Meet the Teacher Night

It was meet the teacher night at the elementary school.  I debated whether to go.  You see we have done all the kindergarten informational meetings, round-up, etc.  It’s a lot of information, but little to none actually pertains to Bella.  So when this next night in the line up of teacher-parent information came up, one that required you get a sitter because kids were not allowed, I wasn’t quite sure if it was worth it.  And when we couldn’t find a sitter, well, I debated even more.

In the end I figured I should go.  I didn’t want Bella to be the only child whose parent didn’t show up, even if the information I was going to hear didn’t pertain to her.  Jesse stayed home with the kids and I headed over by myself.

Every single parent was at that meeting, so I was extremely glad I had made the choice to go.  It was a 30 minute session where the teacher laid out all the things the kids will be doing in the classroom and what they will be bringing home for homework, etc.  In most cases Bella will not be participating in their normal routines, she will not be bringing home the homework to complete, she will not be doing the reading assignments, etc.

But at the end of the meeting, Bella’s Kindergarten teacher made a point to talk about Bella.  She talked about how much they loved her, and how special she was to all of them.  She said how they were all super disappointed and asking where she was on the day she was sick and stayed home.  She said that even though Bella can not communicate with them, she still teaches them so many things.

Then she said that every time Bella comes into the class room they all sing her a song.

It goes like this:

HELLO, BELLA, COME ON IN.

HELLO, BELLA, COME ON IN.

WE LIKE YOUR SMILES AND YOUR WHEELCHAIR TOO, WE ALL WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH YOU.

HELLO, BELLA, WE’RE GLAD YOU’RE HERE.

One of the mom’s later on, said her son was singing this song at home, and she had been trying to figure out where it came from.

Bella’s teacher also went on to say that her class and all the kids at Morse were going to benefit so much from Bella and the other kids like her in the FOCUS program at their school.  The love they will learn from these kids would impact them in great ways.

She quoted to us from the local news something she had just heard that evening “The level of love you allow yourself to reach for a person of unfathomable innocence is far beyond any love than most people will ever know in their lives.  That is their greatest gift in life”.

She basically talked about Bella for about 5 minutes and kept thanking me for having Bella at the school.  Both of us were near tears at the end of her speech.  I thanked her for all that she is doing, and that I am delighted to have Bella in school with them.

And I walked away thanking God again for the people he has put into Bella’s life.  In this respect I know we are blessed.

These are picture of Bella’s classmates in the Focus Room.  They were told to bang on drums as loudly as they could to get Bella to hold her head up.  If she stopped holding her head up they had to stop.  They were very excited when she held her head up so they could make noise!  And as you can tell from the photos she enjoyed watching them and was having a good time herself.

Oliver’s First Day of School

Oliver started school this fall.  It’s really a full day childcare with a preschool curriculum….and he absolutely loves it.  He came home after being there for two days and was already starting to sing twinkle twinkle little star, using 90% of the correct words.

Every morning he gets to ride with daddy.  And is happy to proclaim “Daddy go to work, Oliver go to school.”

On the first day I picked him up early, in case school wasn’t going so great.  He was actually upset he had to leave with mommy instead of going out for recess with his new friends.

This one is a social one and seems to love being at school, around other kids, and learning too!

First Days of School

I really wanted to create an interesting photograph for Bella’s first day of Kindergarten.  I saw the idea to use sidewalk chalk and have the kids laying down.  Hey Bella can lay down.  Let’s give it a try.

I took lots of shots, and the one below is probably the best.  But of course I couldn’t get her to actually look at me.

And we ended up with a face full of chalk.

I have been looking forward to this day FOREVER….or so it seems.  Bella reports back from her teachers is that she is doing great, and she has been super happy when she gets home from school too!  She has officially completed two days of school.

Bella is in a FOCUS room.  Most of us would have called this a resource room or something similar.  I believe she has 5 or 6 classmates and they all have varying degrees of disabilities (metal and/or physical).  There is one other boy in the class who is in a wheelchair like Bella.  The kids in this class are all of varying ages, Bella being the youngest and only Kindergartner, all the way up to 5th grade.  This room has a teacher and paras.  Bella is assigned a para for each of her activities. 

She is in this FOCUS room a little more than half of her day.  The other part of her day she joins her kindergarten class.  This year is a little interesting in that Bella is there for a full day, but she actually participates in all three different kindergarten classes (morning only, full day, and afternoon only).  So she in fact gets to meet every single Kindergartner in her elementary school.

Bella joins her kindergarten class for things like art, music, PE, recess, lunch, reading time, spanish (it might seem weird but it’s mostly sung at this age and they think she will enjoy the music), and any all school activities or classroom parties.  But again, when she joins the kindergarten class she has a para with her at all times.

It will be a little bit of a learning process as they get to know Bella.  She already tested them the first day by not really eating from them.  I think she will quickly learn if she doesn’t eat from them, it's a long time till she gets home and fed by mom or dad.  And by the second day she gobbled up every single thing I sent (breakfast, lunch, and snack).

During recess the first day it was reported she went on walks with her para.  That evening I got an email from her teacher, it said that she had meet all her kindergarten classmates that day and they were asking questions about Bella, was it alright if they talked to the classes about her?  Of course it is alright with us, we are completely open about everything with Bella.  The second day we got a report home and Bella had gone on walks again during recess but this time she had some kindergarten friends that went with her.

And that made my day!

Bella’s First Day of Kindergarten

I will have a longer post later…but I thought I would give you a sneak peak of the pictures we took this morning.

Car Show Fun

This was Oliver’s statement after visiting a car show this past weekend.

He was definitely on a mission to visit all the cars.

Although the giant cow was probably his favorite “car” at the show.

The Silver Stingray below was my favorite car.