And school days have begun! For the next 14 years Ammon will be part of the public education system. What a treat for him to begin his path towards knowlege with such fabulous teachers and a team of great support!
Ammon qualifies for Early Intervention on every testable level. But we all are confident he will progress quickly and in a year from now at his new IEP, we will be delighted with his progress.
Ammon and Mama went to school today and we found out some things about him and school:
1. Ammon is not afraid in the school setting. He entered with a huge smile.
2. The smile quickly turns to tears when its time to put the toys away and standing and crying in front of the closed toy closet is not beneath him.
3. Ammon LOVES the marble toy. He will send the marbles down the track again, and again, and again and again, ad nauseum.
4. Ammon HATES circle time where you have to sit in his chair. The good news is he only yelled "DA SHI YA!!" at his teacher one time. This is his word for "I REALLY HATE THIS!!" His teacher was prompted to comment, "I don't think he has had much experience sitting down." Uh, likely.
5. Ammon actually likes Vienna sausage but the pretzels aren't happen' for him. And he learned that his classmates will not take too kindly to him stealing their water cups. They will growl and send him back to his own seat.
6. Ammon LOVES his physcial therapy time of riding bikes, jumping on trampolines, walking the beam, learning to jump and throwing balls....at his teachers head. OOPS!
7. Ammon will need a one on one aide for a while to try to keep him on, near, under, around his chair instead of heading to the door and trying to turn the knob while repeating, "Ta Nah, Ta Nah Nah, Ta Nah" meaning, "Open this danged door and let me out of here!"
8. Ammon is all for riding the big bus. It made Mama very sad to see him jump on the bus with nobody he had ever met, wave goodbye to me with a big smile and have no problem with me getting off the bus without him. He was so calm on the ride he fell asleep as Mama followed the bus home. But he didn't have a clue where I was and it didn't bother him. It sure bothered me to know how he is not afraid to be alone because he's had to depend on himself his whole life. Good for his strong spirit. May he always be ready to step into new adventures but may he learn to be more dependent on a small circle of people that want to cry when he gets on a bus without them.
