Kindergarten Blues

School started early around here...in fact, Shaun is finishing up his second week of school already!

After three years in preschool, our little man has finally entered kindergarten!! You would think that this being our fourth year sending him off to school, this mama would be used to it, but there is something about kindergarten that just seems so grown up! (And I'll be honest, I actually like having my little guy home with me!) The summer ended way too quickly!

This year, Shaun is once again in a special education only classroom. He will be held to the same academic standards as his peers, but the class will be better structured to suit his needs. I am really hopeful that this new class will help him to thrive and learn to love school again. As you may recall, school last year was a nightmare for us. Shaun absolutely hated the school and the bus which led to meltdowns nearly daily. There were many trips to the school to talk about his behaviors, lots of fights and tears getting onto the bus, and even one particularly bad week that led to my five year old being suspended from school. Through all of this, he was not given the chance to allow his brilliant mind to shine through and thrive. It was horrible, and I was beyond thankful when school let out for the summer.

In the weeks leading up to school, Shaun still expressed his desire not to go back to school. Then a few days before, he decided that his classroom would have trains (thankfully, they do!) and he started to actually get excited about the idea and I was again extremely hopefully that things would turn around for the better. The night before, he once again decided he did not want to go and continued to argue the day of. (Don't let that picture fool you...he wasn't excited about school, Mommy told him to say 'fart' so I could get a smile!) But once the bus came, he walked on all by himself, no protests at all! His teacher called me later that evening to let me know that he did fine on his first day- needing a lot of redirection of course and preferring to do his own thing rather than be with the class, etc but an adjustment period is to be expected for any kid- especially one with Autism!

I wish I could say that things have continued to go so well, but unfortunately that's not the case. With each passing day, our struggle to get Shaun onto the bus to go to school has progressively gotten harder. Once there he does fine, but its the getting him there that we struggle with. Some mornings he will at least walk himself to the bus, but refuse to get on and cry the entire time...whereas other mornings (becoming more the norm) I have to physically carry him from the house to the bus kicking and screaming...which at 9 months pregnant I can tell you is no easy task.

It absolutely breaks my heart to see my little man so upset, but I am trying to remain positive that this classroom will be wonderful for him and am thankful in the fact that at this point, his behaviors have not been as bad in the actual classroom. My hope is that this initial adjustment period is short lived and that he will soon come to enjoy- or at least tolerate- going to school as he has in the past. In the meantime, we will take it day by day and pray for the best!