Back to School!

Some years I would have a meet the teacher post, a first day of school post, an open house night post and a professional photos post.  This year I am doing one post!  I am celebrating that I am blogging about something that happened in September.   

Each year, about a week before school starts, the kids are invited to come and meet their teacher and drop off their school supplies.  It is such a nice way for the kids and parents to connect with the teacher, learn a bit about the classroom, bing all the back to school items needed so the kids don't have to lug them to school the first day, and see what friends will be in their class.  

M: I was excited to find my name on the Birthday wall. 

T: I am so excited to have Mrs. G for my teacher!

M decided he didn't want a photo with his teacher this year.  Apparently third graders are too old for that... sad!  M's teacher Mrs R is great too!

Finally the first day of school arrived.  With some anticipation and fear the day began.  We were quite prepared and had everything figured out the night before.  This is something that pretty much only happens the first day of school.

My third grader! 

My first grader!

First Day pic with mom.

And now one with dad!

It was a beautiful day so the kids biked to school with Brandon.  As you can see from then photos, things were still wet and people had carpet on their boulevards.

Off to school!

Brandon and T got a bit ahead! 

I had many projects that beckoned for my time the first day the kids were at school, but the water bottle cabinet was out of control!!!  Check out all the bottles I pulled out.  I am happy to report that many were donated, some were tossed, and the ones we actually use were organized nicely.  Yay!

Lots of water bottles!

Both kids had a good first day of school.  It was nice to be able to bike home with them.  M actually had some "get to know you" homework the first night.  I thought it would be fun to record it here so we can see what he was thinking about at the start of third grade. 

The answers!

The Third Grader (with a fresh haircut) 

Later this fall the school had an open house were students could tour their families around the school.  T loved it.  M was less than thrilled.  I only took one picture, but it sums up the night pretty nicely. The night of the open house happened to line up with PJ day.

T: I love taking pictures.  M: Why do we have to do this? 

Each year I hold my breath wondering with the kids professional photos will look like.  This year did not disappoint.  They both look so grown up!

T Grade One

M: Grade Three

It is hard to believe that as I write this post the kids are half way through the school year.  How does that happen so quickly?  Wow!  We continue to be so incredible grateful that our children are at Lincoln School.  It has been the best fit for our family.  We feel like we have such a great partnership with the teachers.  We are so thankful for them.  

This fall we had each of the kids meetings to discuss needs and accommodations.  M has a 504 which means that he gets some accommodations in the classroom.  He does quite well at school.  We just have some things written down about all of his food allergies, optional wind down time at the end of the day, and an amazing school to home bridge program.  We follow the school system at home and report back each morning and then a record is kept of this at school.  We are actually doing this with both kids and overall it has been quite a successful solution for each of them.  

T had a 504 and moved back to an IEP.  A 504 is all about accommodations and an IEP is an educational plan with goals etc.  Because her hearing will never improve, I was very confused about how she would meet goals.  Her goals focus on advocacy for herself and an understanding of her BAHA and her needs.  Her hearing test (while wearing hearing aid) showed that she was only picking up 60% of content from 10 feet if there was background noise.  This means she was missing a lot and wasn't really letting anyone know.  Because of this she now has an FM system.  Her teacher and her special teachers where a microphone that T hears right in her BAHA through something that attaches to her BAHA.  She and her teacher nicknamed the attachment her "nugget."   This means her teacher's voice is the loudest voice she hears!  We are SO thankful for an incredible team of helps T to have the best environment for learning possible!  T's teacher's husband has some hearing loss and her teacher understands hearing aids well.  This has been such a good connection for T.