He only went to school for half of the day, and was homeschooled at home by his home staff for the other half. This was better than the alternative scenario they would have offered us had we not pushed for more. Their solution to his education would be to put him into a classroom with 5 or 6 other kids that had extreme behavior issues. These kids would then do a small amount of academic work that was far beneath his level and watch lots of movies and work on skills like brushing their teeth and hair.
Not a very productive way for him to spend his day. Especially since he is reading chapter books and doing 4th grade level mathematics. Admittedly, he is not at grade level for his age, but he is far beyond the picture symbol math and kindergarten primers that they would have him do.
Of course, what we fought so hard for each year, wasn't ideal either. For most academics he was educated at home--by himself, one-on-one. A sad and lonely existence to say the least...not to mention having to have an aide at his side all day long was driving him nuts and doing little to foster independence!
Kyle goes to a wonderful private school. Half of the kiddos are higher functioning special needs kiddos, and half of them are typically developing. Each classroom has two masters level teachers and one aide teaching 8 typical kids and 8 higher functioning special needs kids. It was a complete fluke that he even ended up going there. I only added him to their mile long waitling list as an after thought--right after I had added Keenan to the waiting list.
To this day, I have no idea how it is that we got a call saying they had an opening for him this past January. The only reason I accepted the invitation to interview for the opening was because I wanted to see and know more about it for Keenan! As it turns out, we enrolled Kyle and it has been one of the greatest things that could ever happen to him. We love the school and the staff.
This school is the only of it's kind in the nation. There are people around the nation on the waiting list and it is something like 300 kids long. And this fall--less than a week before school started--we found out that Keenan was finally going to get in:-)
I still feel the need to pinch myself every morning when I wake up. Keenan is thriving there and has met a few friends that are very much like him. In just two weeks, I can already see his level of independence is increasing. After all, he hasn't attended school without a personal aide in over 4 years! He seems less stressed and more laid back and he loves not having to have "learning sessions" at home. He is not in Kyle's building, he is actually in a middle/high school building. They have a huge building that was donated to them. It used to house an athletic club, so there is a pool and everything there. He is starting a Dodge Ball league through the school on Sunday. He is so excited :):):)
*****CuTe StOrY aHeAd*****
As some of you may or may not know, Autistic individuals tend to take things very literally. Every now and then this happens to Keenan and he will flip out over something that someone says. Well, I was suggesting to him that he trade phone numbers with one of the new friends he made at school. He got very upset with me and said our phone number belong to us and we couldn't just go and trade it away. I had to try not to laugh it was so cute. I tried to explain that he wasn't going to trade phone numbers, he was just going to give his friend his phone number. Of course this made matters even worse. "GIVE him our phone number?? Then we won't have one!" Finally I did get the point across and he did get the phone number. It was such a milestone:-) How truly lucky and blessed I feel lately. So many, many good things happening for our family.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment