Preschool Update

I thought I'd do a little update about how Cruise's preschool is going thus far. Honestly, I can't believe how well things have been going and I feel so blessed to have Cruise in such a great public school, with a great teacher, and with an incredibly small class size where each kid gets an aide. It really is something remarkable and I just couldn't be more grateful for the school situation this year.

Even after the first week of public school, Cruise was obviously making amazing progress. Every day he'd come home having learned something new and shared it with us for the rest of the day. Last week he came home and while he was playing with his toys began to say, "Black bird, black bird, what do you see? I see a...(looks at his toy penguin) PENGUIN looking at me." My mouth dropped and I couldn't believe what I had just witnessed. He now will sit down with a picture book and do the same rhyme with the pictures that he sees. It's just incredible to me.

When the first day of his private school, Bridges, began, I went to pick Cruise up from public school after lunch to take him. Immediately I got this big knot in my stomach and it made me uncomfortable. I took him to Bridges where I said goodbye and left for home. When I got home, I talked to Dave about the whole situation and told him what my gut feeling was, which was to not do Bridges and just keep him at public school all day. It frustrated me a little because I absolutely LOVE Bridges. After all, Cruise has been going there for an entire year and I am such a fan of their program. But deep down I felt like it just wasn't right this year.

I assessed why I love Bridges so much and what I feel like it helps Cruise with. It came down to two very important things: learning to socialize and the sensory aspect. So we decided that instead, to have him start a Social Group program at Bridges which starts in October. This program is once a week in the evening and addresses those two components. He will bring a "neurotypical" friend and there they will help him socially interact appropriately and also throw in sensory activities.

After making and finalizing our decision, the knot came undone and I felt so much better. It's so funny how many times we end up having to make a decision between two very wonderful things. Things that are in no way bad. I think that's what makes the decision particularly hard. But the great thing is having a continual dialogue with Heavenly Father and being able to feel and respond to the promptings of the Spirit. My life may be one hectic crises after another, but I always feel like I can manage them because I have Heavenly Father on my team. He sees things from a whole different perspective and so what may seem like a crisis to me, probably looks like a regular growing experience to Him. I am so grateful for that.