It has been three and a half weeks since Callie started preschool and she is doing great! We successfully moved her sleep schedule so that she easily wakes up around 7:00am (Owen is a different story... he pulls the covers back over his head and tries to go back to sleep!). It does not take long to get her ready since she does not need to eat breakfast after an all night tube feed and then I walk her to school, which takes about 5 minutes. She cried the first two weeks when we parted and it was really hard walking away, but by last week she was smiling and cheerfully waving good-bye.
She had a feeding evaluation during the first week of school, per our request during the final IEP meeting. The woman seemed to get a thorough look at Callie's feeding skills and issues. She shared several good ideas to prevent choking and help get Callie to where she needs to be. They ordered her an adapted chair that will give her support at her feet and arms, helping her positioning that subsequently supports her chewing and swallowing. The therapist is also preparing a report that will recommend some softer, but more difficult foods that will help her to develop her chewing skills while safely eating at school (they have a morning snack as well as lunch every day). I look forward to receiving the full report soon.
Her teacher will visit our home to meet with us once per month to go over how Callie is doing, what her therapists are working on, and where she is in terms of being on track to meet her IEP goals. I appreciate how open the lines of communication are with her teacher and really like the opportunity to meet with her regularly. She also sends quick daily notes home in a notebook in Callie's backpack and is easy to reach by email if I have any questions or concerns.
Callie is riding the bus home in the afternoon! While we opted not to take the bus in the morning because it was scheduled to pick her up 30 minutes earlier than she had to be at school, we decided to try having her ride home because she is the first stop (about a 1 minute ride). Callie was frightened the first day or so, but now seems very happy when she is dropped off. There are two men on the bus, the bus driver and a nice older man who takes care of assisting the kids on and off the bus. Carseats are provided and the bus is full size! It seems kind of wasteful because it is often only two or three kids (and Fridays it seems to be Callie only!), but this is what they use. It pulls up right in front of our house. She seems so tiny getting off the huge bus, but is happy.
All in all Callie has had a positive start to her first year of school. She will most likely be in this pre-k program at this school, possibly with the same teacher for the next three years, so I am relieved things are going smoothly and the experience has been positive so far. Here is our little big girl getting off the huge school bus!
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