now what do we do?

Augh. Yes, just like Charlie Brown used to say. You might remember a post about the Sniglet awhile back, wherein I described his travails in kindergarten - basically, that he's being a putz. Right, well, um. In addition to judo, his teacher and I discussed a few other options, viz, what to do with him next year.

First grade is right out - his birthday is past the cut-off date and his behavior seems to indicate that he is not ready.

The kindergarten has an "integration" group, which has an extra teacher and tries to mainstream kids with mild social or learning problems. Mrs said that moving him now would probably make things worse. It might have been a good idea to put him there in the first place, at the beginning of the year, she said, but of course you have to tell the kindergarten in January where you want your child to be next September, and he didn't have these problems then. In fact, they showed up when he joined this new group, at the beginning of his third year of kindergarten (arresting thought - maybe the Sniglet is not the problem here...).

Option 3 is called "School kindergarten", and is much like the Transitional First Grade ~d mentioned in the comments a few weeks ago, "basically 1st grade, but with more coloring". This was our favorite option, but it's essentially redshirting - for kids who are the right age for first grade but not socially ready yet - which meant he didn't strictly qualify. We applied anyway, but after my last meeting with Mrs, we decided the change might be bad for him, and it was probably just as well that he probably wouldn't get in.

So the last choice, and probably the most likely, would be that he would spend another year in this same group, same teachers, same room, most of the same kids. Because he's familiar with the protocol there, and part of a community, and yadda yadda. Which would be good if continuity is what he needs, but bad if something in this constellation is causing his behavior problems. A tricky dilemma, made just a little easier by the fact that this was probably the only option open to us.

Until today. Mrs told me that the school-kindergarten told her they probably had a place for Gus. Whoosh. I told her I would discuss it with DrBob, talk to her tomorrow (which is my day to visit the kindergarten), consult with his ergotherapist, and make a decision in a few days. About a half an hour later, the school-kindergarten called me, and they want a decision NOW. And DrBob is not awake. And when he gets up he'll need ten minutes to brush his teeth, and then he'll want coffee and then he'll have to check the basketball scores, and I neeeeeed to discuss this with someone but I can't yet. So I'll just have to sit here and twitch for like half an hour.

That's okay. I can twitch. Actually, I'm getting pretty good at it.