First day back at school!

Considering what a huge transition this day is, Harry did surprisingly well! We have been preparing all week for this day so maybe the preparations have really paid off.

• We talked about first grade and going back to school everyday
• We cleaned out his room and got organized and cut the clutter
• prepared his closet and school clothes
  
• Bought the school supplies together
• worked out his lunches and shopped for fixings together
• Got him back into Tae Kwon Doe and the practice of listening and following insturctions
• Provided more structure around the house
• Helped him focus on the task at hand
• Talked about school scenarios that will need problem solving and how to handle it

All while trying to help him feel confident and not overwhelmed, to date I think this week has been one of our huge accomplishments. Feeling like we are breaking through with understanding and helping him.

Some things that were a real challenge today was listening, focusing and self confidence.

• When I asked him to get dressed into all the clothes we had layed out the night before, he could not remember where they were, he asked "what should I wear?" when I reminded him of the clothes he then had to be shown again where they were put.
• Getting dressed he needed reminding to focus on what he was doing, and the order of how to get dressed. He put his pants on without underpants, so he needed to redo.
• On redoing this he said "I'm just stupid!" and was very down on himself for not doing it right.
• I needed to provide prompting for every thing he had to do to prepare for today. Even with his printed out morning routine. I guess its the first day back and will get used to this again over the next few weeks. But without prompting at the moment he would be distracted and play with his lego's, anything that he would rather be doing and not what he should be doing.

Tomorrow he will catch the bus to school and will need an earlier wake up, I am hoping he will get into a routine and things just become habit for him. My goal at the moment is to keep the morning simple and focused. Providing the same routine day in day out with out distraction.

Contact details:
Sarah Baumgartner
Grade 1 teacher
425 204 4176
sarah.baumgartner@rentonschools.us