Anybody else dreading the start of school?

[missypie]

School starts here in one week. DS14, with mild Asperger's and extreme ADD, starts HIGH SCHOOL! This time, the grades count! The school is very competitive...they grade on a 5.0 scale and last year the bottom of the top 10% had a GPA of 5.05.

Also, we haven't found any of his few friends that he has any classes with...there may be a time of him eating lunch alone.

The special ed lady who promised us last spring that she would look over his schedule and make sure he has the "right" teachers hasn't surfaced yet, despite repeated calls and e-mails to her.

Anybody else dreading the start of school?

 

[SueM in MN]

Group hugs to everyone who is not looking forward to school.
hope it turns out better than you expect.

 

[robin09]

School starts here in one week. DS14, with mild Asperger's and extreme ADD, starts HIGH SCHOOL!

Also, we haven't found any of his few friends that he has any classes with...there may be a time of him eating lunch alone.

The special ed lady who promised us last spring that she would look over his schedule and make sure he has the "right" teachers hasn't surfaced yet, despite repeated calls and e-mails to her.

Anybody else dreading the start of school?

I am also drreading the schoolyear. Granted DD6 is only going into 1st grade, but I can hear the complaints already. Just the stress of getting her up on time, dressed and fed is enough to stress me out. DD has adhd, aspergers, ocd and bad reactions to food with color dyes. She is an energized bunny on speed with out any control of her mouth. She is reading well, but fine motor skills are sadly lacking. HEr social skills are horrible, no matter how hard we try to teach her with social stories. Luckily she never notices how people (kids) back away from her. I feel so badly for her.

So in answer to your question I AM DREADING SCHOOL!

 

[mbb]

missypie and Robin

...and gotta say, nope, not really looking forward to it here, either...but ssshhh, don't let my kids hear me say that! LOL!

I agree, it's hard to get them up, and at least "happy" with going to a place that just overwhelms them

Then the social pressures...the meetings with teachers and support staff...and explaining it all over again...it overwhelms me too...

Which is why, halfway through the year, we take a break, head to WDW, recharge, and we're ready to go at it again for the home stretch...

It's good to know we're not the only ones feeling the "summer's coming to an end" blues...

 

[SandrainNC]

This year, I'm not dreading it. But next year my baby starts kindergarten and I am already stressed out about it!

Sandra

 

[riu girl]

robin: I thought I was the only mom to have an "energizer bunny on speed" little girl DD8 (ADHD/LD) is starting Grade 3 and this will be her first year without an in school support person ( we call them an EA : Education assistant here in Canada). So due to this, I am worried. I never worried in the past since I knew she had her EA with her. But due to behavioural/academic gains over the last couple of years, no EA this year. I am okay about the whole thing but like your child, she has VERY WEAK social skills and just doesn't have any idea about appriopriate peer interaction.
But ont he other hand, she will have the same teacher as this year and this teacher was incredible . So I think things will be ok.

 

[Michigan]

Oh no, they must go back to school and soon. Megan is babysitting Michaela this summer for the first time. Last months electric bill $154 this month $145. I think they have every light and all the TV's on in the house all day long.

 

[Lives4Disney]

Missypie - I am SO with you. I also have a 14 yr old starting High School. He has ADD and is a horrible student. The whole school year is painful for all of us in our family. People laugh at me and tell me I am the only mom they know that isn't looking forward to their kids going back to school. I DREAD it. It is the most stressful part of our life here. We have a terrific family & life all except for school.

I have the same worries about my son starting HS that you do. His ONE friend is moving right before school starts. That knowledge hit me like a brick. I felt sick to my stomach all week when I found out he wouldn't be there with my son.

We have had nasty, unreasonable teachers & hours of homework that my son either loses or forgets to turn in!! Ya, I am scared of high school where grades count, too.

My baby starts kindergarden this year, too. My older daughter will be in fourth grade. She gets Braille lessons & cane training n school due to her vision impairment, but she is my FANTASTIC student and loves school. I will miss them so much when they are in school.

Good luck to you all & your kids. Maybe it will be a great school year......

Lives4Disney

 

[JenJen]

My DD who is 10 has ADHD and SID but does wonderful in school. Always has a 4.0 but I think that is because she is a bit OCD and obsesses about her grades.
Son 13 who is aspie, ADD, and possible fragil X (Having test done now) just can not get into the swing of school. I feel so bad because he has to hear about his little sister getting all A's and he struggles just to get a D in some classes. He is in summer school and failed his socail studies class in summer school. I am thinking it may be time for a PA for him in the classroom. I just don't want him to feel as if he needs to keep up with his sister. I tell him just try your best that is all you can do. He has finaly made some friends at this school and if his grades continue this way they will kick him out . It is a private school so there is no special classes.

Good luck to all you mom's and Dad's sending off you precious packages to the school district. Hopefully this year will be a good one!!!
JenJen

 

[lewdyan1]

We started on Monday, so far not too bad. Most teachers in the school are familiar with my DS IEP and are making the transition into 5th grade great. We are just starting the process for my DD. She qualified for an IEP due to an LD. I called for a CST (child study team) to start the process, but was told they won't call the meeting until September.
I hope everyone has a smooth transition!

 

[minkydog]

I just realized why I am glad that school started--because my DS19 finally graduated! He had a perfectly miserable High School experience. His so-called special ed services were laughable--their idea of "helping" when he was failing was to advise him to quit school & get a job. Thankfully, it's behind us now; he did graduate(from a home program) and plans to go to college this fall.

On the other hand, DS10 is sooo so happy to be in school and I am soooo so happy for him to be there. He is severely mentally handicapped and summers are difficult. I wish he could go to school year-round. I love him dearly,but he is a lot of work. He has the body of a 10yr with a mind of a toddler--that means getting into stuff, running away, being head-strong & destructive when he is not properly channeled. It's exhausting; it certainly takes a village to raise this child!

Let's hope everybody gets off on the right foot this year. Wishing your kids some fine friends and a wonderful teacher!

 

[missypie]

Missypie - I am SO with you. I also have a 14 yr old starting High School. He has ADD and is a horrible student. The whole school year is painful for all of us in our family. People laugh at me and tell me I am the only mom they know that isn't looking forward to their kids going back to school. I DREAD it. It is the most stressful part of our life here. We have a terrific family & life all except for school.

We have had nasty, unreasonable teachers & hours of homework that my son either loses or forgets to turn in!! Ya, I am scared of high school where grades count, too.


Good luck to you all & your kids. Maybe it will be a great school year......

Lives4Disney

My DS is a horrible student, too. Terrible study skills. I hate that during the school year, he gets so much negativism (is that a word?) thrown at him, including by me. I'm more patient than DH, but I'm no saint. I admit to having blown up at him, like when we find out about a "six week project" that he hasn't done and it's due in 3 days, or that he can't study his English notes for finals because he hasn't actually taken any all semester.

Because he gets decent grades (due to lots of family blood, sweat and tears), the school always wants him to get less and less assistance. Their argument - EVEN AS EARLY AS 7TH GRADE - is always, "He won't have any special help in college." Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I always ask when they take the deaf kids' sign language interpreters away from them - that's when I'll agree to taking away special services for DS.

Here I'm getting myself all riled up, and school hasn't even started.

 

[missypie]

I just realized why I am glad that school started--because my DS19 finally graduated! He had a perfectly miserable High School experience. His so-called special ed services were laughable--their idea of "helping" when he was failing was to advise him to quit school & get a job. Thankfully, it's behind us now; he did graduate(from a home program) and plans to go to college this fall.

On the other hand, DS10 is sooo so happy to be in school and I am soooo so happy for him to be there. He is severely mentally handicapped and summers are difficult. I wish he could go to school year-round. I love him dearly,but he is a lot of work. He has the body of a 10yr with a mind of a toddler--that means getting into stuff, running away, being head-strong & destructive when he is not properly channeled. It's exhausting; it certainly takes a village to raise this child!

Let's hope everybody gets off on the right foot this year. Wishing your kids some fine friends and a wonderful teacher!

Minkydog, what do you think your 19 year old is going to do "when he grows up?" Has he received any decent career counseling?

 

[MommytoMJM]

Errrr, I am dreading MJ starting school so much that I have decided to homeschool her.....

 

[Lives4Disney]

Missypie - I think we are living parallel (sp?) lives!! Or our kids are!

I got riled up just reading your post. We used to spend HOURS every night handholding and helping my son get the work done. His grades are terrible, though as he loses & forgets to turn the work in. THAT really ticks us off. I totally understand the negativity. We get so aggravated here, too. It is just so frustrating.

My daughter that is entering Kgarden is pretty much unprepared as ALL our effort went into my son's schooling and she basically got jipped of a lot of my attention when she was young. She was excellent at amusing herself and played very nicely alone when we were helping her brother, but now she isn't as ready as my other kids were at her age. When you have a kid struggling in school, the whole family suffers.

Now that my son is starting high school - we go register him today - I am just so afraid of the unknown. Everyone says this could be just what he needs - we can always hope. He has only a 504 plan as the school insists he tests too high for an IEP. What a joke. His "accomodations" consist of front of the classroom placement, he can record the class,(woohoo then he'll have to deal with another hour at home listening to it again and trying to take notes), textbooks at home, etc other useless help. ADD is tricky as far as getting an IEP. Anyone with any tips??

GOOD LUCK to everyone this year!!

Lives4Disney

 

[minkydog]

Minkydog, what do you think your 19 year old is going to do "when he grows up?" Has he received any decent career counseling?

Career counseling? Haha. His dad & I have counseled him :"Cut your hair!Get a job!" I fully expect him to call me some day from LA to say he's living on the beach and acting in commercials & selling hot dogs. I have no idea what he's gonna do when he grows up. He wants to be in theater; its the only thing that ever really sparked him. So we'll see what happens in college. Lots of kids have started off in one major, only to find something better along the way.

 

[Lives4Disney]

Career counseling?? What is that??

My son wants to be a Blackjack dealer in Vegas.

I am afraid he will be living in a cardboard box in the desert, hitchhiking into town everyday to work.

Lives4Disney

 

[Katerbug]

My 9yr old son w/autism just loves school but his is not in a "normal" school. His school is strictly for kids with special needs so we don't have to worry about the teasing and homework but we really worry about the future. The school concentrates more on self help skills than academics so we work on those ourselves at home. He will not sit still long enough to be in a regular classroom. We just do our best and hope for the best.
We also have a 7yr old daughter and I also worry as mentioned by a previous post that she does not get enough attention since we need to spend so much time with her brother, but now that she knows more than he does she has been a real help trying to teach him things. She is so sweet with him it make me tear up just thinking about it.
Goodluck to everyone and their kids this school year, hopefully things will turn out better than expected.

 

[atatamanukaH]

I have noticed a couple of posts involving children with ADD. I was curious if any of you with ADD children have had your child tested for Sleep Apnea. Most symptoms of ADD are symptoms of Sleep Apnea as well, and it is easily corrected in younger children with the snipping of tonsils and/or adnoids. Just a little info that I found out when going through the Sleep Apnea testing for myself......

 

[lovethattink]

School starts Monday for us and I'm not looking forward to it. DS(11) is easily frustrated and either lashes out in anger or completely withdrawals. Homework is a constant battle that I do not look forward to. He accels in math, but really stinks in anything else. He's going to a new school where he doesn't have any friends...yet. He is stressing and I'm trying to keep him positive. On the other hand, he has a life threatening allergy and this new school has really worked with me to keep him safe.