Disappointment and special kids

Our local Special Olympics events were scheduled for today, but due to heavy rain last night, they had to be cancelled. It was disappointing to everyone involved, and very difficult to explain to those children who just didn't understand. It took a little while, but they were soon calmed down and assured there would be some fun to be found in the day. They continued with their regular schedule and had just entered the gym for PE class to burn off some of that pent-up energy when it was announced that there was yet another change in plans as the gym was going to be used for a presentation from Miss Tennessee. Well, giving Miss Tennessee her due, and I'm sure she is lovely and had wonderful things to say, but these kids could not have cared less about seeing her; they just knew they just had something else taken away from them. Thank God for flexible and resilient teachers and assistants who were able to quickly whisk the class outside to run around on the wet, cold playground. No one seemed to mind that the temperature had dropped 30 degrees within 24 hours.

Adam didn't handle the schedule change of the Special Olympics very well, either, even though he had to be talked into participating in the first place. He had gotten used to the idea and he knew that staying at school meant he was going to have to do some work He also was unhappy about the lunch choices at that time. Sack lunches were ready and paid for and packed for the day, so it wouldn't have mattered if they ended up eating it at school or on a field trip. Unless you were Adam and realized that all of his friends in the cafeteria were going to be eating pizza. I told him he could eat his sack lunch and I would purchase a slice of pizza to go with it. That would have been fine, until he was actually IN the lunch room and noticed they also had French fries, and there was no one there who was able to remedy the situation. He ended up bringing his lunch back to the classroom to finish eating and was fine the rest of the day, but what a stressful day I had!