Two's Company

Today was Cole's first day of school. Yay! He's in a class called Two's Company, and it's with other kids who are in the Early Intervention program. In an odd twist, he's in class with two other little boys and both boys are the sons of his first two speech therapists. Yep, that means he's got four of his teachers in class! I was a bit nervous about how he'd do and whether or not he'd find that confusing, since he's only had his two new teachers for two weeks now, but he did great. There was one little hitch with transportation, however. We'd gotten Cole up at the crack of dawn (well, it felt like it was the crack of dawn to us) in order to meet our bus at 8:23a.m. Cole was very excited as we waited outside in the frigid morning air he kept exclaiming, "I hear bus!" again and again. Sadly, most of those times, the motor he heard belonged to a city worker, and the one bus that did come up our street wasn't ours. Cole was very bummed out when he realized the bus was not coming, but luckily, Daddy hadn't left for work, which opened the door for us to take the car. Since then, we've been promised a free cab ride if the bus stands us up again, but hopefully, it won't come to that.

As for class itself - fantastic. Being the first day and all, most the kids kept to themselves and their own parent, but the room was full of boys, which will be great for Cole. All last year, every outing left him in the vast minority, but since this past summer, the roles have changed, and we're finding more and more boys for him to play with.

When we first arrived at his school, I see two things immediately: The first being a welcome sign that states the classroom is nut and peanut-free (Yay! Must remember to thank his teachers for that!), and the second thing to catch our attention are the lockers. Each child is assigned a locker, and on it, there's a photo of them so that they know which locker is theirs. When you open the locker, a smaller version of the same photo is inside, with velcro on the back for use in the classroom. When you enter the classroom, there you will see a little red schoolhouse with velcro spaces for the children to go up and place their photo on, engabling all the other kids to see which of their friends have arrived. Later on, the photo makes two more appearances. Once at snacktime, in the form of a photo placemat, so each child knows their place, and the final appearance is during circle time, when the photo is used on a slightly padded homemade mat - again, so they know where to sit.

At the beginning of class, the kids are encouraged to move from area to area, discovering all the special items their teachers have set out for them. The settings change month-to-month. The first play area that you see in the classroom is the kitchen, so of course, that's where Cole spent most of the free play-time. The area next to the kitchen is full of puzzles and a barn, complete with your usual barn animal fare. Further on into the room, there is an art table, where on the first day, the kids painted with apple halves - very cool. Just past that was the discovery table featuring water, buckets, and apples. This was very popular with the all the kids as well. The final area features an art easel (nearly identical to the one Scott made for Cole!), a reading nook, and of course, the snack table, which doubles as a second activity table, and on the first day, offered the kids fresh homemade playdough to fool around with.

It took me, and all of the teaching staff, but we did manage to get Cole out of the kitchen. Once he left it behind, he was very interested in the sensory table and the playdough. He didn't have much time at either and just caught sight of the art easel when they turned off the lights and told the kids to put their hands in a circle above their heads, stop, and listen - each time there's a transition, that's the routine. I, apparently, missed that bit in the parental orientation packet, so Cole and I were both sitting there looking at the others like they were space aliens. Oh well. Once the kids move on to circle time, a bongo drum is passed from child to child while the whole class sings "The Name Song." If your name is being sung, you get to pound on the drum to the beat while the rest of the class taps along on their laps. Cole really liked the song (we sung it all the way home), but he was still feeling a bit shy, so I got to pound on the drum for him--like they had to twist my arm, right? After circle time, the class makes its way over to the snack table, where their other teacher has laid out the photo placemats, a cup and a damp washcloth at each setting. Cole was positioned in the first chair, but tried very hard to sit at Ava's place, located next to him - it was cute. Before the children are allowed to eat, they have to first wipe their hands clean with the washcloth and then say, "I would like some juice please," I wish all of you could've seen Cole's face when he heard that AND when he heard other kids actually doing so.
(He's used to going into the fridge and grabbing his own beverage of choice and then asking one of us for help in getting a cup.) Cole never gave them the magic sentence, but he did wait patiently until they came to him, and then, he held his cup up politely. When the snack was passed around, each child was encouraged to ask for it by name (crackers), but Cole didn't really want the crackers, so he just kept drinking the juice. Finally, when one of his teachers offered him some, he obligingly took two, but still didn't eat them right away. He was too busy inhaling the juice with this frantic--downright competitive--look in his eyes. He was determined to get a second glass of juice before all the other kids drank it all. Ha! I seriously felt like I was watching some timed all-you-can-drink contest. He made it under the wire and got that second glass of juice though, so all's well. After snack time, the kids are given the choice of either doing puzzles or reading with their parent. Cole chose the books but had a hard time settling into one. He would just flip through each of the pages, jump up to put that one away, and sit back down with another. I barely read three words before he was off to the next one. Again, I felt the need for a stopwatch. A few minutes later, the lights turned off again, and we heard the transition song letting us know it was now time to go outside and play. Once Cole heard that, he really sparked to life--he began chatting away and ran to his locker. He just could not get outside fast enough. The playground was still wet from the previous day's rainstorm, and it took only seconds for his entire backside to be caked with damp sand. His frontside was all wet as well, but he had a very good time.

Here's the photo that greets Cole each Wed. now at school