Gage’s First Journal Entry*002

The translation. Click on thumbnail to enlarge it.

Feelings
I do not want to go to school. I want to stay and do research on science things or social studies at home. Cause at school I do math in a different classroom and in music I do not like to sing in front of everybody.

I am a little worried the drawing on the bottom is of himself dead, but his mouth is open. And Gage told me that him being on the ground like that is how he feels about school.

We had Gage’s emergency IEP meeting about the behavior part of his IEP. We talked a lot of about strategies, and potential triggers for Gage’s angry outbursts. We (by we, I mean us and school faculty) can only control so much, so even if his perfectly splendid teacher watches him all day like a hawk, bad behavior is still going to come out. It is just the nature of the situation right now.

His teacher, the special ed teacher, principal and for a brief time, the school counselor all had great input and suggestions that would blow you away (in a good way). Gage was in the room part of the time and they asked him directly why he hated school and they told him they wanted to help him through this hard time he is having if they can make it easier for him.

We have decided he can drop a subject that he “hates” and is causing him some stress and anxiety. It’s not required and in replacement for that 30 minutes 1x a week, he’s going to help his teacher with science research. He was genuinely happy to hear about the dropped subject and I think it will go a long way towards good karma with Gage – meaning: he thinks we are listening.

Some other highlights

- The play therapist thinks that the journal and talking about the journal contents with Gage shows improvement that he is okay with accepting some help. I almost cried when I read this.

- The school? I almost cried when I walked out of that IEP meeting because you can’t imagine how it feels to have people approach a situation like this in complete cooperation WITH you. All because the sincerely care about one little boy who has had his share of a rough life.

- Today Gage wanted to play outside for the first time in at least 2+ months.

- Gage told me he wants to journal 30 minutes every day. And he asked me to remind him when 30 minutes was up so he can go to sleep (he journals in bed).

- Quinn, the current forgotten one, and I had a dinner date with a new friend and her mom. We wanted to meet because Quinn wanted this new friend to come to her slumber party. And so Quinn is having her first slumber party for her 7th birthday! And three friends are coming to spend the night and maybe two others for dinner and cake! She is simply happy. Tonight she said, “this is the best day ever!”

- Report cards are in for the first semester of school and Gage had Bs and um…nearly all NEEDS IMPROVEMENT and even an UNSATISFACTORY. Quinn had all As and ALL SATISFACTORY marks! I felt so proud for her. A regular classroom, mainstream. That is the gift her Magical Special Ed school gave us the previous 4 years. She was ready to move to this school. So ready.

- Gage has had two days of good marks (I know! I know! I am tempting fate by putting on line, but can you blame me?). He also had a situation with another student that could have been ugly, but he removed himself from the situation. That is BIG. Also, today he had “compliments” for good behavior in the lunch room. Ahh. Never underestimate the power that good behavior has on a parent.

* I don’t know if I am going to have this post up for very long. I am trying to decide if it is too private to Gage. Although he didn’t mind me sharing with the education team.