Harvesting what you sow or relearning how to learn

Greetings y'all ,

Jimmy Buffet once sang " life throws us curve balls we never can hit " ok that's true . However , with all due respect , sometimes we can struggle at the plate, make adjustments , persevere and hit some of those curve balls. ( I'll give you a moment to kvetch about yet another Jimmy Buffet quote and baseball analogy) ......Ok I guess we all have our comfort zone and core values, our special places that keep us from going crazy. Buffet and baseball are my comfort food for my soul .  

Yesterday Junior Mint experienced  some growing pains. At school he his still learning his teacher is captain of the ship.  She is amazing. At home he knows I am the captain of the ship. So where does that leave my little independent leader , who follows others way too much? It leaves him at the knee of a great educator by day and at the knee of a dad who adores him by night. As always I am not concerned about his academics. He's bright and will be challenged this year. I worry about his social skills, self regulation and acceptance of personal responsibility and that which he does not control. At school he has been forced to face those weaknesses ,confront them and is being helped in conquering them.  Once he completes that mission then - look out world ! I can tell he is making incremental progress . How can I tell ? Well thanks for asking.

(cue random seque through seemingly absurd jag that loosely ties it all together)

Yesterday Ace rode the bus home without incident . A huge deal , his teacher made that happen by setting him up for succes . Ace put forth the effort we knew he could. He was sitting and reading when u got home , and of course eating a choke and slide. That may all seem minor and mundane but trust me it's huge for him. So after his therapy I took him home and let him scrape together $3.18 out his piggy bank to get a very old school tennis racket from Goodwill. He loved the feeling of saving his money for something he wanted, he felt quite responsible . We headed to the courts for our first attempt at tennis together . Nothing fierce , no rules just getting the feel of the racket and the balls.  We played for about two hours. He saw folks of various skill levels who still missed the ball or sent the ball in an unintended direction. But we just played and laughed sans concern. 

Now transitions are notoriously difficult . One more volley, I want to do better, it's too soon, you're mean.....yada yada yada .... I let him know when we had 15, 10,5,3 minutes left. Finally it was time to leave. This  is when I gird my loins for the major tantrum. Yet it was a minor tantrum. He's learning he's not getting a rise out of me. He's begrudgingly got in the car after a few choice words and attempts to push my buttons . Little did he know I disconnected my buttons so they couldn't be pushed. From there we headed to the grocer . Our last trip ended with him having a fit and us leaving without anything. This time 'twas smooth sailing. Next stop library , another place that has been notoriously difficult to leave, again smooth sailing. Ok my luck has to be running out , right? Because once home we had shower and homework . Both were completed successfully without a hitch. As a reward I suggested a camp in and listening to the ball game. I will never forget the night we first played tennis then "watching the radio" with the game on and my son nestled next to me. That was possible because his teacher, staff, & the Robinson Boys were all on the same page and all worked hard and did their part. 

Do I expect him to be perfect today? I expect continued effort and growth. He's unlearning classroom behavior that he learned three years ago while relearning new and improved self management skills. It's a long hard row to hoe but the harvest will be worth the effort.

Ok I've rambled enough , yes I need more coffee. Thank again for reading today.