Oh you going to school and riding the bus

Never Argue Book Cover

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This is an excerpt from my next book: Never Argue: 2014 Edition. I wrote Never Argue with an Autistic Child and other Special Tales, which detailed the last 6 months in 2012 of raising special needs kids. I should have started one for 2013. I am thinking about doing a giveaway for the book soon.

Brad at the Houston Zoo for the Walk with Me (Easter Seals)

I wrote this morning about Brad not wanting to get up and go to school.

This morning, Brad did not want to get out of bed and he definitely did not want to go to school. I woke him up at 7 am, as usual to shower. He got up, walked to the door, but did not leave the room. He went back to bed. At 7:30, I woke him up again and opened the door up for him. He took his shower, dried off, and went to play on the computer and tablet, as usual. At 8, as usual, I told him to get dressed. His bus comes around 8:30, but I like to be downstairs around 8:10 to 8:15 because of the time window (8:20 to 8:40). The bus has came at 8:20 once. If he misses the bus, I don’t have a car to get him to school. My mother gets home from work between 7:30 and 9:00, depending on traffic. If she gets home after 9, then he would be late for school. The traffic by Walters Road is AWFUL. There are three schools near Walters: Brad’s middle school, an elementary school, and my church’s school, which goes from pre-k to 8^th grade now, I think.

Brad riding a horse at Itz Willowbrook

The point of the bus is to get him to and from school. I did not sit in the IEP/ARD meeting, for my health, not to have him catch the bus. Brad was previously homeschooled for about a year and a half. I got tired of homeschool for various reasons:

• I got tired of him being at home
• I got tired of doing his work for him. His school knew Brad could not read or write, but wanted work turned in weekly. Most of the work was my handwriting, either hand over hand, or myself doing the work. His artwork was his and his alone. Scanning in a week’s worth of work on Friday did not help the case for homeschool either.
•  I got tired of live classes. Since it was homeschool, I wanted to work on my own schedule. Getting up extra early was not one of them. During the first year, I did get up at 8 or 9 am to go through the work, with him done by 1 pm. With the second year, I was too tired from dealing with two, active kids to get up by 8, unless it’s a doctors appointment or church. I wanted to start his work after 11 and work through the afternoon and part of the night. We also did work after midnight, if he did not want to go to sleep.

When I started the process to get him back in public school, one of the administrators told me since Brad did not ride the bus the year before, we had to have an ARD/IEP meeting for Brad can ride the bus. So to conclude, his butt is riding the bus to and from school each morning.

Relating to my grandma

My grandma, Areletha, was a mean witch, when she was living. She died the day (November 8, 2000) before Brad was born (November 9, 2000). I can’t think about her for personal and spiritual reasons, but she does pop up in my thoughts, every now and then. I probably inherited some of her traits: mean-ness and cleanliness (at times). One thing, I appreciated when I got older, was her stance on school. I had no issues with going to school. I loved it. Areletha believed if you could not go to school or church, you could not go anywhere else. If you wanted to go to the mall or hang with your friends, it’s a no, if you did not go to school for legitimate reasons. Brad did not want to go to school. He rather play with his devices. He misplaced his socks. He took extra minutes to put on his pants because he was watching Umi Zoomi on the tablet. He put his shirt on backwards. He took extra time putting on his socks and he definitely did not want to go downstairs to wait on the bus.

Yet, as the bus pulled up, Brad jr. gave me a hug, before he walked to the bus. I hope I don’t have to go through the drama when Kalen goes to school in May, but I will take the hugs.