A New Path

Is this the beginning or is this the end? Kindergarten marks a new path for Logan. We are amazed to see how far Logan has come. Kindergarten in a typical Calgary Board of Education school. This is the stuff dreams are made of. When we started this journey at two we did not know where we would end up. I am full of joy to know my two kiddos will be at the same school. My heart races when I think there will be no aide in class with him to make sure he is not talking to loud, playing nicely with the other kids or watching out for the dreaded stim. Then I think to myself he has five up on these kids. He has had a "personal trainer" in socializing with others, he has learned how to manage his stim and really it does not seem to bother the other kids that he is loud. Maybe his teacher will teach him to use an indoor voice? I was wondering to myself why am I having such a difficult time sending him off to school. Then it hit me...it is the other parents that should be concerned. I should be happy the principle, vice principle and teacher got a 50 page Psychologists report on who Logan really is. Where his challenges are and what causes him anxiety. It is nice to know two years (15 pages each) of Individual Personal Program Plan (detailed report card) from his specialized preschool were included in the package. These detailed everything and anything that Logan needed to learn, was taught and how they taught it. We met with the the Program Specialist in early May and she observed Logan in preschool for an afternoon then met with the staff at school to share her observations. Logan also attended Kindergarten one morning with last years class before the end of school with his aide and we came up with a list of thing to work on over summer which have all been achieved. So why on the eve of his first bus ride to school am I wondering if he is ready? I know that with Autism anything and everything could go wrong at the drop of a hat. That sometimes nothing is as it seems. That we have worked so hard to teach him (literally) everything he knows. We have been there every step of the way and tomorrow he will take every step himself. He is nervous/anxious but I need believe in him. He has gotten us this far. At the beginning of this post I wondered if this was the beginning or the end. It is the ending of the path we needed to take to get to this point. It is the beginning of a new path for our family. I am anticipating Kindergarten to be full of wonderful memories that we will continue to share I hope you will join us.