Oh, yes! We are still 3.5 weeks away from the start... and I am barely sleeping.
DD10 (almost 11with ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia and anxiety) had a fantastic year in grade 5. Seriously, the best of her life! She has great accommodations in place and is beginning to advocate for herself. She is busy with her extra-curricular all-girls science club, gymnastics and will be starting percussion in the school band. Grade 6 is her last year in elementary school. I so badly want her good teacher streak to last this year. She is finally in a good place in terms of her self-confidence.
DS4 (almost 5) is starting full-day primary this year. This is where most of my anxiety stems from. DD had the most horrendous primary year. Our whole family was scarred from that year. The thought of going through that kind of a struggle again with DS is scary. But, we are doing everything possible to ensure a better year for him. We are in a different and wonderful school, he has been working with an OT for the past year, the school is well-aware of all of our concerns, and he just had his psych assessment yesterday (with our amazing private psychologist). He has so many red flags for learning disabilities, anxiety, SPD and OCD that we could not send him to school without more information. To be honest, the gifted part is not even my main concern. If it ends up that he is, add it to the list. Our #1 main concern is helping him be comfortable in the classroom.
Every year is the same. We tiptoe around the new teachers, trying to get a read on them before starting to advocate. Deathly afraid to step on any toes lest we offend someone, but trying to get our child what they need to succeed. It is like trying to fake the steps to a complicated school-board ballet. And I am a terrible dancer.
