My big kindergartener!!

Ryan's first day of school was/is today! His van driver got here 10 minutes early (at 7:35), but she wanted to make sure it was the right address and all that stuff. I actually know who the driver is and she is super nice, so that's cool :-). I buckled Ryan in and then we were chatting a few minutes. When it was time to leave and Grandma and I told him bye, you could tell he was trying not to cry. I'm really hoping he didn't. Even if he did, I doubt that it lasted very long and he's been in school for 2 hours now and I haven't gotten a phone call yet, so I'm taking that as a good sign ;-).

Yesterday was orientation from 12:30 to 3:00. We all gathered in the cafeteria and they introduced the teachers and their aides (each class gets its own this year since the classes are on the bigger side, 23-25 kids in each) and then they had each class line up and the teachers took them to their classrooms while the parents stayed for a meeting on school policies and things like that. I was really worried about Ryan leaving me without a tantrum, but he didn't even bat an eye! Such a big boy :*). After the meeting, the teachers took the kids to the gym while the parents went to their children's classrooms to meet the teacher and go over the items in their folders (you know, all that fun paperwork). When that was over, I went to the gym to find Ryan, but while I was checking out the sign up sheets for committees, his class snuck past me back to the classroom, so I met up with him again there.

The autism support teacher came in to meet Ryan and get to know him a little. She is SUPER nice. She was the learning support teacher for the middle school while I was in MS/HS and now she's doing autism support. She told me that she has a few other kids in the elementary school, but 2 of them are older and won't need her right away and another is a kindergartener in another class that has a TSS (like an aide, which Ryan *might end up with eventually), so she will be with Ryan most of the day today, tomorrow, and Friday :-). That made me feel a TON better. His regular teacher told me she would like to wait a week or two on an aide for Ryan to see how he does and I'm okay with that. I let her know that he will need to be holding an adult's hand on the steps (which should only be once a week when they go upstairs for computer class) and that he will need extra help in the cafeteria, especially with his tray and she said the classroom aide will be with him in the cafeteria :-). She really eased some of my fears. Everyone at the school is so nice, including the director of education (who I happened to have as a teacher in middle school and I loved him) and principal, and kept stressing that if we have any concerns or questions to give them a call. I really feel like they care about the students and their success and they will help them to have the best year(s) possible while attending there :-).

I'll let you know how today goes!