Another week closer to summer vacation and I’m not dreading it. Unfortunately, I am still pressing the green rubber nodule for an apostrophe, but it’s become a part of my life now and I’d miss it if it changed. Or not. Anyway, Thomas was off on Monday because I thought he had a cold. I still think he had a cold, but it didn’t knock him on his cute little bottom the way it knocks adults on our large, cellulite-ridden bottoms. As soon as the time came for the bus to have picked Thomas up on Monday, I realized that he would have been fine and I was in for a very long day.
Thomas still has a runny nose, but it doesn’t bother him nearly as much as it bothers me. I’ve never been very good at dealing with a runny nose. If I see another kid with a runny nose, I have to resist the impulse to whip a Kleenex out of my bag and wipe that nose. He’s been picking a lot, too. Charming. There’s no school tomorrow for a School Improvement Day. I wonder what they do, exactly, on those days.
On Monday night, Thomas’ teacher called to let us know that the kids would be walking to a fire station on Wednesday to see the trucks and talk to the firefighters. We got to talking about Thomas, as his IEP meeting is less than a week away at this point. Really, everyone at Thomas’ school says such nice things about him! The school social worker, whom I met with today, prefaced our meeting by saying that he’s so friendly and just a happy little guy that everyone enjoys having around. She wanted me to come in and complete a standardized questionnaire-type thing about Thomas’ habits at home; what he can do, what he can’t do, disruptive behaviors and the like. I have to say that I think he scored fairly well for a regular five year-old. The social worker helped answer some of the questions that I had to think about by saying, “I’ve never seen him do that at school.” She seemed really excited about Thomas’ progress over the past two years and what we can expect of him next year.
Jonathan and I had a big argument on Monday night about Thomas. Jonathan was listening while I was on the phone with Thomas’ teacher and he was getting pretty upset about what he was hearing just on my half of the conversation. I mentioned to the teacher that I was sure that the psychologist gave Thomas an IQ test but because of that test, Thomas would most likely not qualify for the MLP classroom. Today, the social worker told me that a child has to have an IQ of less than seventy to qualify. Everyone we’ve talked to believes that Thomas’ IQ is more than seventy (including us). Jonathan feels, however, that Thomas would do much better in an MLP classroom, which is all-day kindergarten. He is worried about how Thomas will do in a regular kindergarten class with thirty kids; he’s afraid Thomas will get left behind, that the teacher won’t have the special education background or support system she will need to educate Thomas and still give the other kids the time they need. Valid concerns, all – but I think that Thomas can do it. I’m really interested to hear what Thomas’ service team has to say on Tuesday, but I think they’re going to recommend that he be in a mainstream class and I’m all for it.
I’ve been talking to Thomas a lot about kindergarten next year. I think he understands that he’ll be going to a new school and he says he’d like to make new friends. I’ve asked him how he thinks he would do in a class with a lot more kids and he says, “You know, Mommy, I think that would be good.” The more I think about it, the more I think he can do it and I don’t think I have to explain to anyone reading this that it would mean so much for us and our family if Thomas could be in a mainstream classroom for kindergarten. He would still get “resource minutes,” which are minutes set aside during Thomas’ school day when he would go get occupational therapy or speech therapy – whatever he needs. I’m very excited about the IEP meeting because I have a feeling that they are going to say a lot of great things about Thomas, and who ever tires of hearing educators extol their child’s virtues?
I just really hope that Jonathan and I can go into this meeting with a united front. My position right now is “wait and see.” Jonathan seems to think that the teachers and therapists are pushing us to accept a mainstream classroom for Thomas because of money issues within the district. I personally think that this theory is cuckoo-bananas. The argument Monday got pretty heated at times, but I had my trademark smart-mouth comments locked and loaded and those drive Jonathan just crazy. My bottom line is that I don’t think the service team would recommend anything they didn’t think Thomas could handle. And no matter what we decide next week, nothing is written in stone and we can always change our minds before next year, or two weeks into the school year or any time at all. If Thomas will be in a mainstream classroom, that would mean he’d attend our home school – and I guess I should go and register him there after all. I was kind of short with the principal, too…maybe I’d better go and volunteer for something. My mom was the PTO president of our grade school for a few years…maybe I could do something like that. Nothing to it, right?
So we’re looking forward to next Tuesday. Jonathan will be out of town all weekend on a fishing trip with his brothers and boy-cousins…they put a treehouse-esque sign on the door that says “NO GIRLS ALLOWED” all weekend. The only possible exception is any female who will cook or clean for them. I think they even rib anyone whose wife calls while they’re on this sojourn, so I’m planning on Jonathan being basically unreachable all weekend. It’s supposed to rain here all weekend too, so I don’t know what we’re going to do. Thomas loves to play tennis on the Wii…he’s really good at it, too! We’ll find some way to fill the time until Monday. They sent the gluten-free kid’s leftover snack and Tupperware home with Thomas today, so he’s got to return that on Monday anyway.
