Schools almost here!

Less than one week until school starts and panic has set in here. Kristin is totally freaked out about Middle School. As the time approaches to go back to school, she gets more and more upset, crying and looks of terror on her face when I suggest we go down to the school. I know going to middle school can be challenging, but it shouldn't be that big of an impact for her. The reason I say this is that she goes to a K-8 school. So she has been attending this school for the last two years, knows the school, has meet most of the teachers already and has tons of friends. It doesn't matter what I say though, she is freaked out.

I called the principle yesterday to talk to her about it and she was able to give me a general idea about who her teachers were going to be. The only teacher we weren't sure about was the core teacher and that was narrowed down to two. These are teachers who have been there for the past one to two years already and I believe she has already met them. The principle said she would also be willing to talk to Kristin too. I don't know if I should follow up on this or not.

I did get Kristin to read a couple of books put out by American Girl about feelings and about going to middle school. We talked about what she was afraid of and what she could do if those things were true. That seemed to help her to strategize different options. She was perkier after that.

As for Ian, we are still in a little bit of a quandary. He is supposed to go to a counseling enriched program run by the county as a student of his current school. However the county program is in a different school district. I've explained to the new school that he is not a student of theirs but is on their campus as part of the county program, and that he goes to a different school and is enrolled there. It's complicated. The staff looks at me like they don't understand, but the principle seems to. At least I hope so. The staff at his regular school keep asking if he is attending or not. I've told them in the meantime that he is still a student of theirs. Does this sound confusing?

So, why am I doing this? Well, Ian's school has a waiting list. If things don't work out at the new program, I want him to still have his original place. The teacher knows he may be there and even if he isn't, he has said we could bring him by to still participate in special activities and events. We also have to wait for the doctors to finish their assessments and tests. Their results may change everything. We don't know! I was hoping all this would be settled before school starts, but oh well. Just more waiting. You'd think I'd be used to this by now.

As for me, I'm taking classes at the local community college. Our classes started yesterday. I'm quite pleased and have been looking forward to them. I've had one class already and I think I'll enjoy it. It's called "Drugs and the brain". My other class is "Mental illness and the Movies" which starts today. I'm taking it from one of my favorite teachers. I know I'll enjoy that.

I'm actually off to attend a parent meeting about home schooling. We tossed the idea around for a few years now, but always end up deciding against it. It wouldn't hurt to attend the meeting, I might change my mind. That is Kristin's other option, to be home schooled, I just haven't decided if that would be best for her or not.


We are still trying to decide about Ian and his schooling. He is signed up for a counseling enriched program through the county, but it takes

We're Back!!

We got back yesterday from our trip to Montana and Yellowstone. We had a great time! I'd show you some pictures, but my digital camera died a while ago and I only have my regular camera. I'll have to develop the film soon so I can show you how beautiful everything was.

Ian did very well on the trip. Though once we got to one place, he was ready to go on to the next one. He kept asking over and over when we going to get to Montana and get to camp, at the beginning of the trip, and as soon as we were there, he wanted to know when we were going to go to Yellowstone. Oh well.

Ian developed a new tic while on the trip. Of course I couldn't get a hold of his regular doctor, but the next day I was able to get the on call doctor. She thought it was due to the Focalin and told us to take him off of it. We've been watching him for the past few days, but the tic is still present. Hopefully taking him off the medicine will help, it probably hasn't been enough days. He does see his regular doctor on Wednesday. We'll see what he has to say.

Vacation

We are heading off for Montana and Yellowstone today. We'll be back in about 10 days.

Autism

5 minutes for mom has posted a blog about Autism and has asked readers to share their stories.

I'd like to share ours, but before I do, here are some statistics. There are 1 out of 150 children on the Autistic spectrum. There are 67 new cases every day in the U.S. and a child is diagnosed every 20 minutes. The CDC says it is a national health problem. Certainly as a teacher, I have seen more and more cases every year. Working with toddlers, many times we are the first to notice something is different. There are a lot of people out there who have no idea even what Autism is about. Even my own family didn't know what it meant. I was and am more than happy to explain it to everyone.

A wonderful website is Autism speaks. They have a 13 minute version of the film Autism Every Day. It is worth watching. It gives you a glimpse into the lives of families living with children on the Autistic spectrum. The children have varying degrees of Autism.

Our child Ian has exhibited many traits of Autism, but does not fit into the "box" or Autism or Aspergers. As his doctor once put it "He is touched by the feather of Autism". We have been referred to Stanford and the East Bay Regional Center. Stanford is testing him for fragile X. If anything is even slightly off, they will be able to tell. The Regional center has referred him for further testing also. Now we are just playing the waiting game. Ian has had a tough time over the past 12 months and many activities he previously enjoyed have become much more challenging for him. We never know if he will be invited back, even to a friend's house. It seems he has regressed in his behaviors. He has had accidents and is unable to care for himself. Eating out if often a challenge for us. We do get looks, but I never hesitate to explain that he was special needs and what that means. Often people are surprised and will ask more. For those with their noses in the air, who cares. We know that we are the lucky ones and I feel sorry for them. Life is challenging, but it has its rewards too. He is a very loving child, has a great imagination and is cute as a button.

Eight Random Facts About Me

Julie at TeacherJulie.com tagged me with this meme.

The rules are:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. List eight (8) random facts about yourself.
3. Tag eight people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment in their blog.

Here we go....
1. I research things to death. Really! Give me something, anything and I'll find out all I can on it. I do it with everything, it doesn't have to be about special needs. If I have to buy something like a new computer, a camera, etc., I'll research it endlessly. It drives my husband crazy. "Would you just buy it!!!"

2. I love to read. This also comes in handy for number 1 above. I've been having a great time reading all of the Harry Potter books. I read books 1-4, skipped to 7 (I couldn't resist) and am now reading book 5, to be followed by 6 and yes, 7 again. I've got so many books going at the same time. Let's see, "Help for Worried Kids" by Cynthia Last, "The Places in Between" by Rory Stewart (for book club), "Special Education Rights and Responsibilities" by Community alliance for special education (CASE) and Protection and Advocacy, Inc. (PAI), "The Summer Institute on Neurodevelopmental disorders, Aug 4-5, 2005" sponsored in part by The M.I.N.D Institute at UC Davis, and two more books for my psychology classes at the local community college. I'm happy!

3. I love turtles. I've been collecting them since I was a little girl. This year I entered some of my collection in to the county fair and won first place.

4. I love animals. When I was little I was always bringing home strays. I still do that if I can. We have a zoo here already. Several fish, 2 turtles, a rat and two cats. What's a few more pets....

5. I've been trained as an Infant/Toddler Montessori teacher and have been teaching for the past 5 years in that field, but my degree is in Mathematics. Before becoming a Montessorian, I tutored and taught mathematics for more years than I care to remember.

6. Before Tim and I were married, I wanted to have 6 children. After we were married we decided two was a good number. Later, I told him I wanted to have a blue eyed, blond haired little girl. If the first one was a boy, then we'd try again and again until we reached number four. Then if we still didn't have a blue eyed, blond haired little girl, then we would adopt. When I got pregnant, he prayed and prayed for a little girl. Then beautiful Kristin blessed our lives. Even though she is blond haired and blue eyed now, when she was first born, her hair was brown and so were her eyes. It was love at first sight and the color of her hair and her eyes didn't matter.

7. I prefer to drive a manual transmission. I love my car, it hugs the road, it goes fast and I feel in total control. Our other car is an automatic and well, it's just not as exciting. If I get another car it's got to be manual. Oh, and I want a red convertible too. Weeeeee.....

8. I'm planning on going back to school and getting my master's in experimental psychology. I find the subject positively fascinating. I want to be able to take what I've learned about the mind, behavior and special needs in kids to help their parents and teachers and make the world a better place for all with exceptional needs.

Now for you unsuspecting bloggers, I tag Brony, Deb, Laura, Cat (my sister) who hasn't blogged in a while, but I'm still tagging her. Cat, you can leave your meme in the comments or even better, put it on your blog. I'm also tagging Criz, Bridget, Celtic sister, and Terri.

Wordless Wednesday

This is my great, great grandfather, Ben Falk. He was one of the original founders of Anaconda, Montana. We'll be heading up there on Friday. I wrote a little post about our trip here.

Photo Hunt - Funky

I had to really search through my photo collection to find this. This is a picture of Tim and I so, so many years ago. This isn't our normal attire. We had actually dressed up for a halloween party as a couple of rock stars. I think we did a pretty good job of it.


PhotoHunt