This week I moved Middle Son back to the school district that I live in. After Second Wife and I got divorced, I let MomC (Mother of my Children) talk me into moving him into the school district where she lived. Her district has more money and resources. She, like most people, assumed that that meant it would be a better program for Middle. I was skeptical. Second Wife had blown my mind by pointing out that Middle's ability to consume educational resources is limited, and Middle's ABA therapist had said she thought Middle should go to school in the community where he was going to live after he got out of school, which is with me. But having just gone through a divorce, I didn't have the energy to argue with her about it, and the logic that a district with more money is a "better" district had it's impact on me too.
Yesterday, the first morning, I walked Middle onto the bus. The driver told him to sit in seat 7. I told her that Middle doesn't know his numbers and helped him find the correct seat. He had a little trouble with the seatbelt, so I helped him with that as well.
When he got back the first thing he did, even before taking off his coat, was sit down at the dinner table. I opened his backpack and found that he hadn't eaten any of his lunch, so I got him food. He ate a lot.
Today I stood on the porch while he got on the bus. After school he still went to the table, but he didn't seem as hungry. When I checked his lunch he had eaten most of it.
One of the interesting things they do is weekly shopping trips. They cook breakfast and lunch in the classroom every day, and each kid is responsible for coming up with their menu plan, food budget, and shopping list. They go shopping on the first Monday of the month. I think this is a pretty cool thing, and am eager to see how Middle does with it. Given his very limited communication, they asked me to send them a list of foods for breakfast, lunch, and snack. It will be interesting to hear about they make a list with Middle and how the first shopping trip goes. I told them that Middle expects to get a donut every time he goes to the store, so they are going to plan for that.
