What a day...

Part of my job as the After School Care Coordinator is to make sure that all of the children arrive safely to our location. If they don't arrive, it is up to me to figure out where they are and make sure they are safe and accounted for. It has happened a few times that a student has taken the bus home when they were supposed to stay after school or that they missed the bus to our building. It is stressful when this happens, but we usually solve the issue rather quickly.

Today was a different story, because today it was Isaac. Isaac didn't get off the bus with the other kids. I tried calling his school to see if he was there and I couldn't get through, so I went to the office and the secretary called the bus company. They verified that everyone was off the bus and sent a call out to all of the busses to see if he was on any of them. The whole time I kept trying to get through to his school with no luck. I was also trying to call home just in case he walked home and let himself in. We finally got ahold of his school and he wasn't there. So, I decided that it was best for me to drive home to check it out. I had to let my staff know that I was doing that first. Did I mention that it was the first time that my boss had stopped by the location to check in on things? She is a wonderful boss and she said she would stay there to help the staff out until I got back. By the time I got home my cell phone rang and it was my boss telling me that Isaac just walked in the door and that she had no idea how he had gotten there. I got back to the school as quickly as I legally could so I could find out what had happened. Isaac was distracted on the bus and had missed the stop. He didn't know what to do, so he got off with a friend and went to his house. From his friend's house he tried to call us. The friend's mom eventually dropped Isaac off at school.

In all, Isaac was missing for about 30 minutes. I tried to remain calm, but was on the verge of tears the whole time. Although Isaac did the best thing he knew to do at the time, I let him know that if he ever missed his bus stop again, that the bus driver would bring him back to the bus stop at the end of the route and that he shouldn't go to a friend's house. Another thing that I hadn't thought of telling him.

An entry from Isaac

My Dad and I went to the Minnesota River. We saw two turtle sitting on each other and then they swam in the river. The turtles were sitting on the logs when we saw them. And I found a bunch of shells.

First Week of School

We survived the first week of school!

Isaac has been walking to school in the morning and that has gone well. For now, we are walking with him. He had so many questions before school started and seemed quite nervous. I wasn't quite sure that he would willingly walk into school, but he did. And each day he has said that it was a great day.On the first day of school, we planned that I was meeting him at school to walk home with him. My one mistake was that I did not plan a meeting spot. I suppose I just thought that Isaac would come out the same door that we dropped him off at. That is where I was waiting and waiting...he didn't come out! I spotted the teacher and she mentioned that he went out the door on the other side of the building. I ran up there to see if he was waiting, he wasn't, and then got home as quick as I could. He had walked home himself (just 3 blocks) let himself in with the house key we put in his bag and tried to call Dan at work to let him know that he was home alone. When I walked in I told him that I had been waiting at school and he asked me if I was worried. I answered, YES! I asked him if he was worried and he answered, no and told me what he had done. He handled himself very well and we talked about how we should do it different the next day.


After the first two days, he began riding the bus to the other elementary school where I am coordinating the after school program and will be working after school everyday. He even completed his homework on the bus so that he could play for the rest of the night.

My week was incredibly busy getting ready for the after school program. I put in long busy days, but it paid off with the program getting off to a good start. I should be able to work more "normal" hours in the coming weeks now that the program is up and going.