Yesterday was progress report day. Since my son has an IEP, his progress report is very detailed compared to typical kids. It describes the goals that we have set for him in his annual ARD, it details each progress, and it also has comments of how he’s doing.

These days are pretty difficult for me. I tend to not read them quickly. I have to read his progress reports when I’m in a stable mental state. I remember I used to get just so sad. This deep state of sadness would stay with me for a long time and I just couldn’t snap out of it. So I’ve learned to read his progress reports when my mental state is ready.

With my daughter, I loved coming home to see her report cards. She always had A’s and they always talked about what a great kid she was. We’d take her to celebrate by buying ice cream. I know one is not suppose to compare their children, but that is pretty difficult.

So yesterday was progress report day and I decided not to look at it until today. I figured If it was bad I’d have the weekend to try to step out of my funk.

I’ve mentioned before how the monkey has been doing pretty good at school. And his report card showed it. It’s something that we have never seen before.

For example, it states how he is able to trace his name independently. He will scribble each letter one by one. On his own!

One of the tasks he has to do is to answer questions after a story is read. He has to be able to point to the correct answer. And the note says that he’s able to circle the answer independently!

Independently? I just can’t believe it!

He’s able to read and recognize number 0 to 20 and will put them in order. He’s also able to use two sets of numbers to get to the sum of 10.

He’s able to add!

During science he’s able to participate during the activities by using four out of the five senses. However when it comes to tasting activities he will push the object away. 😅

And my favorite is this one: He will not have a negative outburst. He is able to move away from calendar and will sit in a chair separate from his classmates when he is unhappy with the cloudy icon.

You see, every morning they discuss if it’s going to be sunny or cloudy. And when it’s cloudy, he always struggles. He needs consistency and in our city, it is usually sunny. Last year he would try to hit and bite the teacher so that she would put the sun instead of the cloud. And this year? This year he simply moves away during calendar time while the cloudy icon is up. He doesn’t like it, but he accepts it.

If you would have told me a year ago that the monkey would have received good grades, and he’d be on track to meet his goals, I just would not have believed it. My son has been in school since he was 3 years old and all of his 9 week progress reports have been terrible.

Except for this one. 🥰

Sometimes you just need to relax and have faith. ❤️