Progress

Tonight we got the word: On Thursday Finn will start in a new classroom.

Whew.

Let the new angst begin. Because I've always got to have a littlst angst going on somewhere apparently.

So we told Finn at bedtime that he would be moving to a new classroom and he was really excited. It isn't Mrs. Angel's classroom, however. Our OT, after spending time in three classrooms on Monday, made a different recommendation based on several factors, one of which is the mix of kids already in each room. Mrs. Angel has some really challenging kids, three of whom the OT suspects are undiagnosed sensory kids, and is very concerned that putting Finn into the mix will be like dropping a match into a powder keg. No good.

The room the OT chose for Finn is a room where he already goes each day for reading so he has a relationship with this teacher already. According to the OT, this teacher, we'll call her Miss P, has a very caring attitude towards the kids, but also has a lot of structure, which Finn seems to crave. She is a mentor teacher at the school and so has a lot of experience under her belt. She was also the school's teacher of the year last year.

And ironically, a few weeks ago, Finn asked out of the blue, "Why can't I be in Miss P's class?" So he already had her on the brain and felt connected with her.

I have already exchanged e-mails with Miss P and we will be going to visit her room tomorrow evening so that Finn can spend some time with her one on one to prepare him for his first day in the class on Thursday.

I'm happy to have him at home another day. Tomorrow is his 6th birthday and I'm surprised he isn't already downstairs asking to open presents. We told him he had to stay in bed until 6:45am!

We feel good about the direction we're heading. Time will tell if this will be a good fit or not, but we felt we wanted to give it a try. If it doesn't work for some reason, it tells us that we probably need to consider something more non-traditional for Finn at this point, but we have high hopes that Miss P and her teaching experience will help us salvage Finn's kindergarten year.

And now it's time to wrap presents.