School Work

We have entered the last full month of school for both Ane and Tad, and there’s a lot going on.

Now that Rerun is here, and we’re in a slightly predictable schedule, I have been volunteering on Monday mornings in Ane’s class.  Have I said before how much I like Ms. V., her teacher?  I really like her.  I’m glad that I do have the time and flexibility to volunteer.  Rerun goes along with me, and Ms. V. gets to hold him and have a little baby time amidst all the kindergarteners.  There was a substitute teacher in yesterday, and I think she was surprised – but glad – to see me show up.  I don’t know all of the routines of the class, but the kids do know me and I know most of their names (picking Ane up everyday after school and seeing the kids waiting for the bus has certainly helped), so I’m sure that I was a little bit helpful to the substitute.

Ane’s school reading program is still going full steam ahead, and it’s given me a good excuse to read books to Ane that she normally wouldn’t have let me choose.  We just finished up Charlotte’s Web.  I couldn’t find my copy – it’s packed away in the garage somewhere, and it was a battered, tattered book, very well-loved – so I bought a brand-new copy.  Ane really got into the story, though initially, she told me, “it’s kind of boring, but I like it.”  By the time we finished, I had cried (again) over Charlotte’s death and Ane decided that she really did like it.  Yesterday morning, though, after sleeping on the end of the story, she got all weepy about Charlotte herself.  It was a bit of a delayed reaction.  “Wilbur lost his friend, and he was all alone,” she told me mournfully.  I had to remind her that three of the baby spiders stayed with Wilbur at the end, and he was happy about that, which cheered Ane up a bit.

She’s also been making more of an effort into her own reading skills – partially spurred on by the fact that the Brain and Head are quite voracious readers themselves and very much her peers – and definitely complains less about reading aloud.  It also helps that she can “read” to Rerun.  She absolutely adores her baby brother, and never misses a chance to entertain him – even if that means reading aloud.

With Tad’s school year also winding down, it means more meetings about his goals for next year for me.  This is part of his yearly assessment, and it’s particularly important this year because of his impending school change from special ed preschool to the “contained learning center” kindergarten.  We also discovered that a friend from church is one of the vice-principals at Tad’s new school, which was a pleasant surprise to us.  He’s not really involved in Tad’s program, but it will be nice to know someone in the administration if we do need help at any point.

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week at Tad’s school, which is actually an “Appreciate Everyone Week,” because the teacher day is today, the staff day is tomorrow (which includes Tad’s beloved speech therapist, who I am going to miss terribly next year), and Thursday is for the bus drivers.  And yes, the bus drivers do quite a bit of work for these special ed kids.  I have actually gotten to know Tad’s after school driver by name, and he has been wonderful and patient with Tad on the bus.  I went to Starbucks yesterday and bought gift cards for everyone, and then started working on notecard sets for Tad’s teacher, paraeducator, and speech therapist.  I may as well make my hobby/sort-of business work to my advantage, right?

And Rerun… has no idea what school is, but both Ane and Tad’s teachers think he is pretty darn cute.

And they are right.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 at 3:32 am and is filed under Children, School Days, Speech Therapy Saga.
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