Yesterday. :(

So I volunteer in my sons class about once a week for reading groups.  Today I entered his classroom during recess and there was a little girl in there.  She is one of my sons good friend in the class and she started  to tell me a story of the day.  Each word that she said made my heart break.   She began by telling me how frustrated my son had been that morning and how he had started yelling and then begun to throw chairs and shove desks around the room.  I listened as she continued, " we decided to try a new thing today.  It was cool.  The whole class got to go outside for and extra recess and run around."  When we got back he( my son) was not frustrated anymore, she said. Then she smiled and turned away.

I love the innocence of little kids. This little girl even though she was tattling  and telling me how bad my son acted, understood and that lifted my spirit.  She wasn't scared or mean about how my son reacted she understood that he was frustrated and that he was doing the best he could in that moment.  I wanted to hug her and thank her for understanding how hard it can be for him.  I didn't but I thanked her for being his friend and for understanding that he gets frustrated sometimes.

I believe that the Assistant Principal came and deescalated my son and was able to help him process his frustrations. My son had a great rest of the day.  I am so grateful for each of the staff at his school that work so hard to help him.  We made it another day. Yea!

Underwear

Over the last school year my son had difficulty with playing with himself at school and showing his penis to others (not on purpose) but never the less we where struggling.  As embarrassing as this is for me to talk about, I found a way to completely stop him from doing this so I thought I would share!! I made him a onesie by sewing an undershirt to a pair of underwear. It was been a life saver for us and I thought someone out there might benefit from it too.  

School Struggles

Second Grade!  Yikes. I would have never imagined that this year would be such a challenge.  Last year was so amazing and we breezed through without to many issues.  We had a little bullying issue that was fairly easy to resolve and academically my guy was near perfect.  This year has been the complete opposite.  I have been getting 2-4 calls a week to come to the school to help calm, motivate,  redirect, and bring changes of clothes ( he has started having potty accidents).  I have been very overwhelmed and unsure how to assist.  I started by just waiting to be asked for help.  And Things  kept escalating, so I  took a different approach.  He teacher this year doesn't seem to respond well to my suggestions so I called and emailed the principal and asked for a change in his IEP ( individual education plan).  Working with the schools special education teacher really helped too.  We formulated a plan to assist his sensory needs and give him support when and where he needs it,
1. he is wearing a pressure vest
2. using weighted blanket as needed
3. taking 3 scheduled breaks in special education classroom
    (where he can jump on trampoline)
     get extra one on one help with difficult tasks
     see a schedule of the day to ease surprises
4. he sits in front close to teacher
5. has a desk away to do work if needed.
6. has his own tools to use so he gets desired color and type of crayons/ glue/ scissors/ etc

We have been not having him ride the bus, and getting him to school right as the bell rings to minimize unstructured free time. Which has seemed to help.  Also I make him swing for 10-15 minutes downstairs before school to help get him ready to start the day!  All these things are helping and I am hopeful as we go back to school from Christmas break thing will go better!!  I love my little guy so much!  I pray it goes well for him!