Field Trip

It was field trip day at my son’s school yesterday. These days are always a bit nerve-wracking, as any change from the usual schedule can potentially affect Kai negatively.

Field trips have been hit or miss with Kai as he has surprised staff with perfect behavior on some trips, while others haven’t gone as well. One time he couldn’t even go on the trip because he had an incident at school before they were to leave, and school rules forbid students from going once they have been unsafe.

This trip included a relatively long drive into the city to go to the Museum of Science and Industry to see two special exhibits: one on holiday lights that includes Christmas around the world, and the other on Dr. Seuss.

We packed a couple of games in his backpack to keep him occupied on the school bus, and hoped he would be okay.

It turns out that Kai did well.

His point sheet from school indicated that he behaved well and stayed safe.

As usual, it was difficult to get much information out of him. But he did say that he enjoyed seeing all the Christmas trees, and now wants us to get our tree and put it up this weekend.

He also said that he played the games we packed with the student sitting next to him on the bus, a somewhat rare social interaction.

When we asked him how the Dr. Seuss exhibit was, he said he did not want to see it and sat on the bus during that time. We know that this museum, which is very large, can be overwhelming for Kai. So it is not surprising that he would have had enough with just the one exhibit and want to leave.

The point sheet indicated that he was safe, so we are hoping that he handled the situation by expressing his desire to sit on the bus with appropriate words, and not with anger. We are fortunate that the staff at his therapeutic school knows how to deal with such situations, and their flexibility and skill likely kept it from escalating.

Most of November was rough in terms of incidents at school. It’s nice to get off to a good start here in December.