The Itinerant Program

On this week of Dr. Seuss' 108th birthday (March 2), I came in Thursday instead of my usual Tuesday and met—for the first time—Thursday-morning volunteer Pender Ibach. Although I'd missed Dr. Seuss's Wacky Wednesday art, as well as today's snack of real green eggs and ham, I did get to see the birth of Thing One and Thing Two! (—►)

"You will see something new.
Two things. And I call them
Thing One and Thing Two.
These Things will not bite you.
They want to have fun."
— The Cat in the Hat – Dr. Seuss

I wanted to meet the teachers and pre-school children of the on-site class led by itinerant teacher Laurie Denning. It was a visit well worthwhile.

As part of its curriculum, the Frankie Lemmon School serves fifteen (15) children in an “itinerant” program. These children receive their services either in their home or their daycare settings. Typically, these children receive 1-3 hours of services per week. Education is provided to the child as well as consultation services to the parents and/or child care provider. Some of these children are served in a small group on-site at Frankie Lemmon School. The group is lead by a certified teacher, a speech therapist, and an occupational therapist.

Assisting Laurie today were speech therapist Sharon Hanvey, occupational therapist Vicki DeMaster and volunteer/translator Susan Novak. The class was comprised of 6 children, ages 4-5. They meet for two hours once a week to learn social skills—supplemental to Laurie' s one-on-one individualized instruction throughout her county-wide territory of about 15 children—some as far away as Garner.

Laurie first assigned each child an important task such as line leader, snack helper or table cleaner. For example, Sean was made light helper and Francisco was made door holder. Thus, each child knew he or she was responsible for making a mark in the big world around them. During class they worked at various learning centers such as sensory, art, kitchen and blocks & puzzles. Lastly, they studied language skills.

Laurie began today's class with a story about Cloudette, the little cloud who wanted to do something conspicuous in a world surrounded by those that were older and bigger. There were perks to being small, but Cloudette wanted to do important things, like make rivers flow and waterfalls fall. She tried to help the fire department, garden center, and car wash, but was turned away at every stop. When a storm dropped Cloudette in an unfamiliar place, she finally found where her modest services could make a difference – a small, dried-up pond.

"I like green eggs and ham!
I do!! I like them, Sam-I-am!
And I would eat them in a boat!
And I would eat them with a goat...
And I will eat them in the rain."
— The Cat in the Hat – Dr. Seuss



Cloudette is the story of the little cloud you can look up to. So, all in all, It's not a bad thing to be little — because you can still make a difference to someone.