Even though I’ve not been to work since Friday, August 24th, my vacation pretty much ended the minute we landed at JFK last Wednesday evening. Within minutes, no matter how often I supressed them, thoughts of back-to-work and back-to-school things-to-do steadily flooded my brain, and not even my new Nintendo DS and Pokemon Diamond could completely defeat them. 🙁
Today was a pretty good day, though, all things considered, as Isaac and India returned to school and things seem to be slowly falling into place as far as our annual after-school-care nightmares go. (Some pictures here.)
Both of their schools require uniforms this year, making our nightly routine a bit easier, and they both looked great for their first day, Isaac in his crisp white-and-blue combo and India in an oddly adorable yellow-and-green plaid getup. India has half-days these first two days — unexpectedly delaying my return to work — while Isaac jumps right in to a full schedule (minus after-school, which doesn’t start for another couplafew weeks) so I dropped him off first before driving India to her new school.
It didn’t really hit me that Isaac was starting 2nd grade until this morning when I couldn’t find where his class was lined up because I was looking at the 1st grade classes! His new teacher is an adorable youngish white girl (women are 30+ to me these days) who is “new to the school” which is probably code for “brand new teacher”, but she’s very friendly and proactive (she called to introduce herself last night) and Isaac says he likes her and that there’s only 19 kids in his class, so all seems to be good there, so far, at least.
India’s first day was predictably more dramatic as the long and busy summer layoff coupled with a brand new school made for a tough go of it as she alternated between her usual chipper self and sad pleas of “I want to stay with you, Daddy.” Her new class combines general ed students and special ed students in a 15:10 split and I was a bit disappointed to see that the general ed students were lined up outside while the special ed students were sent to the lunchroom, each entering the classroom separately with their respective teachers afterwards. Made me wonder if the general ed students’ parents are aware of the setup and how many might have a problem with it.
India’s primary teacher is a Filipino (I think) man around my age, and it’s the first time she’s had a male teacher which made me the slightest bit jealous when I realized that. A former para-professional who’s been teaching special ed for three years, he seemed nice, as did his para, an older Caribbean woman who immediately took to India and eventually enabled me to slip out of the room without causing a fuss. Or any more of a fuss, at least, as India wasn’t happy about being in the new classroom at all, reluctantly (and randomly) cooperating while in near-hysterical tears more than half the time. At one point, I thought she was going to puke she was so upset, but she calmed down a little bit as the general ed teacher read a book to the class about the first day of kindergarten. I wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or worried about her single-minded determination to get through the story over India’s complaints, but as it slowly caught her attention, she calmed down enough to sit relatively still on the rug with the other kids and I eased my way out of the room.
After checking on her bussing situation and realizing I’d been misinformed about what kind of bus she’d been assigned — all special ed kids, only from her school, with a bus matron — I grabbed some breakfast at a diner instead of heading back home to catch up on some work in order to settle my thoughts, worried that things weren’t going to work out and she’d need to take a step backwards and be put into a more restrictive setting. Halfway through my omelette, though, I reminded myself how resilient and adaptable she is and how she’s generally more likely to act out in our presence than she is when she’s on her own. By the time I headed back to pick her up, I was confident she was going to thrive in her new setting and that confidence was confirmed by her teacher who believes she’s going to be fine. She had eventually calmed down after I left, participated with the class, and even drew a picture for me.
As we were leaving, she did her shy thing, quietly saying goodbye to “Mr. R—–“, but said that she’d had a good day, liked her new school and teacher, and was ready to go back tomorrow. By the time we got to the car, the chipper India was back full-time and all was good again. Afterwards, I took her to Toys R Us and, in lieu of any interesting Pokemon figures she liked, she chose a “King” remote control car from Cars that she played with the rest of the day.
We walked over to pick up Isaac later in the afternoon, grabbed some ice cream and then headed back home to unwind and relax with the “King” and “Mummies and More“. Seven hours later, they’re finally down for the count while I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the million other things I have to get done, including the stuff that’s steadily piling up for me at work; Spindle‘s soft lauch; and my imminent return to Comic Book Commentary, PopCultureShock and Monday nights @ 13.
Cancun! Take me away!
