The End of Kindergarten

This has been an emotional week, as kindergarten has ended for Josh for a second time today and we have said goodbye to teachers and school staff who have become friends over the past two years. At Josh's IEP meeting last week (the team of school staff who determine what services Josh will receive from the school system), he was placed in a first grade classroom for full days, which means he won't be pulled out of class for "resource" time during the day. This is huge for us, and it means that he can progress with typical kids his age.

I burst into tears at Josh's end-of-year party yesterday when I said goodbye to the assistant teacher in Josh's class. Josh has grown and changed so much in his two years of kindergarten, and we are in a much better place than we were in 2008, when we were still confused about what was going on with Josh and how to help him.

This photo is of drawings Josh did of his family in September 2009 and in late May 2010. Even though he's far from a great artist, his attention to detail and drawing skills have greatly improved this year. His handwriting, I'm afraid, may got the way of his father's, but we figure he'll just be using a computer as an adult anyway, right?


Here are Josh and Molly this morning:

Molly attended the end-of-year party with me, and she was very mad that she couldn't participate in the water balloon throw, which ended in a water balloon fight. Once we got back in the classroom, though, she was surrounded by kindergarten girls helping her do crafts, so everything worked out fine.

Josh decided to throw a water balloon with another mom, which didn't end up too well for him.

Here's our room mom, Addie, who was holding the water balloon bucket and got mobbed by kindergartners who had no interest in organized water balloon throwing and wanted to just throw the balloons at each other. She emerged from the mob muttering, "I knew I should have done a bucket toss instead." One more reason I will never volunteer to be room mom!