Preschool Graduation

Today was a very emotional day for me.  My son graduated preschool.  My son is going to be main streamed next year.

Jonathon has worked so hard over the last 4.5 years and today is the proof....Graduation.....

mom....why are you crying

Happy Boy

Getting his certificate

Big brother came to the party

Jonathon's teacher

Jonathon's parapro

Part of us....Kenny is missing

Jonathon will be main streamed next year.  He will be going into young 5's.  We decided it was in Jonathon's best interest to enroll him into young 5's instead of kindergarten.

His class size will consist of 15 students instead of 27.  He will continue some work with his current teacher in the morning hours and then he will go into the regular classroom for the remainder of the day.  He will have recess and lunch with all the other students and kindergarten.

He will have music and/or gym.

He will have a rest period (not sure just how long, waiting for more info)

He will be involved in regular class work.

He will be in school from 7:55 a.m. until 2:40p.m.

Academically Jonathon is right on target.  Socially Jonathon needs some more work.  Another reason why we decided not to enroll in kindergarten this year.

I want Jonathon to do his very best and not get lost in the shuffle.  I am very happy that this is the first year our school is offering Young 5's.  I cannot wait.  I am sure it will be a very interesting year for sure.  And if this is too much for Jonathon we will back up and take it slower.

So for a few days we will celebrate graduation and summer vacation.

Then we will begin our routine for summer...which will help Jonathon prepare for next year!

All I wanted was for my son to be mainstreamed when it was time....And my wish came true.  I couldn't be more proud of him.  I love you Jonathon and I will always be here for you.....no matter what!  Happy graduation!!!!  You did it!!!!  "HOORAY"

Last Day of School

I am not sure what happen to my previous post about last day of school.

So I redid it.

Last day of school was Wednesday June 9, 2010.  We had a nice time and a great way to end the year.  

Jonathon received a few items also.

Pictures with teacher ~ 3 at end are teacher, teachers aide and social worker ~ last picture is gift from Miss Lori(social worker)

Update about School

Jonathon finally made it to a Tuesday "day" at school.  It's been forever!  School on Tuesday are spent with speech for 30 minutes and then the teacher for 30 minutes.


We will be having a meeting next Thursday with P.T., O.T., Speech, Teacher, and  Social Worker.  After Christmas Vacation things are changing.


Jonathon has graduated out of P.T. and also O.T.  He is doing so well that there is talk about him going into the actual preschool room starting in January.  You can start preschool as young as 2 1/2 yrs. old and Jonathon will be just that.


There is 2 different preschool programs at Memphis Community Schools.  The program that the typical children attend and then the special needs program.  With the special needs program there is 1 teacher and 1 teachers aide to 4 or 5 children.  Jonathon will not be left out.  He will get what he needs while he attends this program.
Will update more when I find out more.

Wordless Wednesday

Another year gone......

Today was Jonathon's last day of school. He is on summer vacation for 1 week and then we will start summer services with P.T. Summer services will be every Wednesday til sometime in August.

I was a little worried how well he would do today. We are usually at school for 1 hour. Today we were at school for 2 1/2 hrs. Suprisingly he did quite well, especially since he got up at 5:30a.m. instead of 6:30a.m. and did not get a morning nap because we were at school.

The teacher had different activity centers inside and games outside. Jonathon got to pick a sticker book and add different stickers to it~he let the teachers son put a tattoo on his hand~he got to get some huge sidewalk chalk~bubbles with a nonspill proof container to keep them in~a little story book~notebook with crayons for scribbling~juice box and snacks.

Outside some of the games were Go Fish(of course Jonathon seen a pool with water and decided it was for swimming) Yep, good thing we had along a change of clothes. Ring Toss game and bean bag game. That was fun.

The teachers and I had a quick meeting at the end of the day. O.T. explained to me that when school starts in the fall that Jonathon might not be with her much longer. He is doing very well and pretty much on track for main stream school.(I am a very very proud mom). She also explained that if services are stopped with her, she will continue to stop by and check on us and if she or I feel that he needs to see her again she will set it up. So that makes me feel pretty good knowing that if I need her she will be there. She has been a great teacher for Jonathon. He really likes her alot.

P.T. also agreed that he might not be with her much longer after school starts up in the fall. This one I don't know about. I have mixed feelings here. I have read somewhere(down syndrome group or a blog) to never stop your P.T. services. I explained this to P.T. Her response was that usually by the time the children are in school(preschool) she doesn't see them any longer. Of course my long term goal is for Jonathon to be in main stream school and not need any services, but I don't want them stopped early if for some reason he still needs them. She also told me that even though children with Down Syndrome have low muscle tone, Jonathon is not that bad. Like I said this one I don't know about. She has been a good P.T. this year, but she is not like our previous P.T. we had last year. I am much more comfortable with my previous P.T. The first part of summer he will see P.T. we have now. The second part of summer he will see previous P.T. At that time I will let her know my concerns and see what she has to say.

Teacher was impressed with Jonathon today. She said she was going to say he needed to work on sitting still for 10 minutes or more focused on one thing. But he was doing great today. He was walking all over with no problem. He was going up to other children to make friends. He was playing peek a boo on his own with some adults. He was sitting and playing alone with some pegs and a peg board. I explained to her that Jonathon does very well. It's when we are at school and they insist he do this or do that on demand that irritates him. If they would just give him time and sit back more they would see that he is doing very well.

Our goals for the next 3 months are as follows:

To eat one meal independtly.(mac n cheese, apple sauce, nuggets etc) Right now he is just starting to feed himself oatmeal.
To continue to work on puzzles
To continue to work on coloring(lines and circles on the page)
beads on a pipe cleaner
go up steps alone
jump on a trampoline
jump up in air
and of course our hardest one TALK

Overall I am happy. I hope that Jonathon and I have a great summer and we get some more of our goals accomplished.



O.T., Jonathon, P.T., Teacher, and our Social Worker