Old Friends

My younger son was in a special ed preschool for ages 3 and 4. In hindsight he really didn't need to be there, but at the time I was told he did and wanted to do the right thing. Turns out he received some benefits I didn't realize until later. He was the highest functioning child in the class and helped everyone. He just wasn't talking much at almost 3 when the district had their testing. Older son was still in public school at the time and younger son would have been going in at kindergarten age too.

Younger son learned some life lessons about compassion, helpfulness, and patients. Older son learned from the experience too. He entertained the class as a magician and loved playing with the kids. He realized early on how blessed he was just to have normal physical and mental ability. By the second year all the teachers were telling me he really had no reason to be there, but he had friends :) At age three this boy and younger son were inseparable. Younger son moved on to a private school kindergarten and this boy stayed in public school and also moved to kindergarten. They were the only two able to move on, so they had a little ceremony for them the last day. We had play dates and visited each other for a few years. The other family ended up moving a couple of times and we lost touch about 6 or 7 years ago. Out of the blue yesterday the boy called my son from his grandma's to say hi and see if younger son wanted to get together. What a shock when they saw each other. I still saw the same little boy from years ago in his face, but they are both taller then I and their voices are a little different too :)

Now they both have their driving permits, computers and exchanged cell phone numbers. I am thinking they will do this staying in touch thing better then we parents did!