A long week

Where to begin... it was the last week of school this week, for both Jimmy and myself. We had FAPT on Monday. Services will continue through September 17th. We get 12 hours a week of in-home therapy, 2 hours a month of parent training and five hours of consult in summer school. It's great. Maybe the only thing I would ask for is a little more parent training. They will work on bedtime routine and the whole food selectivity thing over the summer. I will be around for most of the sessions, so I will have the opportunity to learn. I am really excited about that.

Jimmy had his school concert - Kindergarten's "Songs of Friendship." He sang a little, but mostly I was pleased he stood on the riser for the whole time. I know they were slipping him fruit snacks to reinforce for appropriate behavior. Whatever works. At the end of show, he actually winked at me. Or maybe it was a visual stim. I don't know, but it was very funny and cute! I am very proud of the progress he has made. Last year, he wouldn't have stood there at all. He would have been running around, stripping naked!

Of course, today was the last day of school. Jimmy has finished kindergarten. It scarely seems that it has been long enough to have a rising first grader. Actually, if he wasn't autistic, I wouldn't - I would never have sent him to school at five, as I think having a boy at the young end of the school cut off is detrimental for them socially and academically. But Jimmy is there, he is who he is, and he has done well. I love him (and Jacob too, of course) with more love than I could have possibly imagined for another living being. That's saying a lot - anyone who knows me knows that I love probably too deeply, too much in general. I can't love these boys enough.

Incidentially, it was also Jacob's last day of school as well. I made the difficult decision to pull him from Childtime. They have had many management changes over the past year. I have taken it in stride, even when mistake were made in the care of my own child. Things have improved of late - they have two new wonderful managers, along with some great new teachers. Jacob's teacher recently returned from disabilities from injuries sustained in a serious car accident. They were doing more with curriculum and really making progress in the center.

Ultimately, the corporate and regional managers made the unfortunate decision to add a summer surcharge of $25 a week for "curriculum enrichments." In my opinion, curriculum needs to be effectively offered, explained, and assessed before you can enrich it. Kindercare charged a flat $50 to cover their special summer programs for preschoolers. This would have totalled $250. In light of everything that has happened since August, I felt that it was poor form to nickel and dime us, so I pulled him. I took him back to Kindercare and a place called Cradle 2 Crayons. He said he wanted to go to the latter, so he starts the 25th. I don't feel great about yanking him, but I felt that I had no choice, that to stay was just allow myself as a parent to be exploited financially for no sensible reason.

My niece is coming to help me with them next week - I don't work a full schedule, so she will cover for my summer school meetings and trainings and such. When I am not busy, we will hang out. I am looking forward to it. I also have a shift at Mercer's reference desk next Saturday and ALA next Sunday. A busy but enjoyable week...

As for my last day of school... I generally don't post about my job. I would like to say that I have never been more challenged, more stressed, or worked harder at any job than I have at being an elementary librarian. I also have never found anything to be more professionally and personally rewarding. I love my job, I love my colleagues, and I love my students. As I said before, i generally love too deeply and too much. With kids, you just can't. I would also say that I have never felt more loved than I have in my school with the adults and children that I am blessed to work with everyday. I know understand what joy truly is - it's been their gift to me.