220 days till the last day of school

Say it ain't so - school already!?

This seems like the 1st year in a long time in which we start the school year with more hope than concern, more confidence than indecision.

It all started so innocently when our oldest entered Kindergarten. Never a problem, never a worry, nothing but excellent marks and remarks all around. Fortunately, this has held up and she enters 6th grade this year looking forward to a new teacher and new classmates.

Our youngest enters his last year of preschool. I don't know what next year's Kindergarten teacher is going to do with him; I guess we should start preparing her now :) He's the leader, he's stubborn, he's cute, and he's smart. I think he probably already knows everything he's supposed to learn in Kindergarten, but we'll worry about that later in the year.

So, what's the problem?

For Grant, it all started shortly before he was diagnosed, shortly after the regression. For kids younger than 3, they are handled by the county education dept. At the time, he had only been diagnosed with verbal apraxia, and we walked in wide-eyed and clueless. Looking back now, our vision of the situation was like being in the eye of the storm; we did not see all of the problems all around us even though it was right in front of us the whole time. Long story short, we later found out that the county folks knew that Grant was autistic but never mentioned anything to us - never made the slightest mention that we should have him checked for something else, never tried to help him. We lost a full year of early intervention. My only explanation is that sometimes people are just really stupid.

So, Grant started school at 3 in a special day class for autistic kids. We have been so blessed with 2 great teachers and many great paraprofessionals along the way. For periods of time, not so much. Along the way, we learned all about IEPs, sticking up for our child, the world of speech therapy and occupational therapy. School was really, really hard for Grant the 1st 2 years or so, and summer school was worse. But then, he started learning. He started figuring out his role and that learning actually results in a better life for himself. And today, he walked into his class happy as a clam, eager to show up every day, eager to learn. We are so thankful for his current class, and this past summer school season. We are so thankful that he no longer walks into the class screaming and crying.

And, we're thankful to finally begin, again, a school year with more hope than concern.