lyceum
Luke started his first year of public school recently. Where to start? Let’s just say academically, we had no doubts he’d excel—he’s always been smart and fully able to apply his mind to understand the matter at hand. His social skills, being underdeveloped like they are, have been a source of concern. I have to say, though, that after taking him to a Halloween party thrown by one of the class moms and witnessing Luke playing and interacting completely normally with a little boy his age (Evan), we’ve been less concerned. It was truly refreshing to see him chase Evan around the playground and to watch Evan chase him and converse.
He did have some particular challenges the first couple of weeks. He would come home and tell us the most outrageous things the teacher had supposedly said to him, like threatening gruesome punishments for disobeying and the like. Those have thankfully tapered off. Luke did torment a couple of the girls in his class, too, trying to put glue in their hair and spitting on them, etc, not out of any malicious intent so much as to just provoke some kind of response. But every report we’re hearing now from school indicates he’s making a lot of progress socially.
He really likes school and looks forward to going every day. I drop him off in the mornings on my way to work, and he’s always chatty and excited. He looks expectantly over my shoulder when I crouch in front of him and tell him I love him before “releasing” him into his class. And he’s learned so much, too—his drawing skills have exploded and he’s been writing continuously and asking questions about words and language. He’s got to figure it all out.