It’s Sunday evening, and I have already fielded 100 questions and complaints from 4 children about school tomorrow. I listen to child after child, explain why they don’t need to go, listen to how much they will miss me (tug on heart strings here). I hear about how 
hard it is, or how it’s too long. And all I can do now is try to convince them that school is great and that the school week will be over again before they know it…we CAN do it…right? At least for me, this is no easy feet. I admit I have tried several approaches at explaining why not only they need to go to school, but why they should want.
First one being the direct approach…you need to go to school to learn. This is always quickly countered with “you can teach us”, which I respond too with, “not as well as the teacher can”, which ultimately ends with them still not convinced education is necessary, or that they need to go to a school, away from home to receive it…and me exhausted.
Also, I succumb to the desperate approach. You know the one, where you simply explain that Mommy and Daddy have to send you to school, or we could get in trouble, and go to jail. Now, this method does hold off further questions for a short period time, but then they quickly come to the conclusion that one of us can take the heat, and the other one can continue to care for them…desperate times people, desperate times.
Then finally, the last approach, and possibly the most honest method… I simply state they have to go to school, just because they HAVE too. Daddy has to go to work, Mommy has to go to work, because when kids get big they go to school, and well that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. We live by a schedule…and the schedule says school comes on Monday. Now lets gear up….Monday is coming.
This is easier said than done of course. For one thing I hate schedules. They stress me out. This in turn flows down the family chain, and stresses my kids out…not very effective
when trying to convince little people to be ready to take on the next week. Now, don’t get me wrong, its not that I don’t think a schedule has its place. Especially when I was at home full time caring for 4 kids, 2 of whom are on the spectrum, a “schedule” was my life saver for many years. It got us through the therapies, sensory time, craft time and naps…I lived by one religiously. The schedule gave me some sense of control at a time when I felt I had lost it in the day to day struggles of autism.
But now, the kids are older and doing well, and all of them in school. I now work outside the home, go to college myself, and the schedule that once saved me, now only seems to be what mocks me, as proof that there just isn’t enough time in the day to get it all done.
So how do I do it? How do I convince my kids to embrace the next school week with a positive attitude, to gear up for the days ahead? My motivation to do so is quite often buried under the piles of folded laundry, that now practically fill my living room floor…seriously kids can we wear just one outfit a day? I am sure this answer is different for 
everyone. Maybe you rely back on the schedule, as proof of every task checked off your list, the kids are closer to there goal of not being somewhere that they don’t really care to be. Maybe you have words of inspiration that make perfect sense to those little minds, and your encouragement is just what they needed to take on another week of school. My answer, I came to this past weekend…I don’t have one, maybe I don’t need one. Sometimes I forget that these are all important life lessons. Special needs, typical…everyone all a like, has to learn that sometimes we have to take part in things that we just don’t want to, that this in itself is a valuable lesson that will pay off in the end. I take a moment to remember, that though they are unware of this now, their simple act of getting up and going to school (when they would prefer not to), is building their self confidence…and what more could I as ask for. So, yes we CAN do this!
This quote from Dr. Seuss now hangs by our front door, my helpful reminder. Now I am ready to take on another week, and be there for my kids as they to do…
