Last month, Carlson Elementary held a spring carnival. They had a fantastic turnout, and many of Gabe and Ari’s friends from school came too. Gabe and Bella ran around the whole place, sprinting from one bouncy inflatable obstacle course to another. I lost track of them several times… this is just a reality of having three small children of about the same ages. My eyes do not move as quickly as their feet do. But fear not—they came home with us.
Ari also got to ride the giant slide a few times, but spent most of the time surrounded by friends who love her. Ari is so fortunate to have been in what I believe was the best Kindergarten class, with the best teacher, aide, and classmates; in the best school, with the best accommodations I could have ever hoped for this year. She was fully mainstreamed with one hour of resource per day for academics, and one hour of Speech, PT, and OT per week. She also received adapted PE. Ari loves school. She has more friends than I can name. She has completely worn Jake out with the numerous birthday parties she attends nearly every weekend. Kindergarten has been so good for her. Ari has also realized a tremendous amount of growth in her speech and academic skills this year. We couldn’t have hoped for better.
We feel so strongly that Carlson is just the ideal place for Ari that, even if we were to move to a new house, we could continue to make the drive to and from Carlson every day. I feel so blessed that other sweet, charming, and smart girls and boys want to be her friends too. I am inspired at how they have naturally found ways to communicate, joke, and chat with her – all without Ari being able to speak to them. I feel such joy when Ari enters a room and the whole place rings explodes with cheers for her arrival. My heart melts every time one of her friends asks me if they can push Ari in her wheelchair. I have had to hold back the waterworks every time she is smothered in kisses and hugs at pick-up at the end of school each day. I had hoped that she would be accepted and make friends in Kinder, but that she would be this loved, I could not have dreamed.
Gabe loves school too of course! He is my mister smarty pants, and excels at everything academic, but has lots of friends in class too. He is way more social that I thought he would turn out to be. I have no doubt that the CTA (Chandler Traditional Academy) side of Carlson was a perfect fit for him.
Did I mention that we think Carlson Elementary is pretty great? Well, just in case you didn’t catch that…
No comments:
Post a Comment