"Mom," says Sam. "This school is the sixth school that Steven has been to." Knowing that this is Steven's second year at Sam's school and that the boys are currently in grade six, I quickly calculated that this must be the only school that Steven had been to for more than a year.

Sam's math skills had beat me to it. "Mom!" says Sam. "This is the only school that Steven has been to for More. Than. One. Year."

Wow.

We had suspected that Sam had some learning differences by the end of grade two. We had found him an (amazing!) tutor for grade three and grade four. We had booked his psych-ed testing for learning disabilities by the end of grade four and had our suspicions confirmed with the final psych-ed results, a month into grade five. We were lucky enough to secure a spot in the school for kids with language based learning disabilities for grade six.

Things had not been easy at school up until the move of schools (and the vice principal may have had me on speed dial), but things had never got to a point of needing to leave the school.

My heart hurt for Steven and his family. What a hard and bumpy and anxious road they had taken to get here.

Moving schools once was hard and we had to really keep talking about it to Sam. And I'm not sure that he really believed me that this school was going to be different until he actually arrived.

I cannot imagine what the road looked like in another house where I'm imagining they also had conversations about the next school being different - yet it proved to not be the solution either.

Today I'm feeling very grateful for the easiness of our road and feeling empathy for all those out there trying different turns to land on the right school solution for their little one who's learning st‌yle may be a little atypical.