School Related Issues Archives - Page 3 of 8

Emmett John / My thoughts / School Related Issues

We would end up imploding

Lizze and I met with Dr Pattie last evening, as per the usual for our Tuesday nights. Our main topic of course was school and how to handle this school year. I should very clear that no one thinks homeschooling the boys is a good idea. As the school year approaches, I'm getting worried about how everything is going to play out. Between Emmett's fevers and sensory issues, I'm already worried about how we're going to manage this year. The idea of homeschooling has been on our radar for awhile, but none of us like the idea. It's nothing against homeschooling itself, it's based in our particular situation, and how it would impact us overall. Dr Pattie basically said that the decision is ours to make, but she thinks we…

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August 16, 2017

My thoughts / School Related Issues

We have a very big decision to make in regards to school

Lizze and I are meeting with the boys therapist and bringing up the subject of homeschooling. As scary as that sounds, I'm not sure we have much of a choice. Emmett isn't wearing most shirts anymore and frankly, getting him to wear anything is next to impossible. The idea of another school year where we are dealing with battles every single morning, is not something I'm not ready for. The other issue is Emmett's fevers. Almost every single day, his average temperature is above the fever cutoff for the school. Even if we can get some wiggle room like we did last year, it's going to be extremely close on the good days and a no go on most others. Emmett missed way too much school last year, although it…

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August 15, 2017

Elliott / My thoughts / School Related Issues

Emotional distress

Sunday was a tough day for Elliott. He's been struggling emotionally for awhile. We're working with Dr. Pattie to help him, but he's in a place where I'm not sure how to get through to him. Much of what is eating him alive is in regards to school. He likes school but he's extremely frustrated with the behaviors of some of his classmates. Frankly, it sounds very much like typical stupid kid antics, and I've explained that to Elliott. At the same time, some of what is upsetting him is actionable and I need to look into it. Apparently, one of the kids sitting next to Elliott enjoys breaking pencils and has broken all fifteen of Elliott's new pencils. According to Elliott, he's approached his teachers and they haven't done…

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May 15, 2017

Emmett John / My thoughts / School Related Issues / Sensory

Sometimes it’s hard to keep moving forward

Sometimes it's really hard to find the strength to pick up and continue moving forward. There are days when the idea of continuing to keep moving ahead, is so completely overwhelming. Poor Emmett has now gone almost two days without being able to tolerate a shirt. This is a newer thing for us, because we're used to the big issue being shoes, socks, and pants. Shirts have never really been a significant issues in regards to school. Unfortunately, the last two days have presented us with an obstacle that we were unable to overcome. Missing school is not something we take lightly, but neither are Emmett's Autism related struggles. We have to balance compassion and societal demands. We all know that kids have a long sorted history of wanting to…

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May 12, 2017

Emmett John / My thoughts / School Related Issues / Sensory

It’s been almost 12 hours and still no progress

It's currently pushing 5:30 PM, and Emmett still won't tolerate a shirt. We've tried a few times throughout the day, but haven't made any progress. I'm thinking it's best not to push him at this point because we want him to be able to wear one tomorrow morning. I spoke with the principal this afternoon, as a result of him reading a comment from the previous post. The comment stated the Emmett missed 42 days of school, and did so in a way that made it seem like the person commenting was a staff member at the school. I told him that I wasn't upset, if indeed it was a staff member, but I was curious if the number was right or not. He was really upset because it seems…

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May 11, 2017

Elliott / Homework / My thoughts / School Related Issues

More homework frustration for my son with #Autism

Both boys had a good day at school but Elliott's a bit frustrated over his homework for the week. Homework proves to be a struggle when he has four days in which to do it. I've written about this countless times. Elliott is frustrated because it's a short school week and yet they're given the same amount of homework to do. I can understand his frustration and I'm not quite sure of the logic that goes into the decision to do this. If homework is a problem on a full week, why not reduce the amount proportionally on a short week? That seems reasonable to me, because I know Elliott's far from the only one who struggles with homework in his class. We'll help Elliott to get as much done…

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April 18, 2017

Elliott / My thoughts / School Related Issues

The heartbreaking letter my son with #Autism wrote

Before we go into this post, I want to be clear that Elliott wants me to share this personal journal entry of his. He hopes other kids will learn something from him. There's so much to catch you up on, and I'm trying to get there, but it's been one problem after another. This is something that I wanted to get out there for Elliott because it's important to him. The other day, Elliott fell down the stairs at school. He banged his body up a little, and he's sore, but otherwise physically okay. The only reason I even found out about this, is because he was in tears when he climbed into the car after school. I asked him what was wrong and he explained how he'd fallen down…

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March 24, 2017

Emmett John / Homework / My thoughts / School Related Issues

How literal interpretation leads to meltdowns

I promised that I would write about why Emmett's school report led to so many meltdowns over the last week or so. The reason can be summed up in two words, literal interpretation. The instructions provided simply said to write about three things you like to do in the snow. Seems pretty simple and straight forward, right? Wrong.. Emmett was so fucking stressed out over this because he takes the instructions quite literally, and is unwilling to deviate from them in any way for fear of breaking the rules or lying. When we sat down to work on this last week, we began by coming up with three things he liked to do in the snow. That proved to be so much more difficult than it sounds. The way…

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February 3, 2017