Back to School: Max's Big Day!

Today was Max's first day of Preschool, and he rocked it. There were a lot of reasons that it went well, and a lot of people involved in setting Max up for success. We pulled Max out of daycare for the three weeks prior to the big move to get him ready. The first week was for potty training (which he has mastered, thank you very much) and the next two weeks were for an intensive therapy block at blueballoon where Max receives all of his Autism therapy. In his three weeks off he was potty trained, participated in a daily 2.5 hour block of music camp (based on speech and music therapy) and had a huge breakthrough - he started imitating movement and words when prompted. I swear his teachers almost fell over when he returned, looking them square in the eyes and said "hi".

I was worried that he would struggle being with a new group of kids, in a new room, with new teachers. I was worried that he would have a huge meltdown when we arrived (after all, he hadn't been to his daycare in almost a month). I didn't need to worry.

The kids in the preschool room all know Max, and for some reason, they seem to really like him. I even heard one little girl yell "Max is back!" when she saw him enter the playground. Max loves the bigger playground, and did a great job of exploring it (a big improvement from the past where he would have just run in a big circle around the perimetre or gone up and down the slide over and over again). Transitioning back in? No biggie. Peeing in the potty at daycare? Aces. Nap time? Not so much, but we're working on it! It seems that in these past few weeks, Max has exhibited progress on a daily basis. With that also comes challenging behaviour, because he is processing a lot, and being pushed outside his comfort zone. But I'll trade a temper tantrum for a poop in the potty any day. And when I hear Max say "Mama", I swear I'm ready to give him the keys to my car. He already has the keys to my heart.

About This Post

It’s back-to-school time, and this year Sprite and TwitterMoms have partnered with bloggers like me to share back-to-school tips and tricks, advice, stories and more! Visit Sprite's back-to-school channel on TwitterMoms to get helpful ideas, learn how to survive the back to school rush, seek out advice from other TwitterMoms and join the conversation. You can learn more about donating your My Coke Rewards Points to support your local school, how to enter for a chance to win some Back to School cash, check out recipes, or even play some fun games. Here's to a successful and stress-free back to school season from Sprite and TwitterMoms!