“You are giving him the gift of time”, and when she said that it finally clicked with me, this WAS the best decision.
My son is 5, he turned 5 in June. He has been in preschool for the past two years and it was time for him to go to Kindergarten this fall. He has a speech delay called Apraxia, so for the past two years he has been part of an amazing public school that offers him speech therapy and he is on an IEP (Individual Education Plan).
I’m not sure what I expected. His speech has been a huge challenge for him. In addition to the amazing school and speech therapy he receives, he also goes to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for therapy each week and it has been a game changer for him.
So, when the teacher asked me what our plans were for the next school year, my husband and I looked at each other and said that we thought his speech was still too much of a challenge for him to start Kindergarten. Our amazing Preschool teacher said that would be her recommendation, too. I know that is what is best for him, so we signed up for another year of preschool.
I was confident in my decision until this summer when all of my son’s little friends were making plans to start Kindergarten in the fall. They would move on and he would once again be in the Preschool class. I actually got a little salty about the whole situation. I still knew what was best, and I trusted the teachers that had worked with him, but I wanted him to be with his friends and around kids his age.
He desperately wants to read and do the things the big kids do, and be in school all day. I had to keep telling myself that this was best.
One evening as school was about to start, I was talking to a friend of mine who happens to be an AMAZING Kindergarten teacher. She asked if my son was ready for Preschool and I explained how I was feeling about the whole situation. She shared with me that a fellow Kindergarten teacher refers to the decision we made with our little guy as “Giving them the Gift of Time”, she encouraged me that this was the right decision and she assured me that time is what he needs to get his speech where it needs to be to help him succeed.
The Gift of Time, time to grow and time to learn – when you put it that way, it does make sense, I’m glad we have this extra year.
(Deep Breath) Time is a gift.
