Ethen Goes To School!

Well - it's happened...both boys are now officially in "school" -- it's a moment I can't believe has come -- I actually cried today just realizing how far Ethen has come in the last year...I'm so guarded with him, but today was truly a day to be proud!

Jackson is in a public school now, in a Pre-K program which every 4 year old in Georgia has access to.

Today, Ethen started going to the same church pre-school program that Jackson went to for the 2 years before this. I had planned on having Ethen start in September with all of the other kids, but he had such a rough summer -- in and out of the hospital roughly 4x, and was very unstable from a neurological perspective. But, he's done so well over the last 3 months, it was time to let him go!

So he eased into it today, staying for about 1.5 hours (the program is about 4 hours daily), and did great! He rejected the idea of having his hand painted for an art project, but seemed to do well with the other kids, and being away from us.

So, he'll go Monday and Wednesday morning until the end of March when he will transition to the public school program as part of the No Child Left Behind act which allows for children 3 and up with special needs to begin getting public education as opposed to waiting until Pre-K.

Here's a pic at school today -- Ethen very much enjoyed emptying the book shelf !!