So for those following my tweet feed this weekend, you’re aware that we managed to take in Surfers Healing again in New Jersey, at the Autism Beach Bash held by Autism Family Services of New Jersey. Given that he drew the first possible surf time (9 AM), this therefore entailed an overnight stay.
And, for the second straight trip, our ‘backup plan’ failed us. Continue reading
Thursday night was the first “real” Parents and Community Advisory Board (PCAB) meeting of the 2014-2015 school year.
The major order of business was to nominate and elect an executive board, and I was elected as Treasurer with only a little back-and-forth about whether other candidates were going to accept nominations. But this was the least of the matters that PCAB really meets for. Continue reading
Today is the end of the second week of first grade for the Monster. (Why our schools here start before Labor Day, I know not.) And as such, this is also the end of the second week of homework.
Now, the Monster’s teacher apparently only checks homework on Monday, which is good because his work did not get done last night – I had my PCAB meeting, and the wife had choir rehearsal, so he had to go to choir with her and didn’t get a chance to work on it. So we’ll get that done tonight.
The only problem, though, is that I question how well his homework might be adapted to him. Continue reading
Yesterday, since the Monster didn’t have school and we had a kind invite from my SiL to join them, we wandered off to the Renaissance Festival.
My wife and I have gone almost every year since we started dating (and each of us went separately in college). We’ve really not gone all dressed-up since we had the kids – it’s very hard to tolerate wandering about in garb when you’re pushing a stroller with a fussy child or wearing an Ergo – but it’s still a lot of fun in general. Continue reading
One of the hardest things for me, as the father of a child with Autism, is trying to understand how my son relates to the other children around him.
Now, the Monster loves other people. For having a disorder that causes so many problems with communications with other people, he certainly adores being around certain people – he loves his little brother, and his family, and there are people who he develops attachments to. But ask him who his friends at school are, and he’s not able to give you a real response. Continue reading
Three days into the school year, and the IEP chair from the Monster’s school is still ignoring the single, easy question that I asked her. Of course, so is the person who is in charge of implementing IEPs in the district, so I might have to pick up a phone and start being my normal self again.
On the other hand… things are getting off to a good start with the specialists. Continue reading
Today was the second day of first grade for the Monster. Continue reading
The new school year begins on Monday.
As I’ve mentioned previously, my wife took the Monster to his new school today to get him familiarized with the place before the chaos of the official “seat sneak peek” tomorrow night. it was a quick breeze-through visit – the staff were busy in a meeting, and so he was given the chance to go see his classroom and the like, and my wife briefly met his teacher and the vice-principal of the lower school.
I have to say, honestly, that I’m already concerned. Continue reading
Monday was the semi-annual visit to the dentist for R and the Monster.
We use Dr. Bowden at Pediatric Dentistry – the practice has been wonderful with the Monster, and has a great strategy for easing kids into getting their teeth checked regularly. During the first year, you have appointments every 3 months (every other one is unbilled) to get the child accustomed to someone poking into their mouth, and then you settle into the usual twice-a-year practice of getting your teeth looked at.
Save that the Monster’s never quite been content to get his teeth checked. Continue reading
The Monster’s first day of first grade starts a week from Monday.
This will be another large change from him, on the scale of the change that he went through when he was pulled out of the private nursery school program he was in at the JCC and sent to Garrett Heights Elementary/Middle School for pre-K. The first day of school will find him at a new building – our zone school, Mount Washington – and in a far larger class than he’s been in previously in any prior environment, with fewer adults around him. Continue reading