A boardmate of mine on one of my ASD parent boards saw a conference by Tony Atwood yesterday. In her cliff notes from the conference one thing jumped out at me:
For people with AS, the degree of stress or the degree to which they will "withdraw" is directly proportional to the number of people present in a given setting.
I want to scream and shout that this is further validation of what we experience with Cam. Having him in a large classroom setting or even a large Karate class BOTH proved to be unsuccessful... he simply could not get past the various forms of input/external stimulation going on around him.

Which leads us to the quandary of what to do about school again. Schools around here are CROWDED. We opted to enroll J in our local feeder school which as I said in an earlier post is HUGE. It had almost 1000 kids last year and with the various school closings and rezoning around here it's expected to be more this year. And taking into account what our experiences have been with Cam AND what Atwood said... it simply would not work for Cam. And with limited choices we have around here even our local private schools are busting at the seams. And truthfully, the only Cam had addressed in public school was speech therapy twice a week. At least during homeschool (where he excels academically) we CAN work on critical thinking skills, social skills and this year Brain Gym exercises. But we HAVE to find an active homeschool group local which is proving VERY difficult.
All of this is so frustrating for me personally in the sense that we know our only option right now IS to homeschool. Not that I don't love homeschooling him but the truth be told, we're completely broke. We need me to work but I don't know how this would be feasible unless I give up sleeping. I'll have C and B home this year because we cannot afford preschool for B. Which is OK, it makes working with C a little bit of challenge but it works out. We've done it before. So whenever I get the $ to take boards here in FL and IF (hopefully) I pass I'm hoping I can work weekends (maybe 7p-7a) but since J works on Saturdays...there goes any hopes of sleeping prior to going in to work.
Blech. I did YEARS of night shift and ultimately it just made me sick. I'm a morning person so it was not conducive to my system LOL. Unfortunately we need the money and I need to homeschool C and still have B home. So it should be interesting.
I'm TIRED of people telling me it will work out. Because you know what, it hasn't. We're barely making ends meet. We need basics... shoes, pajamas, clothes, our plumbing fixed, dental and doctor appointments. Hell, gas in my car.
((sigh))
Sorry. I'm just feeling like there's no way out right now. It's been tough since March and it has just continued to go down hill.
How this post turned from my Tony Atwood story to this... I have no idea. I apologize for my stream of consciousness.

Forgot to add a new Signature Pic a PS Pro

friend made for me.... How sweet is this?

HAPPY 4th of JULY

And Happy Belated Bday John. My dh turned 41 yesterday.!!! Ok yeah, I'm slowly approaching the 40 club (ah hem, I'm still 38) but he entered it last year. It's just all too weird. I still think we're 29 and 32 (ages when we met). But I guess that's how it is with a couple, you always see your partner as he/she was when you met. Weird huh?

In a hUgE move yesterday... we enrolled J (5yo) in our local public school Kindergarten. It was a move made with a lot of hesitancy and kinda last minute. Most people here do not seemed to be pleased with our HUGE local feeder school (K-5). It's big and remember, I'm from Philadelphia so that's saying a lot. But private school is not financially feasible this year. So I keep telling myself "It's K, it's K." C will be homeschool ed again. I did give J the option to homeschool but she WANTS to go to school. Her only requirement for school is more. little. girls. LOL. She wants friends. So we're enrolled (fingers crossed as I say this).

J was VERY excited to see a picture of her teacher on what will be her classroom door and even more excited to see her supply list. I had to explain all day that we have more than 5 weeks before school starts to purchase what she needs. :) She's been homeschooled very casually since May. Right now she' s on Explode the Code 3 and we've JUST started Horizons Math K (so she's doing simple addition and basic time). I'm not pushing her, she's 5. We do what she wants, when she wants. But reading, reading, reading, reading and lots of library trips are pretty much the rule of thumb around here, something we have to do.

And ... our first cheerleading meeting is THIS week already! Yay!

B's preschool plans our off the plate because of finances so we'll do some letter sounds and some preschool-type stuff probably with PreK Sing,Spell, Write and Read. Little man at 2 y 9 mo is not reading like his brother at this age but is learning letter sounds. He's a smart little guy... knows his color and shapes. But the biggest advantage we have with him is he loves, loves, loves to be read to. It must be his favorite thing (beside his Thomas trains, shows and VeggieTales shows of course). He'll be 3 in October and we desperately need to put him in some kind of sport...something. He's a monkey!

C... his homeschool curriculum is pretty much the same for this coming year. I just planned our week yesterday. We're going to attempt a 5 day a week schedule but since Daddy is off on Mondays I am volunteering at J's class as room mom on Monday so ... we'll have tinkering to do with C's homeschool schedule.

Math -- 2 pages of Math Workbooks daily (alternating Horizons 2 and Singapore 2a) with Singapore Intensive on Thursdays and Challenging Word Problems on Fridays.
Reading - the GOAL is to read at least one-half of an hour daily and do Reading Detective on Fridays.
Language Arts -- (notice I'm breaking this up separately into reading and writing and THEN LA) We'll continue to use Daily Paragraph editing on M,W, F. Continue using First Language Lessons (FLL) daily which I like because it includes memory work and some copy work. I'm thinking of adding in Harp and Laurel Wreath for additional copywork and poetry/memory work. We'll move on to Spelling Workout C this year and do one chapter a week (2 pages one day, 2 another and the 3rd day a spelling test). C LOVES spelling because he's a natural speller.
History - Continue with SOTW 3 days a week. This year I'm adding in Daily Geography.
Science - We'll finish Evan Moor's Read and Understand Science then either move on to the next grade OR (more than likely) move on to Critical thinking Through Science . I would really like to use Neoe Science this year but it's out of my budget.
Handwriting - We'll probably go back to D'Nealian or Getty Dubay Italic.
NEW THIS YEAR we're adding in:

• Daily Brain Gym exercises (I saw that a ASD school here in FL uses them and if it works for their classes of ASD kids, we'll try it ...)
• Writing using SWB's Writing with Ease if I can get my hands on it. I was on the pre-order list with PHPress. But we'll start whenever we get it. Writing is going to be C's hardest subject. He really lacks abstract thinking so putting his thoughts down on paper is tough, tough, tough....so MAYBE we'll start this in January... ????????
• Social thinking(site is down so I can't link it). This is a program I've wanted forever but a fellow poster on an ASD parents board I belong to raved about the program so .. I'm sold. If there are only 2 things we accomplish this year they are: improve C's social skills/pragmatics AND teach him beginning writing.
• Latin-- probably start with Minimus or PL. Not sure when... maybe January. I need to get other goals met first.

Now if only a windfall of money would come my way....