Well, on to September...

It has been awhile since my last post but I am ready to get back into it. We had a great vacation to Bass Lake. We are trying to enjoy the last of our summer each day. We have been to playdates and I went to a MNO that rocked! Some good friends and I went to see Wicked at The Pantages. I had seen it before but it was just as good the second time, and the food and conversation were fab. I am a little weirded out by this last week. It is hard for me to get used to the idea that Jack is actually starting real school. My plan since his birth was final---he was NOT going to Kindergarten when the state said he should, when he was still 4. Here in CA the cut off for Kindergarten is December 2nd, pretty late by most standards, anyway his birthday is on the 24th of November and so he barely makes the cut off. SO I have always stated that he would start PreK at 4 and then go to Kindergarten when he was 5 almost 6. Well, fate had other plans. Jack has a hearing loss and wears hearing aids, we just got them in March and he is a little behind his age group in receptive speech---you know, when someone asks him a question or makes a statement to him he doesn't always know how to respond, but just in the last 5 months he has made such great progress. So since he has an IEP and receives services (speech and audiological) through the school district he must attend a public school. I had already planned and registered him at a small private preschool for PreK and then had to switch to the district preK. This was already different since the PreK I had him at was only 3 halfdays and the district one is 5 halfdays...I could deal with that I guess. So we were all registered, had a morning spot and were ready to go. THEN, I learned there was a Preppie K class that wanted Jack int he program. It is a new Pilot Program for our District and the women who were starting it told me it was made for Jack, that he was the exact kid they were targeting. Jack is that kid who is old enough to start Kindergarten but is technically not ready to go. So he will go into that program in less than 1 week, he starts September 3rd. It was even harder for me to decide this because it is fullday, 8:30-2:30. That is a long day for a kid who has never gone to school before. I know this is best for him though, he will live it (crossing fingers) and he will learn so much. Next year he will start regular kindergarten at our home school. This year the kids will be at different school because our home school doesn't have this new program (basically 2 years of Kindergarten) but it should work out fine for just 1 year.