structured to help delayed kids learn.  I'm very excited to see how Ainsley blossoms this school year.