Big "Step"

Guess where my girl is today? Day camp!!

We have a great special needs camp here in Cincinnati called Stepping Stones. We've heard nothing but good things about it and have been wanting to try it out for Katie. They have Saturday day camps two times a month in fall, winter, and spring, so we thought we'd try it out. If Katie enjoys it, it will be something for her to do a few days a week next summer. (In the summer, they have camp every day--you can go as many days as you want.)

They have really fun programs set up for the kids to keep them busy and on a structured routine while they're there. Today's program is Halloween-themed:

9:30-10:00 - Free play in the gym (They have mats, scooters, balls, etc.)
10:00-10:30 - Swim (They have an Olympic-size indoor pool, with zero entry and 89-degree water!)
10:30-11:00 - Arts & crafts (Make Halloween costumes.)
11:00-11:30 - Picnic lunch (Katie packed a peanut butter sandwich, tortilla chips, cookie, and milk. Not sure if she'll eat in a strange place or not, though!)
11:30-12:00 - Pumpkin rolling race
12:00-12:30 - Bones bingo
12:30-1:00 - Arts & crafts (Make ghosts.)
1:00-1:30 - Spooky kickball
1:30-2:00 - Trick or treating (They're going to go around to see the workers in the offices, barn, nurse's station, etc. at the camp.)
2:00-2:45 - Playground

Katie will be in a group with six other 5- to 7-year-olds. She'll have a group leader, and each child will be matched up with a one-on-one aide. The aides today are a group of volunteers from Xavier University's special ed program. They don't have anyone fluent in sign language to be with Katie, but they do know some minimal signing, so hopefully it will be enough to get her through the day. We sent her PECS pictures from school so she'd have some familiarity with those, and also sent a sign dictionary.

I'm excited for her--it's such a huge move to more independence! But, of course, my mamaheart is a little nervous too, seeing my girl go off to a strange place for the day, with all new people, and not being able to explain it all to her or for her to be able to tell us what she did there or how it went. I sent our camera along, so hopefully they'll take some pictures of her so we can see how her day went.

I'll post an update later this weekend, with hopefully some pictures!