Special Ed to Mainstream School: Making the Leap

A couple months ago my oldest son had to make the big leap from special ed school to a mainstream school.  My husband and I knew he was ready, but we couldn't help but worry and wring our hands thinking about all the what if's.   What if he regresses?  What if he gets made fun of?  What if he doesn't succeed?  He had been doing so well at the special ed school, why were we rocking the boat?  It was so tempting to just keep things status quo--no fixing something that wasn't broken. 

However, we knew that we'd be holding him back if we did not allow him to take the next step.  Sure, it would be hard and would be a big transition and maybe we'd be up at night worrying about him.  It would mean meeting all new people, learning all new rules, and feeling like an outsider again.  But it would also mean a chance at "normal" friends, a chance to push his already massively smart brain to the next level.  A chance to learn about the world in a bigger way and, yes, even a chance to learn about how hard things can be sometimes.

Two months in, he's doing fantastically.  We had told ourselves that it was a trial run, we'd take it week by week and would not expect too much.  Of course he has blown us all out of the water with his ability to ease into this whole new world, and has become one of the best students in his class. 

We look back, and we're so glad we didn't give in to those early fears and stop him from stepping into his best self.   Giving him the space to test the waters and even the space to fail, gave him the room to soar.

Original Chicago Moms Blog post.

Arianne also blogs at To Think Is To Create and Stop Looking At Me