Good Beginnings

This week went well. C.J. loved the school. For the first 30 seconds on Monday he was attached to me and then he saw the water table. The teacher came over and helped him get involved and he was off. I went to talk to the director and he spent the 20 minutes exploring the new space and announced when I came back that "I love this place!" I did too. There are 8 students and 2 teachers and lots of room for exploring his world and also directed instruction one-on-one (a modified Montessori is the best way to think about it). While we were there the teacher was working with students on taste, having them come up and sit with her to taste different liquids and talk about what each was. Very cool and very C.J. So I wrote a check and that was it. He stayed up with Mimi and spent the next three days getting to know his new classmates and teachers.

He came back last night and spent today saying goodbye to his classmates at Hope. He was a happy camper when he came home last night and full of great stories from his new world. His party today went well and he didn't seem to have any hesitation about leaving his old school behind.

Will it be this smooth for the next few weeks? Probably not. I'm sure we have some rough times ahead of us as he adjusts and figures out the limits of his teacher. She has had experience with ADHD and all the teachers have spent extra time learning about behavior management so I think it will go well, but we won't know for sure for a while. There will also be times where he misses home and we'll have to figure out how to handle those. Still, we are moving forward for the first time in a while, which is cause for celebration.

More changes for the rest of us also. I told work I would not be back next year and they are going to try and start the transition in the next month or so. This will give me more freedom to support C.J. in his adjustment and find a good space for him for next year.

I am more optimistic now than I have been for a while. For now, we are keeping our fingers crossed that the good beginning has an equally good ending.