It’s been a while since perhaps I’ve talked about the Monster’s life at his new school.

Some things never change – the Monster is still catching the bus every morning, and coming back on it just fine most days. (I pick him up from school on Wednesdays.)  But it’s the difference between his old school and the new one that’s striking.

A few weeks back, we were actually given a copy of his daily schedule.  Now, I know that when he was at Mount Washington, we could have had a general schedule of his whenever we wanted a copy of it.  But still, there’s a huge difference between how I remember elementary school in a public environment and… this.

The Monster’s schedule at Gateway is broken down very granularly in terms of what they’re working on with him… and how they’re working on it with him.  (Granted, the Monster is in a class of seven students, as opposed to twenty-something in his prior class.)  It includes if he’s receiving services at the same time, if they’re push-in or pull out.  You’ll even notice that they figured out how to fit in the five hours per week of speech that he’s given in his IEP.

But the minor details in his schedule are a big deal too.  There’s work on social skills in a lunch group daily, and one’d imagine in recess as well.  (Gateway has a nice playground that’s fenced in and has equipment that can encourage kids to interact with one another.)  They’ve blocked out times to ensure he’s going to the bathroom.  They’ve built in time to work on his objectives and scheduling.

As we understand it from interacting with the staff at his school, he’s doing very well.  They love him – but then again, so did the staff at Mount Washington – and speak glowingly of him.  They’ve been good about reaching out to us if they perceive issues, like the day where he showed up upset and they couldn’t figure out what it was that was going on with him.