Ugh. Corona has thrown all these kids off. B has been having more meltdowns too. For him, it's because he's not seeing people like usual. It helps now that he's going to school, but he wants to see all of his friends from outside of school, and he can't, so that throws him. Then before I got to WDW, he was having mini meltdowns over waiting in lines, which never happens. The funny thing about that was that I got there, and they completely stopped.
He's far more social than either me or my father. I'm content texting people, calling my bestie every week, and talking to my mom. Dad is content talking to people at work, my uncle who's not my uncle, and us. Even Mom just has two friends who she talks to regularly. We're not sure where B came from.
Yeah, usually A does fine with school, and last year he LOVED the online school. He had a different teacher then who didn't do all the meetings, just gave the kids assignments and made himself available if they needed the actual instruction, but A never did. So he'd have his entire day of schoolwork done at 10:00am and had the rest of the day free. One time, his teacher even joked with him about some assignment and told A "You better have this on my desk by 10:00!" which it wasn't due until the next day, but A was always done really quickly. A had it done early and waited until exactly 10 to send it in. He and that teacher got along really well. This year, his teachers are really nice, but they both insist on doing the meetings, so A can't work at his faster pace, and he has to sit there and listen even when he understands the material and the other kids don't. This is kind of what we were afraid of, because at the end of 6th grade, they take an exam to determine which level of school a kid can do. He got the maximum score on that test, which means he's in the top 5% of kids in the nation at his grade level. The top 20% go to the highest level of school, but the special education schools don't offer that top level, because there are so few kids in special education who score that highly. They'd have to pay for teachers for just him or maybe him and a couple others, max. And because they also have extra classes with special ed like social skills and such, they figure that's enough to challenge them, and they don't want to overwhelm them, so they just don't do the highest level. So we went in asking if there would be opportunities for him if he was bored with the material and they were honest that it's not their strong suit, but he really just can not go to a regular high school. He'd be huddled in a corner somewhere sobbing and would be an easy target for bullies. So we decided it was better for him to do a lower level and be somewhat bored than have to go to a regular high school to get the highest level but then be bullied again. So what we're seeing is that he is indeed bored because the material is not at his level. They are giving him more challenging math and they put him into an extra class once every other week that does more in depth studies about some things and he loves that, but it's really not enough. And I kind of agree with him in a way that it's NOT fair that the kids who are at school that day all get to work together and when the class period is over, they are done whether they finished it or not, but A has to do it all by himself and actually finish it to hand it in. I get why that upsets him, and things being unfair is a HUGE trigger for him.
His teacher wrote back and told us to put it aside, do the Dutch practice test instead, and next week when he's at school, she'll help him with the assignment for yesterday. So it all got fixed, but it was a rough day.
I think E is the most social of us...she is the one who goes out and does things with friends. My husband doesn't seem to need contact with outside people at all. He enjoys being at the office for work with everyone, but he's also fine working from home and not going anywhere. I have some friends here, but not that I can really kick back with. We enjoy each others' company, but we don't have a lot in common other than all being foreigners married to Dutchies. It's always good to see them, but it's not like hanging out with my best friends back home talking about anything and everything. You can't talk about anything off color with any of my friends here, and the one with whom I could have moved to Germany a couple of years ago, so I haven't seen her for 2 or 3 years since we visited there. A can't make plans with his school friends after school like E can, because he's the only one who lives here in town. All the other kids are bussed in from other places, so they can't hang out after school and go get ice cream or go to the library or whatever. So E is pretty much the only one who really feels like she's missing her friends. I've always had to be content with video chats with my friends in the US.
But, schools are opening completely starting next week, so E will see her friends every day. It was so sweet that they kidnapped her for her birthday last week, blindfold and everything. They had to break the rules to do it, but they went to Rosan's house, which is outside of town and she has no close neighbors and a lot of land, so they could all be distanced. They baked her a cake and Dimphy asked her over under the pretext of working on a school project they have, and instead blindfolded her and drove her to Rosan's where all her friends were waiting. It was really good for her to get to do something for her birthday since she didn't get to celebrate last year, and our house is too small to let her friends come over here. But none of us are huge party animals. We enjoy being with friends, but we all dread large social gatherings.
Sounds to me that boy’ll eat anything, just like Andrew Zimmern...!!!!!
