J-Man’s ‘inclusive preschool’ has taken its show down the road a couple of miles. We outgrew the little room we were in at the therapy office, which doubled as the community break room for the therapists. Not to mention, all the heat in the building apparently was directed into that little room. The combination of heat, body funk, markers, apple juice, and pee diapers proved to be a real motivator to complete the deal to move into a more spacious setting. God help them all if a kid ever dropped a diaper bomb in that old room…
So J’s preschool – a.k.a. The First Church of ‘Yes, We Can’ – has literally moved into a church. The room is huge, and they have a full-blown playground! The first day’s report was that Jonas – feeding issues and all – found the edible mulch at the playground reasonably palatable. Maybe if we shred some over pasta he’ll eat it.
With nine kids on the wait list for a class of just six, the new digs will let them split the class into two and add six more kids. They’re looking to group the kids in the class by developmental delays, so for instance the ’sensory kids’ will end up together.
The classes are team-taught, which is not only a good idea but an absolutely necessity! One of his teachers from before now has the other class and his developmental therapist has now joined in as the other half of his teaching team. J-Man looked a little confused about this for a while, with a temporary “Holy crap, what are you doing here?” look on his face.
He did his explore-the-room-off-by-myself-to-get-adjusted thing for quite a while, but he’s coped with the new environment much better than I thought he would. I think the size of the room really helps since he can go get some personal space if he needs it, something much harder to do in the old place.
They’ll add one new kid a week until each class gets to six so everyone – including the teachers – can get used to all the changes. It’s been great getting to know the other parents and kids, and I look forward to the new ones. They’re such a fun bunch!
So, a great first week! With the big autism evaluation Tuesday, we have no idea what this coming week will bring. More on that later…
