To Brian's Teacher

Dear Ms. Anita,

I realize it's Mrs. Holtzapple now that Brian is a first grader, but you will always be Ms. Anita to us.  How blessed we are to have you as Brian's teacher once again!  Your calming patience and tremendous knowledge of childhood development eased our minds while Brian was in preschool for two years.  And now that he has had a year to grow and change under the care of someone else, he is being entrusted into your care once again.

This time is a bit different though.  This time, he will be with you each day more than he is with me.  Please take care of him.  I know that you will, but it's still hard for me to let him go.

You know that Brian can be reserved, that he is incredibly creative and that he is quite intelligent.  I'll never forget how proud you were of him in his second year old preschool when he got in trouble for talking!  He was so quiet back then.  Fair warning...he's not anymore!  He will play coy with you as he always has, but he has A LOT to say.  He asks questions constantly.  And he genuinely wants to know the answers.

He LOVES reading as he always has and is coming along as an independent reader.  He gets on crazy reading kicks where he will read every book he can find at his level.  He all still loves to be read to.  We have been reading chapter books and he begs me to read more chapters each time it's time to stop.

He can still be a bit timid with friends, even those he's known for a long time.  The other day it took him almost an hour to warm up to Bradley at the park.  And he's known Brad since he was 2.  He definitely is one of those kids who waits and watches, hoping to be invited in.  Please help him get invited in.  Please help him to learn to just jump right in.

Even with his reserved personality Brian is a pretty confident kid.  He is proud of who he is and his accomplishments.  He is not embarrassed by his disability and he doesn't feel different.  Please help him to keep this confidence while he is in your care.  Help him to continue to be who he is and not care what his peers think of that boy.  Because I love that boy.

I'm excited to see how Brian likes full day school.  He loves to learn and be with his friends.  He loved his specials classes last year.  I am hoping he will love school again this year.  I am counting on you to make this transition easy on the both of us.  It's crazy to think that I took this kind of thing for granted when I was in the classroom.  I never gave a thought to how much the parents must miss their kids when they were in my care.  Once again, another thing that Brian has taught me that will make me a better teacher when I re-enter the classroom!

I trust you Ms. Anita.  I know that you will make this a wonderful year for my baby!  But I'm still going to shed a bunch more tears as I say goodbye to summer.

Sincerely,
Maria