At the principal's office

I'm not sure that I have shared that Landon will start half-day preschool in the fall! I'm really excited to get him started because I think it will really benefit him to be around some other kids his age. He is a very social little boy and loves to wave at people and include them in what he's doing. I think that going to school will help him build up his social skills, possibly help him with talking, and the dreaded potty training. (That hasn't been going well.)

We've been talking to his early childhood teacher that comes out from the school system. She's been really supportive in helping to transition us from the services we get right now (where she comes to the house) to going to school. We met up with the principal of Landon's school today, along with the school nurse, and the speech pathologist that will be working with Landon (and the other children) in the classroom. They were all so nice and were willing to answer questions and the principal even showed us where the classroom was going to be. It really put me and Braydon at ease. We haven't met his teacher yet (she's a highly recommended new recruit), but she will be arranging some home visits to come and hang out with Landon to get to know him. Her name is Ms. Mandy. I'm very excited to get to meet her.

Last week, Kerry (Landon's teacher right now) took me to observe a classroom of preschoolers at another school in their same district. The school that Landon will attend doesn't have a preschool right now, but Kerry wanted me to see how a normal school day would go. They start off with circle time and sing a song. Then they go into a book and then start organizing jobs for the day (like the milk person and the line leader). After that they play in "centers" where they can play pretend or read books or play with blocks. They also do a "small group" where the teacher splits the class in half and work on two seperate tables on a craft. This helps the teachers focus on things that the kids need to work on. This is where the OT for the school will come in and work with the kids that need a little extra attention. The same goes for the PT. The speech pathologist will come in and work with the kids all together to try to get them all on the same page. The para-professionals (the teacher's helpers) also work with some of the kids that need more help with anything individually. I got to see some of that in action and it really eased my mind. I'm glad they will still be working on the things that we are working on in therapy at Children's with Landon in school.

I'm really excited for Landon. Today, Theresa took Landon with her on a tour with the school nurse, while we finished up the meeting so he could walk around the halls. She said that while we were finishing up Landon was waving to all the kids in the hall. I can't wait to see how well he does. It's gonna be a good change, for sure. :)