Journaling reads: In October of 2012 Kai’s behaviors started getting out of control and the IEP team at school started discussing another plan of action for Kai. Kai had brought a butter knife to school and threatened another child. He was flipping out of control. Kai would hit or punch other kids and staff and with the small number of people capable to work with him, it was becoming unsafe for everyone involved. His emotional and behavioral needs were becoming too much for his old school to handle. They just were not equipped to deal with his special needs. It would be months later that both the school and mommy and daddy would come to a choice that would be in Kai’s best interest. It wasn’t an easy choice to make, but it would be the best choice for Kai in the long run. In early February of 2012, Kai was enrolled at North Woods International School, a brand new beginning for him. It was a scary new start for us all. We were all very nervous on how Kai would handle the traction between schools.
Starting a new school for anyone is hard, but starting a new school for a child with numerous special needs can be 100% worse. There is so much that goes into planning and programming that it can be extremely overwhelming for everyone involved. It was so hard for us to leave the comfort of the school Kai had been at for 3 years already. We had seen him grow there and we would miss all the staff that had worked with him in the past. The new school ensured us that Kai would be well taken care of and they had the skills to cope with his needs. While some of our fears were comforted, the first few days of the new school were confusing for everyone. It took Kai quite a few weeks to adjust to a new teacher, new aide and new classmates....and new rules! But the school tried their hardest to make the adjustment the most easy it could be on everyone. Kai now had services we had been dreaming about for years. He had his own private one on one aide to help him cope with his special needs. (Something that is extremely rare to find in our area!) He spent half the day in a regular kindergarten classroom with his aide for help and the rest of the day in a special classroom with children with behavioral and emotional special needs. Kai quickly learned the rules and made friends in his class, something that hadn’t happened before. The behaviors seemed to settle a bit and school got Kai on a special plan where he earned smiley faces for good behavior and thumbs down for negative. Kai started wanting to earn all happy faces and started getting angry if he got thumbs down. We celebrated the happy faces with rewards and told him how proud we were of him. Kai’s skills were still way below the level of his classmates, he could barely write his name nor count to 100, but his classmates were great peers and helped Kai achieve some of his goals for the year, and shockingly by the end of the school year Kai was able to read a few sight words on his own and count to 20 all by himself, something no one thought possible.
With the new school Kai received a new beginning and we can only watch him grow from here and reach his potential in the future



Credits:
Kim Jensen: Damaged Goods
Kim Jensen: Eclectomania 1
Kim Jensen: Perforated Paper Alpha
Kim Jensen: Date It! Plastic Beads
Kim Jensen: Cardboard Bits - Jumbo Shapes
Kim Jensen: Garden Pop Stamped Newsprint Alpha
Sahlin Studio : Sweet Storytelling Freebie
Blue Heart Scraps: Beep Boop
Jen Yurko: May/June Grab-bag
Cluster Queen Creations: Give me Words Vol 4