When I was seven, my family moved from one town to another, at least partially to move us to a better school district. It’s not that strange in America really – the idea that consumers can vote with their feet, and if they think the schools in the neighboring school district (or, indeed, in a neighboring or non-neighboring state) are better, you can sell your house and move.
It’s not so easy when you’re a parent of a child with special-needs who has an IEP. Continue reading
One of the worst parts of the holiday season is the annual holiday break – it means that we’ve planning to do about keeping the children busy, and dealing with the fact that the Monster is quite, quite used to his regular routine. While he did spend a couple of days at Schools Out at the JCC (which I still absolutely love), we elected not to send him on the days that they were doing field trips, just to not torture their staff.
So instead, we tortured ourselves, and decided to plan a field trip to the Crayola Experience. Continue reading
It’s been a while since I last posted – I got distracted with a few very packed weeks at work and in my personal life (largely the latter, almost entirely for good, and just the nature of life sometimes). But now that things are quieting down a bit…
This weekend was another outing to the curling rink with both boys. R is slowly getting it… but the news is that I had an epiphany about the Monster on the ice. Continue reading
So, it’s happened.
R started curling three weeks ago, and… well, is doing as well as you’d imagine a four year old doing on his first time out. He’s watched enough to have an idea of what it looks like, but putting that into practice is a wholly different thing. But the idea of getting curling has been motivating him since, and that makes me quite, quite happy. We took a week off for an ASBC social, and then… we went again last Sunday, this time with the Monster.
So it’s official – my Monster is now a curler. Continue reading
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we’ve started the Monster with Hebrew school at our shul. He’s had some basic “religious school” through an after-school program at his regular school, but this year was time for us to get a little more serious with it. He’s not had any objections to it so far, and the teachers have been telling us that he’s doing alright.
But part of the goal is also getting him more comfortable with coming to the building and being around celebrations, and… well, Simchat Torah is one of the easier times for him to be involved. Continue reading
Out of sight, out of mind.
At one point, I thought that the idea of mainstreaming the Monster was the dream we should be reaching for – that he’d do better with his normally-abled peers and that they’d get a better idea of how to live with children with special needs like him. That was before the disastrous wake-up call that we got, in the form of a year wasted, which ended up with his being sent to a “non-public placement”, a private school paid for by the city school system, where he’s doing far better.
The problem? The Monster and children like him are all but invisible to the school district. Continue reading
I’m very fortunate to have a flexible job that lets me work from home when need-be. Even as a manager, since my teammates also can work from home (which they often do on Fridays), I can settle in at the dining room table with my laptop and get my work done, which frees me up to watch the kids if they’re home from school, and frees my wife up to get things done.
It also gives me interesting insight sometimes into the Monster. Continue reading
It’s hard to be the sibling of a child with special needs, methinks.
Most of the time, just because of their ages and the nature of things, R and the Monster end up doing the same things (outside of school). If we plan an activity, it’s set up for all of us to go together and… there are advantages and disadvantages. Continue reading
So we ran into a quandary earlier this year.
The Monster’s now eight years old… which means that we’re five years out from his Bar Mitzvah (in theory) and two years out from picking a date for said event. And yet, I’ve not the slightest idea of what we’re going to do about when we get to thirteen. Continue reading
We’re back from a week-plus away from home, first at a family event and then for a week down the Shore. (As anyone with children will remind you – when you have kids, it’s not a vacation but a trip.) Which means it’s time for me to get back into the swing of things, especially as the Monster returns to school this morning.
But having ten straight days with the Monster gives me a different view into his life and how he experiences the world.