A gold star

Drake's school had their annual parent/teacher conferences this week and being the good parent I am, I willingly smashed attending them in between acting as Mom taxi, taking his sister to rehearsals, going to a job interview, and carting them all to a Halloween party. Phew!

With Drake, my man and I have been diligent with staying right on top of his education, ensuring he has every opportunity to succeed and thrive. Drake attends an intermediate school with all the other kids his age and neighborhood proximity, no special programs, but well monitored through his guidance counselor and well informed teachers. I don't consider Drake to be disadvantaged in any way, the label of Asperger's only explains his behavior to others. Drake is extremely intelligent and absorbs knowledge like a sponge and even takes an advanced Math class. Considering all of this, we make sure we are abreast of the expectations he is held accountable for and correct what needs to be corrected.

We were pleasantly surprised to hear that none of his teachers had any issues with his behavior and all of them raved about what a good kid he is. "Thank you for sharing him with me!", was the comment from his Social Studies teacher, which was great to hear. Drake has fairly limited focus when he has to sit for long periods and we think the fact that his classes only last 50 minutes each makes a huge difference. It's hard to get bored if you only have to think about one thing for 50 minutes and then you get to get up and move and start on a new subject. All of his teachers remarked on his improved organization (hallelujah!) and all of them, except his Math teacher, noted that they couldn't read his handwriting (not surprising).

Teaching Drake to be a little bit more responsible for himself seems to be translating into his performance at school as well. Drake walks himself home from school, makes his own snack, completes his homework on his own, practices his violin without prompting, and is expected to clean up after himself always. On his report cards there were very few missing assignments, so we know he is turning them in on his own as well. A gold star for you My Boy!