Big Day at School
Caleb wasn’t even two when he could say the ABC’s, count past 20 and start recognizing words.
Our family was in awe and we encouraged him to display his intellect to our friends. However, we started to notice his interests didn’t span much beyond letters and numbers besides the occasional hockey play or throwing balls. Our friend's children were watching movies and kid’s shows but Caleb only wanted to watch YouTube videos of people making letters out of play-doh or play file folder games (thanks to creative teachers for these inventions).
Shortly thereafter I started to ask questions and voice my concerns. I was advised to get the school district involved if we had any thoughts that Caleb may be on the autism spectrum. That was about nine months ago and since then Caleb has been receiving services through the Minneapolis Public School system. About a month ago, Caleb’s team sat Dan and I down and talked about Caleb’s autism testing results and how he has found himself a spot on that spectrum. He now moves forward in life with an IEP.
Dan loves his time home with the boys when I’m at work, but we all agreed that placing Caleb in a school with some structure might be beneficial for him. So today our little guy started at Grace Neighborhood Nursery School in Uptown just a few days a week for a few hours. His school collaborates with his teachers so the home visits stop and his teachers now go to his school to help him integrate with other kids and work with more of a structured itinerary. Minnie had the privilege of going with Caleb on the bus to school today and spending the day learning with him.
The feelings start to become more real today. All of these concerns that Dan and I have had are being recognized and turned over to professionals that can help. It is no longer just thoughts that we discuss over a late night game of cribbage. I used to bring up things I noticed in hopes that Dan hasn’t also noticed the same thing. Or I used to ask questions to my friends in hopes of getting the token answers “he will catch up” or “my kid never crawled either” or even “you are enabling him, just stop helping him so much." Now I only wish that those answers were the truth. But we take the cards that God dealt us and use them to help each other.
The bus is cool, in fact it makes the logistics of Caleb being in school a lot easier. It also allows Duncan to rule the household for a few hours (pictured below hanging in Caleb’s chair). But I’d be lying if I didn’t say I wish instead we were figuring out the logistics of how we were going to get Caleb to and from school like all the other kids.
We continue to feel blessed for time to dedicate to Caleb.