Splat Goes Life.

Yesterday I received word from Jack's service coordinator with the County, that the psychologist doing his evaluation for the "redetermination" (determining if Jack still qualifies for the Autism diagnosis, and is still eligible for services), has sent in her report. She had one visit with Jack, for about an hour, but only spoke with me briefly. It was during this time of filling out the questionnaires (over the course of 2-3 weeks) that Jack was pulled from school, and I included a note with my forms that stated such, and that I wasn't sure whether or not his teacher would still be sending in any of her questionnaires. Yesterday, the service coordinator said the teacher had, and that the report implied that she and I gave pretty much the same ratings on everything. It was actually good timing when she and I filled these things out, because it was during a really rough time for Jack- many of my answers were based on behaviors I knew were taking place at school, whic...

Up at 3 am. Worried about my son. Earlier in the evening (of what is now yesterday), my son had a friend over. He has one really good friend, who actually enjoys coming over. Because we had to pull Jack out of school, keeping him in contact with his friend has been important. This is their first time seeing each other in about 2 1/2 weeks, and they got along great (per the usual). We took the boys to this place we have locally where they have huge inflatables. Not long before the pizza came (it was a deal for a "pizza and a bounce"), Jack became seriously overheated. His face was red, he was blinking his eyes a lot, or looked like he was having trouble seeing. He complained that his head really hurt. We had him get some water, sit down for a few minutes, and then I grabbed a cold, wet paper towel to cool his neck and face. He drank the juice pouch that came with our meal in about 2 seconds flat. He had been complaining about a headache around 4pm, and this was about 7...

Jack and Savannah are currently doing the whole Spring Break thing. I have to say I was relieved at the end of the day on Friday, to just put school out of my mind for a minute. Unfortunately, I feel like I can't forget it for too long, because Jack has his 3rd grade state achievement tests coming up in 1 month, and that gives me little time to prepare for them. These tests basically tell the state (and therefore the district) that he will be ready to move on to the 4th grade. I have to believe that academically, he is. However, being able to prove it on these tests, is another thing. One of the tests (the Reading achievement test), he gets to take a second time. (They do it in both the Fall, to make sure they're prepared for 3rd grade, and then again in the Spring). If they don't pass the Spring test, this means additional instruction in the summer. In the Fall, he performed at the accelerated level. He was "Above Proficient" in all areas accept for ...

Tuesday, March 19th.. Ways my son has "voiced" his displeasure at our conversation this afternoon, about him not returning to his home school school for the rest of this year (or ever) : putting dirty laundry on the couch, hiding my cell phone, hiding my reading glasses (which makes typing this a chore), putting slobbery dog chews/toys on my sheets, messed with my TV before hiding the remotes.. and who knows what else... just in the amount of time it took me to pick his big sister up from school. LOL! At least verbally he's been respectful. Instead of yelling at me, he's stated that "parents react too much to things". :P Poor kid.

A week ago today, Jack and I began our "Adventures in Homeschooling". While I hope that my son is actually learning something new on a daily basis, I am learning a few things myself.. Being a teacher is no easy task. I don't know how people can actually enjoy this job. I mean, sure, it's "all worth it" in the end. You're doing a great thing, educating a child. Without teachers, most kids wouldn't have a shot in hell at making it in this world, and that must feel pretty darn good. It's tiring , it seems like your work is never done.. and that's just putting together course work, homework, spelling lists (God help me, this will be the death of me as there is no set list of words out there somewhere for a kid like mine, who is reading and speaking well above his grade level- but I still have to give him "word study", where he learns all about vowels, prefixes, etc). I barely had time to notice that there was dust on the top of...

On Thursday morning, I sent a registered letter to the school district requesting permission to homeschool Jack for the remainder of the year. We know they got the letter (complete with copy of my high school and college diploma, as well as a loose curriculum) on Monday. Our estimated response time, given by two separate people, was 2 weeks. Our approval letter came on Wednesday. I was not anticipating such a quick response. I was nervous that I wouldn't be approved, because really, I didn't like my options otherwise. Having not fully prepared Jack for this (or really the school), I wanted to at least keep him through to the end of the week. I let the teacher know on Wednesday evening what I was planning, and then on the morning of, told her that it would be Jack's last day. From the moment I sent in my request, I have been actively planning to homeschool. I have bought some shelves on sale, found some workbooks for Jack's grade level (at thrift store prices), bou...

When the psychologist sat me down at my kitchen table and told me that my son had Autism, I wanted to cry. I don't recall that I did, and I think it's because I had a pretty good suspicion that he was on the spectrum. When the teachers from his preschool came to my house to write up our first IEP, I did cry. Knowing that all of that was necessary, that he couldn't go to school without mass amounts of paperwork and planning, it became clear to me that it would never be as simple as filling out the required enrollment forms, medical releases, etc. Nothing typical would be a part of much of pretty much anything- and so I cried. I cried during an IEP meeting at school once, I think . It becomes confusing to me, because it has happened rarely. I cried when I had to pick Jack up from school, because he basically turned into a wild animal. I was totally overwhelmed, probably embarrassed, and even a little scared not knowing where things could possibly go from there. I also c...