On no......swimming time!!!

We've definitely gone into recovery mode - on day 2 of our school swimming program. I honestly thought that with Master 10 being so much more settled and handling himself so much better - that it would tip over into the swimming program this week. But sadly I misunderstood just how this week impacts him and how difficult he finds it.

The difference this year is that it's not the actual swimming that is the problem. So I need to take that positive and run with it because he is swimming really well and is having no trouble in the pool or doing what he is asked to do. This has definitely changed as last year we pulled him out by day 3 due to a huge meltdown. But what we fail to take into account with kids like Master 10 is that it's the rest of the week that becomes topsy turvy and THAT is what he struggles to cope with.

All his other classes have to be moved around to accommodate being off campus all morning. The change on this scale is extremely difficult for him to navigate because it's daily rather than a once off. Other kids are also tired and niggly which means socially he just falls apart. His inability to cope with the 'girls' in his class grows exponentially and keeping him way from the is the only option. He spends most of the day sitting on his 'couch' which is his 'calm down' area on the other end of his very large classroom. That's where I found him yesterday and boy, was he in a 'mood.'

You just know it's time to intervene when not only is he sitting on his couch with a thunderous look on his face, but the principal has been called to his specialist class which he struggles on a good day (when the room become too chaotic and noisy - he does too!!). Even his teacher said she got the 'tongue' pulled at her which is rare because he's generally more respectful to her.

So yep - time to intervene. Time to pull out all the stops to get this kid through the week with as little damage as possible. We've had a great year with huge growth and maturity and one doesn't want to undo that in one week!!! Thankfully for at least a couple of days I finish at 1pm (lucky it wasn't last week when I worked full time) so I can bring him home. He had his private swim lesson after school yesterday so I brought him home to rest before that. He was still tired and cranky so we left the testing of clothes in the water until next week. That's what I like about his instructor, she is so accommodating.

He found it a bit hard to go to sleep last night and I also got the 'tongue pulling' thrown at me (which seems to be his new thing). All because I wouldn't allow him to have his iPad in bed. Generally he just looks up books on it at night but our bedtime rule is a half an hour of reading before lights out - not electronics. He has plenty of electronics during the day without needing them in bed. I'm not surprised he was a bit unsettled. Yes he's tired but he's just out of sorts and it generally plays out in his sleep patterns.

And today is another day. I have a busy day of cooking this afternoon so I'll bring him home early and he can chill while I do that. There's nothing much else to do as leaving him at school in the afternoon is not a good option when he is like this.

4 swimming days to go.....*sigh*

* Picture is of Master 10 when he was around 6 years of age. Swimming has always been a challenge for him - one we are thankful that he has slowly overcome.