Yesterday, Avi started his first day at his new School, Nu Vue Academy. It is a therapudic school, for bright children who suffer from behaviorial and emotional disorders. The first day went well. His bus picks him up at our door at about 7:10 so he now needs to get up earlier than he ever has. The good part of that is that I get to see him before I go to work. I wake him up when I go downstairs in the morning and he gets dressed in his nu vue uniform (a nu vue polo shirt and kakie or blue shorts). I made him breakfast and we got to spend a few minutes before I had to go to work.
mkm said that when the bus came, he was hesitant and very huggy with her (which is not normal for Avi), but he is allowed to be nervous on his first day. We get a report back each day from them which we need to sign and return. At the start of school they offer breakfast, but he ate at home, so he met another student and they played a game together which 6 months ago probably never would have happened.
They use a points system there as part of their behavior modification plan. Each day is broken up into ten segments. Each segment is a different task or lesson. It could be math, or group therapy, lunch or gym, etc. For each segment he can get two, one or zero points. So the max is 20 points for the day. They get green (I am not sure yet what this means) if they get 16 to 20 points and red if they get 15 or less. Avi got 18 on his first day and we were so proud of him that mkm bought his the soundtrack from Camp Rock.
Later on in the year, they will be able to use the points to actually purchase things. I don’t know what, but I am sure it will be fun for the kids. So time will tell how Avi does, but we have confidence in him.
This week was also the start of camp for Noam and Shayna. They are going to a day camp run by the local Yeshiva. The came is very good and they attract kids from outside of the Orthodox community (such as us). They have a beautiful in ground pool and they do all kinds of fun day camp activites. Noam is in the older bunks and they used to go each week for a day trip on Thursdays. This year, due to gas prices, they are bringing a lot of activities in rather than the kids going out, but they are having a wonderful time.
Noam, unfortunately is afraid of the water, and we are going to try a star chart to get him to go in the pool and learn to swim. We’ll see if that works. Star charts never worked for Avi, but Noam is a little easier, so maybe it will.
UPDATE. mkm just called me. She spoke to Noam’s counslor when she dropped him off today. She said that Noam really likes one of the swimming instructors and he IS going in the pool. They give him stickers when he does and when he participates, so maybe I dont need to do the star chart after all. And get this. Noam is teaching the boys in his bunk chess. He learned how to play a few months ago. He is not that good yet, but I am sure soon he will be better than me. Adi (his counselor) said that yesterday he had 5 boys around the chess board for over 30 minutes!
Shayna is about 30% on her way to being pottie trained. She has gone a couple of times by herself, and we are now taking her all the time. She is still in diapers, but we hope to get her in pull-ups very soon. She loves the pool and they wont take the kids in the big pool when they are in diapers. Pull-ups are ok, so we are hoping that soon she will be in the big pool. I took her to a friends house where they have a pool and she is so ready to swim.
So that is where we are. We are going to Disney at the end of August, so I am sure I will be blogging about that as we get closer. We will be travelling down on the Auto Train so there will be lots to talk about.