Charlie The Navigator

This morning Charlie and I were outside waiting for his bus, as usual.  And it got to be late, then later, then – “Ok, I’m calling dispatch, ’cause it is like way late now…” 

It turns out that the main road the buses are dispatched onto before heading out to their routes was basically a parking lot due to an accident or something, and it was going to be at least another 20 minutes before the bus got there.  So I decided just to drive Charlie to school, which was cool.  I had somewhere I had to go after he left, anyway.

So we headed out, and I realized I had to go on the same road that was basically a “parking lot” to get him *to* school.  I was a little bit worried, but I figured the traffic wouldn’t be a dead stop going both ways, and I was going the opposite direction the bus would have been, so figured it would be fine.

So I headed to that road, and on the way I passed an interstion of a road which, in the past, I had suspected would be a “short cut” to Charlie’s school.  But I’d never had time to really go exploring, so I didn’t know for sure.  But as we passed the intersection, Charlie said, “Mommy, you’re going the wrong way.  That’s the way to school – you passed it!”  Aha… so that is a shortcut from our house when going that direction after all!

The next intersection was the gridlocked one in question, and wow – it was a parking lot BOTH directions!  So I turned around and headed back to the street Charlie told me to turn onto and headed that way.  When I got to the street his school was on, I wasn’t sure if we were to the left or the right of it at that point, thus didn’t know which way to turn.  So I just asked the six-year-old navigator which way to go.

He said to turn left, and he’s always been good about knowing what city we’re in when we’re out & about and when we’re close to Donna’s house, etc., so I decided to believe him.  Plus, he had been that way before on the bus, and I hadn’t – so it made sense he would know.

And he did!  It was so cool, because he was so proud of himself.  Thanks to him, we got him to school on time (a little early, even) and he had the best day at school!  He was telling his one-on-one aid about how he knew the way to school and told Mommy and everything and just seemed so happy and proud.

When he came home, his daily report showed that he had had a really good day at school.  Maybe I should set up little easy-to-win challenges for him in the morning from now on.  Just to get him feeling good about himself and excited about the day.  It certainly seemed to make a difference today.

Plus, I was really impressed he directed me to school!  We probably would have sat in traffic for at least a half an hour if it weren’t for him being aware and knowing how to get to school. I was proud of him!