In the beginning, Part I

Where to begin? I think the best place to start is when we first discovered our perfect little world was no longer what we knew to be perfect anymore.

After my son was born in 2007, we made the decision that I would continue to work full time, and so we found the perfect place for him to have full time care during the day while I worked.  He stayed in the home of a wonderful woman, we call Wils, and she loved on him and took care of him the best way I could ever ask anyone to do so when it wasn't myself giving the care.  She took the kids to the library every week and rocked them to sleep for naps every day.  She kissed their boo boos and she celebrated their birthdays.  She loved these children more than I could ever ask anyone to love my child.

Nathan was about to turn 5 years old and we knew the next fall he would be starting Kindergarten.  We made the decision that it was probably time that he attended preschool.  Although, he knew all his ABCs and 123s and was already starting to read a little, we figured getting used to a classroom environment would benefit him before starting the real deal.  He would go two days a week at the local preschool and get used to the classroom environment and then when Kindergarten started, we would be ready, or so I thought.

On September 4, 2012, Nathan started preschool.  He was probably the tallest in his class, maybe the oldest, but this is when we started learning there was more to Nathan than we ever even dreamed possible.

After a few weeks of preschool, we started getting calls from the director letting us know that they were having problems with Nathan and his behavior.  My first thoughts were, "Not MY Nathan!".  I had many conversations with his babysitter Wils about the complaints that the preschool was having on whether or not she had the same issues and just never told me.  The preschool kept saying that maybe it's because he never had so much structure before.  This of course insulted me because even though he was in a home environment, they had structure!  Why wouldn't my son behave for these new teachers?  What was going on with him?  Who was this child?  And what were we going to do about it?

Some of the complaints that they were giving just floored me.  I was told my son was pinching others, that he was being very defiant with the teachers.  He was testing his boundaries and there was a point that I honestly believed my child was going to be the first ever kid expelled from preschool.  I was mortified.

After careful evaluation, we decided, maybe it was because he wasn't used to the structure of a classroom environment, and if we had any hope of him being successful in Kindergarten, we should probably increase the amount of days he was attending preschool.  So we changed him from 2 days to 3 days a week.  During this time, he also got a new teacher.  This new teacher is one that I later learned, had a lot of experience with children with special needs, and she seemed to be able to reign my son in and help him gain more control.  Finally, we had success.  We decided that he had issues with transitions, and that we just need to prepare him more about any upcoming changes, and avoid anything that may be super stimulating.  They told me that when he had the opportunity for water or sand play, that he tended to get a bit out of control, so they would limit his exposure to those stations.

I didn't think that meant much, but took note and made sure I would let his Kindergarten teacher be aware when we met her in the fall.  I felt prepared, and ready.  We were going to have a successful Kindergarten year.  Or so I thought...