The calm before the storm

Well that’s the Easter holidays over then.   Thanks to a family-wide spell of illness, our boy has spent two weeks lounging in his pyjamas, watching DVDs in his room and playing Club Penguin on the laptop.  He loves dressing his penguin, making it dance, playing games and decking out his igloo.  I think it gives him a sense of deep satisfaction to be in control of his own world.  I suspect he feels that ours is out of control, with all its noise, speed, unpredictability and Other People.

This brings me to the subject of my first post – school.  I am not looking forward to the return to school.  On the one hand it has given T the chance to make some good friends.  He enjoys learning and often surprises me with random factoids.  (He told me yesterday that adult crocodiles could grow to a size of 7 metres, but I believe he got this little gem from one of his Wiggles DVDs, rather than school.)  He loves PE, and just try getting him out of the playground at the end of the day…….

On the other hand, there is the noise and being forced into close proximity to others.  There are the long gaps between learning called playtime.  For T, these are just unstructured periods of time where other children barge about and play games that he cannot follow.

  

Then there's writing.  He hates writing because he struggles with it.  His method of letter and number formation more closely resembles shorthand or some sort of oriental script than the lettering and numerals we use in the west.  With writing comes homework.  I have strong views about tired, small children having to do homework after a full day at school.  Add a learning disability or special needs into the mix, and you have a surefire recipe for stress and frustration.  We don’t talk about the Dinosaur Project Fiasco.  That’s a story for another day.

So it’s no surprise, then, that I am regarding the return to school with trepidation and some heaviness of heart.  I know he needs to go; he needs to learn, socialise (and learn how to socialise), and it helps build routine and normality into our lives.  But I want those laughs and smiles to stay, not the frowns and anxiety and the arguments that come from tension and weariness.  I just want him to stay carefree and happy.