Friday, ABA session was moved up to 2 PM so we were free in the evening. There was a free outdoor concert at the theater near by so we decided to go.
William ran to the stage, ran toward the streets, and I had a hard time to stop him. After 1 hour, we decided to leave because it was to dangerous that William kept running around and not be aware of surroundings.
Thursday Morning 8:00 AM.
I was informed by school yesterday that William will be moved to a new class room #49 with a new teacher today, with Ms. DeLeon; Mrs. Newman Heather ‘s class will be closed and she will no longer teach summer (it’s understandable because her class only has 3 students). However Mrs. Birdie will go with William to new class.
So after I sent him in with Mrs. Birdie, I went to the office to get the pass to check out his new classroom and say hi to his new teacher.
Knocked on the room #49 3 times, no one answered so I attempted to open it. It was locked!
So I looked around, he was not out there at the pick up location with Mrs. Birdie, he was not there at the seating area where children were having breakfast. Then finally I found him standing in line at the cafeteria holding his breakfast tray that was full of food ! Ms. De Leon were there so I approached her and said hi; she’s a very young lady, I think about the same age as Mrs. Hana from Mitchell.
Then everyone walked to their classroom with their breakfast trays. I’m so surprised that William did follow thru, walked in line with the breakfast tray in his hands without any frustrated signs. I was like “Wow, how did he cope with the new changes? At Mitchell school, breakfast was brought to them!”
I’m just simply happy that he seems fine for that past week, despite all the new changes that he has to follow.
Tuesday evening, ABA Session with Ms. Jody as usual.
Which book do you want to read? Ms. Jody asked
Rosie! – William responded without thinking.
Last year when I brought the books into the room; he would throw them out the door and close the door. Now he loves to read the books; and we read book every night on our bed before he goes to sleep.
The book “Rosie Comes to Preschool” is long but he always wants to finish the book. He know about 80% of the words in the book.
We’re so proud of you William!
Tuesday Morning. It’s 2nd week of summer school already. This morning when I washed his face and told him that we were going to school; he said “Gary” (what he meant is Children’s World Preschool, where Mr. Gary is the director).
– School first, and then we go to Gary after lunch! – he seemed to be upset a bit; tears came to his eyes. “Gary after lunch OK William?” I said it again.
After that he was fine. When I dropped him off and handed his hand to Mrs. Newman, he turned to me and said Good Bye; and then walked with her.
Saturday Morning.
We’ve been reading the book Zoo Animals almost every night, and I realized that we have not taken him to the zoo! What a terrible mistake so we decided to go today; there’s a small Santa Ana zoo which is around 15 minutes away from our house. He was so excited to get ready!
More pics: https://photos.app.goo.gl/fS6S6nG9nex8UCM86
What can we find in the zoo? what animal? – I asked while we were on the way there.
Dog! – William replied after a pause of thinking.
OK, what else?
Sheep!
What animal has a long neck? He could not remember, so I reminded him “Gi…”
Giraffe! – He said.
But too bad we could not find giraffe at this small zoo. This zoo has lots of monkeys, some birds, camels and few other animals. It’s really a small zoo!
Admission fee: $33 for 3 of us. (Annual membership for a family of 4 would cost $99, which is valid at at most all zoos).
After we paid entrance fee and got in, he looked around, sat on a chair and said “I want to go home!”.
He didn’t care much about the animals, he loved to touch the metal boxes that they put through out the zoo. At some point he liked to watch the monkeys fighting. I tried to persuade him to take the little train; he said no at first but after he saw one passing by, he said yes. (It requires 3 tix per person, $1.5 per ticket so $4.5 for each person). William was waiting patiently with us without running around for the next train to come, which is a really good behavior. But when we got seated, the train conductor started to talk, William cried. I guess it was so loud for him and he didn’t expect to hear that. After a few seconds of comforting him, telling him everything is gonna be ok, then he stopped crying.
William did not seem to enjoy the zoo or train very much. We planned to go the San Diego zoo but after seeing his reaction at the zoo today we’re not sure if we want to take him back to the zoo any time soon. It’s 2 hours drive to San Diego zoo and if he’s not enjoy much then it’s not worth it.
Fri 5:30 PM, ABA session with Aaron as usual. Today William actually played the game and followed the rules. Before he just likes to hold the cards and, that’s it!
After 2 weeks of break, William goes back to summer school at Martin Elementary school in Santa Ana for 1 month (6/11 – 7/6/2018). The school is big, we did not know where William’s classroom is; all we know is that he’s with Mrs. Newman Heather, who we met at the IEP meeting at Mitchell Child Development Center a month ago; so we went to the school office which requires some walking from the parking lot. William held my hand and walked nicely. He did not cry or show sign of afraid of the new school.
William’s classroom is room 22, which is not that far from office, but walking to the back door where the parking lot is, and also where we’d drop off and pick up him everyday, is a little bit far, but looks like William is ok with that. The classroom is big, almost as twice as the one at Mitchell school but it’s not clean: the carpet, tables and chairs look old and dirty. I’m just hoping that William won’t get sick or get allergy reactions.
There’s only 5 boys (including William) in the class with Mrs. Newman Heather and 2 other female assistants. Mrs. Newman said she had not had girls in her class for the last 9 years!
First day at the new school went well; “he ate a few bites of pizza” for lunch. I waited for him in front of his classroom; he was so happy to see me, held my hand and walked with me and the rest of the class to the parking lot where the drop off location is.
The school has a nice size of parking lot which so far I don’t see any problem of finding a available space to park, unlike Mitchell school. There are lots of school buses so I guess most students use the school buses because I don’t see that many parents drop off or pick up their children; which may explain why the parking lot is not too crowded.
The class starts at 8:00 and ends at 12:00 PM, so I need to leave work around 11:45 PM to pick him up. As usual, I’d bring him juice and corn dog in case he’s hungry and let him eat in the car. We’d leave the parking lot around 12:30 PM for Children’s World Preschool. So the routine is not changed, it’s just the time that changed; and it’s a little bit farther going from Martin elementary school to Children’s World preschool than from Mitchell to preschool; but summer school is only 1 month so I think I can handle that.
June 1, 2018 It’s Summer time; which means no school in the morning so we send William to the Children’s World Preschool full day today; and next week too. Then he’ll have summer school for about 1 month and then 1 month off before going to the Transition Kindergarten at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School.
Thursday May 31, 2018. It’s William’s last day at Mitchell Child Development Center.
Mrs. Hana, Ms. Delma, Ms. Melissa, Ms. Susan gave William a big hug. We also stopped by Mrs. Kerstin (the school nurse) to said good bye and to pick up William’s medicine.
William was not aware of what was happening; he probably was wondering why was everyone hugging me!
I wanted to stop by to principle’s office to say good bye but he was busy so we didn’t want to bother.
After 17 months (Nov 2016 – May 2018) going to this school, we felt so in love with it. It’s a beautiful place with a nice playground and lots of empty space for the kids to run around. William didn’t know anything at all when he first came here; now he knows the alphabets, can count, can sing alphabet, wheel on the bus, happy birthday songs. The teachers also potty trained him. He now can talk using a complete sentence even if it’s just a few words:
I want this/that.
William/Mama do it.
It’s so cute!
Open the Door
Etc.
I’m much thankful and appreciate all the hard works that Mrs. Hana and her assistants have done for William. Without their love and patience, William would not progress this fast and learn so much in such a short time.
So Thank YOU from the bottom of our hearts!
Wednesday. There’s only 2 days left at Mitchell school so we brought the teachers some goodies as a Thank You for their love and support toward William.
