School Days

Excuse me while I brag for a moment.

I just have to say that Kennedy is doing fabulous in school right now! Before Christmas break, the number one "issue" we had was getting her to line up at recess. She LOVES recess and when she gets out there, she doesn't want to come back in. Every morning, every afternoon, we would talk about it...

"What do you do when the whistle blows at recess, Kennedy?"
"I line up!" Sometimes followed by, "But I already DID!" HA!

Except she didn't! She would pretend she didn't hear that whistle and just keep playing. The rest of her class would go in, and a para would be called to coax Kenn inside. What can I say, recess was my favorite subject, too! ;o)

Finally, one of her paras brought in an American Girl catalog and told Kennedy that if she lined up the first time the whistle blows, that she could look at it for a few minutes at the end of the day. She was speaking straight to my daughter's heart. Kennedy jumped up and down. She got excited. It worked. Sometimes. Recess won out over babies... who would've thought?!

At the end of the semester, her teacher said she had another idea for the beginning of the year... 5 minute warnings to get her prepared for the end of recess and stuff like that. I thought it sounded like a good plan.

Then she went back to school.

I was a little worried... she had almost 3 weeks off from school, and admittedly we did a whole lot of nothing. I worried that she would lose what she's learned this year. I worried she would be SO thrown off schedule that her teacher would call me and say, "Come pick this kid up!" I worried that the new recess plan wouldn't work and they'd just take recess away from Kennedy altogether. (They wouldn't do that for real... I'm pretty sure.)

I worried for nothing.

The first day back, she had a GREAT day. Her teacher bragged that she lined up the first time the whistle blew with no prompts and the special ed teacher tested her for regression and she tested higher in her reading than she ever has before! Go Kennedy!!

Her days since then have been good too. I've had all good reports come home... no problems at recess... and even though she tells me "I got NO homework!" every night, she has been doing it without a fight and maybe *gasp* even having a little bit of fun with it! Her handwriting has come so, so far this semester. I see the progress constantly. No more hand over hand... no more upside down e's... just her, writing words.

Amazing.

Her team at this school has been so good for her. I feel like it's HUGE... there are SO many people involved in Kennedy's education daily... a teacher, a special ed teacher, an OT, an ST and 4 paras who rotate throughout her day. That's a lot of adults involved in her academic day, but they all love her, and she loves them.

And I am loving watching her succeed. Watching her smile about her school day. Listening to her speaking in full complete sentences about what she ate for lunch, who she played with at recess, and what her favorite part of the day was (you know, besides recess!).

She's come so far. And I couldn't be prouder.