Schools: Part Three - Success!

Every morning, when I get her up, I ask her, "Are you ready for school?"
Then I ask again  as we get dressed and eat breakfast and put on shoes and  as we head out the door, with our backpack and lunch in tow and again as we are getting in the car and as we approach the school.

In the beginning, she did nothing.  Then she would sign "ready school"  when it came into view.  Then it was at the corner when we got off the freeway.  Then it was getting on the freeway. And now she signs "READY" when I get her out of bed....most days!

When she missed a whole week because she was sick, she didn't once ask about school which I thought was strange.  On the day she finally started to feel better, we got in the car to go pick up other kids and she signed, "ready" and I asked for what and she signed "school' with a HUGE grin!

Once Aubrey got used to school and the routine of everything, she has LOVED it!

She could ride the bus...but I don't feel like she's ready for that step yet...and neither am I.  I feel like it is really an important time to be with her in the morning and talk about the day, and especially to see her right as she is finishing her day at school and things are fresh on her mind from the day.

Her teacher does a journal with her each day and she keeps it in her backpack so that we can see it at home and on the weekends, we journal so they can talk about it at school.  It  has been a great tool for communication back and forth from school.  This was one of those things that we requested from the teacher since she can't actually tell us what she does each day.  She LOVES to look at the journal and "talk" about each of the entries.  I sometimes find her just sitting on the floor by her back pack reading her journal.  She is very proud of it.

There is lots of "HOMEWORK" aka Family Activities that we do at home with Aubrey to enrich her preschool experience.  We have helped make a book about our house with pictures to share with the class when they talked about the three little pigs and their houses. We have made a family flag to share during the family themed week.  We hang these projects up on the kitchen wall.  Aubrey likes to go over and look at her things and talk about them.  I especially love when they send pictures home from school and she can show me what she did that day.  (black and white 8.5x11s on bottom left)

Preschool is a lot of work for us!  But when I see how much she is enjoying it and learning, I wouldn't have it any other way and I know that someday, she'll actually be able to TELL me about her days all on her own.

A little more about Pearson:  It is like a typical preschool program but is HEAVILY language based.  All the kids in Aubrey's class (3 others right now) have hearing aids.  She is in a TOTAL COMMUNICATION classroom which means that the teacher speaks and signs everything.  There are two classrooms like this and two where there is no sign language (in that classroom not everyone has hearing aids or such large speaking delays).  It is a full day program from 8:15am - 2:15pm.  We have opted to not send her in the afternoons so that she can get a long nap in at home.  The speech therapist is IN her classroom twice a week and often teaches lessons.  She is receiving some physical therapy, about twice a quarter.  She is receiving occupational therapy as well.