So after nearly a full term at school....

We have lift off!

Cyclone is attending from 9.01 am to 3pm. Already!! Here I was hoping for 3 hours a day *grin.

So we started off with 2 weeks of one hour blocks with the classroom aide. They played games together and had a lot of laughs. I know they walked around the school and playground whilst the students were in class to get him familiar with the surroundings without the cacophony of the whole school out there.

Cyclone had to walk across the back of the classroom to get to the computer/quiet room in the beginning and I could see how hard that was for him. His little head down, willing no one to notice his presence....

The school wanted him to extend his hours fairly quickly but I was nervous about too much too soon. I decided I might just let the school lead this side of things. I was to pick him up just before recess.

It went perfectly well until one day I was late. I was worried about his reaction because he gets so anxious if I am not waiting for him...but this time he wasn't waiting for me. I couldn't find him - there was a sea of children playing on the oval, running all over the place. I ran into the office but he was not there either. I finally picked out Miss T, who has been our main contact and funding help. She was standing on the edge of the oval and when she saw me she pressed a finger to her lips, then pointed to a group of boys having a rough and tumble game of football.

"Cyclone, CYCLONE - kick it to meeeee" I heard, then finally realised they meant MY Cyclone. He was playing footy with the boys.
He kicked and passed and threw himself into the pack. They were all having a great game.

I nearly cried. Then he spotted me and instead of throwing himself on the ground because he didn't want to leave, he just waved. When the bell went for the end of recess he ran over to me, asked for a drink and said "I've been playing footy with my friends mum" Big grin. His new friends all trooped past on their way back to class - waving goodbye to Cyclone, and Cyclone nonchalantly waved back and headed to the car.

This is the stuff of dreams for this mumma. Remember - Cyclone doesn't play games easily, he wants to control everything, be the boss and always always win.
And there he was - just one of the boys.