First Day

 Planning, praying, perspiring, more planning, pondering. . . The decision to homeschool our three oldest this year was certainly not easy.  Although I am beyond certain that we made the right decision, it still doesn't take away the butterflies and the "what-if's" and the uncertainties.  Technically last year was our first year of homeschooling, but it was only the Drama Queen.  She is bright and loves school; so it really was an easy year overall.  Being pregnant with Little Sprout did complicate things a little, and towards the end, we were both agonizing through endless worksheets and books.  I am learning a lot about homeschooling though.  It's not "school at home."  You don't have to do every. single. worksheet.  If she can spell all the words on her list without looking on Monday, there's no sense in dragging it out for the whole week.  If curriculum isn't working, I have the power to ditch it and find something that does.  Anyway.

 We had our first official day of school yesterday.  The Nerd had steam-cleaned the carpet in our "school-room" the night before; so I got up early to move furniture back in, look over lesson plans, make pancakes, soothe an unhappy baby, push the unfolded laundry to the end of the couch, etc.

 When I came out to the living room, I found Little Miss Drama Queen curled up on the couch asleep.  As soon as she smelled the pancakes sizzling on the griddle, she shot up from under her blanket and asked if it was time to start school yet.  I was tickled to see that she had gotten up in the middle of the night and changed into her "back-to-school outfit" before going back to sleep.

 Since no day passes around here without some drama, our first day of homeschooling certainly had its share.  Spud woke up sobbing that he didn't feel good and spent all his time at the breakfast table crying that his brother was "looking at him."  The Beast was of course overstimulated with the excitement and difference in schedule.  He spent a lot of time running into walls and causing general chaos.  No one was particularly thrilled to be posing for so many first day pictures, but obviously they did a great job faking it.

The school day went well enough.  It helped me see where my planned schedule didn't work and where I could cut time.  I got the same tingle of excitement that I got every year as a school teacher before I had my kids.  When asked what their favorite part of the day was, The Drama Queen responded with "math class" and the Spud favored coloring the American flag in history class.  The Beast's favorite?  Sharpening pencils and making sure everything was in his pencil box.  Obviously we have lots of room for progress. :)  Afterwards, we headed out to the library to check out books on the topics we are studying in history and science.  Then I took them to the park to burn off some extra energy.  (I had no extra energy at this point).

Here's to another successful day today.  Hey, I'll settle for a pretty average day.  Also, I need to write in "Teacher Nap Time" on the schedule.

Makes Me Sick

No doubt many of you have heard of the heart-wrenching tale of Stuart Chaifetz, his autistic ten-year-old son Akian, and the bullying Akian endured at his school.  If you are not familiar with the story, here's a brief recap.  Akian had always been a quiet, sweet, easy-going kid until this past school year.  Not long after school started, Stuart started getting calls and notes from the school that Akian had been acting violently in class, hitting teachers and screaming with rage.  This was so unlike Akian that Stuart arranged for several meetings with the teacher in the class as well as the principal and specialists to help try to figure out how they could help Akian.  Nothing seemed to work, and Stuart felt frustrated that his once-happy kid was struggling so much.  He realized that something at school was really setting off his son and decided to send Akian to school with a hidden wire to record everything that happened that day.  When Akian got home from school that day, Stuart listened to the recordings and was sickened and angered by what he heard.  The main teacher and her aides in this all-autistic class told Akian to "shut up" and called him names.  They threatened him when he talked to himself (a very normal activity for an autistic child) and discussed very inappropriate topics in front of the students in the classroom.  The teacher even admitted to her aides that she had drunk a lot of wine the night before, and that "the wine was teaching the class today." These teachers took full advantage of their situation - a class of children that could not express to their parents what went on in their classroom.  What made it worse was the fact that these specially-trained teachers were supposed to protect these kids from other kids teasing and bullying, when in fact they were doing the bullying themselves.  Stuart submitted his recordings to the NJ school district, who after reviewing the evidence, fired one of the aides and moved the main teacher to another class.  Upset that a teacher who had treated his son so badly was still allowed to teach, Stuart Chaifetz made this video to spread the word and help alert other parents that this teacher was still teaching in the district. 

The Nerd sent me the link to this video last week as he commuted to work on the bus.  The contents of the video made me physically ill;  the Nerd later told me that he had no ability to focus in his first two meetings of the day after watching the video.  It bothered me so much that I couldn't stop thinking about these teachers who were entrusted with the care of autistic children - teachers that abused the children with their words and actions.  It made me angry and sad that kids who have a hard enough time being heard and understood were being taken advantage of in such a way by adults who should have known better.  It felt personal, because I knew the same situation in theory could have happened to my Beast.  Although he has better vocabulary skills than many autistic children, he never tells me about what happened at school.  Never.  His teacher gives me a list of things that they did in class to use as a conversation-starter with him.  If it were not for that piece of paper, I literally would have no idea what went on in his classroom that day. 

We recently made the hard decision to homeschool the Beast this upcoming school year.  Watching this video only confirmed this decision for me.  I am not generalizing this horrific behavior to all special ed teachers, as we have been most blessed by some amazing teachers and therapists for our Beast.  Still, you want to protect your children all that you can.  Sometimes, that means taking an alternative road to what others are doing or what the experts tell you you should be doing.  And sometimes, it means spreading the word so that parents will be alert and involved enough in their child's schooling to prevent this kind of thing from happening again.

Blended

Although school ended for the Beast on Thursday, it will only be a few short weeks before he goes back for the fall semester. Hopefully things go smoothly on these days that his schedule changes.

On Friday, I got an unexpected call from the Beast's main teacher. He told me that all of the Beast's teachers had been discussing his progress over the past year, and after a lot of talk, they felt that our Davey would be better suited to the blended class come fall. The blended class consists of some kids like Davey and also quite a few "normal" kids. It is run more like a classroom, with just two teachers instead of the several he's used to and with a structured curriculum similar to a kindergarten class instead of the one-on-one help he has been getting.

I am very excited for him - this means that progress is being made! On the other hand, I am a little nervous for him. Being in a blended class means he is going to have to work a lot harder to meet the same goals as his peers. It will challenge him in ways he hasn't been before. And most importantly, it is going to be a big change for him, and the Beast does not always handle change very well.

All the same, we are encouraged at this "promotion" and look forward to our Davey learning and growing even more!

A BIG Thank You!

We celebrated the Beast's last day of school on Thursday. We celebrated six teachers that have the amazing capabilities to bring out the best in our children. The Beast helped me choose papers to make these notebooks for his teachers as end-of-the-year gifts.

We simply bought notebooks at the dollar store and covered them in coordinating scrapbook paper. (The Beast really liked the bright colors of these sock-monkey themed papers). I used a Sharpie to write each teacher's name in a fun font. (the heartbreaker font at dafont.com was inspiration). Then we tied them up with white grosgrain ribbon bows and colorful pencils.

It seemed it was the least I could do for these incredible teachers. Those of you that knew the Beast before he was diagnosed and before he began this special education program would be able to testify how much progress and change has occurred in our little man over the year. I will forever be grateful to these people whose talents were used to help the Beast in ways that I, even as his mom, could not. It never seems enough to say thank you - but, a BIG thanks to all of his teachers. Mr. Scott, Teacher Jan, Teacher Bobby, Teacher Mary Jo, Teacher Chris, and Miss Maggy - we love you!

Beyond the teachers, the class itself was an incredible experience this year. My Beast finally has friends - ones that run up to him, grab him firmly by the hand, and proudly introduce him as "my friend David." Each child in the class has a special, fun personality, and I am looking forward to the playdates this summer with the Beast's favorite people. I have been able to develop amazing friendships with the parents of these special kids. One in particular has been such a blessing and wonderful friend throughout the school year. She has watched my kids when I was sick, picked up the Beast and taken him to school when I needed it, but most of all she loves my kids, especially my Davey.

So here I am at the end of the school year, trying to process my emotions about it all. The Beast comes over to me and initiates a long conversation about the baby, keeping eye contact with me the entire time. Summer break for him is actually quite short - just the month of June in fact - and he will be returning to his class in the beginning of July. Then Mr. Scott (his favorite teacher) calls. Budget cuts have been made, and a lot of reshuffling in the system has taken place. While David will still get to be with most of his teachers and classmates, unfortunately Mr. Scott is being moved to another class. I must admit, I cry when I hear the news. (I am sure preggo hormones are a part of that!) From the moment Davey and Mr. Scott met, they have had a special connection. Davey measures his days by "when's the next time I get to see Mr. Scott?" We have benefitted so much from Mr. Scott as parents - he even has come by our house to help us work out solutions to problems we were having with David at home. I don't know how to tell David that he will have a new teacher and that he will not be seeing Mr. Scott every week anymore.

However, I am trying hard to be grateful that he has so many good teachers and that he is able to continue in this fabulous program. I know that with that kind of help, our Beast's future is bright. I praise God every day that we get to be part of this community!

No Foyers

Yesterday, the Drama Queen was having quite the day. Her morning started off in epic crankiness, with tears over which cereal she should eat for breakfast and over which coat was appropriate to wear to school that day. I must admit that it was with great joy and relief when I dropped her off at her classroom. At last, I had some peace and quiet and certainly did not miss the whining! (well, until I went in to teach my junior high Spanish class, but that's another story...)

At noon, I waited patiently in the van for the Drama Queen to come out of school. Soon she appeared, dragging her Zhu Zhu Pets backpack behind her. One look at her face confirmed that her mood and attitude hadn't changed much since the morning. Her teacher came out to the van, but judging by the smile on her face, I assumed that my daughter had not been completely horrible that day.

"I just had to tell you," Miss Adrian said. "I told the kids to get ready to go out to the foyer to wait for their parents. Gabi immediately said that she couldn't go to the foyer today. I asked her why not and she replied, 'I can't go to the foyer because I'm a 'five-year', not a 'four-year.' Your daughter just cracks me up!"

The craziest thing about my daughter's sense of humor is that it is most often unintentional. She says and does the funniest things without realizing it and then usually asks with a pout, "What's so funny?"

I am glad that today was a much less dramatic morning for us. Perhaps the threats of "you'll go straight to bed after school if you don't fix the attitude" or the surprise treat of chocolate donuts for breakfast did the trick.

At any rate, hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I've got to go pick up my "five-year" from school.

And Then...

6:00 am - Get up, make some coffee, get dressed, and make sure all backpacks, coats, and shoes are in order.

6:45 am - Rouse the Drama Queen, who is NOT a morning person, dress her in her school uniform, and try to coerce her to eat some breakfast.

7:00 am - Allow the Spud and Beast to come out of their rooms, get them settled with breakfast, and then dress the little fiends.

7:30 am - March the kiddos and all their appropriate gear out the door and proceed to buckle them into their five-point harness car seats.

7:40 am - Pick up a teenager that carpools with us to school and drive to school, occasionally making a stop at McDonalds for a mocha frappe for the teenager.

8:00 am - Drop the teenager and the Drama Queen off at school and then park the van. Unload the remaining gremlins and check them into the school daycare.

8:00 am - Get set up for class and attend teachers' meeting. Teach Spanish to the 7th/8th graders.

9:15 am - Finish up class and go pick up the boys from daycare. Once again do the car seat thing.

9:30 am - Arrive at the gym, unload the boys from the van and drop them off at the gym child care. Go work out! woohoo!

10:30 am - Sweating profusely, pick up the boys and bribe them with a granola bar to get to the van quickly. again with the car seat process...

10:40 am - Arrive home, get the boys in front of a short DVD while I take a quick shower. Spend some time playing with the boys and picking up around the house.

11:40 am - Load the boys back into the van and drive back to school to pick up the Drama Queen. Head home for lunch.

12:15 pm - Make lunch for the kids and eat. (quickly!)

12:45 pm - Load all offspring into the van again and drive The Beast to his special preschool.

1:00 pm - Go back home and do laundry, dishes, lesson plans, whatever needs to be done.

2:00 pm - Grab the kiddos and head out to pick up one of the Drama Queen's friends that stays at our house after her school is out.

2:30 pm - Take the kids to a playground or library, depending on the weather.

3:30 pm - Pick up The Beast from his preschool and head home. Get the boys settled for "rest time" (naptime is a rarity anymore) and the girls doing a quiet activity. Take a deep breath, finish housework, and start making dinner.

5:00 pm - After the Drama Queen's friend gets picked up, get dinner on the table and feed the family. After which, the evening activities of dishes, kitchen clean-up, baths for the kiddos, bedtime stories, picking out of outfits for the next day, vacuuming, etc. will commence. Any remaining time is to be used for catching up on emails and doing some projects for The Framed Frog.

You didn't really read all of that, did you? Well, if you did, stop and take a deep breath. That's what I have to do when I realize how busy my schedule is! I love it - the constant motion, the going here and there - but it is definitely the reason I have been lax in my blogging the last few weeks. I haven't yet figured out a good spot to fit in blogging.

But, don't worry - I enjoy blogging too much to stop! I'll figure out a way to keep it going. Plus, there are so many bloggable moments these days, and I don't want to miss out on any of them. :)

Thanks for hanging in there with me!

9:30 am -

School Daze

Last night, I uttered words that have never been spoken in this house before - "She needs to get to bed. It's a 'school night.' "

Yes, things have certainly changed around here. It all started on Tuesday morning, when I got up early to get everybody and everything ready for the first day of school.

The Drama Queen was already up, excited and ready to go in her uniform and with her special backpack, packed to the brim with tissues, Clorox wipes, construction paper, and other such preschool necessities. I had my bag packed as well, with my lesson plan book, red pens, paper, and some special treats for my Spanish students. When the boys woke up rather groggily, the Beast pulled out his new Spiderman backpack to be filled with extra clothes and pull-ups for daycare and later his ESD preschool. We managed to remember everything and get out the door in plenty of time to get to school.
The Nerd planned to go into work a little late that morning so he could see our baby girl go to school that first day. After dropping the boys off at daycare (not a happy occasion for the Beast unfortunately), we took the Drama Queen up to her classroom where she willingly posed by her desk in her Dr. Seuss-themed room. That sweet smile and air of self-confidence tugged at my heart a little, but I didn't cry. The Nerd insisted on taking several pictures of the momentous event, including photos of her in front of the fish tank, in front of Mrs. Kaiti's desk, in the process of unloading her backpack, etc. You would think he was the blogger in the family! I gave her a quick hug and told her she was going to be awesome in preschool; then I hurried downstairs to teacher's meeting. After a long but informative assembly, I got to meet the the 7th and 8th grade students that would be in my Spanish class this year. (lots of boys with deep voices that squeak every once in a while and a few girls that are taller than the boys :) ) It felt great to get back into the teaching groove again!

After Spanish class, I picked up the boys from daycare and headed home. I got a few things done around the house and then it was back to school to pick up a very bubbly and talkative Drama Queen from school. She chatted about what she had learned and who had gotten their name on the board (apparently not a good thing) and who was sitting next to her all the way home. We all hurriedly ate lunch and then got back into the van to take Davey to his ESD preschool for the afternoon.
This time, as I pulled into the parking lot of the ESD/Headstart building and signed in to take him to his class, I started to cry. It was very overwhelming to take my barely-three-year-old to a class with a teacher I hardly knew. He looked at me uncertainly from the door, but as soon as Mr. Scott promised he could wash his hands with the bubbly soap, he cheerfully waved and went inside. I didn't want to leave and stood around for a little while, as if there were something else I should do before I go. Mr. Scott gently reminded me that he would see us again at 3:30 pm. I reluctantly took the other kiddies home for the rest of the afternoon.

Promptly at 3:30 I was back at his school, waiting to hear all about his first day. Mr. Scott said he did very well for his first day and only had a little trouble staying focused during circle time. Davey of course said nothing - he never talks about his day. From his preschool, I drove straight to the doctor's office, where the Drama Queen and the Spud had their check-ups and respective shots. Then it was home to finish making dinner and finally take a break from the van!

So, yes, I would say that our daily lives have changed rather dramatically. I am trying to figure out where my Etsy shop projects and blogging will fit in, but I am loving it! This is the part of motherhood I have been waiting for - the busyness, the school projects, and the daily schedule :)

and we're back!

It seems a little strange that with the exception of checking my Facebook and email here and there over the last few weeks, my fingers have been largely absent from this keyboard for quite a while now. The Drama Queen and I took a two-week trip up north to Ontario, Canada, to visit my favorite (okay, only!) sister and her husband and of course their darling newborn Delaney Hope. We had a wonderful time, as you can see by the smiles in the photos below:

We talked, laughed, ate, read books, watched movies, shopped, and even worked out a trip to see Niagara Falls. It was a great way for me to spend time with my girl, even if her little body seemed to take up most of the bed every night! During the trip, she cultivated a love for the Nintendo DS, playing it on the plane and throughout our vacation weeks. I have come to realize that this new love will be very advantageous for me - "You can't play your DS until your room is clean" etc. :)

It was also fantastic to see my little sister as a mom. She has confidence and a natural "mommyness" to her that was wonderful to see.

And now, finally we are back in the States and trying to get back into our normal routine. Next week, school starts - preschool for the Drama Queen, special preschool for the Beast, and teaching Spanish for me. I can't wait!

I also can't wait to hop around my favorite blogs and catch up on all the latest news and funny stories. I missed you all.

Happy Monday!