Brilliant!

I owe Duhdee an e-mail. Why do I need to e-mail my husband ((Besides the fact that we are geeks and generally communicate electronically even when we are both home? Srsly, he will Skype me from the kitchen. Uh huh, rly. Moving on.))? Yesterday, when Duhdee picked up Monkey from school ((Yes, we sent him to school. No fever, no vomiting, no day off. District policy.)) he was handed a packet. Anyone who has a child on an IEP knows that a packet is never good news. BUT! It was Monkey’s progress reports and he is making progress so what was the issue?

The issue was the short note that was sent to all of the families. Effective this morning (so said the note) we are expected to transition Monkey to a staff member AT THE DOOR OF THE CLASSROOM and walk away.  Brilliant! *Blink*Blink*

Er, no?

We’re not opposed to building more independence into his morning routine. We’re not opposed to changing the morning process. We are opposed to changing a transition process that we’ve been using for 3 years ((With admittedly mixed results depending on the teacher, the first planned activity of the day, the phase of the moon, etc.)) with no time to prepare Monkey.

A sudden change in schedule for Monkey is OK on a one or two off basis, he’ll roll with it…but if it continues the boy knows how to put his FOOT DOWN. And the people who pay for it are Duhdee and I. There was a time we couldn’t leave our house without tears ((Mostly Monkey tears but some of mine too.)) because Monkey was so stressed about school that he cried and carried on until he was 100% sure we were not going to school. Words were not enough to convince him, we had to wrestle him into the car and listen to him stress and cry until we drove away from the school. Since his school was in our neighborhood this made MOST trips hell.

So, this morning we showed up at school with not a single clue as to what to expect. What we were met with was his teacher standing 3 feet inside the door with a piece of paper. On the paper were two PECs symbols. After backpack, water tornados. She acknowledged the need for minimizing verbal instructions during the transition. I think this might work, the issue is where do we transition? Stepping over a threshold is very challenging for Monkey in all locations…I don’t think saying good-bye to us and then asking him to step through the door is going to work.

Back to the e-mail, Duhdee wants me send him my thoughts so he can share them with the teacher this afternoon. We don’t want to have another morning of confused, half measures. Fair enough.

I want the transition to happen at a location where Monkey can have trouble without being an object of intense observation. I don’t want people staring at him when he’s already having a tough time. The door to the classroom is already loaded with anxiety in the morning. Other than that I guess I’m open to it. Like I told Duhdee, I don’t want to be the one to assume Monkey can’t do something. Now if I could just figure out where this mythical location is…