My baby boy went to school today...........

Mr 5 Almost 6 started school today...After four years of therapy, wondering, torment and tears , he got up this morning told me he wasn't going and cried..And so did I. We had worked so hard to this point, not pushing the school idea too much but reminding him and getting the bag embroidered with his name and reminding him gently that he was a BIG boy now. All of it to come to a brick wall with tears and pleadings of not to go but to stay home and be with mum. I steeled myself and cajoled him into the uniform; that was all it took...Nice new polo, shorts and those "big boy" pull on boots ....Well, that made it all happen. He was going to school with his sister...Now to just ease in the idea that he is not in the same ROOM as his Grade 4 sister...That took a bit of convincing.

Off we went to school and I had yet to find out about funding. Off his sister went to her classroom and Mr 5 Almost 6 and Mr 3 and I waited in the designated area for preps. There were a few tears, mostly the mums of first timers or the last one to go off the school. Mums of middle kids seem not the cry as much or at all, I am told and of middle boys...NEVER ( told to me by a teacher friend and mum of 6) NONE of the children were upset or distraught...As this process of assembling (preps) only in a designated area was used for the orientations, so they felt familiar with it. Off Mr 5 Almost 6 went with his teacher ( and old school mate of mine) to his class without a backward glance.............. Mr 3 played piano for us as the preps trooped off.

I then had to "hunt down" the principal to find out about funding as I had not heard anything. When I asked ,I was told "We got 5 hours a week. Pretty good considering he doesn't fit a criteria"
No info about PSGs or anything, just "I"ll have to contact X" I take it X is an aide, but I would like to know X's credentials as an aide first I think...Ideally, it would be great if his aide from kindy could be sourced for the job...But I may be pushing the envelope on that one. I have contacted the Association Of Children with a Disability for a contact worker to call me regarding PSG's and where we stand on making them happen ,as I have been told they are not a popular forum of this principal, in fact the reputation is that no "special needs" children be at the school at least that is what the signals are being given off to many parents.

I seem to have come full circle now and I feel slightly lost , we have got Mr 5 Almost 6 into a mainstream school, got the preferred speech pathologist, got the teacher we wanted, got the funding for an aide in a Catholic school when he fitted no criteria 100%. All we have fought for, written letters about, worried over, all the work of his therapists, the staff at early intervention, his kinder teachers and aides has come to fruition...My baby boy went to school today and I cried..............................