ms weber

ms weber painting luke's foot for an art project.  (side note to credit the great teachers of his past - it took months of teaching and patience to get him to allow paint on his feet!)

One of our local radio stations, honors teachers with what they call teacher tuesday.  If you click on that name, you'll go to the video of Ms Weber being honoured.  Paul and I nominated her back in January and she was surprised early this month.

not an american accent

He has The Gruffalo memorized.

jaws

6

Happy Birthday Luke!

Audrey and Ruby, friends from school, helped him celebrate.

Angry Birds is a fast favourite.

Giving Ruby some tips.

riding the bus!

To say that today was a big day for Luke and the Attridge family is like saying last night was a big night for Leonardo DiCaprio.  Huge.  Luke rode the bus to school today all by himself.  Literally, he was the only child on the bus.  He acted as though it was the most ordinary and common thing to do, "Of course I'll ride the bus to school."  I managed to get him on it and almost back to the front door before a few tears of happiness leaked out.  Paul was on a conference call for work, but he got to watch it all from his office window.  We're so fortunate to get to experience these moments together.

This is the bus as it drives up our street to stop in front of our house.  Luke is the only passenger.  

He got on without any prompting and took his seat.  Kelly, his driver helped him buckle his belt.

The bus leaving with our big boy.

We are continuously impressed, amazed, gobsmacked by the excellence of the team of people working with Luke.  Michelle made this video (Wheels on the Bus for Luke) for Luke to watch in the days prior to his first ride.  Video modelling is very effective with him and relatively new to autism therapy.  

shepardson star

Mrs Harding is telling the class why she chose Luke to be the Star for December. (Jenny has video of this that I will include in the future.)

The teacher for each class at Shepardson Elementary chooses a student every month to be a Star.  Luke was chosen for December for showing respect to self during literacy, which is identifying letter names and sounds!  We are very proud of (L)Uck.

 Luke is with Audrey.  She has voluntarily become his helpmate and he looks to her for guidance on behaviour and actions.

Standing with the other Stars at the assembly

Visiting Luke in his classroom after the assembly

thanksgiving

Luke got to take part in the Thanksgiving concert performed by all 60 Kindergarteners.  

Directly behind Luke is one of his best friends, Audrey.

He was the only child from his autism classroom that joined the concert, and we're very proud of how well he performed.  He was a Native American and wore the 'bib' but refused to put on the head piece.  I was seated too far away to get any video that shows him singing and doing the motions, but he joined in often.  His favourite was fishing with the stick, line and paper fish that he got to carry for the entire show.

Throughout the show, he checked on Audrey, seeming to make sure that he was doing the same thing as her.  The little girl behind Audrey, in black, cried through the entire show.

At one point, his costume fell off and he struggled to right it.  His general education Kindergarten teacher, Mrs Harding, righted it for him.  Thanks!

Towards the end, he was struggling to stay focused (he was not alone) but he remained in his place and didn't distract from the production.  We're very proud of his ability to attend to things that don't necessarily interest him.  What an important life skill!

kindergarten school photo

Luke's having a great time in Kindergarten at Shepardson Elementary School.  Ms. Weber is his teacher, and she is already one of his (and our) favourite people.  He loves to swing on the playground and moves across the monkey bars like a true monkey.