Settling in to School

So school is now 2 weeks to the wind and Labor day has come and gone. Livi is loving school and I truly appreciate her teacher. I met with Ms. Lee last Thursday after class to fill her in on Livi's current pill regimen, let her know about the steroids and when she would be coming to school fasting, the port and what to do if she falls and scrapes it. (Unfortunately she did just that not too long ago and it was, as one might imagine, quite painful. There was no opening in the skin just abrasions but now we know, it can happen.) Ms. Lee is quite familiar with all the medical "stuff" as her father has been diagnosed with a form of Lymphoma. When we met Ms. Lee, before school started, she started to cry and expressed to me how honored she was to have Livi in her class. Because of her father's current struggles she really felt blessed to be able to "help"/teach Olivia. (I had previously dropped a note in her school mailbox from Livi's oncologist about her condition and limitations.)

Anyways, back on track. When I sat down with Ms. Lee, Thursday afternoon, she hid her face in her hands and said, "I know she can read!" I started laughing along with her. I was surprised that in a class of 29 students she knew that Livi could read, when, according to Livi, "today we learned the first 5 letters of the alphabet!" (She then proceeded to do a little song/dance of the letters A-E. Bill and I just looked at each other and knowingly laughed. This was day 3.) Apparently Ms. Lee had overheard Olivia reading during their "Drop Everything And Read" or DEAR Time. I apologized for not being able to teach her how to read silently yet, but smiled knowing that my plan had worked. I wanted her teacher to know on her own, I didn't want to be the parent holding the star atop my child's head.

Ms Lee wants to do a lot of things with Olivia. She has started a book club with her and 3 times a week the two of them will have a "literary circle" during DEAR and discuss the book that they're reading. I took Livi to the library on Saturday and helped her pick out 2 of the same book, one for her and one for Ms. Lee. "Cam Jansen and the Birthday Party Mystery". Ms. Lee wants to help her with fluency and then will move from there. She has more advanced worksheets that she wants to give to Livi. While the other students learn, "B b b bear", Livi will do a worksheet about a bear where she will read some short sentences and answer simple comprehension questions on the paper. Ms. Lee had tons of great ideas and I am so thankful for her. My biggest fear was that Olivia's talent would be overlooked and she would "level out" like so many people have told me. My thought was, "of course she'll level out if no one is willing to push her." Ms. Lee said it perfectly, "She may be in kinder, but her brain is beyond that. I want to challenge her just like I would challenge any student." Thank goodness for good teachers!