"Switching gears"...

Our end-of-season garden is still blooming :)

B had a pretty good day at school, although I was surprised to hear that he didn't participate in music class this afternoon. He'd had such a good time on Tuesday... When I asked Cherie why, she said she didn't really know. On the way home in the car I casually asked him how music had gone & he said that there was no "Theatre of the Absurd" (bummer) & that he didn't sing with the rest of the kids. When I asked him why, he said "I just couldn't switch gears". That brought me up short. So I asked him what he'd been doing right before music & he said they'd been having a break... Well, that sounded reasonable to me, actually. It's hard to knuckle back down to work when you've been having a break. But mostly, I was struck by B's "switching gears" remark, because it was a very good description of the problem B sometimes has with transitions. The thing is, this difficulty can appear to be a willful lack of co-operation, but it really isn't. So tomorrow I'm planning to make sure Cherie knows what B said, & that perhaps B's teachers will be able to find ways to ease him into transitions more easily (or at least let the music & other adjunct teachers know that B has trouble "switching gears"). Maybe they can set up a signal or code words (B loves those) to help him let them know what's going on, too.

The main topic of conversation on the way home was B's first attempt to do some pokemon card trading with friends at school. He was very excited by the prospect, & told me earnestly last evening (as I was helping him organise his cards) that not only might he get some new cards, but he might make some new friends :) He had been discussing pokemon cards with 2 friends at school, one he's known for quite some time & one who's only recently showed-up on B's radar. The newer friend has a card B covets, so he was trying to figure out which cards new friend might want & which cards he was willing to part with. This was the main thing on my mind, & C's too, so we counselled him to be conservative for this first trading session. On the way home, B reported that he didn't have anything that new friend was interest in trading for the coveted card, but he did get another great card for 2 cards that B has loads of. He was feeling really good about it & ready to start planning the next round of trading :) This is pretty sophisticated socialising, in my opinion, & I was glad B's first foray went so well. Between encouraging B to learn to read japanese & helping him to make friends, B's interest in pokemon has turned out to be a wonderful thing!