The new school year

Isla, 5yrs old

Monday will see the start of the new school year. 
I'm excited. My 5yr old Daughter finally gets to start school. She has been waiting for the day to come for MONTHS. She is so ready & I am excited for her. When we left NSW she lost her little circle of friends & has not really made any new friends here yet. She has buddies at playgroup but she has not attended any "preschool" or daycare in the last 12 months. We did try for a few weeks but the timing wasn't great & she was not enjoying it. I'm hoping with all my heart    that she finds school enjoyable & "easy".

                                                                                 

Evan on his first day of school.
Before it became hard.

     Glenn will move onto year 2 & Evan into year 4. I'm not as excited for my boys to be returning to school. Its not an easy place for them. They struggle with mainstream schooling. Evan tries his hardest to keep things together while at school. He fiddles & fidgets most of the day. He finds the work confusing but not because he isn't smart. He is very intelligent.  But because he is misunderstood. He  is very rigid in his mindset & often doesn't try as failing is to scary a thing to happen.
Glenn's struggles are more social & communication. He is a wonderfully loyal little boy. He has a unique was to describe things that are often misunderstood by his teacher & peers. This causes great frustrations.
In the 12 months of yr 1, he struggled to recall any of the children's names in his class. He only spoke of one girl as his friend. She isn't in his class this year. This saddens me as I am unsure he will seek her out in the playground if she is not there in the class room with him. 

Glenn on his first day. Keen & excited.

Simply put school for the older boys is overwhelming.
I am not looking forward to the meltdowns & anxiety associated with the return of school.
But we have worked hard this past year to get the support in place for the boys & I am hoping that this year will be different & will be a new start to what will be an enjoyable school life.
They have so much still ahead of them, its gut wrenching to think its going to be difficult always.

Iain, ready to learn!

 Next off the ranks is Iain. He is venturing into 2 half days a week with the Early Child Development programme. This will be his first experience of any sort of "care" or "school" type setup with out me there. I think he will do just fine. He enjoys the centre as we use to attend last year for the playgroup sessions they held once a week for the little ones too young to attend the official days,
I don't know how long it will last that he wont notice if I leave. But I don't plan on going far. I might just sit down the road with a "coffee" (I don't drink coffee but it sounds more grown up then "A milkshake" which is what it really will be) & enjoy my 2 & half hours of just having Rohan.

Once I know he is comfy, I might try & venture a little further & make use of my time with just 1 child. Find a nearby gym maybe. I also want to make it too the morning sessions with the local Autism Support group & become more involved with that. They have given me so much this last year. I want to do as much as I can to return the support.

So the new school year brings mixed emotions. Hope is my main one. Hope that this year sees things improve. Hope that this year is the start to a new & enjoyable school life for my children.
But then there is also the realisation that they are not babies any more. I am down to just 1 baby.
They all grow up too fast!

But even Rohan is not
really the baby anymore.