Off to School

I have been Homeschooling my Jeremy now since about 5 weeks into Kindergarten when we realized that me teaching first grade across the hall wasn't going to work. Not only did my little man decide he needed to see me ALL the time, he wondered out of the classroom because he became to overwhelmed with all the activity. We where lucky that I had landed a teaching position at a private christian school so there was only fifteen little kinders - but that was fourteen to many for Jeremy. After much angst Paul & I decided I would give up my job to stay home & work with Jeremy. I enjoyed all the one on one time with him & soon learned he needed a lot of extra help. I got him set up to do Occupational therapy once a week in a town about forty-five minutes away or an hour with traffic. So every Friday we drove to & from his OT. Then we where told he did indeed have ADHD so we finally decided to try some medications to help him be able to concentrate. It worked like a charm! But I couldn't figure out why he wasn't remembering things he learned for more then a day if we where lucky? After a round of tests CAT scan & contrast MRI we learned that the area of his brain affected by a round of really bad seizures had affected his long term memory & recall - that really helped me out. Well since then we have Homeschooled up until last Spring when I realized we where at an impasse. I could no longer help Jeremy with certain learning techniques as I was never trained in Special Education.

After much research & several weeks of meetings I decided to let my little guy go to school this fall. He did a lot of testing & he qualifies for his OT twice a week in town at his school! For the first time in 5 years no more driving back & forth every week!! He also needs a little bit of speech which he will get once a week as well s visual therapy. His Glaucoma in his right eye has now made him legally blind if he doesn't wear glasses . He also requires eye drops twice a day to get his pupil to open up. I had to fight & get some medical releases but he get's to go to school with Jacob right down the street. He will be literally 5 minutes from me! This is the ONLY reason I am not freaking out to bad- I am sure the first day I will be a nervous wreck! He get's to stay in a classroom with other children all day that have some special needs as well. But his educational program is totally geared towards him! He has an aide that will be with him all day- so he can never wonder off. I am nervous but excited for him to go to school & meet some other children during the day. I loved Homeschooling him but he has been very isolated since we moved to Yelm. I hope & pray we are doing the right thing for our guy. He is so excited! Today we picked up his new glasses for school so he is all set to go on September 9th for the first time since Kindergarten. I am thinking I will be that mom who sits in the parking lot freaking out for awhile until I know he is OK.  But anyway just wanted to catch everyone up to date on all the running around we have been doing to get him & mom ready for a new year a new experience. Please pray & keep your fingers crossed it goes well- not sure what our  next step will be if this doesn't work. We have prayed & left it in God's hands. So far every door I needed opened for this choice seems to fly open when others said "how did you get that done so fast?". So we will continue to pray that this is where God is leading us for Jeremy & our family. For the first time in fourteen years this mom will have seven hours a day to herself....hmmmmm. I guess now I'll have NO excuse for not having a clean house  :0(

 

Here is my handsome boy in his new glasses