Riley and Peyton settled into school without a hitch and all indicators are pointing towards a great year for both girls... social circles are happy and scholastically they are doing great!
Tatum started Junior Kindergarten at Beverley Street School on September 8th and is loving it.
For the first couple of weeks, I drove her to and from school but she is now a regular bus rider.
Letting her get on that bus for the first time was surprisingly difficult for me... I kept putting it off! The first morning that Tatum went on the bus, Riley, Peyton, Tatum and I all sat on the front porch waiting patiently for the cute little yellow bus to pull up out front of our house. When it arrived, we all walked Tatum to the bus, said hi to the other kids as I strapped Tatum into her car seat, gave her kisses and let her drive away with a perfect stranger (gasp). My heart started aching the instant the wheels started moving. As we watched the bus pull away, we all sat back down on the porch steps and I burst into tears. Although I recovered with the help of Riley and Peyton, I spent the rest of the day missing my baby girl like crazy! I couldn't get to her bus stop fast enough at the end of the day. Little by little, I'm getting used to my alone time between 9 and 3:30pm... I'm lost but am working on finding my new path.
Waiting for the school bus!
Enough about me. This is Tatum's Blog!Tatum's kindergarten class is made up of 7 students, 1 teacher and 2.5 educational assistants. All of the kids are beautiful and have a variety of challenges, just like our Tatum. Some of them are already walking, others are working on it. None of the kids are talking yet but they are all very good at making choices with they eyes or their hands. I've had the opportunity to visit the classroom several times in the past month and it is a Kindergarten class just like any other... the kids play, have snack time, go the gym, go to the library, have music, do circle time, etc. We are so grateful that Tatum was given the opportunity to attend Beverley Street School... it has exceeded our expectations in every way. In addition to the typical JK/SK activities and curriculum, Tatum and her school mates have open access to the nearby AGO, gets weekly swimming lessons, is being taught to use the potty, is learning to feed herself, gets to attend a school music concert every Friday afternoon and gets regular hugs, kisses and snuggles from her teacher and EAs.
At school, Tatum continues to work on communicating using either her hands or her eyes and is given the opportunity to walk or crawl to get where she wants and needs to go.
Tatum's wonderful teacher Sabrina called us yesterday to let us know that Tatum had the BEST DAY EVER at school. She was amazing at walking in her walker, made fantastic eye contact, smiled lots and walked up to the board and made some very clear choices. It is so exciting to see Tatum with her peers, learning to play, learning to listen, learning to participate.
There are about 100 kids at Beverley school and although we've only been there for a month, we feel like we have been part of their community forever. As we leave the building on days where I pick Tatum up, it is amazing to me that everyone says goodbye to Tatum by name! The Principal, Vice Principal and teaching staff are all so warm and understanding - we are full of gratitude to have Tatum in their care.
All in all, Tatum is rocking school! She needs to work on staying focused, present and communicating but we are seeing improvements each day. Tatum's energy fades after lunch most days... it's really challenging for her to get those muscles all working together, so some afternoons are pretty tough for her. This said, a good nap helps her pull it together until home time.
Physically, Tatum is getting stronger and more organized every day. She is able to crawl on her hands and knees everywhere on all kinds of surfaces and over obstacles. She has pretty much stopped her old style of commando crawling and pushes up to crawl now. Tatum's walking (with and without her walker) is improving in stamina, coordination and balance all the time. In fact, she is doing so well that her teachers at the March of Dimes (Conductive Ed) are starting to work towards having her walk with canes instead of her ladder! Go Tatum Go!
