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Forum -> Parenting our children -> School age children
He's complaining about the commute



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amother
Beige


 

Post Thu, Jan 11 2018, 4:42 pm
My first grader has a 25 minute ride to school, sometimes it can be over half an hour if there's traffic. He's starting to complain that he wants to go to the local school. The problem is he has special needs which the local school can't accommodate. We were hoping he'd be ready to mainstream next year, but it's looking unlikely at this point, which means he will continue to go to this school. I don't know what to tell him. I already got him a handheld gaming device for the ride to make it easier and it helps but he's still asking to switch. But that's just not doable for now and probably for awhile.
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momX4




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jan 11 2018, 4:44 pm
My kids are on the bus for 45 min to one hour. Your DC is lucky it's only 25 minutes
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Iymnok




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jan 11 2018, 5:11 pm
MP3 player with story "tapes"
Audio books

How old is he?
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amother
Beige


 

Post Thu, Jan 11 2018, 5:14 pm
He's six, turning seven soon.
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groovy1224




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jan 11 2018, 5:19 pm
momX4 wrote:
My kids are on the bus for 45 min to one hour. Your DC is lucky it's only 25 minutes


This is helpful..how?

OP, ask him what would make the ride more bearable. Maybe a book or headphones with music or stories? For right now, it's not possible to take the commute away so the only thing you can try to do is find ways to help him enjoy the ride more.
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amother
Beige


 

Post Thu, Jan 11 2018, 5:51 pm
All good ideas, thanks. Though I wonder if he'll go for any of those things. I feel like if the gaming device doesn't do it, what will?
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amother
Cyan


 

Post Thu, Jan 11 2018, 6:20 pm
Is the ride the only problem? Or is he in general noticing that he goes to a different school, without any real understanding of why? If that's the case, then of course it will be hard to satisfy him when he has no clue why it's happening.

I will also caution you to be careful with a gaming device if he has certain special needs issues, incuding social issues, as many of these kids have a tendency toward overfocus on tech devices.
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Stars




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jan 11 2018, 9:30 pm
Try to pinpoint exactly what the issue is. Is he bored? Hungry? Car sick? Then you can work on resolving the issue effectively.
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amother
Beige


 

Post Thu, Jan 11 2018, 9:36 pm
He does realize that he goes to a different school and we haven't figured out how to tell him why. The gaming device is loaded with specific games approved by his therapists as good for kids like him. He was actually pretty articulate about the issue. Time spent commuting is time spent not doing other things he'd rather be doing. If he went to the local school it would be a 10 minute drive. So the time "lost" only adds up to 30-45 minutes per day, he's not spending hours traveling. But I guess it seems like a lot to him.
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