I’ve probably commented before on the matter, but it definitely bears bringing up again.  Our children are habitually overscheduled, as it seems.

The Monster, with his difficulties, hasn’t yet discovered fun things like rec-league soccer or the like… but his schedules really do seem to fill up rapidly.

Last year, he was only doing three things, really – therapy on Tuesday evenings, Gymnastics on Thursdays, and Sunday Funday on (duh) Sundays.

This year, though, there’s a lot more in the mix.  Those three have returned, but we’ve added feeding therapy every few Wednesday evenings, and we’re trying to get him into music therapy on Mondays.  We’ve talked a little bit about the idea of Hebrew School (Sunday mornings) or the Baltimore Saints on Saturdays… but that’s a lot.

Plus, there’s another wrinkle to the whole problem – timing itself.  Last year, when the Monster was at Garrett Heights EMS, school started at 9 AM – his bus came around 8:20, and he got up around 7:30 or so.  This year, the bus for The Mount Washington School comes at 7:30 – he’s up by around 6:50 to give him time to get dressed, eat and get driven over to the bus.  This has him ready for bed around 6:30 at night, given how his sleep cycle works.  (And that will probably be another posting in and of itself.)

Normally, a 4 PM appointment for things would not be a huge problem, save that he’s already been up 9-10 hours at that point and usually is starting to be fatigued… plus most of those hours have been at school, where he’s being pushed academically.  It ends up affecting his behavior at the activity after school – last year, when I’d take him to gymnastics, it was hit or miss as to if he was in the mood to cooperate, usually more hit than miss when it was cooler (and let’s be honest – I get crankier earlier when it’s hot too).

Maybe we have enough things for him to be doing for the moment… 🙂