my baby's in school

Seth started pre-school today! The whole situation is really quite exciting for both of us, surprisingly. I really couldn't get him to stand still long enough to get a good picture, but he had a little backpack with extra clothes and diapers:


He didn't want to carry the backpack, though, because he just wanted to RUN!


His teacher asked Seth if he wanted to carry a little teddy bear to walk into the school. When he took the bear, she took his hand and led him away. He didn't mind at all. He looked back once, but not in a sad or distressed way. He was just looking around, I think. In this picture, Seth is the child to the furthest right, closest to the bus.


After school, Seth walked outside holding his teacher's hand. He looked over at me because he saw a tall person, but did a double-take when he realized it was me. He was happy to see me, but not in a "oh what a relief!" kind of way. His teacher told me that Seth did BEAUTIFULLY and that he is just a BEAUTIFUL child! Two of his classmates introduced themselves to me and showed Seth their flowers (dandelions). They let him hold and smell the flowers. I was amazed that he smelled them and handed them back without a fight. All the way home, he was saying and signing "friends." SWEET!!!!!

Now to answer the obvious question in everyone's mind: why in the world did I put Seth in school less than three weeks before school's out for the summer???? The answer is simple: I misunderstood the facts of special education pre-school. I thought that children with special needs went to pre-school from ages three to five, three full years of pre-school. I was mistaken. All children in the public school must go to kindergarten if they turn five before September 1st of that school year. In Alaska, children don't have to go to school at all; but if they're going to attend school, they must follow along with their age group. It doesn't matter one bit to the public school system that Seth is functioning at the level of a two-year-old or that he's the size of an average three- or possibly four-year-old. He'll be five, so he has to go to kindergarten. SO we had to get him into pre-school immediately so that the teacher could evaluate Seth's skills and make recommendations for special needs services for next year. There's a slight possibility that he'll go to summer school for the first half of summer break, but that's unlikely since he does still have his private speech and occupational therapists.

The main focus I have right now is that Seth came out of that building HAPPY and that the teacher seemed to LOVE him! Really, that's all that matters to me :-)