I think I mentioned that we ran into a parent at Jack's school who we knew from our Uni days. (He was in the same course, but two years above us.) His son William is in Grade 1. For the last few weeks we have been visiting their house Thursday after school so that Jack and William can get to know each other - something that seems to have worked out well because they now both regularly interact at school. During these visits the kids often play PS2, PS3 or computer games.

While Jack is familiar with playing on a computer, he hasn't had much exposure to console games. I had an old Playstation 2 hooked up to the TV in my study (primarily just for Gran Turismo 4) that I had not used in quite some time. Last week I ordered a couple PS2 games from the Internet that Jack was playing at William's house, and now that they have arrived, moved the PS2 out to the lounge room. I expect it will cause some grief with Jack harping on wanting to play, and Grace getting in the way, but at least he will have the opportunity to get used to console games for just a minimal outlay from us.

Speaking of school interactions - while I don't get the feeling Jack has close friends of the nature he had at Childcare, he does seem to be interacting with a great number of kids. On Tuesday morning when Jack and Al arrived at school a boy ran up and asked him to play. On the way to drop off his bag three separate students ran up to talk to Jack, and he chatted back quite relaxed. After putting the bag down he went back and played with the first boy. On picking him up I found his shoes were full of sand. I asked why - and he said he had spent lots of time in the sandpit with one of the girls in his class playing Vampires.

I know the efforts of Al have certainly helped him - from getting to know William (who he plays with regularly), taking him to a Football Clinic where other kids in his class go (who he now interacts with more), introducing him to Jake (the child of another mother Al gets along well with), letting him go to the school disco, etc. In the end however it is Jack who makes things happen for himself - being willing to try and approach other kids, being willing to play with boys or girls, in sport or imaginative play. If he can't find anyone else to play with, he seems happy enough just to find his own fun - which in turn, I suspect, encourages other kids to come and join him anyway.

He's not naturally comfortable with socialising, but boy has he come a long way. I'm sure we will have many ups and downs - but aside a few days here and there, mostly at the start of term, Jack seems to be coping fairly well and is happy in the school playground. To be frank, the number of kids he seems to be comfortably interacting with astounds me.

Posted by Doug at 10:57 AM