It’s that time of year again – back to school time. Yesterday I gave my boy an almost teary but fatherly thumbs up as he walked off down the road towards his new future as a secondary school pupil.Unlike the first day at primary school, kisses and cuddles are no longer cool. They’d be embarrassing. Actually, is the word ‘cool’ even cool anymore? Or is it ‘sick’ these days? Is ‘sick’ the new ‘cool’ or is ‘cool’ no longer a ‘sick’ word? Oh, I don’t know.. I’m just showing my age.
One thing that is for certain is that things have changed around here in the last seven years. The little boy who ran into my arms at the end of his very first school day now has styled hair, a powerful right foot strike and he can give me a memorable dead leg (if he catches me right). I’m still the boss around these parts though. Occasionally a grimacing and limping boss, but the boss nonetheless.
For those of you taking little deaf children to mainstream primary school today, the power behind junior’s punch or kick is probably not something on your mind, unless its been one of ‘those’ mornings. There is a world of worry going on about how your deaf child will cope in mainstream school. A plethora of considerations and anxieties and rightly so. You need this to go well and so do they.
I’m a veteran of mainstream primary school parenting now. I graduated along with my son at the end of July and I’ve had all summer to think about the experience from a parent’s perspective.
So, if you’re interested, I wrote down the advice that I’d give to anyone if they asked about how to get the best out of it. Here it is! .... For the full post click here
