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!