Goodbye Preschool

August 12, 2009

Goodbye Preschool

Tomorrow is Waverly's last day of summer school and therefore her last day of preschool. I can't believe those 6 weeks have come to an end. Hooray for a school district that is able to provide summer sessions for kids who need the extra help and routine. Her teacher and 1:1 have been fantastic. I wish the 1:1 could transfer with Waverly to her new school in September.

Oliver is continuing to surprise us. He has become so vocally expressive and communicative since he attended the July summer session of preschool. I think it was such an important time to see that other children speak and use words/sounds to communicate with one another. His model is Waverly and she no longer has any words. He isn't saying words per se, but he is making vocal sounds to get his point across. He is making sounds for hi & bye bye and jabbering a lot. I am so proud of him!! It is encouraging to see him learning and developing in his own unique time.

Comments

Laura said…

I so wish that Julie could have had 6 weeks instead of 3!!
It's great to hear that Oliver is getting so much benefit out of his July summer preschool. You did an amazing job of advocating for him.
Good luck with the rest of summer!

August 13, 2009 at 10:12 AM

Welcome to Holland

By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.