We’re back!
Tristan started kindergarten on August 19th. The little guy was a week shy of his 5th birthday, even.
I’m not sure how well it’s going, though. See, we’ve already got some crap.
Tristan was asked not to return to the bus until we had a Meeting with the Powers That Be about his behavior. Said meeting is this afternoon in about 6 hours. Apparently, Tristan, who resumed bus transportation for kindergarten, has completely forgotten how to behave on a bus; there’s been mention of a bite, standing up, laying down, throwing books and weighted vests. I do not know if he tossed a book gently at a seat or lobbed it into some kid’s face. I do not know if he was bouncing in his seat or standing atop it. I do not know if he kissed someone or bit with all his might. All I have is this second-hand information.
So, under the theory that Behavior is Communication, I can surmise several reasons why Tristan might be acting like a little shit on the bus.
* Boredom – it’s a long ride, about an hour.
* Asociality – if he’s around more people than he’d like to be, such as being assigned a seat with a partner when he’d prefer to be alone, he is likely to strike out because he can’t really get his wish that people leave.
* Fatigue – the morning ride is at 7am (which means Tristan had to get up at the butt crack of dawn) and the afternoon ride is after a full day of kindergarten.
* Attempt to connect – if he perceives that he is being teased, even if the person is completely serious, he will behave as if he is being teased. Thankfully, he takes being teased in a very fun way (which is to tease back and appreciate the attention), but when someone’s trying to get him to sit the fuck down in earnest and Tris responds by dancing on a seat, he’s not going to make friends.
* Lack of a restraint – this is probably the biggest one, in my opinion. Tristan is very aware and compliant with restraint usage while in vehicles. He bends over at the waist in his (new! green!) booster seat in the car, but I let that slide mostly out of a lack of desire to monitor behavior while monitoring the road if things generally ok. But he does not want to be in a moving vehicle without a seat belt – this includes shopping carts and strollers. He will melt down if he just can’t get the seat belt to work; letting him know he’s working on a broken one only kind of gets through to him. So in our meeting today, we may agree to have Tristan restrained on the bus, but this is for HIS comfort if we do it.
Who knows, though – we may choose to forgo the bus. It’s fine for us to bring him in. Just less convenient.
Other than that, we had a big birthday party for birthday #5 with a Phineas and Ferb theme. Tristan LOVES those guys and was so thrilled to have the decorations, cake, and general theme.
We had Tristan in a summer camp program directly prior to the start of the school year. He liked it a lot and had a hard time transitioning back to the regular school afterward (although both were autism and/or general special needs programs).
And there’s plenty more to expand upon but perhaps in another post.