Mom Embracing Autism

2012 Accessibility Summit

2012-01-21T08:23:00.002-05:00

The Accessibility Summit is a conference held in the Tysons Corner area of Northern Virginia at McLean Bible Church. I attended it for the first time last year and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to hear and be around those who look at the positive side of living with a disability and is interested in helping to integrate his/her self, his/her child, student, or client with special needs into all facets of everyday living.

Attendees can go to anywhere from 3 to 5 workshops (the pre- and post-conference workshops cost extra, 3 are included in the cost of attending) and they are categorized into family/caregiver, faith-based, and professional. A pre-conference and regular workshop are held on Friday afternoon/evening and two workshops plus the post-conference workshop are held on a Saturday.

One of the keynote speakers last year was Temple Grandin and one of this year's is her mom, Eustacia Cutler. If you are within a day's drive of Northern Virginia and the conference appeals to you, this is something worth attending! (From what I have heard, attendees come from all over the county. Washington D.C. isn't too far away, so some people attach a trip there onto attending the conference.)

Time for a New Schedule!

2012-01-19T23:18:00.001-05:00

Samuel has been using the same visual schedule, slightly modified over the years, since he was six years old. I always had it as a goal to get him to a new schedule system by the time he was age twelve. Well, now that age twelve has come and gone, it ends up that I have not yet attained that goal. Samuel turned thirteen a few weeks ago. Today, as I was prompting him to go check his schedule he turned to me and said just as matter-of-factly as he could, "Mom, I'm thirteen years old now, leave me alone!" Definitely time for something new, my boy is growing up!

Reminder Boards! A Type of Visual Schedule

2011-05-08T09:38:00.002-04:00

Besides the wall schedule Samuel uses, we also make use of "Reminder boards" These are 6" X 3" laminated pieces of poster board that we use in order to help keep him on task, while minimizing verbal prompting. (Two psychologists, Lynn McClannhan, Ph.D., and Patricia J. Krantz, Ph.D., of the Princeton Child Development Institute, did a 10 year study regarding the teaching of independent behavior in children with autism. I highly recommend their book Activity Schedules for Children with Autism. This is a great book to help parents understand why acitivy schedules are helpful and the importance of correct prompting. If you look this book up you'll notice there is a more recent edition as well.)

These first two reminder boards help him during his school work. They sit on the table along with the third board showing what subjects he will work on at that current "session" of work.

(This "reminder board) prompts him to get his pencil box, and then put it away when we are finished.)

(This reminder board is to help him remember what his physical demeanor should be during "work time.")

(This shows what tasks he will complete during that session of "work time." There is space for 5 activities, but I learned early on that trying 5 at a time is not optimal, even though the amount of work he does is quite minimal.)

It can be cumbersome to work with all 3 of these reminder boards at one time, and this does not even include the maneuvering of his papers and books on the table as he does his work. Also, I had forgotten that initially I was maneuvering not only all of this, but also a token board and small edible rewards! I haven't needed those in a LONG time! I try to stack these boards one on top of the other so that not as much space is taken on the table. It took weeks and weeks for me to figure out how to manage it all. It took months after that for me to see the benefit of using these. If his attention wanders during school work now, all I have to do is remove his papers or books. That action seems to serve as a prompt to draw his attention back to his work.

This next board is one I made up to use at church. We have been using it for almost four years now. I have found it difficult to use because of its large size, but have kept it as is. In the coming months I may try to change it. He has recently taken interest in a "sensory story" about going to church that we got from one of his past Occupational Therapists. I have done several posts about Samuel's church behavior. I'll post more about it in the future. I am doing my best to juggle my desire for him to attend church with us, the reality of his ability to participate, while minimizing the disruption that his behavior might be to others sitting around us.

This last reminder board is for when we eat at the table. Teaching Samuel to chew with his mouth shut has been very difficult. After watching him for a while, I realized that he seems to not be able to breathe through his nose while he is chewing food. A speech therapist we saw for a while was starting to help me work on this, but we had to stop seeing her because of his behavior difficulties. The therapist recommended that I take him to an ear/nose/throat specialist, which I will do one of these days! In the meantime, the reminder board is effective for short amounts of time.

You may notice in the photos that these reminder boards are well used and worn. Some of them have been around for 3 or 4 years now! I am in the process of re-doing some of these, and am finally getting around to making "reminder strips" to break down some of Samuel's self-care tasks. In trying to answer another mom's questions about getting a visual schedule started for her son, I came across this website that has given me some ideas. I'll post about these as soon as I can!

In recent weeks Samuel has taken a lot of interest in these reminder boards. He gathers them all together and talks about them. He even put together his own board about what he should do when he goes shopping! (Long ago I had made a "fill in the blank" schedule piece.."When I _____________ I should ___________." It has sat unused in his schedule binder, but now it's there to work with!) I'm trying to take advantage of this interest he has!

I would love to hear comments and suggestions from others about these, and about what kinds of visual aids you use to teach your children. The development of visual schedules is time consuming and the progress can be very slow. However, I have found them to be very helpful. Some challenges we still face regarding them: moving forward to the point where Samuel is more independent in following/creating them and getting the school to use what we use. (They use visual aids, but not like mine, and I don't think he has his own.. he uses what the entire class uses. Also, I'm not sure if teaching staff understands the importance of minimizing verbal prompting..)

Back to School

2011-04-25T23:44:00.000-04:00

Samuel returned to public school last October. For the next four months he was both a public school student and a homeschooled student. He started out attending just 2 hours per day and during that time had Life Skills and Science. I continued Math and Language Arts work with him at home.

In November the length of his school day was increased to include all but the first class of the day, English. I did Language Arts work with him at home. In March he started attending all day. I have enjoyed working with his teacher to get things in place. She has been so flexible. There are wonderful teaching assistants who help him, and he also has "Day Treatment Behavior Services."

Samuel seems to like being at school but boy does he complain at home about having to go! His behavior at school is just fine, but has become rather challenging at home. I am back to making sure that schedules are in place for him to refer to most of the day.

I am relieved to have the help with Samuel, but I miss his presence here at home during the day. Ironically, in the few months before I enrolled him things really had gone well with his school work at home. However, I just couldn't provide the right kind of social environment for him. He seems to be very happy to be part of a routine at school. He is already talking to me about the routine he wants to have in place here at home when he is out of school this summer!

Although he is not very cooperative in answering questions I ask him about what he does at school, he has started sharing things with me as he gets ready in the morning (after he's done complaining about waking up!). "Hurray, today is 'Reading Wednesday.' I'm going to read that American History Book." "Today is Books and Barks! I don't care about the dogs, but I like the books!" It's so much fun to hear him say these things! He didn't communicate quite like this when he last attended school 3 years ago.

Top 50 Blogs About Autism

2010-12-15T13:29:00.002-05:00

Rachael, a pediatric nurse who has a blog entitled "Pediatric Nurse Practioner Blog", has posted a list of top autism blogs. They are in three categories: Research, News, and Info.; Living with Autism; and Support (for those who work with children with autism).

I'm honored that Rachael included my blog in the "living with autism" category! Although my blog has been quite neglected this year (as I have been extraordinarily consumed with gradually entering my son back into public education while continuing to educate his 3 siblings at home) I tried to write it in a way that those who live with autism could appreciate it at any point in time.

Check out the list! Thanks again Rachael!

What's on our Plate Right Now!

2010-09-06T08:35:00.005-04:00

Oh so much is going on right now! I could do lengthy posts about each of these things, but the time to do so just isn't here right now.

We have decided to enroll Samuel in public school. He will be entering 6th grade and will attend a "middle school." I am in no rush to get him there, they are moving to a new building. I'm sure I'm correct in guessing that the finishing touches of the building's renovation will be going on right up to the moment of the doors opening tomorrow! Also, I want him to transition VERY GRADUALLY back to school. We haven't even had the IEP meeting yet. All the details of his returning to school have yet to be worked out. I am looking for a part time start beginning with just the same amount of Speech therapy he has had at the schools for the past 3 years, then getting him to go to classes in the afternoon. My primary concern is for him to have the opportunity to work on his social skills.

In the past few weeks we have started some new in-home services, to specifically address Samuel's behavior difficulties. We are receiving them from a different source than we did 5 years ago. I am very impressed with the people who are working with us and I hope to post more about what we are doing soon.

Samuel is continuing to develop a strong sensitivity to the expression of emotions. Funny, I have been reading on one or two other blogs about how other children on the spectrum that are around Samuel's age are going through the same thing. If he hears songs on the radio that are emotional or sad he immediately wants the station changed! During a reading at church yesterday he asked, "Is this serious?" He asks the same question when he listens to news stories on TV. And, as has been happening for a while, he absolutely cannot tolerate discussions between my husband and I in which our vocal expression has anything resembling "seriousness." The problem with this is that my husband has a rather deep voice and an intense personality.. so Samuel is always misreading his mood! I am thrilled for Samuel's increased awareness of what is going on.. but it is making life rather crazy!

Let's see, what else is going on? After having some success with Samuel in a temporary tae kwon do class this summer I want to start him with some classes this fall. That might have to be on an individual basis at first. I had to closely shadow him during the summer session but I want him to learn to participate independently.

Samuel is taking part in a computer study being done by a phd student, who wants to test her hypothesis that word-recognition software helps students with autism improve their writing abilities. (This has been lots of fun, but has been challenging!)

At home he has started to work independently on some phonics curriculums, both on the computer. His attention span is so much better when working on the computer! Ironically, as we are considering putting him in school I feel like I finally "have it figured out" with his academics at home! I will consider this strongly as we develop his IEP.

Also, we are continuing to monitor his behavior after starting him on Risperdal a few months ago. If you have read my blog or if you know me, you know that I have always considered medication as a last resort. Well, we reached a critical point this past winter. If I ask Samuel why he takes the medication his answer is, "to help me be a good boy." Interesting, we certainly never explained it that way to him, rather it was explained as something to help him control himself when he got upset.

Do we have enough going on?!

I should not forget to mention... these are only Samuel's "goings on," there are 3 other children I have things going on with too!

Walmart and Life Skills/Social Skills Training

2010-07-04T10:26:00.003-04:00

My husband and I are doing our best to continue taking Samuel out in public in spite of the chance that he may "melt down". When I take Samuel out I bring along some kind of visual schedule for him to follow. These visual schedules have had various forms over the years. The current one I like to use is a checklist of the broad activities we plan to undertake at our destination. I can just write it out on paper and carry it on a clipboard with a pen.

These days, Walmart is proving to be a great place to take Samuel. I am able to take him there about once a week. Our first trips there had to be very short on getting "my things" done, followed by an opportunity for Samuel to do his favorite thing.. look at the DVDs. (It took him a while to understand and accept that Walmart no longer carries VHS tapes!)

Yesterday morning I had planned to go to Walmart early in the morning. I had a relatively short list of things to pick up, but it was a longer list than I usually have when I take Samuel. However, it had been a while since I had taken him and I knew that taking him would be a real treat for him, so I woke him up and gave him the good news. Talk about a good motivator to dress himself!

Here was the checklist he had:

-Shopping

-Look at Electronics (just looking at DVDs isn't enough anymore, he has broadened his tour to laptops, Blue Ray players, and cameras)

-Pay (stay with Mom, no running around!)

-Look at the Red Box DVD machine on our way out the store (by that time I'm usually more than ready to leave, but giving him a chance to look at it at the end saves me from getting stuck at it when we walk in)

While we are there he gets to work on his social skills (it's okay to say hi to others, but don't ask them what year they were born or what their phone number is, walking down the aisles instead of skipping and running!), life skills (finding groceries, properly placing them in the basket, being patient while Mom has to look for boring things like canned vegetables and toilet paper, one of these days we'll get to paying...), and some OT-related things (pushing the cart, looking where you are going while pushing the cart, not crashing into other people while pushing the cart, not crashing into the shelves and displays while pushing the cart).

Other challenges we face right now when taking him out, besides the ones I just mentioned, are to keep him from manipulating us into getting him all kinds of snacks and sodas. The soda one is particularly difficult. He goes straight for the little coolers right by the cash registers when it is time to pay and gets very close to melting down when I tell him no. Soda is something I try to save an incentive for doing well at his OT sessions, and we allow all the kids to have it with dinner on Sunday.

Tell me about your experiences taking your child "on the spectrum" out in public and how you are teaching him or her!

2010-05-24T00:02:00.005-04:00

The end of this past January marked three years since I started this blog. It's hard to remember now, but I started it due to my frustration with the whole "defeat autism" attitude that I seemed to be encountering everywhere. It was very refreshing to come across people on the internet who were more accepting of autism, though who still faced incredible challenges in raising their children "on the spectrum". I also found it very therapeutic to share what I was going through at the time with my son.

I don't post on here so much anymore. It's not that I don't want to. I DO, but spare time is very rare for me these days. I'm not going to complain and lament too much, this is just where I am at right now thanks to what is going on in my family.

Samuel is growing up. It hasn't been easy and I think our "fun" is just beginning! Life for him has changed quite a bit since this past winter. He turned 11 just after the new year. He is almost as tall as I am now and has surpassed even his older brother in weight. He can be quite a force to contend with! He is now taking Risperdal to help moderate his temper. That's not by any means where it is ending, that is just the beginning of what has become a new road for us to journey on in helping Samuel to grow and develop. Amazingly, a new social group formed in our area and Samuel was able to attend that for thirteen weeks this past winter and spring, along with 3 other children close to his age. How terrific that something like this came along to help him recognize and learn how to deal with social situations. There are times he is quite vocal about his feelings ("Mommy, I'm so sad!" or "Mommy, I'm very very angry!"). I am so happy that he is able to verbalize these things and I am trying to figure out how to take him to the next step.. getting past those sad and angry feelings. In the coming weeks we will be starting new in-home behavior treatment services for him. I still use his visual schedule but we are definitely at a point where we need some fresh ideas and strategies to teach him how to get through his day with appropriate behaviors.

Well, the "free" time I had to work on this post is about over. Samuel is behind me telling me (thankfully, with a smile on his face) how "angry" he is with me! I promised him a snack a while ago and I suppose I should go make good on it!

Examiner.com: Autism: 8 rules for the road for parents of newly diagnosed children

2010-03-28T20:00:00.003-04:00

Much of this list seems like common sense to me now, but it sure would have been nice to have something this concise to refer to 7 1/2 years ago when Samuel was diagnosed.

Autism: 8 rules for the road for parents of newly diagnosed children

Print this out and post it on your refrigerator! 1) GET HELP. Contact your local regional center and make use of their EXTENSIVE resources that include assessment, diagnosis, referrals and counseling, just to name a few. The...

To read the rest of this article, please click on the link below:

http://www.examiner.com/x-26516-SF-Autism--Parenting-Examiner~y2010m3d28-Autism-8-rules-for-the-road-for-parents-of-newly-diagnosed-children?cid=email-this-article

I would like to elaborate a little on #8 in the list:

Besides Facebook, find other ways to network with other parents whose children have also been diagnosed with autism. Networking can be in your local area, in your region, or through something on-line like Facebook or blogging. Other parents going through circumstances like yours can be a great source of practical information and support.

Worth Celebrating!

2010-01-17T13:45:00.002-05:00

Due to my oldest son's racing activities, every now and then I find myself without my husband around Sunday mornings when it is time to go to church. I am happy to say that this morning Samuel, his sister, and I all successfully made it through mass, on our first attempt! I made sure to give Samuel advance notice about how things would happen. I usually have to sit with him separately from the rest of the family; he gets distracted and agitated with his siblings around. The only other time I tried this was when I had one of his brothers with us, Samuel did not care for it. We had some close calls this morning: he loves to tease his sister and one time he started getting agitated when I asked him to change the position he was sitting in. I tackled these challenges by giving Samuel some words of encouragement and a few hugs and thankfully it helped.

To celebrate our success we went out for breakfast, with more good results! That was no small feat either, with a very tempting gift shop to maneuver through as we entered and exited! (Can you guess what restaurant I might be talking about!?)

Happy "Remake of 2009"!

2010-01-05T00:17:00.002-05:00

Where on earth did Christmas and New Year's Day go!? They went by in such a flash and I feel like I barely got to savor any of it! In spite of the rushed feeling, however, we had a great time. The kids and I took a much-needed two week break from school work. It has been a few years since I have "officially" done this. Having time to devote to baking, cookie decorating, and even some ornament making was so much nicer than trying to cram it in between lessons.

Samuel, in his "life is all about DVDs and VHS tapes" style, is refusing to acknowledge the new year as 2010, but instead is calling it "The Remake of 2009." As he looked at his calendar last week he said things like, "The original 2009 is ending. January 1st is the start of the Remake of 2009!"

One of a few nice surprises that have come up with Samuel recently are that we have been able to take him to different masses at church with mostly nice results. For a while I only felt comfortable taking him to one particular mass that did not have music. In the past month he has been able to endure not only music, but also the priest who he had been quite afraid of. I still have to take him out for a "break" during the homily so it is hard for me to ever get to hear it. It seems that he can take the noise in the church when it is in the form of prayers and readings he is familiar with, but when a priest gets up and talks more freely during the homily (sometimes with very heartfelt emotion), it is more than he can handle. He is even more sensitive in the vestibule area, where the speaker volume is often very high, so we usually have to retreat to the stairwell of the church building. It's all a part of the long road we're travelling on to teach Samuel the importance of God and of his faith in his life. Samuel will be making his First Penance and First Communion this year, and I am so grateful that for going on three years now I have been able to take him into the church and sit with him for a good portion of mass each week.

An even more recent surprise with Samuel is that he has become much more accepting of eating the foods I prepare for the entire family at dinner time. For years I had to have a back-up dinner for Samuel, and often for his younger siblings as well. This past year I tried to have the kids eat what I prepared instead of having to make another meal, it just got to be too much to have to make 2 and sometimes 3 entrees. The rest of the kids went along quite well, but it was always tough with Samuel. In the last few weeks however there were some days I just didn't feel like going through the trouble of preparing anything else and I just put a plate in front of Samuel. Much to my surprise he actually ate what I served! I have found that casserole-type entrees go over the best for him. He does not seem to like eating meat. He is tolerating pasta much better now as well.

Best wishes for a terrific 2010!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T08:23:00.007-05:00

I would like to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving! It will be a quiet one for us this year. For the first time that I can recall, it will be just our immediate family. We are usually treated to the culinary talents of a good friend, but he was not able to join us this year. My husband does not particularly care for turkey, so I will instead roast a chicken and serve it with a few of the typical side dishes: mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes..

I have not posted in a while, but we are all doing well. We went on a two week vacation in October and I am still "catching up" from that. So, I am very thankful today for the quiet time that we are able to spend together.

Samuel continues to make leaps in his school work with reading and spelling. His handwriting seems to have made some improvements lately too. I continue to place dots on the paper where he should start his letters ( something that is done in Handwriting Without Tears) and he is doing better at properly placing them within the lines. At the same time, we are challenged by him being "in his own world" with his VHS tapes. He constantly talks about them, doing "reviews" like he watches on You Tube videos. He continues to be motivated to do his school work by checklists that reward him with a purchase of a VHS tape.

I wish everyone the best with the upcoming Holiday Season, especially those whose children with autism may have a difficult time. The Autism Society and other organizations are good about giving tips for how to deal with the holidays, so be sure to check those out when you have a moment!

I'm going to be traveling with my two youngest children for a quick visit to my parents this weekend. I'm trying to prepare Samuel for our separation, the first since I went into the hospital to have my youngest child four years ago. Later in December I plan to visit my parents again with all four children. Both of these occasions will require some planning ahead. I'll let you know how it goes!

The photo: This mountainous stack of videos is one of the many ways Samuel goes about organizing them as he "reviews" them. Another variation is for him to stack them according to who produced them, for example.. Nickelodeon, Universal Studios, etc..

Rethinking Autism: Autistics Speak

2009-09-25T18:08:00.004-04:00

This is great to see.. an organization/website that wants the attitude about autism that is presented in the media to show more respect and dignity towards those individuals who have autism.

It was 2 1/2 years ago that I wrote a post expressing my dissatisfaction about how autism was being portrayed in the media.

The Tough Reality of Consequences

2009-09-14T23:50:00.004-04:00

I wrote this back on August 26, but forgot to post it!

Samuel has had a tough time at his last two Occupational Therapy sessions. Last week he would not cooperate with his therapist when it was time for him to use Wii. All Samuel wanted to do was go into the "settings" menu. (At home he erased all the data we had accumulated the first month we owned it while he played around in the "settings" menu.. so it's not a good thing for him to be there!) His therapist had already endured several sessions of this, so last week she decided that no more would be tolerated, his opportunity to play Wii would be lost once he did not comply with her request to stay out of "settings." Their session ended early. Samuel was upset, but he was over it by the time I picked him up at the scheduled ending time.

Yesterday, Samuel never even got together with the therapist to start the session. Over several days prior to the session and on the way in the car, I had talked with Samuel about how it was important to play Wii as his therapist requested, by staying out of the "settings" menu. This caused him to become a bit agitated. Then, as we were waiting in the reception area, he tried getting on to the computer located there. He has learned how to get into the DOS menu on computers (thanks You Tube!) and has already wrought havoc on the entire office's computer system. Stopping him from getting to the computer caused further agitation. He began to yell and throw toys so I told him we would have to leave the office until he could be calm. A few minutes later the therapist joined us outside, where Samuel was still upset. I gave him a few minutes to calm down and his therapist brought a container of rice for him to play with. He still didn't calm down and then he started throwing the rice on the ground.

The next step was to take him to the car to calm down. I gave him five minutes to become calm. I tried giving him some "sensory toys" that I had stashed in my purse, but they were not helpful. Ultimately, we had to call it a day and had to agree that we would try again next week. He was then upset because not partipating in Occupational Therapy meant that the soda I usually get for him afterwards was not available. It took about another 10 minutes for Samuel to calm down enough that I felt safe driving home with him. He apologized within an hour after getting home and has done so again several times today.

What will I do differently next time? I am thinking about setting up some kind of sticker chart or token system that he will have to fill in in order to "earn" his soda after OT next week. I am going to call the therapist and see how many activities we should place on the chart, and determine within what parameters he will "earn" the sticker for each activity. I will also make up a social story for him to read. It seems the "verbal only" method of talking to him about the problem isn't working very well! I am also going to offer him more verbal encouragement ("I know that you can earn all of your stickers!" "Won't if feel great to show Miss M____ how well you can do your Wii exercises?")

Since then we have had two successful therapy sessions! The sticker chart is helping out and his therapist really likes having it. Samuel is happy that he is earning and able to get something he really likes.

Success with Spelling

2009-08-11T23:03:00.003-04:00

Samuel has made a big leap in his spelling! He has shown that he is able to correctly spell words with consonant digraphs! He has revisited this issue in his spelling over the last 2 years. Occasionally words like "what," "why," "this," would make their way into his spelling list. After a week or so of practising he would still have a problem with the digraphs.

What has changed this? I credit the change mostly to phonics exercises he has been doing on "Time 4 Learning," an on-line curriculum. It is amazing to watch how much more easily Samuel speeds through work on a computer rather than struggling with worksheets and books.

Found!

2009-07-31T14:59:00.004-04:00

It had been missing for months. This status caused great distress and moments of upheaval when he would remember. Who would think that one little Sponge Bob VHS tape was so important? Well, it was to Samuel.

It seemed that whenever I was impossibly busy he would demand that I look for it. I tried; on all the usual shelves and in all the usual boxes. Then it was on to the unusual places: under the beds, under the couch, on top of the fridge. I tried turning the search into teachable moments for him. " Why don't you take a few minutes and look for it?" That was not what he wanted at all.

Finally, yesterday I heard a jubilant, "I FOUND IT!!!!" I immediately knew he was talking about the video, but I asked him, "What did you find?" "My Spongebob Nautical Nonsense VHS tape!" "Where did you find it?" "Right here!" (I had to laugh, I was in another room and had no way of knowing what he was talking about, but he did answer my question!) He had found it on the bottom of our coat closet. Videos are kept on a shelf in there and it must have fallen off.

"Well Samuel, I'm very proud of you, you were able to find your missing video all by yourself!" Now maybe he can help me teach his three year old sister to look for her own things as well!

The Absent Blogger

2009-07-15T00:33:00.005-04:00

It has been quite a while since I posted regularly. Several things have contributed to this. One reason is that I have had an extraordinarily difficult time keeping up with the activity in my daily life. I enrolled two of my sons in a rather demanding homeschool curriculum this past fall. It proved to be very difficult to keep up with while having to continually customize Samuel's school work. In addition to that, last September I became Vice Chairman of our county's Special Education Advisory Committee. Granted, the demands of this position are not very great, but it did involve a monthly meeting, along with a few informal meetings or discussions with other members around that. Also, due to some activity that came up during the year I also served as the committee secretary. A new secretary had to be named and I came to realize that was really the position I wanted to serve in. So, now that's what I do. Again, it isn't all that involved but there is the responsibility of typing meeting minutes each month.

In addition to that, a good predictable bedtime for the kids has become a thing of the past in our household! Bedtime has always been a bit on the late side for our children because of Samuel's natural tendency to stay up late. Well, now his two younger siblings are used to that.. and my youngest has a hard time falling asleep on her own! On top of that, even though Samuel has finally mastered the required skills to change from his clothes to his pajamas, that doesn't always mean he is motivated to do so. I have come up with checklists, etc.. to take care of getting the school work done. Now I have to work on the same thing for the night-time routine! I would love to have my free time in the evening back, at an early enough time that I can stay awake to enjoy it!

Probably one of the biggest reasons for my lack of posting, however, is the advent of Facebook in my life. It is so difficult for me to sit down and write even just a few short paragraphs when I have gotten used to doing posts in two and three sentence blurbs! I went through a Facebook overload when I first joined it over the winter, but now I'm finding that my activity on it has leveled off a bit and I am hoping to post on this blog a little more regularly!

Third and Fourth Checklist Goals are Set!

2009-06-21T15:37:00.003-04:00

Samuel has already told me what he wants to work towards on his next two checklists of school assignments: first a trip to McDonalds and then another trip to the Goodwill Store for another video!

I love that we have this mutually beneficial way of accomplishing something each of us wants. Now if I can just figure out how to motivate my NT students!

Second Work Checklist Completed!

2009-06-19T10:26:00.002-04:00

Samuel has already completed the second checklist of work (language arts and math), on which he got to fill in stickers as he completed assignments. He is downstairs right now doing some quick school work and then we are off to the Goodwill Store to buy the video he earned; he is so excited and I am so proud of him! I'll post photos of the checklists soon.

Autistic Pride Day

2009-06-18T22:50:00.004-04:00

June 18 is Autistic Pride Day. What is Autistic Pride Day? Take a look at this link for the answer directly from the group who created it, Aspies for Freedom.

This date was unknown to me until just a few nights ago, when I found it while looking around for some things on the internet. I was thrilled that I happened to find out about it only a few days before it was to be celebrated! It is nice to know that at a day has been chosen to recognize that there are those who do not regard autism as a tragedy.

Hopefully there will be a day when the voices who sound this opinion will be louder than the voices sounding despair and tragedy. Most of all, hopefully there will be a day when all people are treated with dignity and respect, and all human life is valued and appreciated, no matter how "difficult" or "challenging" the situation might be.

2009-06-02T22:21:00.002-04:00

Samuel has now completed all the tasks and has filled in the stickers on his chart, hurray!

The next chart will be to earn a trip to the Goodwill Store, where he will be allowed to buy a videotape. I am going to include Language Arts and Math assignments on it. It's lots of fun to have Samuel motivated by these checklists. It wasn't too many years ago that I could not even comprehend using one for him!

There's Nothing Like A Little Motivation!

2009-05-05T20:35:00.006-04:00

Samuel has been standing behind me, practically breathing down my neck as he eagerly awaits something that I told him I would work on tonight. The latest video he has been asking us to buy is "The Land Before Time." I am not exactly sure why he has become so interested in it, but it could be simply because it is a Universal Studios picture.

As Samuel was bothering me about buying this video for him yesterday I was busy thinking about getting him to finish a Language Arts workbook that we have been working on for some time. Actually, it has been sitting on a shelf collecting dust for the past 3 months while we took a little break from it (we started an on-line language arts curriculum in the meantime). Suddenly, a light bulb went off in my head, "Tie these two things together!" I told Samuel that I would order him the video after he finishes the workbook. Later in the day he wanted to know when we were going to work in the workbook! He also asked me this several times today. Before jumping back into the workbook I printed out a punctuation worksheet on periods and question marks as a review of the last assignment he had done. Then, after he asked me about the workbook about 5 more times, I decided to add a visual element to tracking his progress; I would make a checklist.

We will put stickers on it as he completes each assignment. The movie promotional picture I put on it is freaking him out a bit, but at least he now will have a sense of how much longer it will take until he is finished. He wants to do some work tonight, but it's almost 9:00 and I am a bit tired!

Real Bowling

2009-04-27T23:21:00.000-04:00

Our family has gone bowling several times over the years. Two of my sons have had birthday parties at our local alley. That's where Samuel had his eighth birthday party, and spent much of it fighting to get into the arcade room.

We were newly inspired to go bowling as a family again recently by our youngest son, who is currently the family bowling champion on Wii. So this past Sunday we trekked over to the lanes. Samuel and his younger siblings had rails up so their balls would stay out of the gutter. My youngest son got the best score of anyone, thanks to the rails. We were all surprised at how poorly we did compared to our results on Wii, especially my oldest son.

I was so happy that we were able to convince all the kids to stick with the game, even my 3 year old. That was no easy feat, considering that six of us were in the game! Samuel was especially impressive. He stayed with us the entire time, no running away and no attempting to escape to the game room! We gave them a moment to take a look after the arcade afterwards.

There is talk of us going again. I hope we will, it was lots of fun and we could all use a bit of work on our skills; not a one of us scored over 100!

2009-04-04T00:18:00.006-04:00

It seems that most stories I have heard about IEPs lately have been quite negative, so it was nice to come across this more light-hearted list of IEP DOs and DON'Ts from "Mama on the Edge."

Life continues to be rather crazy, but it goes on and we have good days here and there. We have adjusted Samuel's day to include much more in the way of sensory activity. We are trying "Time4Learning" on-line curriculum for Math and Language Arts. I am amazed at how much better his attention span is working on the computer as opposed to toughing it out with worksheets and books while sitting at the table. Independence in completing tasks and teaching self-control are still very important parts of Samuel's education at home.

My youngest son has developed a strong fear of wind. I just learned that this is called Ancraophobia. I am not sure what has brought this on in him. He is constantly looking out the window to see how much the tree branches are moving. The wind chimes ringing (which I consider to be a happy sound) put fear in him. Windy conditions developed here this afternoon and my son hid under a blanket curled up in a ball on the couch, after he made sure all the blinds were shut! I am trying to keep everyone else in the house from teasing him. I even teased him a little at first, but now I realize that he really is afraid and I am trying to help him get over it.

Glass Half Empty/Glass Half Full

2009-03-19T23:30:00.002-04:00

Samuel did a bit of swearing during prayer time with the family this morning./Samuel prayed appropriately a few times during prayer time this morning.

I had lots of bedding to wash this morning./Samuel got to enjoy a nice relaxing bath this morning.

My little girl needed a wardrobe change at mid-day./My little girl is almost potty trained!

I just about ran myself ragged today/We had the most productive day of school work in weeks today.

Family Update

2009-03-12T07:14:00.004-04:00

It has been a busy time in my household and I have not posted here in a while! Samuel seems to be very much in need of extra sensory activity these days; he is running, jumping, and flopping around. He also seems to be very much on edge and I am not sure why. He is growing in leaps and bounds, he is almost 5 feet tall now..only 6 inches shorter than I am! I am grateful to have plenty of assistance and advice from his Occupational Therapists, who are recommending lots of sensory breaks during his day. We now have 2 therapy balls for him to bounce on and I just replaced a broken mini-trampoline. I had been letting him jump on my bed but he is getting treacherously close to hitting the ceiling when he jumps!

I have discovered Face Book, which is probably contributing to my lack of posting here. Wow, is that addictive! It has been fun connecting with friends in my area and with people I haven't seen or talked to in ages.

Our family is preparing for a trip down to Colonial Williamsburg and Virginia Beach, where my husband and I were living when we met and first got married. I am hoping to get a good taste of spring while there; it arrives a few weeks earlier there than up here in the northern part of the state.

I am sorry that I haven't visited other blog friends so much lately but I hope to do so soon!

Speaker at our meeting

2009-02-19T23:42:00.007-05:00

The guest speaker at my county's Special Education Advisory Committee meeting for February got some attention in one of our local newspapers! I am hoping this will inspire parents of children with special needs in our area to become more involved with their childrens' education.

We are hoping to set up a monthly "Respite Day" locally in the next few months.

http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2009/02/founder-of-group-tells-parents-to-use-available-re.html

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"The Transporters" DVD Series, Recognizing Emotions in Others

2009-02-19T23:21:00.003-05:00

Following are a few links for a DVD series called "The Transporters" that was made in Great Britain. It is supposed to help children with autism learn to recognize emotions in others.

I remember coming across a sample episode on-line a while back. It is VERY similar to the Thomas the Tank Engine videos.. and all my kids were captivated by it.

The series became available in the U.S. last month. You can get more info about it from this website, where you can also view an episode.
http://www.thetransporters.com/

Here is a recent article about the series, which was sent to me in an Autism Society of Northern VA Yahoo Group post.:Kids with autism learn to 'read' people" dated 11 February 2009 by Mark Roth from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09042/948176-298.stm?cmpid=MOSTEMAILEDBOX.

I'm going to see if my local library will buy the series. This will go along nicely with Samuel's desire to "explore emotions."

Exploring Emotions and Actions

2009-02-15T13:27:00.003-05:00

In the last year we have noticed that Samuel likes to "explore" various emotional feelings. During Easter last year he was focused on death and dying, and it seemed natural that he would explore this through the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Later in the year he explored this through Walt Disney. I do not know exactly how this came to be, but he would ask me and one of his helpers in particular about what would have happened when Walt Disney got old and died.

I am not quite sure what to make about the feeling that he is exploring now. It might be "things forbidden" or it could just be that he is curious about things that ultimately lead to him getting in trouble. I don't know. I do know that if he does something that gets him in trouble he wants us to narrate the story back to him.

One recent event occurred one morning while he was playing Wii. This was a "break" time for Samuel so his helper was organizing some things in the kitchen while Samuel was playing in the family room. I was working in the kitchen. All of a sudden Samuel screamed, started crying, and ran upstairs to hide. I went over to the television screen and the Wii system was asking questions like, "what language do you want?..." I realized that Samuel had been exploring the menus, had come across some kind of "clear system" button and had selected it. SAMUEL HAD DELETED ALL THE CHARACTERS, ALL THE INFORMATION, ALL THE SCORES WE HAD OBTAINED over the 40 days since we received it at Christmas. This included all the games and levels that had been unlocked due to our hard work. I felt really bad for my two other sons, who had done lots of hard work on Wii Fit, Wii Sports, and a crossbow shooting game. Samuel's helper took care of setting up the system so that a password would be needed in the future to do such a thing. I wish we had thought of that earlier! Live and learn.. Now, Samuel wants me to repeat the story of this. I won't. I tell him that what he did was wrong and that we have now fixed the game so that it cannot be done again. He apologized to all of us without me even asking for him to do so.

Samuel also likes for me to repeat a story that I had told all the children one time.. about how I had broken apart one of my baby brother's toys (a toy hour glass) so that I could get to the plastic pellets inside of it. I will not repeat this story for him anymore either. I talk about it in terms of how it was wrong, that I should have respected my brother's property.

The strange thing in all of this is that he seems truly remorseful and sorry for doing things that hurt others, yet he likes to get others to talk about it and I'm sure that he will "explore" other such actions in the future. We're trying to pay attention to what he talks about and what he is watching on the computer. His big brother says he got the idea about clearing out Wii from a video he watched on the computer.. YouTube or something like that.

He's going over the Ten Commandments one by one in Religion and I am glad that he seems to be able to relate to the idea that there are rules of proper behavior that should be followed. I have a few books that are great for bringing the rules of the commandments to his level. (For example.. "Thou shalt not kill," besides meaning that we really shouldn't "kill," also means that we should treat our siblings and friends nicely....)We are reading them; now I have my job as his Mom to help him apply them in everyday life.

Fun for me too

2009-02-12T08:20:00.003-05:00

To satisfy Samuel's interest in "The History of the Years" I have been printing out select events from years. I began last week with 1900 and we have worked our way, year by year, up to 1905. Samuel is looking forward to seeing 1906 because he already knows that his favorite breakfast cereal company, Kellog's, was founded that year. I wonder if the website I have been using will mention that (spiritus-temporis.com).

I am having just as much fun reading up on all of this as Samuel is. I absolutely love history and I am particulary mesmerized by the beginning of the 20th century and the years leading up to WWI, when a massive upheaval started occuring in the world that nobody could have possibly predicted.

The Flip Side

2009-02-09T23:22:00.002-05:00

My last post was about the great time I had with Samuel while we were out one evening recently. I hope I did not give the impression that every single trip out with Samuel is a breeze, that certainly is not the case. A good example of this occurred just a few days after my last post, at Special Olympics Basketball practise.

Samuel started playing basketball this winter for the first time. We did not attend practises consistently, but we did make it to 4 or 5 of them. A few times I took a helper along. By the last week of practise I was able to convince Samuel to stay in the gym (he had made a game out of running away at our first practise). The coaches had also developed a bit of a rapport with Samuel and were able to convince him, on occasion, to join in the drills. Samuel was the youngest player and he was definitely more interested in running up and down the courts than he was in participating. (I'm hoping that track will hold Samuel's interest better. We're planning to participate in that this coming summer)

That last week of practise was going along quite well. Samuel had been alternating between participating in drills and taking breaks by running around the court, when all of a sudden I caught view of him across the court bursting into tears. I honestly have no idea what triggered this. I went up to him and started asking him what he was thinking about, but he had no interest in talking to me. He screamed, "I'm running away!" and he sped down the hallway out of the gym. My two youngest children were with me so I situated them in the gym and proceeded to chase Samuel. He had gone into a room, turned on the lights, and then proceeded further down the hall. I was able to get him back in the gym, but we had to leave practise. Samuel grudgingly came along out to the car, but he still wasn't very happy. Somehow, over the course of the next 10 minutes his mood improved. We were set to go spend the rest of the day with friends and he was fine after the incident at the gym. He was amongst 14 other children and had a great time.

I never figured out why he was upset at the gym. All I know is that I was caught off guard. I had scheduled a helper but due to a miscommunication she did not meet us there. I had thought we would be okay because Samuel was in such a good mood, but I was reminded that day that things can take a turn for the worst mighty quickly!

A Nice Evening Out with Samuel

2009-01-31T14:34:00.002-05:00

Last week I started participating in an autism support group that is being held in a nearby town. The group is called Essential Pieces and has existed for a few years now. They hold support group meetings in 8 week sessions. I first found out about this group some time last year but this is the first session that I have been able to participate in. As a preview to attending this group, I attended a conference they held last October about Sensory Stories. I found it to be a very professionally run conference and thought the topic was terrific. I'll talk more about Sensory Stories later..

During the parent meetings, some interns from a local university conduct a social group for children with autism and their siblings. I decided to take along Samuel and his younger brother to participate in this. The first meeting Samuel was not able to go because he had an eye infection. Then, this past week his younger brother was ill, so I took Samuel alone.

I was so impressed by Samuel's behavior the entire evening! We had to park in a parking garage and walk about a block to the meeting location. He stayed with me nicely, no having to worry about him running away! He also left his videos that he had brought along in the car without a problem, even after he had asked if he could bring them and I said, "I think it will be better to keep them in the car, then you won't lose them." I had told him ahead of time in the car where he would be and where I would be, and about how long I would be at my meeting. He seemed excited and interested and did not have any problem saying goodbye. Even though he is a bit older than the other social group participants (most of them look to be somewhere between 4-6 years old), he seemed happy to be there.

Our walk back to the car went great. He asked for a treat on the way, which was fine because we had to stop at a pharmacy to pick up some Pedialyte for his younger brother. Samuel was even well behaved at the pharmacy! He likes to look around stores and I had been worried about him getting into the DVD display. He found it and was able to look at it as I paid for my purchases and accepted the time limit I gave him very nicely! I let him listen to the "Cars" soundtrack on the way home.

Later that evening I thought about how nice it can be to take Samuel out now, after all the years of practising and using visual aids. We had been in a part of town that night where, about 7 years ago (when Samuel was 3 and I was pregnant with his little brother), he ran away from me and out into a road. What a scary event that was. Even though we can have tough moments out in public, it is nice to have more and more successes with him!

"History of the Years"

2009-01-28T08:06:00.005-05:00

Samuel has a funny new way of showing his interest in history. He keeps asking us what happened in a particular year. My husband was watching a show on the History Channel last night about World War II. Samuel came in the room and asked, "What year is this?" My oldest son left a book he is reading about the War of 1812 in their bedrom; Samuel asked me, "What happened in 1812?" He also keeps asking me, "What happened in 1944?" and while he was getting a bath the other night he asked me, "What happened in the year 1?"

I'm sure if I asked him, he could tell me what year every video game was introduced. That seems to be where this interest in years came to the forefront for him. He has been watching a YouTube video that covers the history of video games and has been scripting it for the past few weeks. One time he told me, "I'm going to watch, 'The History of the Years.'" I asked him what that was about and he explained it was about the video games. Not long after this is when he started to ask all the questions about years.

I need to capitalize on this interest Samuel has for teaching him some history! Does anyone know about any good books or other resources for timelines?

Wii love it!

2009-01-25T22:50:00.004-05:00

A Wii game system from Nintendo was one of our family's most popular Christmas gifts this year. Right after gifts had been opened Christmas morning my oldest son set out to create characters for the entire family. They are called "Mii"s (pronounced like "me"). Then he, his father and youngest brother played some of the sports games: tennis and bowling. When it was Samuel's turn he got a bit upset. This wasn't the Wii playing that he was used to. After a few minutes I figured it out; to Samuel "Wii" means "Wii Fit" because that is what he plays while he is at Occupational Therapy. We took out the Wii Sports disc and put in Wii Fit, he was fine after that.

I have been very surprised at Samuel's lack of balance and control while he does some of the exercises on Wii Fit. While exercising, a visual reference showing your center of balance appears on the screen. Samuel's moves all over the place! Players earn points for doing the exercises the correct way, and Samuel's scores are usually very low. Just last week I watched his occupational therapist guide him in these exercises and now Samuel's helpers and I will assist Samuel at home when we can. I think Wii will be a very helpful tool for improving Samuel's coordination and awareness.

As for the rest of the family, we are all enjoying it in different ways. My other two sons have an intense competition going for the top scores in the games and exercises. They really like the video games. My youngest son can beat everyone in the family in Wii bowling! He does this crazy twirling motion with his arm when he releases the ball! I don't ever recommend standing behind him in a real bowling alley if he tries that move there! My 3 year old daughter has fun on the balancing games in Wii Fit. Her 6 year old brother "helps" her, so she has some of the high scores on those games. I am the yoga champion for right now, but some of that is because I am the only one doing those exercises! I think I still hold the record score in the hula hoop games as well. The step aerobic exercises are the funniest to watch the kids do. All of them but Samuel will line up in the family room and follow along with whoever is actually using the Wii board at the time. The boys have the record scores in that.

We're all enjoying our new Wii game system very much!

Life is a Precious Gift

2009-01-21T15:12:00.008-05:00

We live in a fantastic country. The inauguration of Barack Obama yesterday is a testament to the greatness that one can achieve when a country follows through on its promise of freedom and opportunity. That is the ONLY promise that I want from my government; the preservation of our freedom.

The March for Life is in Washington, D.C., tomorrow. My prayers go with those participating in the march and they also go out to everyone in our country: that we will all learn to value and respect life in all of its stages.

Sorry, the video downloaded with some pauses.. I'll try to re-load it later. It is from CatholicVote.com and I heard that this is a commercial that aired in the Chicago area yesterday.

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Rare Date Night

2009-01-16T06:23:00.002-05:00

My husband and I enjoyed an evening out together for the first time in a LONG LONG TIME. The last time we had needed a babysitter was a year ago last November, when we celebrated a friend's 50th birthday with other friends. I honestly do not remember the last time my husband and I went out for dinner alone! It could have been almost two years ago, on an occasion when my sister in law was visiting.

Anyways, we went to an Indian Restaurant. My husband, who works for an British-owned company, was introduced to this restaurant by some of his co-workers who are from England. Neither of us has much familiarity with Indian food so this was a bit of an adventure for us.

When we left we had two babysitters and one of Samuel's helpers at our house. His helper went home within a half hour after that. Our babysitters have known us for 6 years and it is such a relief to be able to leave our children with them without a worry. Even though we don't need a babysitter very often, they are over at our house regularly to help me in other ways so our children know them and are very comfortable with them. They are wonderful with Samuel, without my having to go into all kinds of explanations of how to do things with him or for him.

Happy 2009!!!

2009-01-08T08:17:00.008-05:00

Well, Christmas is over and another new year begins! We returned to school work this week. I was without one of Samuel's helpers while she was on vacation with her family. In spite of that we got by okay. Samuel had much fewer outbursts, even with the demands of school work being put upon him. We'll see how next week goes, when I try to get more work in.

I think Samuel may have FINALLY learned how to zip his jacket! We have been working on that for so long. I realized that the kind of jacket we had him wear was too difficult for him to work with. We usually get Land's End jackets, which are wonderful, but the way the zippers are covered makes it way too difficult for Samuel to maneuver it. He has a very hard time getting the separate parts of the zipper together. I bought a cheap jacket at a local discount store that doesn't have a covered zipper and it's much easier for him to work with that.

I have started using Saxon Math with Samuel. His younger brother has been working in it. I was reminded that Samuel's teacher had used it with him when he was younger. So, we're repeating first grade math again, but I am much more confident he will be successful in this. I was having to make too many alterations to the other workbook curriculum I was using for him.

Seton Home Study curriculum is what I am using for my youngest and oldest sons. While we are provided with a daily schedule for each subject, I did find this statement in the curriculum materials, which I take great comfort in given that we deviated from the schedule after about Day 2 of the school year:

There is no "getting behind" in homeschooling; the pace should be according to
the needs of the student.

Granted, I could be a little more organized, but I don't think I'm doing too bad given all the preparation that has to go into getting Samuel's lessons together and all the chaos our days sometimes holds because of his behavior.

Good News

2009-01-03T17:56:00.004-05:00

One of Samuel's helpers has been waiting for the arrival of his baby, whose due date was Christmas day. I got a call from him this morning with the good news that his wife gave birth this morning to a healthy baby boy! Congratulations! Another of Samuel's helpers is a good friend of theirs and generously made herself available during the week of Christmas, and much of last week, to assist them, but the baby had other plans I guess! She wasn't able to help them after all because she is now on vacation, visiting her family.

Our family has been fortunate to have help from both of these individuals with Samuel for almost a year and a half now. We have help from two other people as well, but they do not work as regularly. They all have their own ways of interacting with Samuel and I am glad that he is able to have a variety of people helping him (and me!).

I stand corrected, I found out that the friend was present at the baby's delivery after all! His baptism is next weekend. I cannot wait to see him! I saw his picture and he is soooo darling. I miss having a baby! My 40 pound 3 year old is still my baby, but I miss the little newborn kind!

Holiday Mode

2009-01-02T12:39:00.003-05:00

We're finishing our second week of taking a break from school work. In spite of that I am still trying to maintain somewhat of a routine to help Samuel have a sense of normalcy. My children have had the luxury of sleeping in LATE, and I have had the luxury of a little more quiet time in the morning before they are up and running (more like they are up and I am running!)

The schedule has been something along the lines of : WAKE UP- BRUSH (Wilbarger Protocol Brushing) - TOILET- WASH HANDS-CHOOSE CLOTHES-GET DRESSED-DIRTY CLOTHES TO THE HAMPER-COMB HAIR-MAKE BED-CLEAN UP TOYS-BREAKFAST-BRUSH TEETH-RACING(My oldest son leads all four children in some relay races outside, with the assistance of one of Samuel's helpers on the days they are scheduled to work here in the morning-ACTIVITY AT THE TABLE (During the school break this has been checking his calendar, writing in his journal, and filling in his "All About Me" book) - YOUR CHOICE. This schedule varies a little bit on the days I have Samuel's helpers here.

I had visions of having all kinds of free time for myself during our break from school, but that hasn't happened yet! I'm still working on Christmas cards, which I still do the old-fashioned way, for the most part. I write out addresses on the envelopes, sign our cards, type out a letter, print a few family photos on it, and then get everything together. I cannot bring myself to abbreviate the process to one of those photo greeting cards, but it sure is tempting when it often takes me until mid-January to get my cards out! I consider Christmas to be until January 6, the feast of the Epiphany, so as far as I'm concerned my cards aren't late yet! Still, I'd rather have them arrive at the beginning of Christmas rather than at the end, or later.

Our vacation from school finishes up at the end of this weekend. Then we hit the books! Samuel's 10th birthday will be here not long after that!

"Can I Help?"

2008-12-23T23:30:00.001-05:00

My husband and the boys worked on putting up our tree a few nights ago. Samuel usually gets quite excited when we pull out all the Christmas decorations, but he tends to stay on the periphery of activity. I was cleaning up in the kitchen when I heard Samuel ask my husband, "Can I help?" I was so happy to hear this! He helped for a short while and then was off and running again.

Tonight we put ornaments on the tree. He hung around the living room while the other children and I did the work. As each ornament was pulled out we had some commentary to go along with it; who had made it or who gave it to us, when we got it, etc.. I had shown Samuel an ornament he had made at school and was just about to hang it up when he said, "Wait, let me hang it!"

Samuel has his own way of participating in our family's Christmas activities, but he definitely participates! He seems to tolerate differences in our yearly activities as well. Last year we hardly decorated the house at all since we went up to Maine for Christmas. This year we waited a long time to get the decorations out. No complaints so far!

Thanks for the comments and good wishes everyone! The fun here is continuing so I just have to give an update! This morning (Christmas Eve morning) I had to call Santa on emergency speed dial from my cell phone. This was for the benefit of my youngest son. Samuel was horrified, "Oh no, Santa! We're doomed!" was his comment. On our way up to Occupational Therapy in the car he gleefully told me, "Hey Mommy, this is Christmas Eve; Santa comes tonight!" Samuel has never expressed so much interest in Santa verbally so this is great fun!

Refrigerator Mothers

2008-12-19T15:41:00.002-05:00

Julee posted this video at her blog "Discovering Nathan" back in November.

This is an amazing video about what mothers of children with autism had to endure just a few short decades ago. Parts of it are heartbreaking and parts are downright chilling, especially Bruno Bettelheim's interview on the Dick Cavett Show.

Things aren't perfect now, but I am so glad that I don't have to endure the popular theory that I caused my son's autism!

This video is long, almost an hour, so please be sure you have a good bit of time before you try to watch it; I don't want you to neglect your kids or dinner or holiday preparations!

Navigating the Maze

2008-12-16T08:03:00.005-05:00

Well, our Special Education Advisory Committee Meeting has come and gone. I had a few minutes at the end of the meeting to introduce our yahoo group, which is called "Navigating the Maze." This is a private group, so it's not accessible when you do a search for groups on Yahoo.

A good portion of the people at the meeting signed up for it and hopefully they will share it with others and the word will spread and it will get used. I think it will be a good thing for parents to be able to connect with each other, and for an on-line forum to exist in which those in education and other professions that help those with special needs can be in touch with us also. I have encouraged the Director of Special Education to share this group with teachers so that they can pass it on to the parents of their students.

Here is what the home page of the group says:

The families and caregivers of children with special needs face an often
overwhelming journey as they search for assistance, support, and services. Many
of us who have been on this journey for a while wish to share information and
experiences. This is a group consisting of families, professionals, and other
interested community members in XXXXXX County, Virginia, and the surrounding
area. It is our hope that the information, discussion, and ideas presented on
this group will assist members as they complete their own journey of finding
appropriate supports and services for the individuals with special needs that
they serve or care for.

As of late yesterday afternoon, our region of Virginia no longer has Early Intervention Services being provided to children from birth up to age 3. I think this is unfortunate, but I am not surprised. I have a hunch that due to tough economic times lack of funding is going to grow into a much bigger problem for services than it is already.

I think it is more important than ever for parents to know that government services are not the only means of helping their children. Don't get me wrong here, I WANT children to get the help that they need. When the help isn't there though in avenues that it has been available in the past, parents need to make some decisions about where they are going to put their energy. Will it be into fighting bureaucracies to get them to pay for services or will they work directly towards getting the help for their children?

There isn't a lot out there right now in the form of private help for our children. When there is private help it's expensive, and the question often seems to get asked of us, "why aren't you using your county's services?" It gets frustrating.

What do you think? Is anyone else seeing any problems because of the lack of money in their children's schools or programs? Do you think it will get better any time soon? Will your insurance cover services that your local or state government cannot or will not pay for anymore? Will your insurance pay for services you obtain privately when you choose not to use the services that your county currently provides?

Starting a New Yahoo Group

2008-12-15T07:24:00.002-05:00

Tonight I'm speaking at our Special Education Advisory Committee meeting. I will be introducing a yahoo group that will hopefully serve individuals, professionals, and educators in our local area. We especially hope that it will be helpful to parents of newly diagnosed children with special needs who are finding the search for services and supports to be overwhelming. I remember in the early days after Samuel was diagnosed the information I obtained from other parents was like gold! Anyways, wish me luck!

I'd love to hear how any of you reading this use yahoo groups. I'm currently a member on 20 groups! I only receive messages on about 4 or 5 of them, however. Some are about autism, some are about homeschooling, some are local information, and a few pertain to hobbies I have. I think they are a great way to connect with others who have the same interests!

"Come on, let's play!"

2008-12-10T13:21:00.003-05:00

I'm hearing Samuel say this frequently these days and it's kind of nice! When it is time for him to go to the playroom in our basement he will summon any or all of his siblings to join him, depending on who is around. I'm not quite sure if he is actually playing WITH them. It could be that he is only trying to avoid being alone downstairs. His siblings will be able to fill me in. In the meantime, I'm liking the direction he is going with this!

Happy Thanksgiving! Letter to Santa

2008-11-28T15:46:00.005-05:00

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! We had two guests and enjoyed our traditional dinner: steak! One of our guests loves to help prepare food. He has been a guest for holidays with our family for years. As the day went on we kept crossing off things from our menu! I gave up on making pumpkin soup, he gave up making a Bernaise sauce to go with the steak and he also gave up making some bread pudding. Just as well, we had plenty of food otherwise.

Samuel does not care for beef so he had his old standard entree, chicken nuggets! He has not been as cooperative with trying new food as he was about a year ago. I need to strategize a bit. Last year a taste of soda in a cup was enough of a "reinforcer" to get him to try sampling new food. That is not the case anymore.

This is the first year that Samuel will be writing a letter to Santa with a specific request that is his own. He has been wanting an X-Box 360 for a while. We told him, "Maybe you can ask Santa for one at Christmas." Now he goes around saying, "I can't wait to get my X-Box 360 for Christmas!" Here's the problem, we are a Playstation Family! We have a PS2, a PSP, and quite a selection of games to go along. While I am thrilled that Samuel has requested something on his own, I just don't see how "Santa" could bring something that is a whole new system to deal with! We are trying to steer his request for a Wii game instead. He has been using one at occupational therapy and his brothers have tried one at a friend's house. Yes, Wii is a new system, but one that the entire family could get some use out of. (I'd love to try Wii Fit!)

My Helper and Current Happenings

2008-11-23T10:52:00.005-05:00

My daughter, who just turned three, is in "potty training" mode right now. About all she wants to do to "train" however, is put on a pair of underwear and then sit on her potty chair in front of her "Once Upon A Potty" DVD. Yesterday she wanted to watch it and she asked me to help her find the DVD. I looked in two places it could possibly be and it was not there. She started to panic and I was about to (because there were about 10 other things I should have been working on then and a DVD hunt in our house can be a real undertaking!) but then I remembered that I now have a helper in that regard, Samuel! Lately I have found that his memory for the location of things in our house is quite extraordinary. Before I went any further, I asked Samuel, "Do you know where her DVD is?" He walked right over to where it was, picked it up and offered to put it in the DVD player for her. Crisis averted!

A little over a month ago I became the new Vice Chairman for our county's Special Education Advisory Committee. Cut and paste this site in your browser if you want to find out more about what the role of the advisory committee is (it is copyrighted so I don't want to do a direct link): http://www.peatc.org/Fact%20Sheets/seac.pdf There is a bit of a story behind this which I will not bore you with here except to summarize it briefly. Our committee was in need of a new chairman and I helped to nominate someone that I know for the position. I was quite surprised when the previous chairman then nominated me for the position of Vice Chairman, a position that I didn't even know existed.

Here I am, a homeschooling Mom, now in the position of advising the local public school system regarding special education! This is not a place I expected to find myself in. However, this is a good thing. I am still trying to get used to the idea and am slowly learning what all is expected of me. One of the first projects I am working on is getting together some kind of a website or yahoo group that will contain information and provide a means for parents to share information and get questions answered. Nothing like that exists for our immediate local area yet. I already have a group in place for the support group at my church, but this new group will be able to reach a wider audience. Recent events have shown that this could really be helpful for parents whose children are now reaching the age of "transition" out of the public school system to adulthood. I also think it will be a valuable resource for the parents of children who are newly diagnosed, no matter what their "special need" is.

In the last 6 months I have also come across two other support groups in our area that I am hoping to become more involved with. One is run by a Christian Church. The t-ball league we participated in over the summer was run by them and they are sponsoring a bowling league. What I particularly have enjoyed about this group so far is that Samuel's siblings have been able to come along and participate. That is so helpful! I don't like to "segregate" Samuel from his siblings to participate in things, but sometimes it is necessary. I wish that I could attend more of their support group meetings for parents, but have only made it to two of them so far.

The second support group I have come across is for autism. They run 8 week parent education groups that I have not been able to participate in yet. I am hoping to be able to participate in the session that will begin this January. A social group for children goes on while the parents attend the meetings and I am hoping that Samuel will be able to participate in it, along with his younger brother. This is the closest group to me geographically that I have found for autism so far. I am already on their yahoo group and have enjoyed getting to talk to other people in my area. I attended a Sensory Integration seminar that this group hosted this past Friday and finally got to meet a few people in person! It has been awkward for me having so much to say to these folks when I haven't even met them yet. I was particularly glad to meet the facilitator of the group, who up to that point I had only talked to on-line and on the telephone.

I am trying to have Samuel involved in Special Olympics basketball as well. We attended the first practise two weeks ago. Since I did not have a physical done yet for Samuel we could not go last week. I tried taking him for a physical this week but he would not cooperate completely with his pediatrician so the form went unsigned. We will try to complete the exam the week after Thanksgiving. That reminds me, I better call the coach to inform him that we will not be there today!

I am always complaining about how busy I am and how there aren't enough hours in the day, and now that is more true than ever! I'm being forced to learn time management skills, and am trying to exercise patience more than ever. It's not easy, but I should not complain. I have opportunities before me that I should be grateful for and should take advantage of.

Halloween 2008

2008-11-07T07:56:00.002-05:00

A princess, Indiana Jones, Samuel is Darth Vader (this is the first year he wore a mask!), and a Colonial Patriot messenger/soldier (he didn't have a musket here, so he was carrying his pack full of copies of the Declaration of Independence!).

I'll tell more about Halloween later, just wanted to post this photo before it's Thanksgiving!

A Glimpse Into My Life Long Ago

2008-11-01T09:00:00.015-04:00

A little off the topic of autism here...part of the long life I had before living with autism and all the other things I deal with these days.

Free time in my late summer and autumn days between the age of 19 and 22 was consumed by my participation in the marching band at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (located in the town of Indiana, Pennsylvania). I was priveleged to be a piccolo player in this great marching band.

Our season started in late August at a week long camp. Then, we practised for two hours 3 nights each week. We had an amazing amount of music and drill work to memorize! We played at IUP football games and various exhibitions in Pennsylvania throughout the fall. During my last years we travelled to eastern Pennsylvania and also to Maryland. The ending of the season depended upon how far the football team went in the division playoffs, usually some time around Thanksgiving (end of November for those of you not in the U.S.).

When I started at IUP in the fall of 1982. I had no idea what I was in for by joining the band. I did not grow up in Pennsylvania, and my knowledge of marching bands was quite limited, having gone to high school for two years over in Europe and then attending my last 2 years at a school in a small town in Rhode Island. I was blown away, this wasn't the typical marching up and down the football field which had been my only knowledge of marching bands up to this point!

This first video clip was one of my favorites of all the excellent numbers we did. This was our opening number the last year I participated: Camille Saint -Saen's Symphony No. 3 in C Minor (Organ Symphony). I was a drill instructor in the band by this point and I remember how amazed we were in reviewing the drill sheets for this number at the beginning of the season. It took LOTS of hard work for us to pull it together!

This marching band went on to do some cool things after I left IUP:

In 1987, the ensemble was the official band at the US Constitution bicentennial
celebration. The attention IUP received there led to an invitation from Jacques
Chirac, the mayor of Paris, to perform at the America's day celebration of the
French Bicentennial in the summer of 1989. In September of that same year The
Legend toured Washington, D.C., with performances on the steps of the Lincoln
Memorial and the Soldiers and Airmen's Home. In 1996 IUP made it's debut
performance at the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City,
performing not only in the parade but also putting on a show in front of the
Statue of Liberty. ..from the IUP Marching Band website

This second video clip is of the band playing what I believe is still its signature song to this day, Amazing Grace, while they were in Paris. Later versions of this (which I found on You Tube) just don't sound the same as how we played it back in my day, but as of the Paris trip it still sounds what I remember it sounding like.

We had a terrific percussion section in this band and they usually had some kind of feature each year, with some amazing drill work for the rest of the band (it was interesting learning to march to Ravel's Bolero!). Listen for some popular Classical music themes in this next clip, from 1983 .

Keep in mind while viewing these videos that they were recorded back in the days before digital technology was widely available!

This is all so far removed from my life now, but I'm grateful to Jared, my fellow band member who did the recording and posting of these video clips to You Tube. It's great to be able to see video of the band again after so many years of not having any access to it. Like I already said, this was before the age of digital recording, and was even before the age where too many people had camcorders.

I'm also grateful to Dr. Charles Casavant, who gave so many IUP alumni the wonderful experience we had in the marching band under his direction. This band is now called "The Legend", "The Pride of Pennsylvania," and "The Beast of the East," all names well deserved!

I'd love to hear about what you all did in your younger days!

Incessant Teasing!

2008-10-31T08:24:00.002-04:00

Samuel has taken to teasing his "baby" sister! Well, I guess she's not really a baby anymore, she's almost three years old. Just about every time he sees her he gets this devious grin on his face and either says her name (also in a devious fashion), or he reaches out to her with his hand kind of like a "claw" and "growls" at her. The whole time he does it he's just grinning and giggling away. Why? Because he is "rewarded" with shrieks and screams from her!

I'm trying to make her understand that her reaction is what he is really after, it's not so much that he wants to physically go after her. However, in her defense, he has pulled her hair and pushed her down enough times that she does see the need to fight back. How do I convince her that the best way for her to "fight back" to his teasing is just to ignore him?! So far it's not working. Instead, she screams bloody murder and then one of her other two big brothers plays knight in shining armor and some kind of wrestling match or brawl ensues!

We're having countless outbursts of this throughout our days at home right now!

Thank you Maddy!

2008-10-28T00:49:00.009-04:00

I have been given an award by Maddy at Whitterer on Autism! Thanks so much! I love Maddy's blog as well, I can't think of another with so much humor and fun!

I would like to pass this award on to Sharon at The Skates Family 7. I enjoy the stories and terrific photos she shares about her children and family, and her cakes are terrific!

I would also like to pass this award on to Miss Nelson at Meaningful Outcomes. I greatly admire teachers who take the time to share their knowledge with parents like she does on her blog.

Additionally, I would like to award Mother of Many, at A Blog on the Spectrum. Hers is one of the first blogs I started reading, going on 2 years ago. She shares lots of fun photos and pictures. I also enjoy reading about her family and the multitude of other entertaining things she talks about!

An Award

2008-10-20T23:05:00.007-04:00

Mrs. C gave me the Perfect Blend of Friendship Award. As she described herself when she was given this award, "to claim my fabulous prize of four cyber coffee cups full of mysterious liquid, I must answer the following questions and provide links to five unsuspecting victims:"

1. Do you have the same friends since childhood? I moved 15 times growing up, and somehow I have managed to keep in touch with one person! I have a friend from way back in third grade. We knew each other in Monterey, California, for the year that our Dads were attending graduate school. The last time we saw each other was when we were twelve years old, back in 1975. I lived in Philadelphia, PA and she lived in Doylestown, PA. We still send each other birthday cards and Christmas cards every year. She has been back in California now for over 25 years while I have stayed on the East coast.

2. What do you value most about your friends? Their dependability and trustworthiness.

3. Are your friends your sounding boards? I always thought being able to be a sounding board for each other was a part of friendship, but I've learned a very hard lesson about this in the past few years. Actually, I think my problem had more to do with thinking certain people were better friends than they actually were. I find it difficult to balance being cautious and freely sharing my thoughts. I'm still learning and trying to grow up!

4. What is your favorite activity to share with your friends? Chatting and going out for lunch or coffee.

I would like to share this award with:

Thank you Mrs. C! My first award!

The Soccer Dilemma and the Breakfast Challenge

2008-10-16T07:38:00.009-04:00

We didn't go to Samuel's soccer practise last night. He had been up until midnight the night before. He was dragging the whole entire day, so around mid-afternoon I decided I wasn't going to put everyone through the whole routine of getting up to Winchester (about a 15 mile drive from our house) to have him experience yet another meltdown. After all, I have 3 other children to bring along as well. I hated to give up on going, however.

We simply have too many things scheduled for Wednesdays right now: Occupational therapy in the morning (up in Winchester), then back home, then a trip into town (5 miles the opposite direction) for going to the park for my boys' only regular chance to see friends each week, then the 15 mile + drive up to soccer at 5:30. I don't feel like I can give up any of the other things, so soccer will have to be it for now since late afternoon is a time Samuel isn't used to doing things right now. We'll try this differently in the future..

Now for the Breakfast Challenge. Samuel likes to keep requesting additional food as he finishes breakfast, "Mom, can I have more cereal?" A fit follows if he doesn't get an affirmative answer. My attempt at a solution has been to make a menu on which he checks off his selections. A "second course" is included. It has been quite helpful so far, but was a bit messy because it was done in dry erase marker on a piece of laminated paper.

I just made a laminated menu. We'll try it for the first time this morning. I'll let you know how it goes.

This next photo is the laminated page from which he'll make his selections for the "menu." The next photo is where I'll store all the "icons" I have made. Yes, we eat lots of Malto Meal Cereal! I try to save the "sweeter" cereals for snack times rather than serving them for breakfast.

Soccer Update and Social Skills Update

2008-10-14T09:11:00.003-04:00

I'm in another spell of being too busy to blog, but I wanted to give a quick update.

Unfortunately, Samuel's enthusiasm for soccer did not carry forward to the next practise. I was so eager, I had the entire family come along and Samuel was not interested at all. As his helper and I tried to keep him involved he got more and more agitated and finally had a bit of a meltdown, with curse words and all! We've been talking about it with Samuel all week and we'll see how it goes at practise tomorrow night. Hopefully there will be more staff on hand to help. There were not as many staff members to help this past week as there were the first time we went.

A trip to go shoe shopping, along with a trip to an electronic game store, started off very bumpy this past weekend. It ended on a much better note, however, after we took a bit of a break in the car. Samuel even apologized for his behavior later in the day.

Samuel is continuing to ask inappropriate questions as he greets people. The latest question at church to the ushers is, "Are you bald?" Fortunately, they are good-natured about it! As he looked around the church this past weekend I heard him whisper to himself, "Everyone's bald!" A good percentage of the men were! I mentioned Samuel's questions to his speech therapist yesterday and she pointed out that Samuel is becoming more aware of the differences in people, so in dealing with this we need to address that awareness in Samuel. I had been stuck on the idea that he was doing the whole greeting thing wrong.

Can anyone steer me to any good sources of teaching material that talk about how people are different?

Awesome Day at Soccer Practise!

2008-09-26T01:12:00.011-04:00

Samuel just started playing on a soccer team for children with special needs. He missed the first practise last week because of his EEG, but he was able to go this week. It is being offered by the parks and recreation department in Winchester, Virginia.

Samuel willingly got on the field, lined up for his drills and participated!!! He didn't want me or his helper to go with him! This is really big, after having to shadow him constantly for t-ball this past summer. Granted, he cut in line a few times during the drill activity, and he just had to run a few dozen extra yards before he got back in line, but he was happy to be there and to be playing (and I'm happy for his social learning opportunities!). All that his helper and I had to do from time to time was position ourselves off in the distance a bit to keep him from running away too far. The times he did get away from us he was eventually stopped by a fence and he ended up coming back!

His attention span ran out after the drills, and he didn't know what to do during the mini-games. That was a little tough because he started to lose patience. I really wanted to keep things positive so I allowed him to take a few short breaks. The field they were practising on was next to a baseball diamond that consisted of some lovely dirt so he was happy to play in that during the breaks. He never lost his patience, and he seemed somewhat proud of himself for playing!

Next week the whole family is coming along to cheer him on! I cannot wait! One of my tasks this week is to teach him what the game of soccer is all about! He knows how to kick the ball, but doesn't understand the concept of each team trying to score its own goals.

The photo is of Samuel's entry in his journal yesterday. I have him practise writing the date (he does this after filling in a calendar with velcro pieces), then some days he recalls events and other days he writes about anticipating events. Most days I decide what he writes about, but some days he gets to decide what he is going to write about. He's not a very willing speller, so I was happy that he filled in the word "red" on this page without any spelling assistance.

Might be worth a read!

2008-09-23T22:38:00.003-04:00

Kristina Chew just mentioned this book on her blog: Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure, Paul A. Offit, M.D.

I appreciate that there are scientists who are challenging the idea that autism is caused by some kind of toxicity in our children. I'm not a scientist or anything, but I just know that my son's autism wasn't caused by a vaccine, or that it's aggravated by his consumption of red dye #40 or anything like that. I don't have the time to challenge all the ridiculous ideas that are out there, but I'm heartbroken when I see the likes of Jenny McCarthy and her crazy ideas getting publicity. I cringe when I hear parents talk about "curing" or "recovering" their autistic children. I'm thankful to know there are thinking people like Dr. Offit and Roy Grinker (who I might get to hear speak next month!) putting forward what I consider to be much more logical explanations about the autism "epidemic".

Samuel's EEG Adventure

2008-09-21T11:20:00.001-04:00

Well, Samuel and I survived the EEG adventure, and what an adventure it was! We braved rush-hour traffic into Washington D.C. Wednesday morning. My driving directions told me to turn the wrong way up a one-way street, which further delayed our arrival. Finally, we arrived, parked the car and entered the building. I got some funny looks at the desk on the second floor when I told them I was looking for "surgery." That was because I was at the wrong hospital! How was I to know that Washington National Medical Center and Children's National Medical Center were both at the same location!? Getting to the correct building entailed another quarter mile walk, where we then encountered lots of construction!

Samuel endured the EEG quite well. He was put under general anesthesia to get the leads "glued" on to his head. The leads were then covered by a gauzy kind of cap, and the wires were covered so that it looked like he had a long stocking cap on. He came out of anesthesia in the recovery area to the sounds of the starting theme song of "Max and Ruby." (Before he woke up he stirred a bit when "Wow Wow Wubbzy" commercials came on) He likes this show, but sometimes he cannot tolerate startings and endings. He weakly attempted a yell, "Turn the TV off!" Problem was, I couldn't, it was the TV in the recovery area of the little girl next to us!

To make a long story short, from the recovery area we were led to another floor to the room we would stay for the rest of that day and into the next. He was to be hooked up for about 23 hours. He had a few spells of impatience ("I don't want to be electronic!" he would yell from time to time), but I was able to help him calm down by talking and doing some gentle sensory activities. We were on the west side of the building where we had nice views of the National Cathedral and the Washington Monument. We could see the high-rises in Arlington off in the distance. We had a terrific view of a brilliant orange sunset that evening! It was a pretty day, much like the kind of day 9/11 had been, and I thought about how folks in the hospital would have been able to see the smoke coming up from the Pentagon that day.

A big help that evening.was the large screen TV on the wall on which he could watch TV, surf the internet, and load movies. I was even able to e-mail a few people during our stay, a very nice feature! Samuel was in electronics nirvana that evening as he loaded up his favorite production company logos (he wasn't much interested in watching the movies themselves)... TriStar, Columbia, Paramount. He did this over, and over, and over. He also spent some time on the PBS Kids website and Nick Jr. We turned the TV off at 10pm to "go to sleep." Ha! He was too excited to sleep! We spent the next few hours shifting around various sleeping locations in the room. Much later, perhaps after midnight, I let him turn the TV on again and he was thrilled to find a "sign off" screen for WHUT (a PBS station in Washington). We "watched" that for a good 20 minutes before I suggested he turn it off and we try to sleep again! He fell asleep some time after 2am!

The purpose of his EEG was to monitor for mini-seizures. We do not suspect he is having seizures, but since he has spells of inattention, his neurologist wanted to do this procedure to rule them out as a cause. I will be able to call her office later this week for the results.

DC photo borrowed from Flickr, photo taken by Matti Mattila.

"N is for ...." A Phonics Lesson with Samuel

2008-09-20T22:26:00.002-04:00

We're chugging right along with Samuel's school work, which included the 2 day break we had this week because of his EEG. I often sneak in a bit of school work on Saturdays on weeks like this. This afternoon we did a lesson about the letter N and the sound it makes. My job was to ask Samuel to tell me a few words that begin with the "n" sound. Just in case he couldn't focus enough to answer my question I printed out some pictures from "Writing with Symbols," nice little concrete things like "nest", "nickel", "night." Well, we never had to refer to it because Samuel had no problem thinking of words! His answers? "Noggin!" " Nick Jr." "Nick" "Nextel!" Gosh, I wonder what was on his mind today?!

More Challenges and I'm Overwhelmed!

2008-09-14T22:41:00.001-04:00

Life with Samuel has been a bit of a wild ride lately! He started private Occupational Therapy services earlier this summer and I told his therapist that he was having 2 or 3 behavioral outbursts per month. Beginning about 3 weeks ago this number seemed to go up so I started keeping a log of his outbursts and the frequency had increased to more like 2 to 3 PER WEEK. In fact, this past week he had an outburst almost every day.

I'm carefully looking at our daily schedule to determine how we might be able to get things done without the outbursts. Among the culprits I blame this increase on are a change in routine as the summer ended and school was started up and my husband's and oldest son's frequent travelling for racing. At the recommendation of our occupational therapist I am trying to work more sensory activities into Samuel's schedule. They are so easy for me to overlook or brush aside as I try to get things done.

Another challenge we are facing with Samuel is the using of some very bad expletives. I strongly suspect he picked them up from watching things on You Tube, so I'm severely limiting his time on the computer and try to stay in the vicinity as he is on it so I can monitor what he is watching. He knows exactly what I'm doing and doesn't like it one bit! I'm considering moving the computer down to our family room, where it can be monitored more easily than up in my out-of-the-way office.

I am in over my head with keeping up with school work for three children. One thing I like about the new curriculum materials I am using is that I am given lots of guidance in constructing lessons. Samuel has actually had some fun doing his math work with some manipulatives, and my youngest son seems to be getting a lot more out of our time together when I have some kind of lesson planned. I'm just having a hard time adjusting to the amount of time I'm having to put in to the lesson preparation.

Samuel will be participating in a Challenger Soccer league (a league for those with special needs and different abilities) beginning in a few weeks. We would be going this week, but he has an EEG scheduled, for which he'll have to be put under general anesthesia. I have no idea how on earth he'll be able to tolerate the wearing of all the electrodes once he comes out of the anesthesia. He'll be monitored for 23 hours! I'm already talking to him about what is coming up, and am stashing away all kinds of special goodies and activities (like DVDs and videos - what else?!) Any ideas for preparing him, anyone?

Two yahoo groups I belong to have been embroiled in some very nasty discussions lately. It's very disheartening, why do people get so opinionated and so intolerant of each other!? I find I have to just let go of these kinds of things so that I can focus more on what really matters - taking care of my own children's needs!

I have greatly missed posting and visiting all my usual "blog friends," but I suspect it will be a while before I can return to it the way that I'd really like to.

End of the Summer Routine, New Curriculum for Samuel

2008-08-26T23:35:00.000-04:00

Since returning from vacation the end of last month I would say that our life has not been as structured as it has in the past. Even though we ended up coming up with somewhat of a daily routine (my favorite part of which has been a 30-45 , minute rest each afternoon!), there are spells within the day that Samuel has a little more "free time" than he is used to. On most days I have a helper for Samuel in the morning, and then for a few hours late in the afternoon. It's that in between time without the helper that I find it challenging to keep Samuel off the computer or away from Playstation. I try to get some time with Samuel at the table. We still look at the calendar each day and fill in his journal, along with filling in his "All About Me" book, cutting activities, and some handwriting practise.

I took a bit of time to research new curriculums for Samuel. I wish more than anything that I could follow a Charlotte Mason curriculum with him, but I just cannot juggle all the preparation that curriculum entails, having four children to keep up with. I have enrolled my two other sons in Seton Home Study curriculum this year, and, at the advice of the education consultant, will be using the Lifepac curriculum for Samuel, along with some other materials. He'll be working at the first grade level again. I am looking forward to trying this because I think it will be appealing to Samuel. Also, I will not have all the outside preparation that I had with Samuel's work last year. Anything to simplify my life right now is a good thing!

Here's a sample of what our daily schedule has looked like this past month: Wake up, breakfast, "your choice" (which is usually watching videos/dvds), play (this would be with a helper; or go out, which we have done a lot in the morning this past month), lunch, play (this is free time for Samuel), rest, play (more free time), "work time" (at the table), then a helper arrives and they do playing activities for a few hours, dinner, play (free time, then I may have him join me in playing together outside), put pajamas on, "treat" (an evening snack), "your choice" (usually playing on the computer), bedtime. This schedule will be changing next week, when the "new" school year begins at our house.

My Blog World and Reality Intersect!

2008-08-23T16:38:00.007-04:00

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Sharon, whose blog is The Skates Family 7. She graciously agreed to bake one of her specialty cakes for my oldest son's 11th birthday. We live about an hour's drive from each other, but we met each other about half-way. We were able to talk for a few minutes and I also met her two lovely daughters. I wish we could have visited together longer, but it was already well into the evening and we both had families to get home and take care of (plus, I found out just today, Sharon has a lot going on right now!)

Here is a picture of the cake. My son was very happy with how it turned out and so was I. Not only was it gorgeous, but it tasted yummy too! Everything you see on the cake is edible: the number 11 track, the cars, the Happy Birthday banner, all of it! The frosting is buttercream and the rest is fondant. The cake itself was fudge chip, and it was delicious! (Sharon has a picture of it on her blog too).

My special thanks go to Sharon!

One other thing.. Sharon has a cool bumpersticker on her car "Today's autistic kid is tomorrow's genius." I like that!

Some day I hope I'll get to meet other blogging friends too!

How Much is Okay?

2008-08-12T23:52:00.005-04:00

This very thought-provoking video was put on You Tube by CS. He has several videos on Vimeo, check them out! I initially saw this on Andrea's blog, "Autism Unplugged."

Are you comfortable with your autistic child rocking, flapping, and displaying other "autistic" behaviors? I have always tried to let Samuel do these things (and I'm talking about rocking and flapping as well as scripting) as much as possible, but I will admit that as he gets older I am trying to develop the awareness in him that these behaviors are different and that it might be a good idea to do them in private if he can. I do this not because I want him to appear "normal" but because his stimming behaviors seem to get in the way of other things he needs to do. I'd gladly let Samuel rock his way through his school work, like Bill Gates was rocking in his meetings in this video. Right now, however, Samuel repeatedly tunes in and out of his work and his involvement with us as he scripts. I'm moving very slowly in talking to Samuel about this. As far as I'm concerned, I have his whole entire childhood (and maybe longer, if necessary) to educate him and help him learn to cope with life!

I appreciate the opinions that autistic people are making public about the importance of behaviors that convention has held as being "non-functional." That seems to not be the case. They ARE purposeful and functional and we parents should be careful when we try to limit them. We have so much to learn about autism. My gosh, we're still just coming out of the days when autistic people were thought merely to be mentally deficient. We're just beginning to understand that they have a different way of experiencing their surroundings and that they have a different way of learning. Let's be patient and try to understand them better before we go trying to change them in ways that are harmful!

Between School Years

2008-08-05T23:50:00.004-04:00

I have mentioned before that school is an ongoing, year-round endeavor in our household. We take breaks when there are special events, holidays or vacations. We also run on a relaxed schedule during part of the summer. That is where we are with school work right now. Samuel is participating in a "speech camp" this week and his older brother is participating in a "history camp." Both of these occur in the morning. In the afternoon, after we have had our lunch and taken a rest, I come up with a bit of work for the boys to do. Samuel has been filling in his calendar, writing in a journal, finishing up his religion book. I also found some workbooks at a wonderful teacher supply store up in Maine.

The store where I got the workbooks is called Play and Learn Toys and Teaching Resources and it is located in Freeport. It has become a family tradition to visit while we are on vacation here. My children love it for all the cool toys. They have a fun Thomas the Tank Engine display and it kept them entertained while I took a long look at the teacher supplies. I am always so tempted to buy all kinds of posters, workbooks and bulletin board supplies, but this year I restricted myself to just a few workbooks and stickers. I will have Samuel work on the two books shown in this photo during the month of August. They are both from Carson-Dellosa Publishing. I really like the "All About Me" book. It is 64 pages long and in it he gets to draw all kinds of pictures and fill in blanks to tell about himself. It's a pre-k to grade 1 level and it is perfect for Samuel. It's easy, the pages are visually "do-able" for him (no color or distracting pictures) and the assignments are short. Also, there is a sticker chart built in to the back cover of the book. I am hoping that Samuel will enjoy filling it in and feel a sense of accomplishment. I'm looking forward to him completing the pages where he tells us what his favorite color is, and what he wants to be when he grows up. He doesn't usually talk about these kinds of things on his own. (In the past he has answered "firefighter" when he is asked what he wants to be when he grows up. I'm curious to see if he'll say that again. It's hard to know if he really means it. He never demonstrates that outside of being asked that question. I wouldn't put it past Samuel to just say an answer to get people to stop asking him the question.)

The Scissor Skills book is also very easy, at least it starts off that way. It looks like it will get much more appropriately challenging as he works through it. I ended up getting scissor skill books for Samuel's younger brother and sister as well. I never would have allowed my two oldest boys to try scissors at age 2, but I am comfortable letting my little girl, age 2, do so now. I make sure she only tries it while I am close by at the table with her. She just loves "working" at the table like her big brothers do!

My big job for the month of August is to write up a new IEP for Samuel, choose and order curriculum materials for him, and organize work for my two other sons. I already have their books. This is the first year that I am using a pre-organized curriculum for both of his brothers, in which I "enrolled" both boys and will send off some of their work for grading. I may end up ordering some of Samuel's workbooks from the same place, but there is no way that he can follow a packaged curriculum.

Maine Vacation 2008

2008-08-01T23:40:00.009-04:00

We returned this summer to Midcoast Maine, to Bristol. It is about an hour's drive north of Portland, along Route 1, which goes right up the coast. We stayed with the same friends we stayed with last Christmas. They have an 1800s house with plenty of bedrooms and space for us to relax. They acquired a few animals this spring and my children had a few opportunities to help feed them. I don't think Samuel ever helped with the feeding, but my oldest son helped feed the geese and my youngest son enjoyed gathering eggs every day.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera! I really wanted to take some photos and share some more of the sights up there. On this trip we took a drive north from where we stayed to Lincolnville. We crossed a narrow stretch of Penobscot Bay over to Isleboro, a small town on an island. We were there for a very quick visit with our friend's son, who is currently working there. The views on the ferry ride were just lovely. We could see some areas to the north where we have driven to and stayed in the past. Nowadays we don't go up that far because the kids don't have the patience to endure the long car ride.

We also visited Fort William Henry. This was an English settlement in the early 1600's, but did not remain inhabited for more than a few decades because the territory was in dispute between the English, French, and Indians. A stone fortification was reconstructed at the site in the early 1900s. It looks like a castle turret, so that makes it fun for the kids to look at. We were able to go to the top of it and from there you get a good view of Pemaquid Harbor. While we visited there we were able to see local author James Nelson's re-enactment presentation of Dixy Bull, a pirate who raided the area in the 1630's. We all enjoyed that.

It rained almost every day of our vacation but we still got few good beach days in. My favorite trip to the beach was our last evening there. We got there as the sun was setting and, in typical tourist fashion, combed the beach for pieces of drift wood and rocks. (I just cannot believe I forgot my camera!)

Now we are back in Virginia and I'm wondering where our vacation went, it passed so quickly!

We took a break from Samuel's visual schedule this trip. I didn't even bring it along, though I did bring a marker board, just in case there were any emergency situations that a schedule would have helped. We did bring along a portable DVD player and a select few videos and DVDs. We also had a DVD player and VCR available at the house we stayed at, so these were all helpful reinforcers to get Samuel through his day and some of the things he needed to do. He did get a bit homesick. Our second night away we stayed in Freeport. As we went into McDonalds to get sundaes (for those of our kids who didn't want a dish of Ben and Jerry's ice cream), he started bawling, "I want to go home! I miss Virginia!" I had to take him out of the restaurant and we took a little walk. We had a conversation about how he felt and that helped calm him down. As we did a bit of gift shopping in the various places we stayed, he was determined to find videos. He went up to several clerks and said, "Woman, do you have any videos?" Sometimes he would be a little more specific, "Woman, do you have any Columbia-TriStar videos?"

Lastly, our friends have decided to rent out their house for vacation rentals. I told them I would post information about it, so here it is! This would be a unique vacation opportunity for anyone who wants to experience a bit of life in coastal Maine that is off the typical tourist path. Kurt and Andrea Rauscher, the owners, also live on the property in an electricity-free home they built several years ago (the rental home DOES have electricity). We have become very good friends since we met them on a previous trip to Maine ten years ago. They are wonderful friends and I know will make terrific hosts to vacationers who stay with them!

Coastal Maine Farmhouse Vacation
Rental
call 207.563.2437
Rent a circa 1800, five bedroom,
1.5 bath house located on a very private 20 acres smack – dab in the middle of
the beautiful Pemaquid Peninsula. This house is located in rural Bristol
within 10 minutes drive of Round Pond harbor, New Harbor, Pemaquid point, South
Bristol, Damariscotta and a host of other Maine attractions. Just an hour
and 15 minutes drive north of Portland takes you to the heart of coastal
Maine. Rate $900.00 per week or longer terms available.
Also
available on this property are the following:
An introduction to living
without electricity (rental house has electricity)
Gardening and preserving
food for the family
Animal husbandry – goats, chickens, geese
Woodworking lessons
Boatbuilding lessons
Sailing lessons
Bronze
casting lessons (view our video on you tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFOo5EWNl8M
Learn how to
heat your house with firewood

The photo at the beginning of this post is of Muscongus Bay. I obtained it from FLICKR , where it was posted by CA. Thank you, CA, for allowing this photo to be shared! Most photographers on FLICKR have now copyrighted their photos (which I completely understand!), so it was much harder to find things I could legally share on my blog this year. That's okay, I just simply need to remember my camera in the future! Anyways, if you are interested in seeing more scenes of where my family vacationed, you can go to FLICKR, in the "Search" field enter "Pemaquid Harbor", "Pemaquid Point", "Round Pond," "Fort William Henry, Pemaquid, Maine" and you will see lots of terrific photos of the area we stayed at!

The photo of the house is where we stayed, and is the house available for vacation rental. The goats belong to the Rauscher family. They acquired them this past spring and have plans to increase the herd.

John Adams Mini-Series

2008-07-16T06:57:00.007-04:00

One of my birthday presents last month was the new John Adams mini-series DVD set. My husband and I were both disappointed that we did not have HBO back in March of this year when it was first aired, so I was thrilled to receive it the day after it was released on DVD.

We are both history enthusiasts and we have ancestral links to the Adams family through my husband. His "branch" of the Adams family left Braintree, Massachussets, and settled in the town of Riga, New York. There is a tombstone in the family cemetery there that references the same nobleman (a knight, if I remember correctly) from Somersetshire, England, who is mentioned in David McCullough's book about John Adams, on which this mini-series was based. We're not sure of the exact link we might have to John Adams or Samuel Adams. Some family members are trying to better establish the family tree so hopefully we'll find out someday! Three of our four children share the names of characters from this miniseries. We also share John and Samuel Adams' strong beliefs in personal liberty.

My children enjoyed watching this series as well, though my oldest son was the only one to watch it in its entirety. There are a few spots that I would not recommend allowing children to see. Among them are the tarring and feathering scene (distant nudity and somewhat violent), the scene where a man's leg is amputated, a scene showing Benjamin Franklin sitting in a bathtub with a woman he's not married to, and we skipped over the scene showing Nabby Adam's mascectomy because it looked like it was going to be on the graphic side.

I would say that Samuel's favorite part was the theme music, which he was singing within a few days after watching it! I may get the soundtrack as everyone else in the family seems to like the music as well. Samuel also got a kick out of watching Samuel Adams. What child wouldn't find it interesting to see someone with their name on-screen?

A particularly interesting feature of this series is the ability to select, in the special features menu, a way to watch it with historical facts shown on the screen. It's similar to "pop-up video." We did not use it the first time we watched it, but have been going through the series a second time with it. I found it to be very helpful in answering some of the questions that I had after watching it the first time.

I really like the actors who play John and Abigail. I had seen Laura Linney in "You Can Count on Me," which I didn't particularly like, but I didn't realize all the other things she has been in and the critical acclaim she has received. I really like how she portrayed Abigail in this series. I had never heard of Paul Giamatti, who played John Adams. I think both actors did a superb job and I look forward to checking out both of them in other films they have been in.

I also look forward to reading David McCullough's book about John Adams. My husband got it a few years ago but I have not read it yet. Some neighbors of ours read it out loud together as a family. I think that's a great idea and I think we'll give that a try after I finish reading the kids some of the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Wrapping up the School Year - An Immense Relief!

2008-07-10T07:01:00.003-04:00

Oldest son's standardized testing is finished, ready to be sent off for grading. Samuel's work has been evaluated and I have the evaluator's summary letter in hand. I don't yet need to send in any "numbers" for youngest son's work, that begins at age 6 in Virginia. Best of all, I think everything went well this year. My first year homeschooling three children is over and I can still say I think I made the right choice to take Samuel out of school so that I could teach him at home. Not that everything is perfect, we have lots of room for improvement (who doesn't!?), but I'm happy having all my kids at home right now.

I recently went through the exercise of actually writing out the goals and objectives we were working on for Samuel this year. I feel so much more organized now in what we are aiming for with him. The plan I have developed for Samuel is so much more accurate than the school's plan in terms of what we really want him to achieve. Seven out of ten of his goals are related to his life skills. His previous plan only had buttoning, zipping, and controlling his behavior that addressed these things. There is so much more that he needs to accomplish than that, and I have found that educating him at home is the best way to tackle these goals. It was hard to narrow down everything to just 10 goals, there are so many things we are working on with him!

After our vacation I'll be coming up with a new IEP for Samuel and will be busy checking out all the curriculum recommendations I got from the education consultant. All of this on top of still checking out RDI, and everything else I want to do! There aren't enough hours in the day!

Mom's Taxi Lifestyle Revisited!

2008-07-03T07:10:00.003-04:00

We've had a busy busy week! Samuel is taking part in a "camp" at the practise where he used to go for Speech Therapy way back in the days before he went to public school. It is only for a few hours, so while he is there the three other kids and I have been hanging out at a park nearby, since it's too far to come home. Then, for a couple of the afternoons we have also had parties going on and in the evenings I have had grocery shopping and a meeting to attend. Every day I have been in and out of the house two or three times. Some people live like this all the time, and I used to back in the days when Samuel went to school. I went crazy then and I am going crazy now. I have gotten used to being a homebody! Not that I want to be a recluse or anything, I just can't take the multiple trips in and out of the house all day. At least it's just for this week!

Autism Acceptance Starts a Big Debate

2008-06-23T00:22:00.005-04:00

Finally, a story on a "mainstream" news show about neurodiversity and autism acceptance! Click on the video link below to watch. I missed this when it was on, but thanks so much to Andrea for sharing this on your blog.

I have hoped for the autism acceptance movement to get attention like this for a long time. My frustration with the public perception of autism was one of the inspirations that I had to begin this blog almost a year and a half ago.

I am so glad that Kristina Chew had the opportunity to be interviewed. She is a wonderful spokesperson for us parents who accept their child's autism and I have always enjoyed reading her blog. Hers was one of the first blogs I came across done by a parent who seemed to accept her child as he was.

Ari Ne-eman's quote "anti-cure doesn't mean anti-progress" is terrific. He is right, just because a parent doesn't think his child needs to be "cured" doesn't mean that he doesn't think that they should be left without any education or not taught skills and strategies to deal with their challenges. I think what it does mean is that he has hope, and is willing to rise to the challenge of teaching his child to live the best kind of life that he can. Even on the bad days, he will love his child and do his best to assist. Remember, this is the same job that parents of neurotypical children have. There are just a lot more challenges for the parent of an autistic child.

Kristina Chew stated that, "Acceptance, to me, is the beginning of hope." I agree with this as well. How can a parent have hope if she doesn't accept her child ?

Here is a link to the text of this video clip. I'm amazed at the challenges to "acceptance" that are in the comments after this article. I had to laugh at Diane Sawyer and the reporter in the video when they said "Neurodiversity," there's a new word! Where have they been? This term was around a year and a half ago, which was when I became familiar with it. I'm sure it had been around a while before that too!

Skittle-free at Church!

2008-06-22T12:43:00.009-04:00

I am very happy to be able to say that Samuel made it through mass this morning without me giving him any Skittles whatsoever! He didn't even ask for them, and I didn't even realize that this had happened until a few hours after we got home! Not that I would say that Samuel did the best that he has ever done at mass today; he was quite inattentive and I could tell that his thoughts were elsewhere. That's okay though, the first hurdle that I knew we had to get over was for Samuel to be able to sit through mass without any outbursts.

At the beginning of dealing with this, a year and a half ago when we first started sitting in the church (instead of behind closed doors in the "cry room"), my method was to give him a Skittle (fruit-flavored candy that looks like "M&Ms") every few seconds that he was quiet. In the past few months he had progressed to just getting 3 or 4 Skittles during the homily (sermon). Today, I took Samuel out of the church for a short break during the homily. Fortunately, our pastor's voice projects quite nicely to the outside of the church so I could hear his homily without a problem while Samuel had a few minutes to walk around. Samuel really seemed to be needy of sensory things, so I gave him lots of hugs and squeezes, and let him sit on my lap for very short amounts of time.

Samuel is very interested in religion. I would say his knowledge and interest is like that of a neurotypical 4 or 5 year old. He likes Bible stories like The Creation Story, Noah and the Flood, the life of Jesus. He also likes looking at all the stained glass and statues in our church.

We are just finishing a kindergarten level religion book for him, and I'm looking forward to future religion lessons that start to teach him about all that is going on in the mass. I think he is ready to learn about it now that he does so much better about sitting in church. I am hoping that he will be able to receive his First Communion two years from now (the same year that his younger brother will). He may not be able to receive his First Communion in the same mass that his peers do, but I am hopeful that at that time he will have a much better understanding and sense of reverence for this most important sacrament of our faith.

What is the next hurdle? Getting Samuel to follow along, or pay attention, to what is going on at mass. This is going to be tricky. Samuel and I sit in the very back of the church. His behavior is such that others would find it to be very distracting, so I try to stay in the back where he isn't as much of a distraction. People at our parish are wonderfully understanding. I wish that some children wouldn't stare at him as much as they do, but I'm sure that 86 pound almost 5 foot tall 9 year old Samuel moving around like a two year old is quite a curious site to behold! Anyways, back to sitting at the back of the church, it is difficult for Samuel to see what is going on. I think it would be helpful for him to be able to see what is going on at the altar, but I don't feel like he is quite ready to sit up where he would be a distraction. I'm going to think a bit about what we might do. If anyone has any suggestions, or would like to share how their child has learned to better participate in mass, church services, concerts, lectures, etc... I'd love to hear about it!

Until Samuel receives his First Communion, I suppose I'll still keep the Skittles on hand. I may need them to get over the next few hurdles, and I'm okay giving them to him in church right now (we are required to fast one hour before receiving Communion, so edible reinforcers will not be an option once he hopes to receive). However, now that I have seen that he can get by without them, I will make more of an effort to save them for after Mass.

A Favorite Thing: Scripting!

2008-06-18T06:59:00.005-04:00

Yesterday we had the pleasure of friends visiting and joining us for lunch. I watched some of my friend's children while she went out for a while and then she returned and visited with me for a bit. Our children are good friends and they had a great time playing together.

Later in the day, at dinner time, my husband had to stay late at work so I tried getting some conversation going at the table.

Me: "What was your favorite part of today?"

Oldest son: "The (friends) coming over!"

Youngest son: "Yeah, the (friends) coming over!"

Daughter: "The (friends) coming over!"

Me: "Samuel, what was your favorite part of today?"

Samuel: "Scripting! Watching videos without the television
on!"

It is very apparent to all of us that Samuel likes to script, he is absorbed in it for much of his day. While I do not want it to get in the way of the things he needs to do, I try not to let it worry me too much. I try to redirect him when I can. While we are at the table doing school work, I will stop and wait for him to pay attention when he is scripting before we continue with our work. Sometimes this works and sometimes we wait quite while. I have noticed that when Samuel has something VERY reinforcing following school work, he is much more motivated to pay attention and attend to his work.

I have talked to a few moms with children older than Samuel who have had this issue to deal with. Some of their children have gotten to a point where they realize that there are appropriate times and places to script. Perhaps they are given a period of time each day where they can go to their room and take some time to script.

Samuel really enjoys scripting, so I don't want to try and take it away from him completely, but at the same time I want him to understand that it cannot take over his life.

Is this an issue for any of you? How do you deal with it?

I have heard that it is best not to draw attention directly to the behavior. In other words, we shouldn't go around all the time saying, "Stop scripting, stop scripting...," redirecting is a better strategy. However, I have noticed in the last year or so that I can have conversations with Samuel about the fact that there are appropriate times and places to script. It's better if I have these conversations with him at times that I'm not correcting him to stop.

Back to Samuel's answer at the table, I'm going to have to find out what he meant by "watching videos without the television on." I wonder if he was refering to scripting or if he was talking about looking at video cases.

Maine is calling.. but I can't go yet!

2008-06-08T22:57:00.006-04:00

It happens this time every year, I start to get homesick for Maine! With the exception of our visit this past Christmas, all the trips I have taken up there have been some time between the end of May and the 4th of July. Our trip this summer will not fall within that time frame. We aren't going to go up until mid-July. It'll be so hard to wait that long, but it's just as well that the trip will be later. I have lots to do before then.

I am still getting together a package of Samuel's school work from this past year to send to a consultant. As I mentioned before, I am hoping to have a consultant look at his work to provide an outside opinion of his academic progress. I submit standardized test scores as proof of academic achievement for my oldest son, but will not be able to do this for Samuel since he would not be able to take the standardized test that I usually use, the CAT-5.

Upper photo: the view from Pemaquid Point on a sunny day, taken by rbglasson. Lower photo: wintery view from Pemaquid Point taken by me on our trip last December.

"Mom says teacher let classmates vote autistic son out of class"

2008-06-02T23:21:00.003-04:00

I found out about this story from Julee, whose blog is "Discovering Nathan." This story is just unbelievable! I cannot imagine the difficulties with school that will remain with this young boy because of this incident.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/treasurecoast/sfl-flpkindergartner0525pnmay25,0,2574622.story

"End" of the School Year Approaches

2008-06-01T13:01:00.003-04:00

Education in our household has become a year-round process. While a part of me wishes that we could take a particular day and call that "the end" and have a few months off, I enjoy the flexibility we have in working year-round. We take time off for vacations, and may have a lighter week here or there depending what is going on in our life.

One date I do have to keep in mind, working year round or not, is the August 1st date by which my state requires me to report educational progress. There are homeschooling options in Virginia which do not require reporting of educational progress, but I have selected the option under which I must report. This is going to be a very different process for Samuel than it has been thus far for my oldest son. All I have to do for him is administer a standardized test and report the results to our local school superintendent.

I will not be able to use the standardized test method for Samuel. The past week or so I have been gathering information about him and his work to send to a consultant. I plan to have her evaluate the work we have done so far, get advice on how to better teach him, and come up with an education plan for next year.

This is keeping me very busy and I haven't had much time to post or visit other blogs, but I'll try to get back and do updates of how this process is going.

Social Skills, Starting to Work on Appropriate Greetings

2008-05-16T15:37:00.007-04:00

I have been reading short social stories this past week that I typed on "Writing With Symbols" to begin the process of teaching Samuel's to greet others in a more socially acceptable manner. One day I had him read about how we might go about greeting people we do not know. I wrote the story to say, "Usually we do not need to ask people we do not know what their name is." Later that afternoon he exited the car at soccer practise, immediately went up to a woman he did not know, and said, "hello, what is your name?"

Like I mentioned in the comments of my last post, I am afraid that if I point out to Samuel how sad (or otherwise uncomfortable ) his questions and comments might make others feel, he will just add the question "Did I make you sad?" I have to teach Samuel only in positive terms, guiding and teaching him in terms of what he SHOULD do, not in terms of what he SHOULD NOT DO.

We attended a wedding yesterday. Samuel came along to the reception and got along nicely during the entire event with his helper. His new question, after saying hello, was, "Are you married?" Yikes! Once again, I am grateful that so far people have been very understanding and patient with him!

I just got Dr. Gutstein's book in the mail "Autism Asperger's: Solving the Relationship Puzzle" and am reading it as fast as I can so we can begin some RDI activities!

Time to Polish the Social Skills a Bit!

2008-05-06T07:25:00.006-04:00

Just when I think it is not possible to feel any busier than I already have been, I reach a new pinnacle! Recently this has come about because two of my sons started playing soccer and I actually have had a few social events to attend (after a rather sparse past year of socializing). I suppose the water pouring out of my living room ceiling (from a poorly built shower above it) and the resulting needed repairs have contributed to this as well.

Anyways, my 10 year old and 5 year old sons are playing soccer. They participate in a league of children educated at home and, thankfully, they only have practise once a week, both at the same time, and there are only a minimal number of games that involve travel. For the first time, well, ever (!!!), I have been able to take Samuel along to the practise field where I hang around for the 2 hours his brothers practise. I had to do this a few weeks ago because my in-home helper was not able to make it that afternoon and my husband could not take the boys because of obligations at work.

I made up a visual schedule of what we would do during practise. It wasn't really anything all that special, I just made sure we moved to a new location every 30 to 45 minutes. Part of the time we walked down to see his older brother play, we spent some time in the car and had a snack, and then we spent some time on a playset (swings, slide, "fort"). Yes, nine year old Samuel stood out a bit on the playset, but he was content so I didn't mind! While we walked from field to field Samuel kicked around his own soccer ball and tried talking to EVERYONE!

On the subject of talking to EVERYONE, I realize that we need take a step forward in conversation social skills! Here is one example: People that Samuel does not know come sit behind us at church, Samuel turns around and says, "Hello, are you old?" Or, "Hello, are you a man? " (This to a woman with short hair!) Does anyone have any suggestions for social skills lessons that are just a bit beyond the basics? I have a Carol Gray book about Social Stories (pictured here )and will look at her site to see if she might have anything more advanced, but I want to see if there is anything else.

School Work , Part I, "Work Time I"

2008-04-24T23:30:00.006-04:00

It has taken a while, but finally, as we are entering the last quarter of Samuel's school year, there is a pattern to our school day. On our best days we sit together four or five times at our kitchen table to do school work. I'll talk in this post about "Work Time One", the first time we sit together. This session usually includes CALENDAR, HANDWRITING, ENGLISH, and TIME.

"CALENDAR" is done with an average sized wall calendar, along with a laminated page for the current day. Samuel's job is to fill in information for that day, with velcro-backed pieces that he has to select off another laminated page. First he crosses off the previous day on the wall calendar. Then I might prompt him by saying, "Today is the _______" and I wait for him to say the correct date. After that, I lay the laminated page in front of him that he has to fill in. He then has to look at the other page to select the correct day of the week, month, date, year, and the weather. After filling it in he has to read it out loud. The laminated pages were made by a previous in-home helper. Samuel had another calendar to fill in previously, but this current one was made about a year ago. At first, he had to be prompted EVERY STEP OF THE WAY, and only three of four possible selections could be placed in front of him. When I started doing the calendar with him I could put more selections in front of him, but I still had to prompt him every step of the way. Now, I can place all the selections in front of him and on most days I hardly have to prompt him at all.

"HANDWRITING" involves practising his printing. My goals for this year were to review all the letters with him and to address his problems of placing them correctly on the page. Next school year we will work more on choosing correctly between using upper case or lower case letters.

We just finished reviewing all the letters a few weeks ago. "Y," both upper and lower case, "n", "a", and "u" were also problems. A few months ago I started prompting Samuel to place the letters correctly on the paper by having him read, "I can write neatly between the lines," before he did his exercise. This prompt has helped a bit, he is doing a better job of following the lines on the paper. Now we are talking about where we correctly start our upper case and lower case letters on the paper. At the beginning of the school year he did not like for me to say anything about his writing. It's still tricky trying to say anything to him as he is doing his work. Though it is very slow going, the written prompts (which he reads day after day after day) are better for getting through to him as opposed to verbal prompts to make corrections.

We use "Handwriting Without Tears." He just completed the kindergarten book. I'll take the next month or so to review problem letters, work more with proper letter placement (making up my own exercises), and I will have him start the next level book after that.

"TIME" In this lesson Samuel is learning how to tell time on a clock face. He could tell time on the hour, half hour, and 15 minute marks at the beginning of the school year. I have been trying to teach him to the 5 minute mark. We use a talking teaching clock for this. He does well up to 30 minutes after the hour. For minutes higher than this, he often gets confused about the hour, since at this point the hour hand points more to the next hour number on the clock. So far, the best approach has been for me to write out a series of times he has to put on the teaching time clock. I start at the top of the hour and go ahead from there. At first I only had him try four different times. I just recently moved it to ten times to complete. This lets us try lots of different times within the same hour. As he gets more comfortable with this I will start to fade out the earlier times in the hour, until he can successfully find times like "8:50" . Right now if I was to ask him to find this he would place the hands at "7:50", since at that point the hour hand looks like it points to 8.

In "ENGLISH" I have Samuel completing a first grade workbook. We are currently working on contractions and correct sentence punctuation. At the beginning of the school year I had to re-type all of the lessons from the workbook into a larger font, he could not work out of the workbook. Now we are able to use the workbook most of the time; I use a cover on the page so he only sees the current problem and I only have him do four or five problems at a time.

Autism Awareness Month

2008-04-08T07:51:00.006-04:00

As Autism Awareness Month approached this year I was gearing up to write some posts on the subject, but it seems that I have been overcome with a spell of writer's block and busy Mom syndrome, at least for the time being!

Here are a few quotes from things I have watched or read in the last week or prior to that:

"Art is the voice of autism." I heard this on the hour long show that CNN did about autism around the world last Tuesday afternoon. While I don't necessarily think that all individuals with autism are necessarily artists, I can see that art can be a good outlet for many individuals with autism. For my son, music is the form of art that he seems to be most drawn to.

"Finding a cure for autism is like finding a cure for blue eyes." This quote is on the home page of a My Space page done by a teenage girl who identifies herself as Female 15 years old Dudley, Midlands United Kingdom. I like this quote. The more I hear about autism and the supposed "epidemic" of it that is occurring, the more I am convinced that it is something that has been a part of humanity all along, as Roy Richard Grinker shares in his book "Unstrange Minds." This is a quote I have shared before:

This book therefore addresses the clear rise in the prevalence of autism - and, more precisely, the range of conditions now called autism spectrum disorders -- by exploring the cultural factors that have changed our perspectives on children and mental disorders. The shift in how we view autism, in other words, is part of a set of broader shifts taking place in
society.
....the newer, higher, more accurate statistics on autism are a sign that we are finally seeing and appreciating a kind of human difference that we once turned away from and that many other cultures still hide away in homes or
institututions or denigrate as bizarre.
I don't want Autism Awareness Month to be a month of fear and pity, I want to see more Autism Acceptance!

My Little Gentleman

2008-03-31T12:20:00.004-04:00

Samuel got his new glasses a week ago today. He is accepting them very well! Every now and then he takes them off and says, "I need a break." (I modeled this request for him when he first got them by telling him to bring them to me and asking for a break from them. I figured that was better than him taking them off and leaving them around the house carelessly) We will set them on the counter and then a short while later, perhaps when it is time for school work again or time to watch TV, he will put them on without a problem!

This past weekend one of Samuel's helpers got married. Samuel and I attended the reception for a short while. I just couldn't help sharing this photo of him in his blazer and glasses, taken just before we were on our way. He looks so grown-up to me!

Celebrating Holy Week

2008-03-19T23:25:00.007-04:00

This photo is of Samuel looking at his Bible Story Book.

Samuel loves the religion lessons we do together at home. He has been interested in God, Jesus, Mary, Bible Stories, and other elements of our faith for several years now. He is particularly interested in The Last Supper and The Stations of the Cross, and this has been very evident as Holy Week has approached this year.

I am looking forward to the day that we can go to church during Lent and Holy Week to join in the special services and masses that take place during this time. I thought about trying to take Samuel to the Stations of the Cross this year (our church does this Friday evenings during Lent), but we never did make it. That's okay, I have been enjoying helping Samuel read through a small book we have about it. I think that is more meaningful to him right now than it would be to attempt to have him sit at church in a socially acceptable manner for the half hour or so it would take. I am hopeful that Samuel will be much further on the road to better behavior at church by next Lent and I think it will be easier by then for my young daughter to either go along or remain at home with my husband. We are certainly not alone in this, it is difficult for many people to attend church with young children, whether their children are autistic or not.

We will be observing the Triduum by reading Bible stories at home together and watching special events on television. I'm thankful that Samuel is doing so much better at mass week to week now. We're so much closer to being able to attend additional things at our church now than we were last year, and I'm very hopeful that it will be even better by next year.

Samuel Played An Entire Game!

2008-03-19T22:52:00.003-04:00

Samuel's evening routine the past few months has gone something like this: Dinner - Put on Pajamas - Wash Face - (Some kind of Activity with Mom or Dad) - "Treat" - Computer -Bedtime.

The "some kind of activity with Mom or Dad" can either be playing a game or reading to us. The games we have been playing include "Spelling Bee Bingo," Memory Game (using somewhat less than all 72 cards that are included with our games), Candy Land, or Hi Ho Cherry-O. Usually Samuel's brothers join us in the games. Some nights we have great fun and other nights it's a real struggle to get Samuel to join in, especially if the game lasts for much longer than about 5 minutes.

Samuel reached a milestone in game playing last night, he played Scrabble Jr. and he lasted through an entire game with his brothers and me! The last time we attempted this game he became frustrated that he had to put the tiles down in a certain order and he wasn't able to finish the game. Last night he got a little anxious a few times, but it was close to the end of the game and I was able to encourage him from losing his temper.

This was exciting for me because this was a real step forward in the skill level. Most other games we play are at the pre-school level and Scrabble Jr. is for 5 - 8 year olds. Also, this was a step forward in skill level for my 5 year old son, who now knows the letters of the alphabet. It was great to play with all 3 boys!

Too Many Errands in One Trip!

2008-03-16T22:46:00.007-04:00

Samuel is eager to get out of the house these days. Now that he is not going out to school every day, he looks forward to his trips to the library, occasional trips to Target, and even going to church. After his vision exam last Thursday Samuel begged me to go to a small shop that he found out sells videos. Since he did so well at the eye doctor I wanted to let him do something he enjoys. My other children were still at my friend's house. I had to go to the grocery store near that shop anyways, so I agreed to take him.

I clearly outlined the conditions of our shopping trip: we were only in there to look, no buying videos. After all, he had a new video on the way in the mail. Samuel likes to e-mail his Dad with requests for new videos (with my help) and my husband had just ordered a Cyberchase video a few days before that.

For ten minutes, Samuel enjoyed looking at the videos and DVDs. He was particularly happy to find a display of Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. videos. It wasn't easy for him to leave these behind without a purchase. After I counted down our remaining time in the store he wasn't at all willing to leave. He grabbed a video and ran to the cashier counter with it. I had to gently but firmly help him take the video back to the display. He yelled and screamed as I escorted him out of the store.

I wish that we could have left the shopping center then but I had to pick up some milk at the grocery store. I knew it wouldn't be an easy venture with Samuel being in the mood he was in. He expects "treats" while we are out. I got him by the donut display without a problem but as we started for the aisle with milk he veered over to some bakery rolls, grabbed one and put it in his mouth. I reached for a bag, put it in and just bought it to save any further trouble that moment. I let him help me put the gallon jugs of milk in the cart. He needs practise carrying heavier items, he practically threw them into the cart! He had several other outbursts before we left the store, but thankfully I was able to pay without too much difficulty.

I am pretty familiar with Samuel's limits in running errands and I admit that I stretched them in this instance! I won't let this take away from my happiness at how well he did at the eye doctor's office!

Vision Exam

2008-03-14T07:35:00.004-04:00

Yesterday Samuel had his first-ever visit to the eye doctor. I started telling him about this appointment a few weeks ago. I have learned that it is best to inform Samuel ahead of time of these things so that he has plenty of opportunity to voice any concerns or objections! He expressed concern about having to get a shot and also asked, "Will it hurt?" His concerns were very easy to answer and I am convinced that talking about them helped the exam to go smoothly.

The in-home helper who is with us during the morning and afternoon has become very good at picking up what is going on with Samuel and he makes upcoming events a part of their conversation as they play together. He even suggested that they act out an eye exam, since we have an eye chart as part of our toy doctor kit.

When I scheduled the appointment I informed the receptionist that Samuel was autistic. Just a few hours before the appointment I called the office to remind them of this and the receptionist was once again very reassuring, telling me that they have seen other special needs patients and that there are ways of checking vision if the patient has difficulties communicating.

Samuel did very well! I went in to the office to fill in paperwork while Samuel and his helper waited in the car. I called them in once I was finished. There were some toys in the waiting room and I remembered how Samuel likes to check those out. We have had issues in the past at dentist visits if he doesn't have time to look at the toys! He voiced some last minute concerns about the exam, which we (his helper, the office staff, and I) were able to talk to him about. I was relieved to find we were the only ones in the waiting area. The appointment was right after the office had reopened after lunch.

After just enough time to look at the toys he was called back. Samuel went along with the examiner just fine. His helper and I both sat in the room. His helper was terrific in assisting Samuel. Sometimes I feel like I don't let his helpers do enough. It took some effort yesterday but I made myself sit back and tried to let him take care of Samuel getting through things. It was a challenge at times to get Samuel sit still, but his helper and the examiner were able to explain things and Samuel cooperated very nicely!

Once some measurements were done and photographs of the inside of Samuel's eye were taken, we were then moved to another room. This is where the optometrist examined Samuel. It really helped that we did not have to wait very long. Once again it was challenging to get Samuel to sit still, but somehow he did long enough to get the exam done. There were issues with the chair needing to be moved, getting Samuel to properly cover one eye so that he could look out the other eye, and also with getting him to look through the viewing lenses correctly. He was in a very good mood and was making the funniest comments! (To the doctor, "This isn't so bad!" "I love this, I love you!") Most amazingly of all, the doctor had a laptop computer sitting on the counter that Samuel did not disturb at all, even though there was a slide show of photos being displayed on it!

The end result, Samuel needs glasses. I am not surprised. He has been squinting the past few weeks. I'll be curious to see if he notices and tells us about his improved ability to see once he gets his glasses, which will be in about a week and a half.

Factors that contributed to the success of this appointment: informing Samuel ahead of time, letting Samuel voice his concerns and discussing them with him, having good assistance from his in-home helper, timing the appointment well during the day, leaving his siblings with a very generous friend (I almost brought them along!), Samuel's previous experience with visits to the dentist.

This appointment was followed with a quick visit to a video store and the grocery store. There were a few bumps in these, separate post to follow.

Current Challenges and Some Fun Things

2008-03-09T22:04:00.001-04:00

Reacting appropriately when something goes wrong is one challenge we face with Samuel. One morning last week a favorite DVD of his got scratched and he threw an absolute fit over the fact that it would not work. He came close to pushing the DVD player off the shelf it is kept upon. He hasn't done anything like that in a long time and it was quite frightening. It especially frightened my two year old daughter, who has not seen Samuel agitated to that degree recently. Our in-home helper assisted in trying to calm Samuel down. It took almost 45 minutes and it pushed everyone's school work behind that day.

Another challenge has been to keep Samuel from scripting too much. I do not have a problem with Samuel scripting from time to time, but it can get in the way of him doing things that he needs to do. Getting through a session of school work can take three or four times longer because he will not focus on his work. Sometimes I try to get his attention by holding visual aids in front of him and at other times (when there is an especially reinforcing activity to follow) I wait him out.

Appropriate behavior in public is another area of concern. Going to the library has been a good place to practise appropriate behavior. There was a time I had to stop taking him because his behavior was too disruptive. He hit a child there one time when I told him he had to stop playing on the computer. In-home helpers assisted us by going with us several times. They helped us make up a visual schedule and now, two years later, most trips go well. Recently, Samuel has started trying to talk to other children. He is curious about videos that others check out and he asks them about them. Today he tried talking to a very young girl who was playing on the computer. He just wanted to know what she was playing, but I could tell he was frightening her.

I took him out to McDonalds after the library, and as we were leaving he went to the booth next to ours and took a french fry from a young boy's lunch! I was so embarrassed! Fortunately his Mom was very understanding. Interestingly, Samuel was remorseful about it by the time we got to the car. He wanted to go back inside and apologize! I had asked him to do so while we were still inside, but he resisted. I did not want to cause any more of a scene so we did not go back in. I had already apologized to the Mom. Samuel kept talking about it for a good portion of the trip home. He wanted to know if I was going to tell his Dad about it! He is expressing remorse frequently. He will say "I'm sorry" after he has done something wrong. Sometimes he will perseverate on that remorse and get emotional (yell or cry). I tell him that it's good to be sorry and I try to remind him to think about what he is doing before he acts.

Samuel and his two year old sister have had some cute discussions lately. I have overheard them sitting together looking at his videos. She asked him about them and he seemed to like answering her questions. They also sit together in front of her dollhouse. They don't exactly play together, most of the time it is fighting over things. She gets a little possessive when she sees Samuel go to play with it. I try to redirect her away from the particular dolls and pieces that Samuel has, but of course those are THE ones she wants!

Samuel has become much more conversant lately. When we are out in public or when others arrive at our home he is very quick to say "hello!" The other day someone arrived to do a termite inspection at our house and Samuel greeted him with, "Hello, we're so glad to see you!" He also tried greeting people at the table next to ours at a restaurant, and he did so with people at church. I would like to think his motives for doing so were good, and I'm sure they were, but afterwards he told me, "Look Mom, I'm talking to strangers!" He has just read The Berenstain Bears book about strangers! I can see that we will need to do some fine tuning of Samuel's behavior in public, but I am sure glad that I can take him places now!

Waiting, an Important Strategy

2008-03-07T23:28:00.001-05:00

I cannot believe that after having this blog for more than a year I am only just now talking about what has become a very important strategy to promote Samuel's independence in following his schedule: waiting.

When Samuel was younger my method for getting him to comply was to simply carry him around or drag him to what we were doing. I had tried using a visual schedule with Samuel before we had in-home help, but I did not understand what had to be done to get him to follow it. I did not understand that I needed a reinforcer (an incentive), and I did not know about using "waiting" as a strategy to get him to comply.

I saw this strategy used by the first in-home helpers we had. I watched, almost three years ago now, as they would "wait Samuel out" when he would flop down on the floor, or go hide on my bed. Samuel would be expected to do what was next on his schedule and if he refused, well then he was ignored until he decided to do what was expected. I cannot remember now exactly how long they had to wait, but I believe it was upwards of a half hour at first. It was amazing to see him eventually cooperate.

It was very difficult for me to ever try this with Samuel while he was in school, time was pretty tight and I had three other children (including a young baby) to take care of. One of the first tasks I used this with steadily was while helping Samuel with his homework last year. It was tough. There were nights I couldn't start homework until almost 7:30 or 8:00pm. I would pray that Samuel would cooperate, but often he did not. When this happened I stopped talking to him and would tell him to let me know when he was ready to work. I know we had some hour long sessions. I made sure that I had something very reinforcing, like a snack or computer time, scheduled for the next activity. You get to a point with your child when you realize that you cannot drag them into what they are expected to do and you cannot force them, they have to decide for themselves. That is what the strategy of waiting is all about, letting your child learn that he has to decide for himself that he has to do what is expected. There were nights we had ridiculously late bedtimes, but it was worth waiting because eventually he would do his work.

It is much easier to wait Samuel out now that we have Samuel at home. I often have to wait for him while he is at the table to do school work. There are times I wait more than 30 minutes for him, but this is happening less frequently than it used to. I have tried to schedule the time I spend with my other children in such a way that it is not a catastrophe when I have to wait for Samuel. Waiting at the table means that I have to stay in close proximity to him, so he won't run off or start grabbing things off the shelves behind his chair. There are times that I have to move Samuel up to his bedroom to finish a session of school work so that the other children can watch a TV show they like to watch. Over time, he is getting better about doing his work, however.

Getting dressed is another time that I often have to wait for Samuel. I don't have to stay in his room with him most of the time anymore. He will eventually get to work. Recently it has been nice to have him go through his routine all on his own. He does so better some mornings than others, but at least there is a good pattern going.

I remember the in-home helpers telling me that eventually Samuel would realize that it's just easier to do what is expected so that he could get to the "fun" thing scheduled afterwards! It's great to see this happening more and more! I'm glad he is discovering this and I don't have to try to physically maneuver him around so much.

Bad Court Decision in California

2008-03-04T17:40:00.010-05:00

This isn't right.

Evidently this court in California has forgotten about a certain seven letter word that we Americans value very highly: F-R-E-E-D-O-M. It's a sad day when courts start messing with the rights of parents who, the last time I checked, have the primary responsibility of raising their own children!

Success! Getting Dressed Independently

2008-03-01T07:27:00.005-05:00

After five years of teaching Samuel how to get dressed, we have reached a big milestone in the last few weeks: Samuel is independently dressing himself!

We have traveled a long road on the journey to teaching Samuel to dress himself. He was four years olds when I started teaching him. At that time we were still doing everything for him. I started by assisting him in the process hand-over-hand. Progress was very slow, but I also took things slowly. After all, during that time I also had a baby to deal with and then three years later, another baby. We also had the pressure of having to be out of the house at a certain time each morning to get Samuel to school, so in the process I often took shortcuts so that we wouldn't be running too late. Saturdays were the time to take a little longer.

Slowly, Samuel learned to put on his shirt and pants. Initially I would hand him the clothing in the correct position and tell him "the tag goes in the back." Putting on socks was a more difficult hurdle, but he eventually got the hang of that. Then we worked on making sure the tag was in the right place. Somewhere in this process I started leaving him on his own to do everything (but never on school days). It could take him upwards of a half hour to an hour to develop the initiative to do the job, but he eventually would. I wish I had kept a record of dates that he achieved each milestone, but I did not.

While Samuel was in school I never was able to rely on him dressing himself on weekdays. I'm sure he NEVER would have done the work all day and would have been perfectly happy staying home! Sunday was another day I couldn't have him dress himself because of needing to get to church. That only left one real day, Saturday, that I could leave him to his own devices.

The situation has been much different this year. Since we no longer need to get out the door most mornings, we have much more flexibility in our daily schedule. As the school year started this past fall, we were still pretty new to having in-home help in the morning. Initially we had a helper arrive at 8am. I let her guide Samuel along in getting dressed. I still felt somewhat pressured to have him complete the process in a certain period of time. A few weeks later the in-home help started to arrive at 10am. Most mornings Samuel slept in until then (along with my other kids. They get to bed late at night and mornings are my time to alone to get things done) and was then guided along to get dressed. Samuel made progress but still wasn't very motivated to get the job done.

Now, my oldest son is setting his alarm clock to get up in the morning. He discovered he likes the quiet time also. He has a few minutes to play Playstation before he starts his school work. Some mornings Samuel would wake up as well. He wanted to watch videos. It finally occurred to me that I now had the perfect reinforcer for Samuel. Just in the past two weeks I have started requiring Samuel to get dressed before coming downstairs to watch a video. This past week I added the requirement of going over our daily calendar and singing with me. I wake him up between 8:30 and 9:00 to get started.

It has really surprised me how well he is accepting this! One morning I was busy downstairs. I could hear activity upstairs and when I finally got around to going up, Samuel was walking down the stairs completely dressed! He stopped however, and said, "Uh-oh, I forgot to clean my room!" (he had already made his bed!) He turned back and took care of it! After almost three years of seeing the same visual schedule, Samuel has the routine down and the motivation to do it on his own! Yipppeeee! Now I can put a little more attention on my two year old who is already trying to dress and undress herself! A next step with Samuel (once we revel in this victory for a little while) will be to work on him using zippers and buttons. Most of his clothes do not have these things right now but I eventually want him to be able to wear clothes with these.

Nature Study: Birdwatching?

2008-02-25T09:14:00.002-05:00

I was recently inspired by Tammy in her post about the "Great Backyard Bird Count" to have my children do some birdwatching for Nature Study. Here's how it is going so far:

Day 1: Monday, February 18. It was a lovely morning here, surprisingly warm. I told the kids we'd be doing some birdwatching. My oldest got the camera while the younger children got their shoes on. No jackets needed! The four children burst out of the house and proceeded to prance around the back yard. Me: "Do you think we are going to have any birds with you guys making that kind of noise?! If we are going to watch birds then I think we had better be a little more quiet!" Eventually the kids quieted down but the only birds we were ever able to see were from a great distance. They were either sitting way up in the trees or were flying in the sky over a distant meadow.

Okay, a whole week has gone by and I have not taken the time to post any more because we had a busy week last week. We had a tough week with getting Samuel to cooperate with his school work. There was a lot of waiting him out at the table.

In summary, I figured out that we needed a bird feeder to attract some birds. We got one on Tuesday. A few days went by without us seeing any birds but yesterday I finally noticed some! This will be an ongoing family project. Thanks for the inspiration Tammy. I should also thank my Mom, who has also inspired me to watch birds over the years. She gave me the book we'll be using to identify birds about seven or eight years ago. It's about time I put it to use!

Video Vacation and Moving On

2008-02-15T08:16:00.004-05:00

Samuel's video vacation ended last Sunday. It had started the previous Sunday when I attempted to put the boxes of videos away and he did the job for me!

How did the week of "Video Vacation" go? Overall I would say "good!" Like I mentioned on day two of the vacation, we weren't without videos completely all week. The supply we checked out from the library did stay in a location where Samuel had access to them all week. Actually, they were in a hidden place but Samuel discovered it a few days later. However, he was not allowed to look at them or take them out. He was only allowed to access them when it was time for him to watch a video on TV.

Now that "Video Vacation" is over, the boxes of videos he was attached to previously are still down in the storage room. Samuel is allowed to go look at them on occasion. He is being very good about not getting them out in groups of 4 or 5 and taking them all over the house like he used to. The bag of videos from the library is still in the laundry room. He goes and looks at them sometimes, but only takes a video out if he is going to watch it. One of my upcoming projects is to come up with a decent place for Samuel to store them. The budget director of our household (my husband) has an ongoing request from me for a good media storage cabinet for our entire family's collection of CDs, DVDs, videos, etc, but perhaps a small cabinet or bookcase for Samuel's things would be good as well.

I had hoped that Samuel's scripting of videos and production companies would curtail as a result of "Video Vacation" but that doesn't seem to be the case so far. I hear him singing the themes from Tristar, Paramount, and Strand (found on old Thomas the Tank Engine videos). I am happy, however, that Samuel seems to have accepted the restricted access to his videos and DVDs. I'll really have to stay on top of this though, he'll slowly try to go back to video chaos! Another good outcome is that I have been able to place video watching on his morning schedule AFTER getting dressed. This is proving to be a very powerful incentive to him dressing more independently. He even picked his own clothes out yesterday morning!

The Blessing of Communication

2008-02-13T17:28:00.002-05:00

You have to check this video out at the Joy of Autism. I am so happy for this Mom who has been waiting to be able to communicate with her son!

Larry King Show This Thursday - Autism

2008-02-11T13:15:00.001-05:00

I learned from A Bishop's Wife at The Pentecostal Pariah that there is going to be a show about autism on Larry King Live this week. Her post says the show is on tonight, but according to the show's website it will be on Thursday evening (perhaps Michelle Obama's appearance pushed the Autism show further into the week?).

This is what Larry King's website is saying about the upcoming "Autism Show":

The heartbreak ...and hope of autism. Jason "J-Mac" McElwain inspired the world
with his incredible shot-making at a high school basketball game. Larry talks to
the teen and others about the disorder. Holly Robinson Peete, Doug Flutie and
Toni Braxton join the discussion to bust myths and present breakthroughs. It's
an uplifting hour with those who know!

I wanted to bring this to your attention for two reasons: first, so that you can watch it if you are able to; second, so that you can contact the show to e-mail in any questions you might want to have them ask the guests. If you go to the website for Larry King's show there is a link to send an e-mail for Thursday's show.

Do you think there's any chance of them putting some other points of view on the show besides the typical celebrity "autism is a tragedy" type shows we have seen in the past on Larry King?

Our Family - What A Difference A Year Makes

2008-02-09T22:00:00.001-05:00

Estee, at The Joy of Autism, recently posted about how far both she and her son have come in the past year. She invited readers to comment about what their year has been like. Since I just passed the one-year anniversary of blogging at the end of January I feel like I have a lot to say about this topic. I didn't want to "overload" her comments so I decided to do my own post about this.

A year ago I was consumed with Samuel's situation at school. Now, he is no longer at school. I teach Samuel at home. While I don't have to worry about the lack of communication from teachers and aids anymore, I do have the daunting task of trying to figure out where Samuel is academically, and to find work for him that is appropriate and meaningful. It's worth it though, I like having Samuel at home. I want my family to live a family-centered life. I value having a good community around me, but I don't want my family life dictated by that. So much of the activity of life seems to take us out of our homes these days. I am enjoying just staying at home for now.

A year ago every day was hectic, rushing Samuel to school, racing home to do school work with my oldest son, getting out for piano lessons, music lessons, soccer, shopping. We spent a minimum of 80 minutes per day in the car just taking Samuel to and from school. That's not counting the 10 - 20 minutes I had to prepare ahead of time getting ready to go out. I tried to cram all kinds of things in to the time when Samuel was in school and it was easier to get out and about with the other kids. Now we don't have that every day craziness. We don't get out as much anymore. We have dropped the music lessons and my son now has piano lessons at home. Now if I need to go out, I have the option of taking Samuel with me (along with his personal attendant) to teach him appropriate social skills. There wasn't much time for that kind of stuff in past years.

A year ago we had help (through funding from the county I live in) for 9 hours per week from in-home therapists. They were contracted out by our county from an autism school. Now, a year later, we no longer have this county funding (because I withdrew Samuel from school) . Instead, we obtained a Medicaid waiver for Samuel and I was able to hire a personal attendant to work with Samuel and be of assistance to me. We have two people who help us right now and their help has been wonderful. The help I get now is very different from the help I had last year, but it is good help. It makes our school days at home manageable and they help to keep Samuel busy.

A year ago we had just stopped sitting in the cry room at church. We have never gone back to sitting in the cry room. Many weeks Samuel can stay in church for all of mass with only one or two breaks. His outbursts in church are only occasional. Last week we were even able to go to a different mass than our normal time. It is more crowded and there is music. Both of these things would have made mass intolerable for him a year ago. Now he is doing much better. He has even started saying the "Our Father" in the past couple weeks! Several years ago I remember asking one of our in-home helpers how on earth I'd ever get Samuel to behave well in church. Since then I have SLOWLY followed her suggestions, one of which was picking out ONE prayer for Samuel to say. The Our Father was it! I have used a child's book and a laminated page from his religion book as prompts to say the prayer so it's nice to hear it being prayed out loud by him!

Samuel seems to enjoy being at home. He has become much more emotional and dramatic in the past year. He can get into some pretty despondent moods, which can be kind of disturbing, but I see it all as part of his development. We make those moments opportunities to learn how to control his thoughts and self-regulate his behavior.

What is coming up in the year ahead? I'll continue my search for a behavior specialist to assist me with Samuel. I'm also checking into using RDI for Samuel. As Samuel gets more compliant in doing his work and other activities I think RDI will be "do-able". I'm also veering more towards using Charlotte Mason methods in my homeschooling. I'll be doing my best to stay a step ahead of ALL my children!

Video Vacation, Day 2

2008-02-05T22:40:00.000-05:00

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had informed Samuel of an upcoming "video vacation." I had the calendar marked, so he had ample opportunity to "digest" the idea. Two nights ago I told Samuel, "It's time to pack up your videos and DVDs!" I had envisioned tears, frustration, and a long drawn out battle to hide the two boxes and their contents that had taken over our foyer closet and the surrounding area. I started walking over to the closet to begin.

Samuel surprised me by saying, "I want to pack them up!" He did just that! He took the boxes down to the basement. I didn't even follow him down. When he was finished he came back upstairs and I didn't hear anything else about the videos all night. Samuel has been taking a few videos to bed with him at night for several months now, I really thought he be lost without them but that hasn't been the case.

When he took the videos down to the basement I thought, "Right, he'll be down there whenever he gets the chance." That hasn't happened though! His in-home helper told me that he went into the storage room one time on Monday, but other than that he hasn't tried getting in there at all!

What's really neat is some of the things he is doing now instead of "looking at videos." This morning he went to the basement and built something with his legos. He told me that it is an art museum. He is building things like he has seen on a Lego Creator computer game that he and his brothers play. I also saw him playing with his sister's "Dress Up Elmo" doll. It's not that Samuel never plays with toys, it's just that it's nice to see him play with other things at the times he used to ALWAYS look at his videos.

I haven't completely banished videos either. He has been allowed to watch one video each of the last two days, after which we put it away promptly. Today we even went to the library and he was allowed to check out 5 new videos. When we got home I let him pick out one to watch and told him the remaining videos had to be put away. He was a little upset, but got over it pretty quickly.

"Video Vacation" was presented to Samuel as being a week long. I'm sure he's counting down the days. I already told him, however, that we won't be going back to having 20 + videos floating around all the time. His access to them is going to be more restricted than it had been. I'll be giving some thought the rest of this week as to how to do that.

In restricting his access to videos, I'm not trying to squash down some interest that Samuel has, I just want to channel his interest a bit. I won't say that this is so that he will be more "normal". I will say though, that I don't want his interest or obsession with videos, to get in the way of some other interests that he has.

"Three Things, Great Job Mom!"

2008-02-04T15:00:00.000-05:00

Each time Samuel approaches his visual schedule and sees "Work Time" (the schedule piece I use when it is time for him to do his school work) I catch him peeking over to the table where I have a mini-schedule of the tasks he is to do that session. He used to do something like this when he entered his classroom at school; he would look over to the table where his teacher made his daily schedule to see what was on the agenda for the day. In earlier grades his schedule was posted on the wall so he would look to that as soon as he entered the room.

Last week one day he took a look at the mini-schedule and said "Three things, great job Mom!" Today when he looked at it he said, "Wow! Three things!" He seems genuinely happy!

Current Video Favorite

2008-01-27T11:11:00.001-05:00

One of Samuel's current favorite activities is watching film company "identifications" (is that the right word?) on You Tube. These are the short clips you see at the beginnings of movies. He really likes the "Pegasus" on Tri Star's logo. I found this image of Tri Star with Columbia, the company it merged with in the late 1980s.

Samuel has made his own Pegasus with a toy horse figure. The wings are Lincoln Log pieces. I have seen him use other toys to represent the woman in the Columbia image.

Mommy Wasn't Herself Today!

2008-01-25T22:46:00.001-05:00

I woke up today without very much of a voice. This has been coming for the past few days in the form of a stuffed-up head. By this morning I had developed congestion in my throat. I sounded much worse than I felt. If I whispered or talked in an unnaturally high pitch my voice didn't crack, but otherwise I sounded just awful.

Samuel was quite upset by all of this. I think he thought I was angry or upset by the way my voice sounded. Everyone kept reassuring him that I was okay, but periodically tears would well up in his eyes when I tried talking. He would ask, "Are you okay?" He also said a few times, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

This made it difficult when I had to challenge him today to get through school work. We had lots of trouble getting through the first session of work. He had to "take a break" up in his room because he got a bit rough at the table. I finished his school work up in his bedroom that time and the next time we sat at the table he was fine (except for having to hear my awful voice).

He thinks I'll sound better tomorrow, but at this point I'm not so sure.

Overheard from the Boy's Room

2008-01-24T22:10:00.000-05:00

Poor Samuel. He's extremely tired this evening but is being engaged in conversation by his brothers. They are in their bedroom and the lights are out but they are still talking. I'm not exactly sure when Samuel woke up this morning. My husband couldn't sleep last night so he got up in the middle of the night to do some work and to call co-workers from his company headquarters over in England. Anyways, my husband's activity woke Samuel up, possibly as early as 4:30 this morning. Samuel had a rough day getting through his school work. He got upset during his first session of work so I had him take a break up in his room. He almost fell asleep as he lay on his bed. The rest he took helped and he was a bit more cooperative the rest of the day.

As I listen now, my oldest son is trying to entertain his brothers. The conversation he is having with Samuel has to do with an activity he did today, playing with his Lite Brite. I'm trying to figure out if my oldest son is pretending to be a detective or a reporter: "So Samuel, I understand you did an activity at the dining room table today, what was it?" Samuel answers (sounding half asleep) "Lite Brite." "Now I also understand that you only had to put a certain amount of pegs in it, how many?" (Yawn) "Five." "And what was it that you were making on Lite Brite?" "Patrick" (from Sponge Bob)

I love that Samuel is putting up with all the questions and carrying on a conversation with his brother like this. I also like that big brother noticed what Samuel was doing today and could ask him about it!

Since Samuel wasn't so eager about Lite Brite the other day, I attached some strategy to it today for his personal attendant to use. I wrote out .."You are going to play with Lite Brite two times today. Each time you will put in five pegs. Make a tally mark for each peg you put in." Samuel's attendant helped him make the tally marks, and the "strategy" seemed to work. Samuel cooperated much better with his Lite Brite today. I'm sure it was much easier for him knowing he only had 5 pegs to put in, as opposed to looking at a screen with dozens of spaces for pegs to go in.

What on Earth?!

2008-01-22T23:47:00.000-05:00

Today was about the craziest day that we have had in quite a while. It started with a bit of a different twist, Samuel's personal attendant came a little earlier and was only scheduled to stay for a few hours. Samuel had asked for Banana Bread yesterday, so I thought he would enjoy helping me make some this morning. He likes cracking eggs, so I let him do that (silly boy, he said "ouch, I'm going to die!" when he cracked them!), he mashed the bananas, and got to measure out flour (which he played with more than he measured!).

Anyways, with the different start to our day perhaps Samuel took this to mean that he would not be doing school work today. I didn't put any school work on his schedule until his personal attendant was due to leave, and Samuel had a fit when he saw the "work time" icon on his schedule. I had scheduled "Lite Brite," a toy he has recently taken an interest in before "work time" which I had thought he would enjoy. No such luck, he protested that too and was caught up in some major scripting during this activity. I cut it short and we gave Samuel lots of run around and playing time down in the playroom. Samuel requested a "break" before I started his school work and he spent much of it crying and talking as though he was depressed. Sometimes when Samuel is in a mood like this he will borrow a term from one of his favorite TV shows, "Wow, Wow, Wubbzy," and he will say "I have the bluey blues!" He didn't say that today, but he was sure acting it!

The second session of school work was preceded with another break, equally as teary for Samuel. I got out his Wilbarger Protocol brush, something I haven't used in a long time, and tried brushing him. He was a bit sensitive to it, ticklish, but he seemed to like it and that calmed him down a bit.

I saved Samuel's favorite subjects, Religion and Reading (from his reader) for last late this afternoon. It took longer to get through the work, but we eventually did it. Good news, I have been able to use the Religion textbook with Samuel recently, and haven't had to re-type the lessons on "Writing With Symbols". That is such a big help! It takes lots of time to re-type lessons. Samuel was in a much better mood tonight.

I have told Samuel we are going to take a vacation from his videos and DVDs in a few weeks. He is scripting them way too much and he is just way to absorbed with them. When this happens he gets very ornery and doesn't want to be "bothered" with anything. Before we start the "vacation", I'll start putting some of them away. He has collected over 20 of them and tries to look at them throughout the day.

Oh, in between dealing with Samuel today I had the "pleasure" of an equally ornery 5 year old boy, son number three. He is very particular about the clothing he will wear these days. He protests everything except for shorts and short sleeve shirts, in the middle of the winter?! He was also very unhappy today when I sat him down for some school work, at a time he wanted to go play with another of Samuel's personal attendants (who he thinks are there to play with HIM, not Samuel!).

My oldest son was a little tired today. We let him stay up late last night to watch "Life After People" on The History Channel. I watched a portion of it as well. It was fascinating, but kind of creepy, watching how all signs of human civilization would decay and slowly disappear if men were no longer on the Earth. I got caught up in wondering, "Well, how would all people disappear?" They did not get into that on the show, people were just already gone.

I'm glad today is over, this was a rough one!

"I Don't Want to Do Five Things!"

2008-01-16T23:30:00.000-05:00

We're slowly returning to our "normal" school routine, the one we had before we left for our vacation. Our first week back I unpacked, last week we had visitors and it was Samuel's birthday, and yesterday I had to take my daughter for a doctor checkup. So, today was one of our first days back to work!

I made up an ambitious work schedule to start Samuel's morning. I had his token board ready with the reinforcer of raisins after each time he earned four tokens. I figured Samuel might balk at the schedule and, sure enough, he did. He pulled out his negotiation tactics and said, "I don't want to do five things!" I wasn't about to bend first thing in the morning so I replied, "Yes, you are going to do five things, they're easy things!" I knew I was stretching things a bit for Samuel. We often start the morning with only 3 or 4 tasks. My goodness though, he got to sleep in this morning and I gave him some TV time before breakfast, he needed to be challenged a bit! I had to coax Samuel here and there, and had to wait him out a bit, but he got through all five things!

Challenging Samuel in his negotiations doesn't always work. In this case if it had not worked out and he had a meltdown, I would have sent him with his personal attendant up for a "break" in his room. Taking a "break" was a strategy introduced to us by the in-home helpers we used to have. It is a means of letting Samuel cool down a bit before he returns to the task that he is expected to do. A "break" icon sits up in the corner of his visual sch edule for him to remove whenever he needs one. We had to teach him how to remove the card (we would model for him, "I need a break," hand-over-hand have him remove the card, and assist him in going up to his room).

The going was a little rocky this morning, but I was happy he got through the work without requesting a break! Five tasks, that's great for first thing in the morning!

Travel Challenges

2008-01-10T22:36:00.000-05:00

I would not be painting the entire picture of our recent trip to Maine if I did not share some of the challenges we had with Samuel and our other children. Travelling with children, any children, takes some planning, preparation, and spontaneous creativity. That's all part of our travels and it's nice to know we have the ability to take our children on certain trips without too much difficulty. That doesn't mean, however, that I am willing to travel any time the opportunity comes up. I have yet to take my three younger children to go see my oldest son race his go-karts. I know that my husband will be busy with my oldest son and I cannot take care of the other three children on my own in a racing environment right now. Even though there might be other people who could help, I know that the conditions would be too difficult for Samuel to manage right now. I don't think my 2 year old daughter would be very tolerant either. I'm pretty confident that within a few years, however, we'll all be able to go together.

As far as our recent trip, we had a few challenges while riding in the car. Periodically Samuel would get bored and want to stop or have a snack (which would then turn into repeated requests for snacks). If he did not get his way immediately he would sometimes scream, unbuckle his seatbelt, or try to kick and hit his siblings. I attempted to deal with this by scheduling snacks. I would pick a time and tell the boys that there would be no snack until that time and I would remind them that it would be only ONE snack at that designated time. This helped Samuel to accept the restrictions a little better. To reduce boredom, I asked Samuel to pick a few things that HE WANTED to bring, and I asked my oldest son to pick a few things he had seen as recent favorites. Oldest son kept the bag of toys (which included toys for the other 2 younger children as well) in the middle row of seats and he would hand them out when necessary.

While in other people's homes it could be challenging to keep Samuel out of trouble. In our close friend's house, he kept trying to get into flour and oatmeal canisters in their kitchen. We also had to hide sweets because he would "raid" them if left unchecked.

At another house we visited, Samuel couldn't keep his hands off their television and DVD player. We thought he might have broken the DVD player, but it ended up being okay. These friends were so nice and understanding, but my husband and I really should have taken more effort to set some limits with Samuel and follow through. We got too caught up in interesting conversation while Samuel was in a basement playroom. Their children were playing with our other three children while Samuel was by himself with the television.

While at home in town, I try to have one of Samuel's "personal attendants" accompany us when we visit others. That is so helpful! My husband and I can socialize and Samuel is encouraged to play with other children and can be kept away from the computer, VCR etc.. Samuel got a portable DVD player for his birthday. We will be teaching him how to use it and will try to take it along when we go somewhere so that he won't be so tempted to get into other's property.

Christmas in Maine!

2008-01-02T09:18:00.001-05:00

Samuel in front of our Christmas tree, which my husband was able to cut down on our friend's property. They lent us some ornaments and the kids and I made the paper chain. My friends goats will get to eat this tree when they are finished using it!

We did something very different this year for Christmas, we went to Maine! This is the first time that we have ever gone to Maine twice in the same year, we were just up there six months ago.

We had a terrific time up there, the whole trip was a real adventure. Who would have thought we could load up ourselves, 4 children, Christmas gifts, and winter gear for all of us in a mini van for such a treck and be able to say we had a great time!?

Here are some highlights from the trip: We left most of the visual schedule behind. I took along a dry erase marker board in case I needed that. I only used it one time to let Samuel know what we would be up to. I also took along the mini-schedule with 3 or 4 icons that we use in church. Other than that I verbally let Samuel know what was going on and for the most part it worked out okay.

Samuel was allowed to take some of his videos and DVDs to look at. The plan was for there to be NO TELEVISION, NO COMPUTER, AND NO VCR/DVD PLAYER for the entire week. We took time each day the week before we left to discuss this (during our morning "circle time"). This worked well but then a few days into our stay our friend's son kindly offered to lend Samuel his television/DVD player. Samuel picked up on that and repeatedly asked for it until he finally got it a few days later. Maybe I shouldn't have let him have it, but he did so well and accepted limited time on it. It was nice for him to have something to occupy himself while we socialized with our friends.

I was very proud of Samuel for not trying to get onto the computer that was in one of the rooms we stayed in. He accepted that it was off limits! My little girl, on the other hand, found it harder to stay away from it!

We "stayed home" a lot more while up there and the kids had lots of time to play in the snow. There was about a foot of snow on the ground when we arrived and we had snow, rain, and sleet during our stay. I was glad that the kids had good packing snow to make snowmen and snow forts. It took a lot of doing the weeks before we left, but I managed to have snow pants, jackets, hats, gloves/mittens, and boots for myself and all the kids! They came in handy!

This was my first trip to Maine in the winter. My other 6 or 7 trips were all in the early summer or late spring. It is our hope to one day live up there, or maybe New Hampshire, and after this trip I can say that I wouldn't mind the winter, even if it's long and the weather is difficult, though I would have to learn how to be able to drive in icy and snowy conditions!

We had to cut our stay there a day or two short because of the heavy snow forecast. We were originally planning to drive home today, instead we left this past Sunday. Good thing we did, they have gotten over a foot of snow the past few days! As it was, the last 6 hours of our 13 hour drive home were in snow, rain and sleet. I'm so glad my husband is a good driver!

Second photo is of Samuel playing where we stayed. Our friend built a bonfire one afternoon and while the kids played and sledded we ate soup, roasted lamb, and drank hot chocolate and mulled wine in the barn where his sheep and goats live!

Third photo is of Pemaquid Point Lighthouse. We went there on a dark snowy day and it was just lovely!

The fourth photo is a view from Pemaquid Point. Imagine the wind and snow hitting my face as I took this photo! The only sound besides the wind and the snow hitting me were the waves crashing on the rocks!

2007-12-21T08:41:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to Everone!

I'll be on a blogging hiatus while we're busy with Christmas. Best wishes!