The first day of school was better than I could have hoped for. No tantrums excepting the one he threw when I picked him up from school (which was mainly to let me know he wasn’t happy that I’d left him there and took off with Jacob). If you read anything about our school days before, you’ll know that most of them were spent controlling tantrums from start to finish. At Jacob’s request, we celebrated the success by going to the park before lunch.

This first week of school is transition week and we’re taking it slow. He’s only going one hour a day which doesn’t seem like a lot, but with a plan of increasing his time there little by little, it’s a good start. I mentioned before that there are only two other kids in his class at the moment. That means there’s a one-to-one teacher/student ratio and even though Judah’s IEP requires a one-to-one para, it’s encouraging that the classroom so well staffed and that the class itself is very quiet. Sensory overload was a big problem during the previous school year here.

The para-educator who’s new to the class this year seemed to work very well with Judah. She seems very kind and encouraging and so far, I am much more impressed with this classroom than I was with the Summer program. My goal this week is to talk about school a lot at home, preparing Judah for each day and then spending that hour while he’s at school, on my knees praying for a good day. 

The other goal for this week is to make sure Jacob’s accomplishments are celebrated just as much as Judah’s. He’s incredibly understanding towards his brother, but it’s important that he knows he is just as beloved and we’re just as proud of him. Sometimes the praise over Judah’s good day at school puts him in a grumpy mood because Jacob, with all  his little heart, wants to stay at school with his brother.

Nap time has commenced and I’m going to join in. All the anxiousness over school this morning wore me out!