It's now Friday of the second week of school. We've settled into somewhat of a (temporary) routine. He gets up, eats breakfast, gets dressed, I pack his lunch and get his backpack together. His 50 lb backpack. Ok, not sure if it's 50 lbs - but that suckers heavy! So what goes into it? A laptop and power cord, lunch box, sweatshirt, bottle of water, spiral notebook that his tech writes in about his day, ipod, gameboy, and I don't know how many little toys that are part of his current 'collection' of must have treasures.
Then we wait for the transport company to come pick him up. Actually, this morning we waited because we were ready at 7:30 am because they said that's when they would get here. He left at 8. That's been the biggest issue this week. They've showed up anywhere from 7:30 (when he was barely out of bed) to 8:15. Each time us not knowing exactly when he would be picked up. Yesterday morning I packed his breakfast to go since they were sitting in the driveway waiting for him.
In their defense, I am much happier with this company than the last one. Communication is key and they are really trying to work out a good route for him. The logistics of transporting so many different people to different areas at different times can not be easy.
So he leaves and gets taken to the developmental agency where he meets up with his tech (developmental therapist). From there they go over to the schools computer lab and start working on his assignments. They do math, science, language arts, ect. This is all done on his laptop with the programs that the school is using. Then they go have lunch somewhere and usually go do something outside or go into a store and practicing being out in the community. At some point they also play, have lunch or socialize with other kids at the developmental center or at the school lab. Then the transport company brings him home about 2:30.
When he gets home, it's like last year when he came home from school. He unloads his stuff, maybe has a snack, then runs off to be alone and do his own thing. Decompress time. Then we just move onto our daily home stuff.
I say this is temporary because I'm working on what I believe would be a much better schedule for him. For the sake of sameness and to be doing something while I coordinate all of this, I kept his morning therapy schedule. *see a couple of posts down if you don't remember the schedule I am referring to*
I've made some progress this week on it. Since his old school approved him coming back for morning specials classes (PE, music, library) I needed to get him afternoon hours for therapy. That required a staff change and I wasn't sure how long that would take. A few days ago they let me know that they may have a possible match for us right here in kuna. That would be great because she could come and get him about 12:30 and they could go out to the computer lab, developmental center, or do stuff right here in town. And, he wouldn't need a transport company anymore! The only question now is - is she a good match for Will. We will find out on Monday when she comes over and we can meet. If it all works out then probably starting next week I can start taking him to specials classes, doing some classwork at home with him, then he goes with the new tech for a few hours.
The online classwork is another thing. I haven't really gotten a chance to do any of it with him or observe him on it because he's been doing it with his tech in the morning. My intention on doing this type of schooling was to be more involved in his classwork. So ultimately I didn't want him going off and doing it all with someone else. I want to share that job. But him coming home in the afternoon and trying to do it with him then just doesn't work. So I really need him home with me in the morning so I can work with him at that time.
Also, I think we've got his long time speech therapist contracted with his new school. Which means we won't have to pay out of pocket for it anymore and he can get it once a week instead of once every other week! That's good news.
Boy, still kind of confusing. But I believe it will work out. We'll just keep swinging through it till we're flying high.
good work Tara! the prayers continue for all to work out favorable.
Posted by: grammajayne | September 11, 2010 at 11:37 AM