First Day of School

Sweet Pea started in the 3 year old class at the end of March and will continue in that class this school year, but it's in a new classroom with a new teacher and mostly all new students.  Basically, it's a brand new class.  I was hoping that it wouldn't make a big difference and that Sweet Pea would still enjoy being at her school.  It wasn't as easy as that, but overall it wasn't bad.  Sweet Pea didn't want to go into her new classroom and started crying a little, but once her amazing inclusion specialist came over and took her for a little while, all was well.

I love that she is in a full inclusion class and I was preparing a letter to send home to the parents introducing Ellen and giving some very basic information on Down syndrome...basically wanting to open the lines of communication.  There is another little boy in her grade that has DS and so I was going to speak with that mom about if she wanted to do a similar letter or if she wanted me to just send out ours to the entire school (it's a very small school).  Well, this morning at drop off I see that there is a THIRD child with DS!  There are maybe 60 3 year old students in the entire school (adding up AM classes, PM classes, extended days, 2 day a week students and 3 day a week students).  What is the likelihood of having 3 kiddos with DS?  I haven't had a chance to meet the mom, but hopefully I will be able to do that soon.  This will certainly help us who have kids with DS as now the staff has even more reason to learn about successful strategies for reading and more!  It will also be nice for the teachers and aides to see how different and unique kids with DS can be so that they don't try to lump them together.  I'm quite sure that these three will keep them all on their toes this year!

And now prepare yourself for picture overload of first day of school photos. The girls were so cute and the expressions priceless!