It's like everything is skewed just slightly - but in a really good way. My grandson was with me the afternoon/evening of the first day of school. There was homework (this was not the good part). It was an autobiographical letter to the teacher, minimum two paragraphs in length (definitely not the good part!). There were deer-in-the-headlight eyes; there were tears; there was frustration.
I had to talk the boy through the entire thing. I had to explain that lots of people (in fact, lots of people from this very household) have trouble with writing. I even explained that there were lots of these people who had these troubles, but the people were just spread out, so it didn't always seem like there were lots of them, so it could feel like you were the only one. We talked about what kinds of things he could talk about (the teacher had suggested the prior year's events as one of the sources of information - the boy, of course, interpreted this as the only source). After we had talked about this, we talked about different ways of organizing the information.
Eventually, the boy was ready to compose. We had a false first start, but after talking through it, we got to where he was really ready, and he talked, and I wrote. It was not a literary masterpiece, but it was two paragraphs. He was SO happy. It was done.
But here's the amazing part: when I emailed the teacher, it was one of those emails that's part "he worked really hard," part "he has a tough time with stuff like this," part "let me introduce you to this aspect of the kid, since it's the beginning of the year and I don't know what info you have/whether you've seen the IEP/whether you've matched the IEP with the kid," etc. Since I don't know the teacher and he doesn't know me, and on top of that, I'm the grandmother not the mother, there are a LOT of eggshells upon which to tread here. The response was phenomenal! He told me how proud the boy was when he handed in his work, and that he had already been in close contact with the autism support teacher and knew a lot about my guy! He also thanked me for all the hard work I'd done with the boy (I don't think my efforts had ever been so acknowledged - ever!), and told me that this assignment was probably the hardest one of the whole year.
He then, wrote me the next day to tell me about the great job the boy had done on another writing assignment, in school! Wow! The boy had a really great teacher last year, and we didn't know how we'd adjust to someone new. Well, this one doesn't seem to be taking a whole lot of adjusting! Some teachers are just amazing!
I can't quite believe that a new school year is about to start. The summer seemed to have disappeared before it started, and now, now ... But I'm determined to start the school year with total optimism! My boy started his community college class already, and he was happy to be there, happy to have class start, and ready to go! With that class starting, the rest will just follow along naturally. And, he has the same, wonderful, amazing homeroom teacher that he has had for the past two years. Happy, happy, happy!!! And his English teacher is the same as last year, which is a good thing (it's rare that an English teacher is a good thing for this boy, so if we get one we want to keep, AND we get to keep her, well, that's something that's beyond amazing!).
So, all in all, we have to be starting this year with a spring in our step and a smile on our face!
As to the grandson, for the first time ever, we did not have to go in to meet the teacher during a pre-school meeting!!! It turns out that his assigned teacher is one of the two teachers that the boy was hoping for, so he is overjoyed at the teacher assignment! Since he knows his teacher, he didn't need to meet him (yes, him - for the first time, he will have a male teacher! awesome). Turns out, when the boy had an upper grade "buddy" a few years ago, it was from this classroom, so he knows the classroom pretty well! Cool!
All the stars are aligning for the boys this year. We're very happy. I hope everyone has a smooth transition into the new school year!
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