Alex is going to Madison....

You want to know what has been going on the in world of Alex the past three weeks?

• potty training, off and on (mostly off) 
• acquiring a wheelchair 
• acquiring a walker 
• trying out canes for standing/walking 
• getting appts for minor surgery June 7th
• casting for new braces since he grew out of the old ones 
• a new OT 
• hiring new PCAs to cover summer hours 
• figuring out if we can buy/fundraise an adaptive trike 
• buying earphones and an MP3 player that doesn't blast little ears out and  ...

...the one I'll mention briefly tonight, that Alex is going to Madison Elementary School. You local people know all our kids go to a charter school that does Montessori method, a great little PreK-8 school named Bluffview. We assumed all along Alex would go there. Our hope is that in time he will go there. We really went back and forth on this...Madison is the school in town set up for special education (which Alex is still going to need, at least for many more months, if not forever) and all the physical therapy/ occupational therapy/speech therapy that occurs in Winona area public schools is really rooted at that school. At Bluffview, the school would have to bring new PTs and OTs and STs in, and because they have a different arrangement (Winona district hires their own therapists and places them in the schools, while the charters in town have to hire therapists out of a program that works for the regional area), it wasn't clear how easily Alex's pretty darn significant needs would be met. What we were certain of was that Bluffview would try, and try hard. But they are dealing with realities they can't entirely control either. So Jerry visited Madison, a small older school about one mile or less from our house. It's where our kids would have gone if not Bluffview (or the Catholic schools). The special ed teachers are very nice and have been working at Madison a very long time. The therapists would be the same ones he sees now, and they're GREAT. The kindergarten teachers both seem very nice and welcomed Alex at last week's "round up" with "we've heard a lot about you, Alex!" Alex, I must say, was polite but nonplussed. He liked the gym.:)

I think and hope Alex will like it there.  Honestly, there are no real red flags, and it is clear they are the best set-up for Alex's needs (sort of one stop shopping for special needs kids in our town).  Everyone we have talked to there has been very supportive, and that goes a long way.  But it's also hard because 1) It feels a little weird to have four kids in one elementary school, and the fifth in another--like Alex is living in a parallel universe (again?)  2) We've never had a school other than Bluffview, which we know like the back of our hand now.  I looked at the Madison classrooms and couldn't help thinking "Really not Montessori."  But the things that Montessori does so well--sensory learning, self-initiative, etc.--are likely not to be Alex's strengths.  I mean, we're not sure he will be able to write well ever, but he seems to have enough control to type...or at least dictate through a voice recognition program.  He is likely to be more technology enabled than Montessori encourages.  Not that they wouldn't allow that--but if Montessori's strengths are not Alex's, at least in lower elementary, well, what's the point?

This is all to say that Madison has a reputation as a very good elementary school here, and we've met good people.  I think Alex will do OK, although I still have a hard time seeing him in kindergarten.  But I'm still a little sad about it.  In any case, if it doesn't work, we'll go to Bluffview and see what we can work out.

--Susan