Wednesday was Jack’s IEP. Let me give you a little back story here. Jack’s “teacher” is a special education professional, who routinely wears fake hair and loud (loud isn’t the best adjective, but that’s all I can come up with) jumpers/sweaters. We refer to her as The General, because, quite frankly, that’s how she acts. Things…
Category Archives: Learning Disabilities
Picture Exchange Communication System Hi-tech vs. Low-tech
I originally posted this on my own blog six months ago. I’ve gotten such a great response online and have had people asking me about our low-tech PECS so often that I thought I would post here as well. Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is something we’ve been working on with Chewy. Since he’s non-verbal…
Helping Kids With ADHD Make Friends
“They don’t want to play with me!” She yells, stomping up the stairs and throwing her book bag down the hall. As is my daily habit, I wait until she blows off steam and it’s calm in her room again. Then I walk in, plop on the floor next to her where she’s creating an…
Homework Strategies for Moody Kids
A few weeks back in school and all the old frustrations are in full swing. The pencil-breaking. The paper-ripping. The weeping. The gnashing of teeth. You’d think schoolwork was, in fact, hell on earth. But really it’s just hell to a child with a learning disability. Especially one that’s at the mercy of bipolar mood…
The Value of Life.
…”The hard part is trying to answer the questions Walker raises in my mind every time I pick him up, What is the value of a life like his — a life lived in the twilight and often in pain? What is the cost of his life to those around him? … If Walker is…
New year to begin…
I know what your thinking…NEW SCHOOL YEAR? How many days till school starts??? I have a friend that started counting the minute summer started. I enjoy our homeschooling time together. I love the beginning of a new year…the goals for the year, the dreams of what you want to work on, the reality of what…
Just Keeping Your Head Above Water
I am not sure when it was exactly, that I stopped planning ahead. It could have been when Zoe was little and ill all the time. Maybe when her big sister Olivia was still catching every virus too- but somewhere along the years with appointments, kids school stuff, daily care and flu seasons- and trying…
Our Role & words hurt
So I was thinking, draw 3 circles on a piece of paper. One inside the other, so really you have 3 cirles around each other(as pictured) The inner circle is our children, this is their culture of being a child with special needs. The middle circle is us, the parents. We’re not in the…
learning…
Learning…I’ve not written about homeschooling yet so I thought maybe this would be a good time. Homeschooling isn’t so typical for us, we have many challenges to get over. We do use therapies as part of our daily routine (even if we are still on sabbatical from professional therapies at our local hospital). We do…
Which is Worse
I have a podcast I like to listen to. It’s for working mom’s who are “trying to do it all and then some.” The mom’s who run the podcast have two children each. Their kids are about the same age with the oldest being in 2nd or 3rd grade and youngest in kindergarten. Over the…