Pity Party of One

I really try not to dwell on the negative side of having an Autistic child with additional learning disabilities. Noah is a blessing in every sense of the word (as are all my boys). I occasionally complain about the destructive aspect of his behavior, but I never talk about how scared I am.

With my soon to be 1st grader, I know there is a chance he will get a teacher he doesn't like, but he will cope. With Noah the thought of him having to change teachers makes me feel a little ill, despite the issues we have faced with the teaching team he has, Noah is comfortable with them.

At this point though, I think a change is what he needs. These last few weeks have been rough to say the least. Noah has shut down at school. He won't write, play, eat, or sing, so basically he just sits there all day long. Once again this year, he was not allowed to take part in field day. I fought with his teacher hard, because I really wanted him to take part. We compromised, instead of him having great behavior all week, he only needed one day. And he would have no part of it. When I say good behavior, I want to be clear, he is not "bad" at school as in destructive or disruptive, he just goes catatonic.

I was irrationally saddened that he didn't do field day. I just wanted him to be able to do some NORMAL things.

His teaching team has decided to give up on the concepts of phonics and handwriting for now. Though I have been fighting for this for almost a year, it kind of stings. He will be learning with a keyboard and working on learning words through pictures.

I was also given the word, he is not working towards a regular diploma, rather he will get a special needs diploma.

With all the wonderful mommies I know that have lost their precious children, I feel like hell for whining. I just feel a little down in the dumps about this whole situation and scared about what the future holds.

Get to Old Navy ASAP

Old Navy is having a 50% off of clearance prices sale right now! AND you can use coupons from Old Navy Weekly with the sale! I cleaned up today, spent $103 and saved close to $400! I am done back to school shopping for the boys for next year.

The cashier was awesome and told me the sale runs til Saturday. Also on Saturday, all men's and women's graphic tees will be $3.

Wordless Wednesday:Bubbles

For more Wordless Wednesday check out 5 Minutes for Mom

So Ready for the School Year to End

I am once again preparing to face off with Noah's teachers. Noah has been having a difficult time and has had several "slip" days in a row. I knew this was coming, it happened at the end of last school year. He knows his life is about to be changed and as per usual for an autistic child, he is FREAKING out!

In response to this freak out his teachers, who are trained to deal with autistic children, press him harder. When he wont sing the days of the week in morning circle, they make him SIT there ALL day, until he will. No specials, no fun, no other lessons.

Obviously, this is not cool. We have gone through this at least 10 times in the last two years. I call a meeting, we reset his behavior plan, and things are great...for a while. Then they slip back into trying have a stalemate with an autistic child. This DOES NOT WORK. Instead Noah comes home HYPER and freaking out because he has been berated all day.

Last year Noah was not allowed to take part in field day because he was not working hard enough. I understand the teacher is trying to motivate him, but he isn't a regular kid and like I said it isn't working.

Field day is next Friday, I called his teacher to inform her I wanted him to take part, even if he is struggling. She informed me that wasn't my call to make, if he doesn't meet her quota, he will not play.

I am wondering if its even worth calling another meeting? There are nine days left.
If it looks like they will be punishing him on Friday, I just won't send him.
The real kicker there is a 90% chance, he will have the same teaching team next year.

So what do I do? Am I undermining the teachers by not punishing him for going catatonic, when his teachers put pressure on him?

Wordless Wednesday: My boys at the beach

Yikes

The school year is almost over. What the heck? When did this happen? I am pretty sure I just said we have 2 months left.
The littlest goes to school next Tuesday and then he is done, til next year. He will be in VPK* then. The other 2 boys have 12 days left. That is all!
One on hand I am looking forward to not having to get up and run out the door every morning. On the other...Um what the heck am I going to do with them? My plans of lots of beach visits have been blown to bits by my knee injury. I am debating vacation bible school, but that is only one week.
We will do the usual; back yard pool/slip and slide, arts and crafts, baking, and movies (gotta love netflixs).
But all those activities will take up, oh about one week.
I need help from people far more creative than I am, please give me some ideas for summer fun!
* VPK is voluntary preschool, which is free in Fla. Since it is free and you get to pick your own school, pretty much everyone uses it.

CVS Deals 5/17

Well actually the 18th, because we went no where yesterday and it was AWESOME! We had a lazy Sunday. I was able to get some baking done and just relax.
After dropping the kiddos off to school, I dragged my sick dh off to CVS. (I am still nervous walking around with only one crutch)
The deals for Florida* were very few this week.

3 Select Cereals sale 3/$5
Used 3 $1/1 internet printables

2 Aussie hair products sale $2.99
use $2/2 q
earn 1 ecb on each

Used 6 Ecbs
total oop 0!!
Earned 2 ecb

I don't usually like to spend more ecbs than I earn, but there were so few deals this week and we actually needed cereal and the Aussie.

*it seems Florida had a different ad than the rest of the US.

So how did you do this week? Any deals I missed?