Greyson is Officially a 2nd Grader

It’s official – GREYSON is a 2nd Grader! We are very proud of her! YAY GREY!

School can be hard. School can be even harder for those with special needs. Greyson has had many hurdles this past year, but she has thrived to overcome them! Last year, she loved math and didn’t like reading. This year Greyson loves reading and doesn’t like math much at all. She’s now an avid reader and honestly, I’m thrilled. Now, we will work on getting her up to par on math. She may not ever like math and that’s okay, but she still needs to know the basics.

When I figured out that she loves graphic novels it was a game changer! Then when she discovered the Dogman Series by David Pilkey it was like landing on a goldmine. She currently owns several books within the series and she reads other graphic novels as well. As an avid reader myself, I found that reading what you love makes reading fun and helps you tolerate those genres you must read because of school or other obligations. You are using a skill you developed from a genre you enjoy to one you don’t really love. At the end of the day, you know that there’s light at the end of the tunnel and you can jump back to what you love reading from one you don’t care about. I’m trying to figure out if there is a way to do this trick with math. I will keep you posted if I figure this out. (Ha, just thinking out loud right now – It may be possible with games like Monopoly Jr.)

Anyways, as a 2nd grader Greyson will be able to pick out her own clothes (well with discretion of course). She actually advocated for this. We still have clothing issues (wearing off-season clothes during seasonal transitions), but I’m hoping we will get through this. I will post more about my plans on how we plan to move forward on this. One major thing, I will admit now and will include more details on in that post is that I will be setting up a new mirror area in her room. SUPER EXCITED about this and I think she will love it!

Another major thing Greyson will get to do next year is ride the bus with majority of the neighborhood kids. She has only been on the special needs bus. To be honest, I’m not really thrilled with this. I have gone back and forth on this. Her special education teacher has advised that she thinks Greyson can handle being on the regular bus. It will give her more independence. I don’t want to hold Greyson up from that. Maybe the teacher knows more than I do. BUT here’s my struggle: She had an assigned seat on her first-grade bus. She had friends on that bus. While she does have friends on the regular bus also, my main concern is that kids can be cruel, and I have dealt with this type of energy with my older daughter who doesn’t have any special needs and rode the regular bus. I feel like we have just said goodbye to public transportation and that I will eventually be taking Greyson to school every day because I absolutely will not be able to handle the fact that she’s getting mistreated so let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I have zero tolerance for this type of nonsense. Greyson sometimes isn’t able to speak up for herself and I was told by the special educator others will help advocate for her but to me how’s that showing independence when you want her to rely on others. I am trying to have faith in the system. Our main goal is for me to be able to work knowing Greyson is not being mistreated while on the bus or in school. My fear has always been that I will have to give up my JOB because I can’t tolerate Greyson being bullied. Praying to the GODs that Greyson will be able to handle this. Here’s what I know about Greyson, she proves most of my fears wrong! She’s very strong and resilient. I will definitely be writing more about this in the Fall when school resumes!

Pic of Greyson’s last day of 1st Grade: