Mommy Anxieties

It's hard to believe that in just over a week, Colin is going to be starting Kindergarten.  We have been talking about it and preparing for it for so long now that there are some anxieties as the time nears and we get ready to send Colin to a typical classroom (yay for inclusion) for a full day with new teachers, aides, and friends all in a new school.  There will be new routines and lots of "rigor" (we all know Kindergarten just isn't what it used to be when we were in school) and what I am guaranteeing to be an adjustment period for him. 

 

 

If I look back over our whole summer, it has actually been pretty great in terms of Colin's behavior and in all of the ways he has changed.  It has been a work in progress and some areas have been easier than others, but overall his compliance to complete non-preferred tasks has been far better than it had been.  It takes some strategies to get him to do this, but we have worked through (even though it felt like we repeated ourselves 50 million times) and found some results.  

 

 

As I have watched Colin this summer, I am reminded why our decision to place him in a typical Kindergarten classroom is the best one, even before he actually gets there.  There are far too many examples of how he has modeled things Kailey says and does daily that makes me believe that when he sees his fellow peers doing things, he will model them as well.  When we met with his new teachers and the principal last week, we reminded them that he is an observer and there are many times where it seems like he's just sitting there not doing anything, but his is ALWAYS learning.  There are many times that I have been in situations with him where I have to remind myself to be patient as he sits back and watches other kids not doing anything, only to need to give it time before he follows through with the same task in the same way.  He WILL do all of the same things the other kids are doing, it just might take him a little bit longer to complete.

 

My anxieties start to come in now as I see all of these posts of parents sending their kids back to school and all of the great things they post that their kids have accomplished over the summer.  Potty trained! Knows how to read! Tells stories! Knows all of their upper and lower case letters! Memorized ___ sight words! While I am happy for their accomplishments, my worry starts to creep in as I wonder if I did enough to get Colin ready for this next step.  On top of that, I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of our 3rd baby and worry how much it will disrupt Colin and Kailey's lives at the wrong time (my due date is on labor day and they start school that week).  We have noticed a little bit of a dip in behavior (for BOTH) and a regression on Colin's part when it comes to the potty (wailing Mommy here) that I am sure can be attributed to the fact it's the end of the summer, we need routines again and they are anticipating change happening. While I can justify the reasons, it doesn't help with the timing of it all. 

I know that the anticipation is always the worst part of any change so I am sure once we get into it all, things will be fine.  I honestly just worry the most right now about the potty because that was one thing the school was not as open to.  Unfortunately, despite the fact Colin was pretty much schedule trained, he stopped telling me when he had to go and I have noticed an increase in accidents.  I am TRYING to keep my patience with him, but it's really hard knowing that in just over a week, he's expected to be trained and having no issues at school.  Let's hope for a quick turnaround in the next week!

I know we will get there, especially with the potty, but I honestly never thought when we started potty training Colin well over 2 years ago, we would STILL be at it...

Here's to the kickoff of the 2014-2015 school year!