AJ was pretty traumatized the first day, it is total Chinese immersion and he was fairly miserable not understanding a word his teachers said. He came home in tears saying he never wanted to go back. By the morning he was better and at the end of the second day he was full of happiness and joy, saying it was the best school ever. Twice now he has asked if he can stay there for school.
CJ, on the other hand, sailed through the first day and seemed to be doing fine all week. We had a morning routine that helped him get out of the door and tried to give him down time every night. When I picked him up on Thursday, I got a good report from the principal. I was relieved and hopeful that he would smoothly transition into this school if he got in. Maybe, I thought, the change in environment would do the trick and he would slide right in.
This morning, however, Drew waltzed right into school and Carter through a major fit. A friend watched TJ while I tried to calm and get him inside, which worked. The principal took over from there and gave me a call later to let me know how it went. He had eventually calmed down and had a good conversation with the principal and she then took him back to class and spoke with his teachers. Apparently he hadn't been doing as swimmingly as we thought, they had been letting him lie down on the ground and not take part in class whenever he liked. So he wasn't acting up, but he also wasn't fully participating.
The principal believes, and I agree, that this is not something that should be allowed. CJ needs to find appropriate ways to meet his needs and this would not count. We agreed that I would observe the class this week to see how I think it is going and take it from there. I also let her know that we were meeting with a psychologist on Friday and she was excited to hear about that. All of these conversations should be taken in the context that he is still not off the wait list, which makes it even more impressive that the school is taking the time to try and work through all of this with us.
I don't want to feel discouraged and down, but I do. It is amazing how easy it is to get your hopes up that all the problems can be easily solved and everything will be "normal," whatever that means. More than anything, I want CJ to be happy and am struggling to picture a school setting where that occurs. I know this is not the end and hopefully he will be fine in either school once we get everything in place. Things will look better soon.
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