School Begins!

Thursday Eldest girl was off to her first day of third grade. She was excited and happy to be headed off to school again. She was anxious to see her friends and maybe a little nervous about meeting her new teacher. We had been able to ascertain ahead of time that at least two very good friends would be in her class. I think that helped to give her some level of confidence in heading off for her first day.

She had a successful day at school and came home with stories to share of her new teacher, what her classroom is like, where and with whom she sits and all the usual first day kind of stuff. She was allowed to choose where to sit and she is at a desk next to her crush best friend, J, and there is another boy whose name begins with a J who sits on her other side. She found out on the first day that the "other J" likes Harry Potter - so they are off to a good start seeing as she is reading the series again for the third time...

Her second day went as well as her first. She has come home with two practice worksheets for cursive writing and has received 100% on both for her efforts which pleased her to no end. She also said that she was nervous about her teacher but has been pleasantly surprised at how great she is. I had heard mixed reviews on this teacher so far from those "in the know" who had kids in her class and she has a reputation as being a yeller. So far, so good though. And Eldest girl is already aware of the fact that if you follow the rules you'll be fine. She told Middle girl as much at dinner the other night. LOL Eldest girl is very much a "stick to the rules" kind of kid and she is very bright so I think she will get along fine with that teacher (who I have also heard works well with the kids who need/want to be challenged academically).

When did she start looking so grown-up?


Traditional 'first day' picture by the brown-eyed susans.


Picking flowers for her teacher.


Off she goes!


Just for comparison...her Kindergarten picture from 2005!

(I am laughing right now as I realize that she *still* has that Jacket!! It's a little too short on the sleeves but she likes enough that she still wants to wear it!)

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Friday was Middle girl's Kindergarten orientation. I drove her to school at 9am to meet for an hour with her teacher, assistant teacher and a few specialists who will spend some time each day in her classroom (primarily the ESL folks since we have a large spanish-speaking population in our elementary school). She got to check out the layout of the classroom and I also took her on a brief tour of the cafeteria, library, and gym. She is very excited and can't wait for her first real day on Tuesday when she will be able to join Eldest girl on the big yellow school bus.

So big...and yet I still one of my babies. She picked flowers for her teacher, too.


Standing in front of the school.


She found her cubby!


I wanted to get a picture of her with her teacher but she adamantly refused! She is not one to be camera shy so perhaps she was thinking - "enough with the pictures, mom...it's embarrassing!" LOL Or maybe it's just not her style to share the limelight.... ;-)

Middle girl has the same teacher that Eldest girl had for Kindergarten which makes me very happy (especially considering the fact that the other two K teachers are brand new to the school this year and both are very young --- in fact, one is a brand-new grad this year from a local college). She has one boy from preschool in her class - but unlike her big sister she is all about the girlfriends. In fact, we were recently spent some time hanging out with a family that had two boys and she told me before we left, "ya know mom...boys are just not my type." She is very sad that one particular little girl from preschool is not in her class but I'm sure she'll make new friends very quickly with whatever girls are in her class. She met two girls and three boys at the orientation but both girls were extremely shy. Hopefully, Middle girl will befriend them quickly and help them feel more at ease! She had become somewhat of a leader and was more than willing to help the younger kids at preschool last year so I'm thinking those skills will be useful in her new classroom. I know she is going to love school this year!

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As for me - I'm back to work as of this week but it was mainly procedural and planning meetings. Next week I will be visiting at least one classroom where I will be providing assistive technology support/consultation. I met the new SLP in that classroom on Monday at the SPED orientation meeting and she seems great. We are both new to the middle school environment so it will be a challenging year for us both but she seems up to the challenge and I think we'll work well together. Phew.

I have yet to completely figure out what the rest of my weeks are going to look like but I will definitely have enough consulting work to do!! My biggest challenge once I have a more or less set schedule will be to figure out childcare coverage for morning and afternoons. In most cases, I have to juggle an early start day at the middle school or high school I'll be working at with the later bus times of my elementary schoolers and the fact that some of the schools are somewhat far away which means I won't be home right at 3:20 to catch them off the bus! Thankfully, my MIL is around the corner and will be available to help out and Rick will try to work his schedule so that he can do some of the morning or afternoon coverage. We just to get a set schedule worked out so that everyone is on the same page! Ah...the life of a working mom. I'm only part-time but I have a feeling it's not going to seem like part-time once things get rolling!

To add to the crazies I'm also doing some volunteering at the school through the Parent/Guardian Organization (PGO), I'm on a committee at church for Christian Education, and I'm hoping to continue with my weekly knitting group that I joined recently. Oh and how could I forget - Middle girl has one gymnastics class a week after school, and the two older girls are signed up for an 8-week swim class which starts in a couple of weeks.

Let the crazies begin!

Re-entry, Phase 1 - Complete!

I survived the first day back to work - unscathed, no less. And feeling pretty good overall.

Rick was left in charge of the morning "launch" of the girls - R and A to school and E to grandma's for the day. I headed out about 7:45am and got to work just after 8:00am. I was the first to arrive so I had to sit on my hands for a few minutes and try to quell the feelings of inadequacy and angst that tend to surface on moments such as this - returning to work in an area of the field in which I really WANT to be an expert but feel completely lacking...particularly after a three-year hiatus from working in the real world.

The team PT arrived on the scene not long after I did and we started the day by reviewing the student file for the morning's evaluation. The SLP and the team's administrative assistant showed up a short while later and we got to work prepping for the evaluation. This team has worked together for the last 15 or so years and so I'm sure it can be hard to integrate a new member into the group. But, to their credit, I felt completely welcomed and embraced by all of them. The fact that I wasn't a complete stranger helped, I'm sure. After all, I had worked with them for about six months while I was pregnant with E. So, they threw me immediately into the mix and allowed me to feel like I was a productive part of the team while at the same time never leaving me to feel like I was "out on a limb" unprepared. I certainly hit the ground running. I got to set up some of the equipment - including the TechSpeak voiced output device and the new (and way cool!) DynaVox voiced output device - and even did a quick laminating job (...for this they pay me the big bucks!). We were under the gun to get the evaluation materials prepped for a 10:30am evaluation and managed to do so by the skin of our teeth. I have a feeling that much of this team's operations are handled in this way (go! go! go!) so I'm going to have to get used to it.

The evaluation lasted for almost two hours and after all the prep we ended up having to shift gears shortly into the evaluation. He was much more capable than we anticipated from reading the scant information in the file. However, I think we were able to give the family some good short-term recommendations as well as some thoughts on his future needs as his symbolic language skills develop. My primary job on this evaluation was the watch and take copious notes so that we could write up the report once it was over.

We finished up and sent the family on their way with notes and various suggestions and got to work on writing up the report. The team is given one day of work for each evaluation - from preparation and evaluation to report-writing and editing. It can be done but it's another example of how the atmosphere is just Go! Go! Go!

The SLP had to leave almost immediately to get to an appointment at the regional hospital for a chemotherapy treatment. Unorthodox as it might seem, I was asked if I would be willing to (although it was made clear that I absolutely did not have to) meet the SLP at the hospital where we could set up her laptop and write our 'communication' portion of the report. She generally sits there for two or so hours receiving the drugs and she really just felt she could get the report done at the same time. Talk about dedication! So, that's what I did. I drove the 20 minutes south to the cancer center (my biggest fear being that I would get lost and I had neglected to bring my cell phone along with me...) and we spent a couple of hours writing up the report. Talk about an unusual first day on the job!

On my way back through town I dropped my employment paperwork off and finally got to meet the SPED Administrator who never seemed to be in the office or able to return phone calls. She apologized for her lack of contact and promised that she was not trying to avoid me. We made an appointment to meet to "discuss employment" - whatever that means...heck I'd just had my first day, right? Although, I suppose I still do not quite know what my employment status will be. It could be that I will be an employee of the company or, because I'm essentially going to work per diem, it might be that they hire me under the guise of "consultant" which is how they paid me for my last gig. Hopefully, I'll get some clear answers next Thursday.

I got home about 4:45pm and grandma was here with the two younger girls. R was off at art class and Rick was scheduled to pick her up at 5:30 and bring her home in time for dinner. The next order of business was to figure out that eternal question: "What's for dinner?" I enlisted A to be my kitchen helper and after scrounging through the fridge we decided on chicken and broccoli alfredo over penne pasta (except that I had to put the cheese sauce on the side and serve A's dinner with spaghetti sauce instead).

I'm scheduled to go back for another evaluation next Thursday and there is the chance that I can follow along with the SLP on one or more of her consults next week - I'm waiting to hear back from her on that so I can arrange childcare. She sent me a nice note this morning thanking me for hanging out with her at the hospital and helping to get the report written. And she expressed how happy she is to have me on board and helping me to become another AAC consultant.

I'd have to say the feeling is mutual.