School's out??

Does your child's room look like this??

How about this??

THIS??

This is Braden's classroom. His NEW classroom. Seems that the school system decided that it couldn't wait the FOUR days until school was out to move their classroom!! They gave the teacher today to move her whole classroom-with her kids there. There was subs to help, but the children had to stay outside on the playground, with no academic instruction at all.

When I picked Braden up today I received a note saying that today was their last day of school. Now, officially they can't make us keep Braden home, but if he goes to school, this is his classroom. There will be no instruction from the teachers because they will be busy trying to get the room ready for next year. I mean, it's only 2 and a half months away (she says sarcastically). Now, don't get me wrong, I do not blame this on Braden's teachers at all. They are doing their best, considering the other teachers at the school pretty much pushed them out of their room. They put all of their things in the hall for them to deal with. I am very disappointed with the school right now.

I am writing a letter to the principal, the director and special ed, and the school board. This is unacceptable. My child has every right to be educated as many days as all the "typical" students in the school. I am beginning to see that the world sees people with special needs as not special but a burden on society.


On that note, I saw on Channel 2 News today that somewhere (not in TN) there is a Catholic church that has put a restraining order on a 13 year old boy because he is AUTISTIC!!! Isn't that something??!! I personally don't believe that anyone has the right to tell anyone that they can or cannot attend church somewhere. I am so appalled and disgusted.

Pizza Party

On Friday, Trad and I took pizza and cupcakes to Braden's class. There are only 10 children in the class, and only 8 of them were there. They are all boys and they are so sweet!! This pic of the boys getting ready for cupcakes.

This is them waiting on their pizza.


Braden and his cheese pizza.

(He LOVES cheese pizza. It's one of his 4 basic food groups.)

I was suprised when Braden chose this cupcake over a chocolate one. He pretty much only eats the icing anyway.

Braden did so well during the party. He was much better than last year when we brought cupcakes. He is making such great strides both at school and at home. I am excited to see how much more he develops over this summer.

The Zoo Crew

Today I went on a field trip with Braden and his class to the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere. He got to ride the bus [which he LOVES!!] and a bunch of us moms drove behind. Unfortunately, the bus is why he had his first meltdown of the day. He did not want to get off!!

His second meltdown happened not too long after, when everyone decided to go into the building where the snakes are. They didn't allow strollers in, and he wasn't calm enough to get him out yet. He was upset that everyone left him! I was beginning to think that I made a horrible mistake by bringing him.

After that meltdown, we got moving a little faster, and started seeing the animals. He calmed down, for the most part, and seemed to have fun. I was very proud of him and how he acted. Everyone got really tired and fell asleep on the way home.

Here are some pics of the trip [not in the right order] I LOVE giraffes!! This little guy was pretty close to the fence, so we got a good look at him.

The elephants were really beautiful.

This is Braden and his teacher Ms. Jamie.

Braden and Thomas having a drink.

Lunch time!!

Some kind of monkey-like creature. :)

The class made their shirts. Braden's is his handprint-turned-elephant.

He is so stinkin' cute!!

I'm not sure what this face is.

Braden and Jordan going for a ride.

We had a great time. [I am just glad that I finally had something to blog about!!]

New Beginnings...

With yesterday being Logan's 3rd birthday, today was his 1st day of PRESCHOOL!!
Logan getting ready to leave the house for school. He wears his John Deere shirts alot. He had his backpack on for like 2 milliseconds but I wasn't fast enough with the camera! He has his pop tarts in hand.
This is Logan and Abby in the car. We are at school and getting Logan out.
Here Logan is out of the car and walking up to the school. Note he still has a pop tart.
This is Logan exploring his surroundings. He seemed to do ok. He didn't even notice when we left, which is what Braden did also. He still has his pop tart.

When I picked him up, his teacher, Mrs Jill, said that he had a really good day. He ate cookies for snack. He jumped on the trampoline, which he won't do at home. He made a cornucopia during art time. He was playing with dinosaurs when I came to pick him up. They said he had been playing with them for a while.

He just might get one for Christmas. Trad really liked dinosaurs when he was little. He was happy to hear that Logan was playing with them also.

I didn't cry when I dropped Logan off this morning. I cried with Braden. I have seen the improvement that it has made in Braden and how much he loves it. I think that it will be really good for Logan also and he seems to be happy there too. At least it is a change of scenery for him. I know he will do good in preschool. My baby boy is in school now.

Pumpkin Woes...

Yesterday Braden had a fieldtrip to the Pumpkin Patch. He went last year and had a wonderful time even though it was freezing! I went with him again this year thinking that it would be fun for him. I was so wrong! The first thing that we did when we arrived was go on the hayride down to the pumpkin patch. He loved that. The thing he didn't love was getting off the hayride. He cried the whole time we were "pumpkin shopping." Of course when we got back on the hayride he did fine again. That stopped when we got back off to do everything else.

He did really good at lunch. We sat at the picnic tables and he ate his chicken nuggets and cheetos and drank his juice. He even stole my bag of chips! We went and bought a pack of m&m's because he loves chocolate.

After lunch we headed to the first "hay play" area. You have to crawl through to get in the area. He didn't really want to but when he saw his friends doing it he thought he would give it a try. That lasted about 5 seconds. He was no more in than he came right back out. He wanted me to get all the hay off him because he didn't like it.

He did however like the pond with the fountain. All he wanted to do there was get close enough to stick his hand in the water and put it in his mouth. Luckily, we couldn't get that close. The water is really yucky too.

When I finally realized that he was not having any fun, I decided it was time for us to leave. I hated making him go home early, but he was the only one in his class that wasn't having a good time. Turns out he was really tired and fell asleep about after a minute in the car.

We made up for him leaving early though. We took him outside twice and let him play forever. I feel like we never take him anywhere and that he is missing out on things. On the other hand, he is happy as a lark to just stay home and be outside. Sometimes I really don't know what to do. I want to take him to the zoo or a water park or wherever. I just don't know how tramatic certain things are going to be for him.

He is getting better with alot of things though. He is being able to handle certain situations that he couldn't handle in the past. Maybe we will try the pumpkin patch again next year.