My Sensitive Sensory John

My sweet Joyful John. . . has had a rough go of it lately. I think it began at the end of the school year last year and has slowly been becoming more of an issue these last few months. We decided to hold him back and send him to Pre-K this year at ACS after his scores on the Missouri Kindergarten Readiness Testing revealed some concerns. I was thrown for a loop after the testing last year but since that time I have been paying more attention to this little guy and am so thankful we did not send him to Kindergarten. Kindergarten at ACS is pretty tough and requires about 3 hours of work on the homeschool day. It became very apparent that John was NOT ready for that. I was sad to hold him back, but now several months in I am so thankful God led us in that direction. As I began to work with John a few months ago I started to see some similarities and struggles that Alivia had. At this point I am confident that John has dyslexia as well. I mourned and grieved about this (and still am in some ways) but know that he is exactly the way God wants him to be and will have some qualities that are groomed through his struggles. It is very difficult for him to recognize letters and numbers just like his sister and it just pains me to see him struggle so. I know he knows that he should know! And he gets frustrated. . . I have gotten some good material to prepare him for next year, looked into starting a Pre-Take Flight Program this Spring and probably will have him tested by the same Neuropsychologist, Dr. Sarah Avey sometime in the Spring as well. I feel so much more prepared this time around but that does not make it any easier. I will be interested to see what severity he is classified as. 

Another interesting issue that has started is difficulties with clothing. After we were at the beach this summer and he had chafing on his legs from sand in his swimsuit, he started demanding jammers - and not just any jammers, but a certain type and brand that I bought on the fly at the beach because we were in a bind. They are SUPER thin! They are meant to be worn under board shorts but he will have none of that. Then it progressed to his shoes not feeling tight enough - he will only wear two types of shoes, these boots and Native rubber shoes. Next, he began to have issues with his shirts feeling "too big" and started stealing clothes from his little brother that fit more snugly. Now he has settled on this swim top (clearly too small), athletic shorts (without underwear) and his cowboy boots. We lay down the law on Sundays and for school but otherwise I just wash this shirt every day. We have hired an Occupational Therapist (Miss Lisa) to come work with him twice a week as well. I am hopeful that with some time and therapy some of these issues will get better. . . I want my John back!

Daily outfit - swim top, athletic shorts and BOOTS!