Tucker has been adjusting well to school, but it has definitely been a harder transition than I thought. It has also been a longer transition, as his issues seem to change every week. For the first few days there were only 4 students, then new students were slowly added until the full class attended last Friday. Now there are 13 kids, and 3 adults, which is more kids than Tucker has ever been around.
For the first few days Tucker came home hyperactive, then for about two weeks he rocked for hours afterschool and/or napped until 530, then didn't go to sleep at bedtime. Well this week, right as I got used to that routine, he came home as his regular self at 330. He is definitely tired, but he plays and gets his bath, goes about his routine and crashes at 9pm. This gives him about 10 hours of sleep per day, since he is still not napping at school.
On Sunday night Chris, Tucker, and I went to dinner at Rotolo's with my parents, Gina, Dylan, and Jene. Tucker was very well-behaved, he colored the kiddie menu with crayons and licked his breadsticks and pizza, as well as drinking water from his kiddie cup. He hit Chris a few times (I know, yikes!) but Chris kind of play fought with him, and he got over it. On Monday we went to lunch with Chris's parents; I thought since lunchtime was before naptime he would be in a great mood...not so much! At one point he choked on a Goldfish cracker, which really freaked me out...I am still not really recovered. I haven't been watching him as closely when he licks food, since he doesn't really put it in his mouth. Chris had to lay him down and sweep the cracker out of his mouth, then Tucker sat there in silence...I think he was really scared, even though we told him it was over and he didn't have to eat anymore.
Last Thursday, Tucker's behavior note from school said "fair" (the choices are excellent, good, fair, and poor). The comments said he hit twice. By Friday his behavior was good again, so we shrugged it off and kind of laughed at it. But on Monday his behavior note said he hit two kids and one adult. I really freaked out then. By the time Tucker gets home from school it's too late to punish him for something he did at school. But I still sat him down and told him the rule is "No Hitting," and he would get in trouble each time he hit. So from 330-530 he didn't hit me, but he really never does. So once Chris came in, it's like a light went off and Tucker was hitting him over and over. We have talked about it and realize that Tucker just loves his Daddy's attention, and since in the evenings Chris is exhausted, Tucker does what gets his attention the fastest-hitting him! Once we gotused to Tucker pulling on us and bossing us, we have both gotten good at tuning him out. But a surefire way to get Chris's attention is hitting him, especially in the face....which is exactly the worst thing to teach him! So on Monday evening Chris said "No Hitting" about 40 times....but he said Tuesday evening was much better (I wasn't home to supervise).
On Wednesday I sent a note with Tucker's folder, asking his teacher to please call me about the hitting. I wanted to see if it was at a particular time of day (maybe he was tired), or if it was during a certain activity, or if Tucker was hitting kids to get their attention. Wednesday afternoon, Tucker's note said he had hit again; by this point I was scared he was getting out of control! (Over-react much?? Haha) His teacher called me yesterday and said that Tucker's behavior is really OK and that she didn't even realize that we were taking it so seriously. I told her that I take every note she sends very seriously, I am a first-time mom with a special needs kid. She said that they have really been pushing Tucker very hard at school, and he is working very hard to keep up with the other kids in the class. So every once in a while he gets frustrated and hits; he also loves hair, as we all know, and sometimes he goes to rub a kid's head, but it really looks like he is going to hit them, so the kid gets scared. She said he definitely hits for attention, though, and they tell him "no hitting" and he stops. I felt so much better knowing that. Of course hitting is bad regardless, but I was worried that he was having big fits where he couldn't stop hitting, or that he was making enemies all over class! Luckily, I was very wrong. Mrs. Amy said Tucker is still testing their limits, so his behavior may get worse before it gets better, and she will work through it.
Tucker also had some positive school things this week. He had his first homework! Chris and I thought this was hilarious, and a little bit of a challenge. Tucker had to find pictures of things that he likes in magazines and cut them out, then glue the pictures on his Tucker page so the other kids can learn "All About Tucker." All we had was a massive stack of hunting magazines and one therapy toys catalogue. So we had to improvise; luckily we saw pics of a truck in the Cabela's magazine, and a few pics in the therapy catalogue, but I had to print out some pics off the Internet. Tucker had to point to the pics on the Internet that he liked as well, so it was the same concept. Tucker did a pretty good job of helping me cut and glue the pictures, although of course he wanted to do it all on his own! He had almost no control of the scissors, so that didn't happen. Tucker's finished assignment ended up being pretty messy, haha, proof that he worked on it, not just his Mommy:) Chris helped him as well.
The class is also working on one letter and one color each week, as well as one nursery rhyme each week. Last week was "B", and Tucker had fun saying "buh buh buh" every time I said "what does B make?" Saturday night he was playing with Chris's workboots, and he said "buh buh boots, buh buh boots." This week's letter is "N", so we need to start on that. We read "Jack be Nimble" to him Tuesday night, that is quite an odd nursery rhyme...Chris said "that's ridiculous, why are we reading a story to Tucker about some kid jumping over a candlestick?" But Tucker liked listening to it! He also has a picture book with a picture of each of his classmates. Tucker turns the pages and he knows about half of the names without me having to say them first.
We are glad that he gets to be around other kids and get the chance to learn so much. With cold and flu season approaching, we are hoping Tucker stays as healthy as possible so that he can get a lot out of school.
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