Today was Cha-cha's last day of school for the 2012-2013 School Year. He had a fantastic teacher who will be retiring in October. She has been great for him and we will miss her.
Getting ready to hand Cha-cha his portfolio.
I thought we were making good time, but we walked in as everyone was already sitting down in their chairs. Cha-cha froze and wouldn't leave my side, even when his super nice para came over to walk him to his seat. So I went with him and sat behind him, where he spent most of his time turned around staring at me, grabbing my hand, or looking at the floor.
Singing the See You Later, Alligator Song - I don't even know if he moved his lips.
He refused to do his job - the honor of cutting the last paper chain down to symbolize the last day of school. Something he's been waiting for now for weeks now. Instead, he let his good friend cut it for him. I'm very grateful to the sweet little girl for being his friend.
\
Eating his watermelon.
He participated in washing his hands, snack (although he sat by himself because there were no more chairs at the table), and two rhythm stick songs, in which he yelled out to his teacher after the first one, "We do other one!" She smiled at him and continued to the second song.
His Self Portrait from September (Left) and June (Right).
So in all, it was very bittersweet. I'm so proud of our boy for making so much progress, however it was so noticeable today that his anxiety gets the better of him in large, social situations. It was also noticeable that he's not where the other kids are in terms of his speech and language, especially with his cadence and pronunciation. He's come a long, long way, but he still has a tough road ahead of him. Seeing him with his peers showed me how "different" he is than all of them and it's so hard to accept that. I'm grateful for a wonderful parent of a former student of mine and a coworker who took the time to just let me cry and listen to me when I got back to my work.
He will get there; we will just have to take different, longer paths to get there.
As we left his school, Cha-cha asked in his garble, "I get my end of the school year prize tonight?" to which my former student's parent let me know that comment is completely age appropriate, which gave me a chuckle. ;)
Tonight, when Cha-cha was going to bed, I told him, "Are you happy that today was your last day of school?"
He responded joyfully, "Yeth, now I get to pway width aw my to-oyz." (Yes, now I get to play with all my toys). Typical 4 year old response, right? ;)
We haven't told him he goes back in 2 weeks for summer school...eeek!
