Thursday, July 17, 2008

Project School day

This week Kevin's been in this cycle of crashing as soon as he gets home from his day camp and sleeping until midnight or so, then playing for a couple hours before going back to bed then waking up tired. So last evening I took him to the pool for a couple hours to keep him awake. It worked: he was awake until midnight. I guess I'll need to take him to the pool again tonight after work so he'll stay awake then maybe, hopefully, he'll fall asleep earlier than eleven and he'll get into a more normal cycle and less teenager-like.

While we were at the pool we saw Kevin's classroom aide from the middle school. She came over to me to say hi and tell us her news. She just, like yesterday, got offered a job at the high school and she'll be in Kevin's class. She's very excited because she's wanted a high school placement for a while now and get out of the middle school. I'm excited because it'll be great for Kevin to have her there to ease his transition to a new school and program and she'll already knows him so she can help the classroom teacher learn about him and what's in his IEP.

For a lot of years Kevin got a new teacher every year and would flounder, even regress, until about Thanksgiving while he got use to the new teacher and routines. Kevin did much better at the beginning of the year when he had the same teacher two or more years in a row. Since he's going to high school I couldn't expect anything consistent to help the transition and had to hope for the best, but now he'll be in a new place with a familiar face. I'm very pleased.

 

6 comments:

Casdok said...

Change is difficult, and staff do come and go. Sounds very positive!

Gnomeself Be True said...

The change thing is tough for us as well.
If we're able to place him where we want to, he could stay at that school through HS. At least that would be better than changing schools every year or so like we've been doing.

Maddy said...

You are such a jammy dodger having that aide move ahead. I know exactly what you mean about the transition in the new school year.

I'm also with you on the 'swimming' as it wears one of mine out and makes the other one sooooo much more coherent. [fun too!]
Cheers

Unknown said...

I think Kevin is downing some Red Bull when you are not looking or something. Good idea to wear him out in the pool. I take it you were doing laps right there with him, right?
I remember in my youth in 4H, my family would go swimming in the summer from 6 to 8 and come home, have dinner and crash so hard. It was wonderful.

The aide moving ahead is such a stroke of luck! I know you can breath a sigh of relief.

carmilevy said...

Familiarity is so important, especially when we're kids and the world around us seems to be changing faster than we can accept.

Don't you just love how fate intervenes when you least expect it? Cool!

Anonymous said...

Wow, I just stumbled across your blog and am loving it.

Interestingly, we share a name, an astrological sign and a love for Harry Potter. LOL Nice to "meet" you.