School? OMG How I miss those days!

Andrew was at an amazing program at the South Coast Educational Collaborative. His program went almost year round. He only had those typical school vacations (Christmas, winter, spring) and a total of about 3 weeks off between the beginning and the end of the summer. Amazing teachers, who were respectful, caring, and best of all fun.

Adult land is a different world all together.
Day programs are terrible. The only good thing is that they don't have ANY vacations, but you need one from sitting at a table all day doing kindergarten coloring sheets, or puzzles. When cooking is making instant pudding and pigs in a blanket. (How's that for healthy?) Sensory? NONE. Exercise? Almost non existent? It's a sad sad world.

I yanked Andrew out of there after 5 years because it was killing him. I set up a program from home which is much better BUT we also lost 10 hours a week of services.

Enjoy school folks, even with those long and often difficult vacations because you will miss them when school isn't an option anymore.

I have end of summer burnout so I cannot wait until school starts. Summer started great but by the time mid-August rolled around, my son started refusing to go to camp and was acting out at the counselors, running away, being very non compliant mainly due to sensory overload. Last Wednesday, I got a call from the camp SPED director asking to keep him home for a day so I did and have kept him home since ($500 down the tube but what can you do? he just couldn't cope with camp this year and they couldn't handle him) Yesterday morning while I was making breakfast, my son took off and ran across the street and into my neighbors house. My neighbor has a sword collection stored in his garage and my son went right for them. After frantically looking for him, I had to go over and bring him home. My neighbor paid me a visit later that evening and lectured about supervising my child better- I need to hear that like I need a hole in the head. The reason I am exhausted is because I DO supervise my child but he is fast and I'm middle age and btw, I wasn't born with eyes in the back of my head (wouldn't that be nice). This is the last week of vacation before school starts and my family and I are headed for Northern New Hampshire for vacation. I am looking forward to the trip but am also fearful as we'll be staying in a lodge on a pond in a forested area. I make a list of all the safety gear needed for the trip. He wears a LoJack tracking bracelet on his ankle and I have his swim vest, I have a back up GPS device just in case (welcome to the new normal). Hope all goes well. Please God, just get me through to the first day of school. My new favorite "holiday".

Ganga,
It might work better for you to find a socially active group of homeschoolers where your kids can have the best of both worlds. The nice thing about homeschooling is that during flu or strep season you can choose to lay low until it blows over, being more careful about who and what your kids are exposed to, instead of the daily exposure to hundreds or thousands of kids in school where attendance is mandatory. You have much more control over environment and food. Also, you would have the option of traveling, going on trips with the group or as a family. Just wanted to mention it. A lot of people don't think of homeschooling as a viable option, but for some, especially the medically fragile or those that have a difficult time coping with the demands of attending school, it can be a relief and healthier - especially if it means being able to avoid bouts of chronic illness and medication.

Kim, not trying to be oppositional here (you're talking boarding school and I'm responding with homeschooling :o)! Not denying that some kids do well in school and I'm glad that your school system meets your girls' needs and that they look forward to it. It sounds like Ganga has a different situation where her kids do better outside of school and I wanted to suggest that there are other options.