It is April and like your child who turned seven recently, my son is in the first grade. But, maybe unlike your child, my son has special needs. He attends an all special needs campus because he is low functioning.
While your child is finishing up the last 10-12 weeks of first grade mastering learning to read words with long vowels like “cake,” my son has only been able to eat cake for a couple of years without choking on it.
Your child can play on the playground largely unattended. My son still needs to be shadowed.
Your child can hold an entire conversation with you. You can discuss how his or her day was. My son has a special report that comes home with him that I created. I needed to create this report because without it, I had no idea what he did all day. My son has been in the “just beginning to talk,” stage for the last couple of years. When I ask how his day was, he smiles at me, takes me by the hand and then shoves my hand in the direction of the thing he wants me to get for him.
And yet…
We, as parents, have so much in common.
While you are proud of your child’s accomplishments, I am too. The actual accomplishments our children are achieving at this age, the same age, are vastly different, but the pride is the same.
As you watch your child sleep at night and admire how beautiful they are and think of who in the family they most resemble, I do, too.
When you are amazed when you see that your child is understanding ever more complex concepts, the same thing is happening for me.
We are not so different, you and I.
Our children may be having vastly different experiences, but some things are exactly the same.
Your child is finishing up the first grade in the next couple of months. They may have just mastered addition and writing complete paragraphs.
Guess what? My son put on his own shoes today for the first time.
And, for you and me, all is right in our world.