So far, the first two weeks of school have been outstanding. When we went in for the open house last week I was amazed by all of the work that Sydney had so dilegently worked towards. There was a profile picture, a picture on a post it for a graph of who walks to school, there was an “all about me” sheet where I learned that her goal in life is to be a teacher and she would love a horse. It was all going so well, too well almost. Best of all the communication book had all stars. She burst into grade 2 with a vengence.

And then…something changed. We started seeing signs of her falling back. One piece of homework came home one day, the next day two. For the week so far each night we’ve had to pull out the pencil and eraser and complete all that stuff at home. It is disappointing for sure, it’s frustrating too; I was really beginning to have fun with the kids after school. What changed? What happened?

Was it that I am looking after some neighbourhood kids and having the kids around has changed her routine? Is it that a speech and language therapist went in to visit Sydney and she wasn’t expecting it? Was it that she realized that school isn’t going away anytime soon? Was it that in an effort to help her through this homework challenge the team and teacher have decided to collectively decided on the next step?

Yup, week three and it was the little things I started to notice. “Is it a school day today?” The wanting me to stay with her at night, the lack of eating. I feel for her. I can’t keep asking why it happened I just need to support her because whatever the reason this morning was the first morning since school started that I had a little girl in tears and not wanting to go inside.

Just yesterday Sydney met with her Youth and Child counsellor and they discussed how each day Sydney would be given three little sticky notes. When the work is assigned Sydney gets a chance to complete it. If after a couple minutes it is not completed the teacher takes the one marked number one off. Then if after a few more minutes it is not done number two gets taken away. If after three it is not completed it is put in the bag for homework. What the team has asked me is that I am 100% hands off. NO helping. So, if she isn’t sure what to do and/or she can’t complete it the sheets or task get put back in the bag for the teacher to evaluate. Sydney was fully aware of this as she did tell me all about it yesterday. I asked her if she thought it was a good idea and she said “Yes”. But the reality struck her dead in the middle of the school yard this morning and I could see a bit of a fall back. I came home and called my team and told them that we had neglected a very important part of this process. We were all so caught up in all of the things that Sydney had already accomplished that we forgot we may need a bit of a back up if for example like today she won’t go into school. Thankfully my team was right there to help in the process and someone will be in the school yard tomorrow should we have some tears.

Never a dull moment…