Zach is in grade 4 now. For us, that means he no longer qualifies to ride the bus because we are less than 1.8km from the school. It’s a 20 minute walk.
We had neighbours who had kids who took the bus right through grade 8. Claire didn’t - she walked or rode.
Because Zach has autism is refuses to walk by himself (yet), we asked that neighbour how she got her kids on the bus past grade 4. Turns out, she claimed the kids were doing before and after care at another neighbour’s house who lives just outside the 1.8km distance for walking.
So we asked Zach, do you want us to lie and claim you’re going to another house every day, or do you want to walk?
That cinched it for him. He’d rather walk than lie. So we walked together this morning. On the way, he pointed out the tree where I can stop tomorrow. The next day, he says, I can walk a little less with him. Sounds like graduated licencing, but for walking to school.
Well, Zach had his first meltdown yesterday. They were playing some kind of game in music and the class ended before Zach had a turn and he lost it. Another “unfair” situation.
It was the end of school, though. So not a huge deal. But it meant I had to figure out where he was to walk him home.
Claire is busy trying to re-write her schedule. The school gave her only 6 courses this year when she asked for 8 and provided 2 alternates. We’ve been working through how to juggle her timetable to make it work. We may have a solution for this term, but next term she has calculus with her favourite teacher, and to get to 4 courses in second term would require moving calculus class to take something else in that slot. Calculus is too important to understand the first time to play around with changing teachers.