Kindergarten

Well, it finally happened. My baby girl is officially a kindergartner now. So far things have gone well I think. We had meetings with both the principal and the special ed staff and Hannah's classroom teacher before school started. It was formally considered an eligibility meeting, but we went over all of Hannah's needs and I really felt like we had a good base going for the first day of school. She qualified for services under an IEP and the actual IEP meeting was set for the end of the month. Her teacher seems awesome and has been doing a lot of observation of Hannah to ascertain her needs in the classroom already and it looks like she's already noticed a pattern to when her sensory needs ramp up and wants to set up a mid afternoon sensory break to help Hannah get through the morning. She called to see if I would be ok with that. Would I be ok with that? Seriously! I expected to have to fight tooth and nail to get sensory needs even acknowledged. She's also already noticed a few of the behavioral and social concerns we had going into school. I really do think Hannah's been holding up remarkably well given how hard it must be to be on her best behavior all day long. The reports have been that she's had good days, but she's been left with a hair trigger and barely enough energy to walk home! I'm sure it will get easier for her as things go on, but this week (and maybe several more after it) is going to be tough at home I imagine.

It was VERY hard for me to drop her off Monday morning at the curb and just go, but they don't even let parents into the building at drop off and pick up. In fact, if you drive you don't even get out of the car. They walk up to the car and open the door for the kids and everything. I'm sure this makes transitions easier for the kids, but it sure can be hard for the parents of the kindergartners! Especially on the first day!

Well, it's been 2 weeks since I started this post and Hannah began her 3rd week of school today and we also had her IEP meeting. I was VERY pleased with the plan the team came up with to support and supplement Hannah's education. I think she's in excellent hands. I've also been quite happy with the communication from school so far. Her teacher emails me back every time I send her a question or heads up. She also has class wide newsletters and a class website. Hannah seems happy at school and I'm looking forward to seeing how the year progresses. Tomorrow she starts heading into the resource room to do work beyond the typical kindergarten curriculum. I'm tickled pink that they truly realize that it's essential that Hannah be challenged in order to keep her behaviors in check. I'm not sure the resource room teacher has ever had to do differentiated instruction with a kid that is ahead academically like Hannah, but she seems more than willing and up for the challenge.