Luke with Stacey and his classmate, Tom.

class photo PreK

Luke's wives

Stacey has taken to calling these classmates, "Luke's wives."  Apparently, they adore him.  One of them is already planning to have trains for when Luke comes to her house for a play date.  Her mom is going to call me soon.  He has good taste.

forest school

Every fortnight, Luke's class has a lesson outside, called Forest School, where they interact with nature. 

1:1

This is Luke with his fabulously talented 1:1, Stacey.  They have just completed an experiment with vinegar, food coloring, and bicarbonate soda.

PreK Red

This is Luke's class.  The teaching assistant, Tammy, is next to him.

first day at ACS

Luke was very willing to get his jacket and backpack on for his first day of PreK.  He's familiar with the campus as we take him there often to play in the playgrounds.  He remembered his classroom from our orientation visit on the 22nd.  He recognized his 1:1, Stacey, and was very happy to stay with her when we had to leave.  Paul, Tim and I all got to take him for his first day, and Tim was very happy to have his brother at his school with him.

Luke's second day of school was even better.  He seemed to know where we were as soon as we turned up the long drive to the school.  When we parked, Jack arrived, and the three boys ran and skipped up the hill to the buildings. Luke couldn't decide if he wanted to be with his brother or me and ran back and forth between us, oozing excitement.  Luke and I dropped Tim off at his morning area and made our way to The Village and his classroom.  We passed several of my friends who know Luke and all them commented on how happy he seemed.  Stacey greeted us and he ran into the classroom to play while she and I chatted.  He came back when I waved good-bye and gave me a big hug and a "Bye-bye.  See you soon." before taking Stacey's hand and going back into class.

Luke had only 1/2 day on Thursday and Friday, but Stacey stayed with him at school Friday afternoon to bond and get to know him.  When we met at 3:30, she told me some things that make Paul and I feel the best we've felt about his situation since we moved here.  On day two, he is already beginning to settle in to the routines and understand the boundaries.  Thursday afternoon, Stacey and his teacher Janet Bradshaw spent over an hour reading through the progress book that Luke's nursery made during his time there and discussing plans for how to meet Luke's needs and challenge him.  Stacey told me that she's fallen in love with Luke.  She looked through the ABA things that we were doing with him and understands just from the data where we are and how to move forward, which she will do as soon as she feels that he has mastered the routines of the classroom.

Our situation for Luke is not perfect here, but is as close to ideal as we can get and both Paul and I feel, at last, that Luke is going to get what he needs and deserves. 

typical scenes

We struggle to get him to wear his hat outside in the sun, but he's all over wearing it with goggles to play Skylanders.

Role play is exhausting

Yes, sometimes he sleeps with the Xbox controller

face painting

Luke's nursery school celebrates something every month. With this, they paint the faces of the any of the children who want it.  Luke has never shown any interest, but at the last celebration, he not only wanted it, but he asked for it!

spring in guildford

Not long after this video, he decided to run around the back of the pond, climbing fences to do so.  If he wasn't as sure-footed as a goat, it would be a cold, wet lesson.  As it was, the lesson was ours once again; don't take your eyes off the boy.

four years old

He wouldn't eat the cake, but he loved blowing out the candles.  We must have done it at least 10 times.

name that tune

He's playing a video game, which he taught himself to play, while he sings.  His second verse is 'sheep'.  We listen to Beautiful Creatures in the car, a CD from Melissa about African animals, and he sings along to parts of almost every song.  He's like his brother in his love of singing.