Camp Closed, Gone Fishin

Camp Mom is closed until July 15. Both Mom and Maggie are delighted.  Summer school starts today and Maggie was chomping at the bit to get back to her routine. yesterday she worked on telling me with her Dynavox saying, "Mom I go to school tomorrow. Bus please" Once she had those entire sentences formulated she "said" them 500 times. I think she was ready to go back. 

Of course  this will not be the routine Maggie is used to. Summer school is held at a different site (John O'Connell High school)  and there will be a different teacher and likely a few additional kids in her class. Resources are short and things get combined in the summer, but she will adapt.Nurse Janice is still assigned to Maggie and I believe a few of the paras (classroom aides) from Mission are assigned to her class, so there will be enough familiarity to keep Maggie happy. It might be Monday before she feels totally comfortable, but it is an adventure. 

Her day will be shorter and I have no idea what the program will entail, but I am not worried about it in the least.  I treat summer school more like summer camp. It's fun, it's something to do and she actually derives some educational benefit from it. That's perfect. I will pop in a few times over the course of the five weeks, but they have enough to figure out on the first day without me getting in the way. 

On our last adventure before summer school we were cruising around town and I decided to show Maggie where she would be going to summer school. John O'Connell high school is in a mixed use area with trendy lofts and warehouses along with small businesses and family homes. Maggie looked at the building but I don't think she understood that she would be going to school there. She has to experience it first hand before something like that would work. It's only a mile or so from Mission High and she laughed her head off as we drove by there. 

So, these are my first hours alone in 13 days. Maggie is not here. The nurses are not here. Steve left for work. The house is quiet. I do not hear Lady Gaga singing. Ahhhhh. My first few hours of alone time have been luxurious.  I have a million things to get done and projects that need attention, but for now I'm just taking a couple of hours off.  

Camp is out of session. And that is OK with me.