School Daze

That's what we're in now that the school year has officially begun! At registration, Phoebe was grinning from ear to ear, even though she is at a new school this year. After a long battle that was going nowhere with her former district, our move strategically allowed us to get her into the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind. Phoebe's visual impairment is one aspect of her challenges that is really difficult for us non-vision specialists to understand. She does have quite a bit of vision but the methods of teaching they use at this school will be quite different than any other. We have a really good feeling about this placement and what it could mean to Phoebe's development. They also have every type of equipment available, such as tricycles (Phoebe actually pedals some of the time!), a swimming pool (she swims twice a week), and access to a hippotherapy center where she can ride horses again (other than the county fairs and such she has been deprived of her favorite hobby for almost two years). I know that in addition to learning she is having fun! It has been challenging to be her "bus" driver for the first two weeks of school, while our home district figured out their options, but it was still worth the 4 hours a day on the road. Tessa was getting pretty frustrated spending that much time in a car seat and asks to go to school too. She figures that much time in the car she should have a reward! All of her friends are in school so it is hard for her. (I remember being jealous of my sister...) Into the second week of school, Phoebe has already attached (literally sometimes!) to her teacher, Miss Seamons.