At age 4, Curtis could no more understand the concept of Halloween as he could understand why someone carved a face into this pumpkin. He would not even hear of the explanation for Halloween and needed to be bribed to dress up. Even then his preference was to stay home and peek around the corner when the doorbell rang as opposed to venturing out into the weirdness. Curtis likes routine and order and to know what is coming next. I know, who wouldn't like to know what's coming next? He is put off by disruptions in his routine and often refuses to participate in non-recurring activities. Again here we pick our battles.

Last week there was a Field Day at Curtis' school. Last year we skipped the activity altogether once gauging his reaction to what a field day entails. A constant change of activities with screaming kids and rules he doesn't understand. More or less his worst nightmare. We accepted that while we like him to be challenged, this wasn't the time and it was all a little too much. When field day arrived this year he agreed to check it out and see how it went. He fought through the early part of the day but was frustrated at trying to keep up with the games which had rules that don't make a lot of sense, like egg tosses. His trusted support person brought him back inside for a bit to exercise his brain with math several grade levels in advance of the first. He aced the math to gain his confidence and then joined his friends for the real challenge, surviving field day.

Greg, Dad