Lucas's first day of public school - Jan. 3, 2013

I'm attempting to post again to see what happens with my photos.  I bumped into some sort of ceiling with blogger and was unable to continue blogging with Pictures.  So let's see how this goes.

If you follow me on Facebook none of this is new but all put in one place.

We decided to put Lucas in school a few weeks before Christmas.  He was a little hesitant about actually doing it, but overall ok with it.  We went to visit his teacher Ms. FitzGerald the day before school started up again after Christmas break.  She is sweet and very experienced with many kinds of students.  We are blessed to live in a very ethnically diverse metropolitan area.  And in particular there are a lot of kids that are even ESOL students so the school is very familiar with it.  Lucas isn't really ESOL but he has a few little gaps in language once in a while and he needs some additional assistance with reading and math.  

On his first day of school, he woke up at 4:30 a.m......YES I said 4:30.  He came into our room and started telling me it was time to get ready for school.  He climbed into bed with us and wiggled and squiggled.  Then he whispered.."mom, it's time to get up"..."mom, I don't want to be late"..."mom, I need to get ready for school"...

I kept telling him to go back to sleep, we didn't need to get up until 6:30.  Bus comes after 7:15.  Finally, we got up.  He went right to his room, got dressed, brushed his teeth and met me in the kitchen where I was walking around in a daze.  I think I made him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to take for lunch.  

He ate a bowl of Ramen Noodles, some "Opa" meat, and milk and a small orange.  

he was ready to go to the bus by 6:45. (remember it doesn't come until 7:15)

all ready to go...

 Finally, it was time to go to the bus stop but it was really cold outside so we drove our car 3 houses down to wait.  And he got kind of bored sitting in the car waiting.

 He lined up for the bus with 3 other neighborhood kids he knows.

And when the bus showed up, they all piled on the bus and

HE FROZE

dead in his tracks!

He wouldn't move!

"I don't want to go"

WHAT?

I gently nudged him forward the 8 feet to the bus and he climbed on, but almost got off again.

I talked to the driver about some things ...

... and then he was off...whew!  that was close.

I was not too emotional because I was so blasted dazed, cold and exhausted.  

I also got multiple emails from his teacher throughout the day so that really helped.

8:16 a.m.

"He is here safe and sound and working away!  I'll try to check in with you
periodically today :)"

9:40

"Just wanted to let you know that he is doing a great job!
We had a fairly long "class meeting" and he participated very well! Lucas
has raised his hand several times to answer questions too :)  I was just
chatting with him while he was drawing and he said, "I'm glad I'm in a real
school."  I told him I was glad too."

3:34

"Wow! What a great day!!!!
Lucas did an exceptionally good job today! He listened, followed directions
and worked when asked to :)  Today involved a lot of listening and class
discussion-I'm sure that was tiring for him. He took it all in stride. I
sent home an email we got today about a lunch menu change for tomorrow in
his Boomerang notebook.You'll also see his math homework page in there. He
was excited to see that he knows how to do the homework. I made sure to
pick something that you had shown me he had mastered. I wanted him to start
out being successful & it was a good review for the others.

We did some writing together this afternoon and I could see how he has
learned the letters tied to picture/word clues. I have a small chart here
that we used as he wrote that follows the same idea.  Some of the pictures
were different but he made a connection with the concept.  Lucas and I  set
a goal together that he will read more words by the end of the next 9
weeks. I'll keep up with the number of sight words and will share that with
you as we go along. He had a great attitude today.

We did have one issue on the playground- I saw Lucas kick & push another
student who was on the area of the equipment that he wanted to be on. I
talked with both boys about it. Lucas immediately apologized on his own. I
had him sit out from playing for about 5 minutes and I talked with him
privately about our rules. (no hitting, pushing, kicking etc.) He seemed
remorseful and didn't have any more problems. I'll keep my eye on him
outside and will continue to help him navigate the waters.

One of the cutest things that happened today was this- As we walked to
lunch, Lucas and I were chatting. A teacher walked by and one of our
students said, "This is our new student!"  Upon hearing this, Lucas smiled
and said, "I won't be new tomorrow."  It was just precious."

so it was a pretty good day with just one minor "hitch" on the playground.  

I picked him up at the bus, brought him home for a snack and he was visibly EXHAUStED.  I know the evening was going to be interesting...he did end up in a complete meltdown and disregulated state for a while around dinner time.  And then completely crashed at bedtime in just seconds.

Day 2

He woke up early, but around 6 and actually fell back asleep till 6:30 but he still got up right when he needed to, got ready independently and ate his food and was ready to go 15 minutes early.

The report on day 2 was just a little less glowing...=)

"Hi!
I wanted to let you know that Lucas had a pretty successful day today. I
could see that he tired/became distracted much more easily today during
discussions & instruction.  I assured him that I understand it is hard work
to learn the routines and procedures and that I know he will understand
what is expected in time.  The biggest issue today was that he yelled out
several times in class and in the hallway.
(a great big "Hi Logan!!!" or saying "Be Quiet!!" in our classroom when I
am getting the kids' attention.) No big problems, just things he will need
to learn."

I also have to add another story here that she didn't know about but he told us about. It was another play ground issue.  I can't quite understand "why" but I think one of the neighbor kids told a friend that he has prosthetics.  And she asked him to show her friend what they looked like.  So he took them off on the playground.  When the teacher saw it he said she told him to "Put his legs back on"...

Peter and I cracked up when he told us and he thought it was funny too.  I cannot even imagine what she must have thought.  Peter wondered what story she told her husband that night when she went home...this falls under the category of "things I never thought I would hear myself say"...poor thing.  I did write her an email.  So we will see if she responds...and what her humor level is.

Apparently, it's important to Lucas that he is not the "new kid" anymore because he mentioned that to me again tonight (Saturday).  He also told me that as soon as he walked in the door the first day a little girl told him "You're cute"...Lucas replied with "We are not old enough to talk about that"...he has heard us tell him these things before so it was funny to hear that he actually used that language when he was away from us.

I did have a little "independence" issue with him after day 2.  He sort of took off from the bus, went home, grabbed his scooter and headed down the block to a friend's house really without asking.  That was "ok" since I did text the mom within 5 minutes but it was not quite appropriate for him to just take off and not "ask".  Then when he went to leave that house, he drove right past our house and went to another friend's house without asking.  We have talked about all of this several times now, but I think now that he is away from us all day he may think he has the right to do whatever he wants "whenever" he wants.  This will take some additional training and coaching.  

So, new adventures here.  We'll keep ya posted!