The long road to big school

For those of you with kids in daycare you will recognize the term "big school".  We had our first meeting today about Sophie's transition to big school.  It went well.  Yay!!!  Now I can breathe, I had butterflies this morning and I don't know why.  Ok I do know why but it is so silly.  School doesn't start until September and I had butterflies about it in February.  The meeting had been weighing heavily on my mind for some time now. 

We decided not to send Sophie to school for JK and SK with a heavy heart.  I have talked about it on my blog before, I know we made the right decision for Sophie but it wasn't without some real turmoil for myself to come to the decision not to send her.  I know my girl would have loved it socially but medically she just wasn't ready.

So grade one is knocking at the door and all systems are go.  We decided that Sophie should attend her home school, which does not have a self contained classroom or developmental class.  She will be in a typical grade one class with all her peers from the neighbourhood.  I have wanted this for a long time, ever since we were contemplating JK.  Her neurologist was the first professional to suggest it to us, that Sophie would benefit from having kids in her class that can talk and interact with her and involve her in activities.  It was music to my ears.  I want Sophie to go to the same school as her brother and to meet neighbourhood friends that she is going to grow up with.

Now I am not going at this with my head in the sand, I know Sophie will need major support in the classroom to accomplish this, thus the meeting today.  It was very positive, we met with the school board's special education co-ordinator and the learning support teacher from her school and we had three of Sophie's case co-ordinators there as well.  Everyone seemed to be on the same page and we discussed alot of options and back-up plans for down the road if we need them.  We have another meeting in about a month and that will be a large one, probably about 15-18 people including all her therapists and co-ordinators.  Nursing was discussed and her co-ordinator wants full-time nursing for her at school.  She will also have an EA.  The school wants Sophie to start making some visits to the school before this school year ends so she can become at least a little bit familiar with the environment.  She is there with me often to pick up Lucas anyway, but I thought it was an excellent idea.  They want Sophie to be at school the first day, it is an important day for every grade one student and no one wants her to miss out on that.  Music to my ears again.

So we will continue on this path of preparing my girl for big school.  It is so exciting and I think the butterflies will be making a few more appearances for me and maybe Sophie too, but she is braver than I.  :)