School Milestones

This week we have had some major developments on the school front for Jonah and Sam. I was initially pleased with my choice for Jonah and Sam's preschool. The teacher was warm and fuzzy, it was close, the class size was small, and the boys seemed to like it. But after a few weeks I realized that they were the only kids in their class that had already completed one year of preschool. They were in class with a bunch of first-time preschoolers so the expectations were lower than I was comfortable with. They spent time learning to share, follow directions, and cooperate...great lessons! But, we covered that last year! The boys left their last year of preschool knowing their letters, numbers, colors, how to write their names, and were starting letter sounds and writing small words phonetically. I decided to start shopping around for preschools again. Uggggghhhh!

Fortunately, I found a school that seemed like a perfect fit for the boys. It is a pre-K program not a 4-year old program. That makes a big difference in the expectations let me tell you! The best thing is that the new school has 2 different pre-K classes that are right across the hall from each other. So, we decided to split up the boys for preschool. It was a difficult decision and I actually lost sleep over it, but I am convinced that it is the best move for the boys! They both have speech articulation issues and I am hoping that separating them will force them out of their comfort zones and encourage them to step it up in terms of speaking since they don't have a built-in interpreter in the classroom!


They have been enjoying the new school so far and have not made a big deal AT ALL about having separate classrooms, so we are thrilled! Both of their teachers reported that when they saw each other on the playground they embraced and hugged each other like they hadn't seen each other for years!

Jonah and Sam have to arrive at school between 7:30 - 7:45 am so we have to leave the house at about 7:15 am! Wyatt gets dropped off at 7:45 am and then Shane and I have a few hours together to chill (yeah right!)! The mornings are bustling with activity around here now!

So far I drop off Jonah and Sam at 7:30 am on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and then drop Wyatt off at 7:45 every day. Then I pick up Jonah and Sam at 11am and then pick Wyatt up at 3pm.

And on Tuesday Jonah and Sam go to speech for 1 hour at Wyatt's school.

That's a lot of driving!

So, imagine my surprise when I had an IEP yesterday and the boy's speech therapist recommended additional therapy. More intensive speech therapy more often! Uggggh! Now Jonah is supposed to attend a class on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for 2 1/2 hours that is a very intensive speech class run by two speech pathologists. This class is at Wyatt's school, but starts 45 minutes after Wyatt's class starts UGGGGHHH! Plus the therapist wants to meet with Sam 2 times per week instead of one time. Not to mention Shane is starting speech therapy too, but his speech therapy will take place at our house since he is younger than three years old. Yet I am finding it hard to find a time for the therapist to come when we will be home and not be driving up to pick somebody up from somewhere!

Additionally, since Jonah will be in class (preschool + speech) every morning of the week now I am thinking about having Sam go to his preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays too so that Jonah isn't upset that he has to go to school and Sam doesn't...to even things out! Fortunately the boys new preschool offers a five day per week option!

Every week Wyatt brings home papers and forms for different programs and activities that are open to kindergarteners. Can you imagine? Even if I had time to drive Wyatt to an activity we are so exhausted from all of the driving around and schedules that when we are done with school we need serious down time! I can't imagine that we will be ready for any after school activities for a few years either because next year Jonah and Sam will be in Kindergarten and come home exhausted and crabby too! Then a few years later we will go through the same thing with Shane!

This weekend I am going to sit down with a huge poster board and try and figure out the logistics of our schedule for the next two weeks! I can't believe that we are this booked up and the boys are not even in any extracurricular activities! It is amazing how fast it happens... one minute I am figuring out how to fill up all of our free time and the next I am trying to squeeze in 30 minutes of play time before bed! The thought of homework makes me shiver! I can't even imagine what I am going to do when the boys start to bring home homework! I thought that this parenting gig was supposed to be getting easier as they got older?!?!?