Morning Romp

Nellie and I met our neighbour dog "Yukon" early this morning. He is a large (read -overweight) affectionate Pointer. Both dogs love to run and play so I let Nellie off leash on Yukon's property ( he will not leave it -so I know Nellie was safe). They ran and played for 20 minutes -getting completely wet and muddy -that's what towels are for...right. Yukon's owner came out and called me over to introduce me to Yukon's early Christmas present -an adorable little orange and white kitten -who freaked when he saw Nellie come tearing up. I'll get a picture next time. I came home lamenting yet again to JJ that Nellie needs a kitty too -but I don't think he's going to budge on that....anytime soon .

anyway...

Some days school is difficult or frustrating, but then there are days like today when everything goes better than planned and the kids are wonderful, engaged, creative and today -especially funny. I have 2 autistic teens in my care and both have these amazingly funny sides to them which we don't see too often. Today we started a new unit in Language/Life Skills celebrating the Lights of Winter. I hope to explore with them how people around the world use lights in winter celebrations. Something about the way I introduced the topic hit a chord with them both and they were off -the often uncommunicative ones were spouting information and ideas faster than we could record them. Some of these ideas were so funny we all laughed until we had tears in our eyes. In order to engage these kids, my plans always include the ideas they find most exciting and/or slightly different paths than I originally have planned -keeps life exciting. We should have lots of fun during the next few weeks before our holiday break....