J Tackles 2014

For those of you who are curious, I thought I'd check in with how school is going for J.  (If you'll remember, last year brought the new frontier of a long evaluation process, a designation of high functioning autism, and an IEP.)  I had parent-teacher conference last week and was pleased to hear from his teacher that he is doing really well.  He's still picking things up quickly and easily meeting or exceeding the targets the school has set for fourth grade in most areas.  His writing is getting better (though still not quite up to grade level), and his resource writing class does seem to be helping.  The biggest area of improvement is with his social skills.  His teacher at school says he is doing well socially and his teacher at church noticed a big improvement.  Hooray for that!  In fact, she said her only area of concern is that he still gets up and wanders around the classroom, but the other kids have kind of accepted that "that's just J" and at that point she says if she puts him on the ipad to do some computer learning that he will sit back down and concentrate.

It's interesting-- J can't sit still for almost anything.  Really, he can't even sit at the table long enough to eat a meal.  He just gets up and wanders around the kitchen.  The one exception is for video games (whether on a console or the computer).  Even a movie often won't keep him focused enough to stay in one place.  Fortunately, the computer homework program the school is using this year seems to count as a video game for him.  (His teacher told me he has logged more time than any other kid in the class.)

While going through his folder today, I found a chart he'd made with his wish list for the new year.  I thought I'd share because it is just so J (his responses are in italics):

In the New Year. . .

I want to learn about singapore math.

I want to go to California.

I want to do more video games.

I want to read the name of this book is secret.

I want to improve math.

I want to imagine video games.

I want to try more minecraft.

I want to change nothing.

I want to go to Peter Piper's Pizza.

In 2014 I am going to go swimming.

Of course, video games and math dominate this list.  One is his passion and the other is his strength at school.  I'm kind of pleased that swimming made the list!

I love my quirky boy.  Life with J will never get boring-- he certainly keeps me on my toes (though it's less scary to have him wander off nowadays, since I'm pretty sure he won't get lost).  He is also probably one of the sweetest, most loving ten year old boys.  I'm so grateful to have him in my life.