My Day Off

I was going to write about taking the day off.  It just sounded too funny that it actually made for a good start of a blog.  It's only 9:30 AM and my mind is already overwhelmed with the information I read today and there's still more filling my e-mail.  This is why I wanted to take the day off.

But guess what?  As a parent, there is never a day off.  My mind went back to the morning routines and again I was getting stressed.  Don't worry...it's not a bad kind of stress, just a general stress that I get because I worry so much about Puppy.  I even wish I could keep him home and safe from the outside world, but then I snap and realize this would be far from being productive, healthy or responsible.

Keeping Puppy from attending classes at school would be a huge mistake.  We got lucky this year in that Puppy's teacher took the time and effort to educate herself about autism and not only special education in general.  We had only two other teachers like her, but then we had a setback the last 3 years.  I bet you're starting to think that for Puppy being a 6th grader, this already sounds like a lot of teachers.  As it turns out, we lived in a subdivision that required Puppy to be transferred between 3 schools for the K-2 grades because our school district's boundary lines kept changing.  In total we have been through 5 teachers and now our 6th. The only plus was that except for his Kinder year, each campus to date has had a  Structural Language Center (SLC) Unit – These units provide an educational service to students with autism or autistic like characteristics. The age levels range from 3 years old at the elementary to 22 years old at the high school.  It's a growing need in our city and the units are almost in every campus within our two districts. 

This year Puppy started middle school.  His teacher has a BA in psychology with a minor in Sociology; a MS in Special Education and is certified as an Educational Diagnostician. She is also in the process of getting national certification as a Behavior Analyst (Applied Behavior Analysis). Yea for us!  If all goes well she will be his teacher for the next three years.


I already wrote more than I had planned to write.  Maybe I'll be feeling better tonight and be able to jot down some more thoughts.


Claire