At 7:00 am, I pulled down Jonah’s new L.L. Bean lunchbox with the shark on it and filled it with yogurt, peanut butter and jelly, a granola bar, and two juices. Quick flashback to my old Partridge family lunchbox. He started his first day of Kindergarten today.
It’s a full day right away. No transition. No parents in the classroom, his stern teacher told me. You better be nice to him, lady, or I’ll kick your ass.
Because I’m a control freak, I’ve already contacted the principal to find out the school’s philosophy on phoenics v. whole language, report cards v. portfolio assessment, gifted and talented programs, parent involvement, and his views on No Child Left Behind. I don’t really care one way or another about approaches to reading, but I just wanted to see that the school had some sort of guiding philosophy and that he was cool about talking to parents. He passed.
After I dropped off Jo with the stern teacher, I went to the new parents coffee hour where many of the parents openly wept. It’s hard to let your kids go.
At 11:00, the evaluators came over to test Mr. Ian. Ian’s speech is a bit delayed, and I needed to rule out more severe problems so that I would stop having those periodic panic attacks. Plug in speech delay into google, and you’re greeted with a long list of disabilities. Instead of torturing myself, I decided to have an expert tell me definitively that he just needed some speech therapy.
Happily, that’s all there is. He did all his tricks for them and they decided he just needs some nudging in the speech area, so that he won’t get so frustrated. With his blabber-mouth brother gone, I’ll be able to concentrate on helping Mr. Ian.
With Jonah gone, I’m also going to start work on my next research project and finally finish unpacking the boxes. God, it’s quiet around here.
Apt. 11d 