A Typical Summer's Day in Bobby's World

Ahhhhhh, summertime.....the time of year that most children look forward to all school year long. They finally get a break.  However, for some kids with special needs, it can be the dreaded time of year. Their beloved routine is out the door and it causes their behavior to not be it's best.  Luckily for Bobby, the older he gets, the easier it is getting.  But you can just tell that he is bored.  Thankfully the special needs parents and teachers who have traveled this path before us did something to help this problem in the special needs community......ESY.

Oh ESY, how we love you!!  Extended School Year, designed to help special needs kids keep their school routine and not regress the skills that they learned over the school year.  Bobby, and many of his peers, have been going to school year round since they started school at age 3.  You think that he would be crying and not wanting to go back to school.  Every year, he and his peers shock me with the fact that they can't wait to go to summer school!!  We all have stories of the kids wearing their backpacks and waiting for the school bus way before it is time to leave for school.

For Bobby, it starts at least an hour before it is time to go to school.  "School bus.....school bus...." is what I hear all morning long.  He will stand at the back door with his backpack on for half of the morning just waiting to get out the door.  Yes, you can see us parked at the bus stop most mornings 10-15 minutes early just because he can't stand it anymore.  YES Bobby, you are going to ride the school bus!!!

Come on Mom!!!  Enough with the pictures......let's GO!!!

Bobby really lucked out this summer, he gets to ride the bus for over an hour before school.

Bobby goes to summer school Monday through Thursday from 9:00 am until noon, where he works on the critical skills that are listed on his IEP.  He also receives speech therapy services while he's there.  They also have a lot of fun during ESY.  

I pick up Bobby from school 15 minutes early every day so that he can go straight to his ABA therapist without having to wait around until the 1:00 appointment.  I like to take him to the noon appointment so that we can just get it done while we are already out and go home and have the rest of the day to have fun.  I wanted Bobby to sit down yesterday when I went in to school to pick him up so that I could take his picture.  His hands went right back into the shaving cream, he didn't care that he was already cleaned up!!!

His buddy Sonny looked at me and said "I LOVE SHAVING CREAM!!"

Bobby had a little fun with his teacher, Miss Debbie, who by the way will be his autism teacher when he heads off to middle school in a couple of years.  The fact that they already know each other makes me so happy for that transition time.....2 more years to go!!

Our friend Sonny took this opportunity to go over to his favorite place......the computer area!

Bobby and I headed out to the next stop....ABA therapy!

 Waiting to see what letter he is supposed to write.

Nailed it!!!

Then we go home and I try to find fun things for him to do in the afternoon since he has already worked for 4 hours.  Yesterday we went to Stepping Stones where he had his first swim class in their new outdoor pool.  He loved the new pool and was asking for it again last night!!