Kiddo is not what you'd call living up to expectations these days. He's running around in class. Not listening. He got in trouble a couple weeks ago for hitting another boy with the strap of his backpack. (He wanted the boy to move, he explained later.) He's doing his homework, but he'll write one letter the right way and then scrawl the next one all over the page, or write the next three letters too close together and say that they're holding hands, or some other kind of story.
On the plus side, he hasn't missed the bus yet.
We're also back to the "I don't want to go to school!" bit when he wakes up in the mornings. "It's boring!" he says. Fortunately threatening to have breakfast without him -- or just leaving him to go into his sister's room -- tends to get him moving.
I've already requested an evaluation for in-school OT, per his teacher's suggestion. Hoping that helps.
At least I hear good things about his teacher. By which I mean absolutely glowing things. Like "My kids are in college and they still rave about her!" In fact we specifically requested her because she was said to be good with special-needs kids. The one phone conversation we've had so far, prompted by the backpack incident, seemed to go well, in that she was more trying to figure him out than trash him for misbehaving. Although admittedly I was threading through Route 80 traffic in the pouring rain at the time, because she called my cell and I didn't want to blow her off. So I hope I sounded coherent. (Don't bother telling me I'm nuts. DH already did.)
And the school district, not that I'm any kind of an expert in these matters, seems like a nice one, in that people are pretty involved. Back to school night? Standing room only in the multipurpose room. PTA meeting/ice cream social? Packed. Although that's because it was not so much a "meeting" as an ice cream-fueled free-for-all. Sugared-up kids did their best NASCAR impressions, zooming giddily around the place. And then zoomed outside to play on the playground, in the dark. Kiddo and a few others discovered the almighty game of "lie down and roll down the hill!" and did that a few hundred times. And I got to chase after him in heels. I do not know how the other parents all have time to change clothes before going to these things. Either none of them works, or they all have two-minute commutes.
Also, have I mentioned what a really nice area this is to live in? Here was our day today: I got the kids up and we went to the Unitarian Universalist church we've been attending (fairly good choice for interfaith families). It's a lovely drive to the church, all winding roads and trees, so that always puts me in a good frame of mind. We went to our usual diner afterward and the kids didn't embarrass me overmuch. Then kiddette went down for her nap and kiddo and I hit up a town bicycling event at the park nearby, where we ran into a classmate of his and the other mom and I had a nice chat while they played.
(Kiddo, incidentally, insisted on riding his trike to the park even though he has a bike. So the other kids were all cruising around him while he double-pumped on the trike, which he is just about too big to be using in the first place. It was hilarious.)
Then we hit up one of the gazillion farms in the area (all of which are totally overrun right now on account of the apple picking) for apples and cider and pumpkin butter. Kiddo ran around like a loon and had a fine time climbing the hay bale pyramid and yelling, "I'm king of the mountain!" Then we came back and finished his homework.
It's just ... bucolic out here. There's so much outdoorsy stuff to do, which is great for Mr. Energy. And people rarely seem bothered by kiddo's intensity. Either they know about his condition, since I make no secret of it, or they don't think his behavior is especially un-ordinary. He's so happy when he's running around with other kids.
So things aren't all great but I feel like there's the possibility that they'll get better. Which I think is about all I can ask for.
On the plus side, he hasn't missed the bus yet.
We're also back to the "I don't want to go to school!" bit when he wakes up in the mornings. "It's boring!" he says. Fortunately threatening to have breakfast without him -- or just leaving him to go into his sister's room -- tends to get him moving.
I've already requested an evaluation for in-school OT, per his teacher's suggestion. Hoping that helps.
At least I hear good things about his teacher. By which I mean absolutely glowing things. Like "My kids are in college and they still rave about her!" In fact we specifically requested her because she was said to be good with special-needs kids. The one phone conversation we've had so far, prompted by the backpack incident, seemed to go well, in that she was more trying to figure him out than trash him for misbehaving. Although admittedly I was threading through Route 80 traffic in the pouring rain at the time, because she called my cell and I didn't want to blow her off. So I hope I sounded coherent. (Don't bother telling me I'm nuts. DH already did.)
And the school district, not that I'm any kind of an expert in these matters, seems like a nice one, in that people are pretty involved. Back to school night? Standing room only in the multipurpose room. PTA meeting/ice cream social? Packed. Although that's because it was not so much a "meeting" as an ice cream-fueled free-for-all. Sugared-up kids did their best NASCAR impressions, zooming giddily around the place. And then zoomed outside to play on the playground, in the dark. Kiddo and a few others discovered the almighty game of "lie down and roll down the hill!" and did that a few hundred times. And I got to chase after him in heels. I do not know how the other parents all have time to change clothes before going to these things. Either none of them works, or they all have two-minute commutes.
Also, have I mentioned what a really nice area this is to live in? Here was our day today: I got the kids up and we went to the Unitarian Universalist church we've been attending (fairly good choice for interfaith families). It's a lovely drive to the church, all winding roads and trees, so that always puts me in a good frame of mind. We went to our usual diner afterward and the kids didn't embarrass me overmuch. Then kiddette went down for her nap and kiddo and I hit up a town bicycling event at the park nearby, where we ran into a classmate of his and the other mom and I had a nice chat while they played.
(Kiddo, incidentally, insisted on riding his trike to the park even though he has a bike. So the other kids were all cruising around him while he double-pumped on the trike, which he is just about too big to be using in the first place. It was hilarious.)
Then we hit up one of the gazillion farms in the area (all of which are totally overrun right now on account of the apple picking) for apples and cider and pumpkin butter. Kiddo ran around like a loon and had a fine time climbing the hay bale pyramid and yelling, "I'm king of the mountain!" Then we came back and finished his homework.
It's just ... bucolic out here. There's so much outdoorsy stuff to do, which is great for Mr. Energy. And people rarely seem bothered by kiddo's intensity. Either they know about his condition, since I make no secret of it, or they don't think his behavior is especially un-ordinary. He's so happy when he's running around with other kids.
So things aren't all great but I feel like there's the possibility that they'll get better. Which I think is about all I can ask for.
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