Here we are at the end of another school year and naturally I find myself reflecting on how much life has changed in just 9 short months.
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| This was a random picture taken by a friend of mine on the first day of school. It wasn't until weeks later she looked at the picture and realized she had unintentionally captured the sweet moment I hugged Brynn goodbye and sent it to me. |
We lived the dream for one amazing week before the respiratory virus that was spreading rampantly through Omaha and the kids' school found our family. A week later Ellie was hospitalized. A week after that she was gone.
Despite the upheaval in our home life, Brynn and Mason's school experience remained positive and I was so grateful for all of the wonderful staff at Rohwer that really helped my kids through this difficult time. The school counselor went into Brynn and Mason's classes while we were gone for Ellie's funeral and explained to them what had happened and talked to them about how Brynn and Mason might be feeling when they came back to school. She then discussed appropriate and inappropriate things to say and do with the children. Their classmates all made cards for them which both of my kids still keep in their rooms and look at from time to time. The school counselor met with Brynn and Mason on a regular basis for the first few months and then periodically through the rest of the school year to make sure they were coping okay.
Throughout the year I had the opportunity to volunteer in the kids' classrooms once a week. I loved going to their classes and getting to know their teachers and the other children in their classes, but it was always difficult for me to go into the school and walk past the rows of wheelchairs, walkers, adaptive bikes, and other assistive devices lining the halls or pass a darling little girl making excited noises around her trach as she was wheeled down to play in the sensory room. It would always remind me just how perfect of a school this would have been for Ellie. Even though being faced by these reminders can still be hard, it is also wonderful. I am so grateful my kids have the opportunity to interact daily with so many amazing children who can remind them of their little sister and all she taught us of accepting others' differences. Nothing made me happier than the days Mason would come home from school and tell me about playing catch with someone from the ACP class at recess or Brynn would come home telling me about how she ate lunch next to a little girl with a trach like Ellie's and even though she couldn't talk Brynn said Hi to her and sat by her. I'm very glad they have opportunities for these kinds of interactions.
Scott had the opportunity to volunteer through the WATCH DOG program. Rohwer has a very strong program where each day a Dad volunteer is the Watch Dog Dad and fulfills responsibilities such as manning one of the cross walks before school, playing games in his kid's classrooms, being on patrol and playing with the kids out at recess and getting to eat lunch with his kids. Brynn and Mason anxiously awaited the day Scott was signed up to be the WATCH DOG which wasn't until March and proved to be a veeeerrry long wait through the school year. When the day finally arrived it didn't disappoint. They still talk about when Scott was the WATCH DOG Dad as one of the highlights of their year, and I think Scott had a pretty good time, too.
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| It was inside out and backward clothes day. |
(Insert Mason's 2nd Grade School Picture)
* Mason was in Mrs. Krobot's class which was one of four 2nd grade classrooms at Rohwer.
* His love for reading continues to grow with each new book he reads. He participated in an accelerated reading group at school which he took pride in and enjoyed. During second grade he read almost all of the Roald Dahl collection, Fablehaven series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, First 5 books of Harry Potter series, I Survived series, began the Percy Jackson series, along with countless other books that I cannot keep track of.
* He says that Math is his favorite subject. After missing a week and a half of school for Ellie's funeral he had missed an entire unit in Math and we returned the day they took the test. His teacher told him to go ahead and take the test anyway so she could see what she needed to review with him. She was amazed when he was one of three kids in the class to get 100% on it and gave him special recognition for it.
* He takes after his dad with his love for Math fact time tests. He would come home and do Fast Math on the computer every night to practice and get faster. The day he passed off his addition time test he came home and described the experience by saying that when Mrs. Krobot announced there was one minute left he only had a few lines left and realized it was possible for him to complete it and pass off addition his heart was racing and his hands were shaking until he finished. He said when he walked to turn it in his legs were all wobbly.
* At the end of the year Mason was tested and qualified for the District's High Ability Learners Program (HAL) in Math for next year. He is one of only a handful of kids from his grade who will be in the program. He is very proud and excited for it.
* Each month when the Scholastic book orders were sent home Mason would come running off the bus waving it above his head. He had a running list of which books he was going to save up for in the book orders and book fair.
*A girl in the ACP program named Rileigh would join Mason's class for a few different subjects during the day. Mason adored this little girl who was wheelchair bound and non-verbal but who loved music and loved to dance according to Mason. Midway through the year she received a service dog to help detect seizures. The school had an assembly and several activities to learn about and introduce the students to Charlie the service dog and his new role in their school. It was amazing to watch the whole school come together to support Rileigh and Charlie. Charlie even got his picture in the yearbook as a member of Mason's class. Having Charlie join their class was definitely a highlight of Mason's year.
Brynn's Kindergarten year:
(Insert Brynn's Kindergarten School Picture)
*Brynn was in Mrs. Ferry's kindergarten class which was one of five kindergarten classes at Rohwer.
*Brynn started off the year being very shy in school. A couple of months into school I got an email from her teacher (who had been keeping a close eye on Brynn since Ellie's death) saying that she had noticed a complete change in Brynn. She said that almost overnight Brynn had turned into a social butterfly and had completely come out of her shell. She said it was as if Brynn was a completely different child - although still a very good student who did everything she was supposed to do. Her teacher really enjoyed seeing Brynn's personality shine through.
*Brynn never had a shortage of friends at school. One of her greatest gifts is her ability to get along with just about anyone and that proved to be the case at school. Her favorite friends to play with at recess were Collette, Arabella, and Noelle.
*When asked what her favorite part of school is she will always answer Centers. This is a time in the afternoon where the kids got to go around to different stations and play. Her favorite center was ______.
*Brynn loves to write, write, write. She is still working on her spelling, but that doesn't stop her from sounding out words the best she can and writing anything and everything she can think of. Her big end of Kindergarten project was to write and "publish" a book. They had to choose a big event in their life such as going on vacation or moving to write about. She insisted she wanted to write about Ellie dying. I was eventually able to talk her into writing her book about Ellie's life instead of just about her dying to make it a little less morbid. We brainstormed together in preparation recalling specific memories and details she could write about. Her book turned out fantastic and I've never seen her more proud of a piece of work she's done.
* Brynn started out the year as one of the top readers in her class reading at a level C at her initial assessment. The first few months of school I was simply going through the motions and we weren't doing much reading at home. Halfway through the year she had only progressed to an E level which was less progress than her teacher expected her to have made and was a good reminder to me how important our work together at home is and how I was failing her by letting that take a back seat to my grief. We started back in our usual ways of reading together and by the end of year she was reading at a level H which is where they expect kids to be at the end of First Grade. I am so proud of the good little reader Brynn is.
* The school has 8 keys of excellence that they focus on throughout the year. Each month they have a school assembly where the principle recognizes students who are demonstrating that month's key. Brynn recieved 6 of the 8 keys of excellence awards throughout the year which we were very proud of her for doing. She received the Keys for demonstrating the keys of excellence in: integrity, speak with good purpose (twice), this is it!, ownership, and a final award for demonstrating all 8 keys. She really is an all-star student.
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| Getting off the bus on the last day of school. |
*** I wanted to write down the events that led to us being at Rohwer Elementary. When we were looking for a house in Omaha our greatest concern was what school our kids would be attending. We were originally leaning toward schools in the Elkhorn School District since we were impressed with the programs they offered but mostly because we preferred their schedule with shorter school days and felt it would be a better fit for our older kids. After visiting a couple of schools on our visit out to Omaha and getting a first-hand look at their Special Education and Early intervention programs which Ellie would be participating in we quickly realized that Millard School District's well established ACP (Alternative Curriculum Program) was going to be a much better fit for Ellie than Elkhorn's full inclusion special education program. We toured Rohwer Elementary - one of the district's 5 elementary schools that house the Alternative Curriculum Program and were completely blown away by the resources they have for children with special needs such as Ellie's and knew without a doubt this is where she needed to be. We knew that Ellie would get moved to an ACP school no matter where we lived, but we felt very strongly that we wanted her at the same school as our other kids so we decided to narrow our search to only houses in the boundaries of an ACP school. When our house popped up for sale we immediately fell in love. It met all of our needs and many of our wants and was priced at the very bottom of our budget. The one problem was it was in the boundaries for Reagan Elementary which did not house ACP. We were disappointed, but couldn't shake the feeling that this was without a doubt our house. Even though it went against our top priority we decided to take a leap of faith and go for it. It wasn't until months later after we closed on the house and I called to register my kids for school that I was informed that the school boundaries were changing that summer and our house would now be in the boundaries for Rohwer Elementary - our top choice school. I think I may have cried as I was reassured that this house was exactly where we were supposed to be.
