Well, 2nd grade is almost over. Where are we at? Russ doesn't like school. He is doing all right, not great, but not failing either. I feel bad for him. You never want your child to dislike school and 2nd grade seems too young to not like school. Sigh. He has a great teacher and am hoping for another great teacher next year; I cringe to think where we'd be if we didn't have a good teacher. I wrote to the principal and asked her to place Russ in a good class since I don't know the teachers and I am afraid of what we'll get if the computer spits him out into any old class. So, I am hopeful she'll put him with someone that will continue to work with us to keep him successful.
His friend situation is still a concern. He has friends at school, but doesn't want to invite anyone over and he doesn't get invited over. He seems to eat and play at recess with the same group. I think at recess he will sometimes play with different kids or by himself. He's always been good at playing by himself without a care. He was like that when he was little. It is hard to tell what really goes on at recess, his memory for stuff like is bad and sometimes he's off in his own world that he just doesn't pay attention or process what is going on. It's frustrating.
I was at a PTSO meeting a couple of weeks ago (I am going to be on the Board next year. I have the easiest job – co-secretary) and we were meeting the principal and I told her who I was and that I had sent her a letter about Russ. Apparently she knows Russell, not in a bad way, which is saying something because there are over 1100 students at his school. Apparently she has sort of taken the librarian's twins and 'adopted' them as grandkids and the twins (girls) and Russ are in the same class and they all share the same birthday. Apparently the twins love Russell and spoke nonstop about him while they spent a weekend with the principal and her husband. She and her husband know all about Russell's likes and dislikes, his shark knowledge, etc. And this just furthers my point of frustration, Russ has no clue that the twins like him so much. Okay, maybe that is more of a girl vs boy thing. Who knows?
Russ is in 2 sports this season (soccer and tennis), not exactly great planning on my part. He doesn't like soccer this time. It is more the coaching style than it is soccer, I think. They are pretty serious soccer people and ride Russ pretty hard during practice b/c he is kind of a space case and his ADHD meds are wearing off, plus he's just not a coordinated guy. Never has been. So, while he needs the extra attention, our concern is that positive feedback and the negative feedback need to be equal. That is debatable. I think the other factor is that Russ doesn't do well when people are on his case a lot; he loses his confidence in what he's doing and then shuts down. We've talked to the coach, it does seem to be a little better on the coaches' part. We'll see. He doesn't hate soccer, but on Wednesday mornings he's already commenting on how he doesn't want to go. I never have to drag him out the door, if I did, then I think we'd let him quit. Oooh, that was painful just typing it. We are just taking it week by week.
After this season we are going to let Russ decide what he wants to do and keep it at one sport. I think he's voting for tennis. He's not great at tennis, but the coach has a totally different style. His feedback isn't negative, it is more constructive. Plus in tennis he has something to do with his hands. It seems like when he has something in his hands he's less likely to go off in his own world.
We are still in private speech. That is going well. We are up for a renewal, so we'll see if Tricare will give us more sessions. We've been lucky so far, so I am hoping for the best!
Anyway, as you can probably guess, Russ is counting down til summer break. Next up, summer plans! They are shaping up well and now I think I am kind of counting the days too!
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