It’s been nearly three years since I last posted, and almost as long since I’ve written anything other than a Facebook status. Where have we been? What have we been doing? Where do we go from here? There was certainly a lot of life’s smaller details – the grocery lists, the school stuff, a surprise […]
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Kindergarten
And so, here we are. The evening before one of childhood’s greatest milestones: the first day of kindergarten. It feels a bit anti-climatic after 4 years of school. I’ve processed leaving my child in the care of others, the total fear of putting a non-verbal child on a bus. We’ve done IEPs, communication notebooks, meetings, […]
Unexpected, Unanticipated
It’s been a strange few days. I write here for…well, to be frank, I write here for myself. I process through writing, but I make Ro’s story public in hopes that every once in a while it speaks to someone else. I write my truth here, though sometimes it is scary to share and other […]
Heartbreak and Lessons Learned
I toured a school for Rowenna this morning, and while I think we’ve found a good fit for next year, the failure of the current school year came careening around the corner and knocked me down. The district has been flat out wrong about a lot of things in the last few weeks. There is […]
To Be Continued
Disclaimer: Though we are choosing to advocate against a self-contained placement for Rowenna at this time, this is not a judgment on anyone who has chosen that for their child. We simply do not feel it is an appropriate placement for our daughter at this time based both on our observations at home and the […]
Pop
Hear that? It’s the sound of my balloon bursting. Until now, we have had an amicable relationship with our school district. We felt very in sync with their suggestions for Rowenna, and we loved her placements for the last two years. We know many children who have various diagnoses, and many of them did an […]
The IEP: 4K Edition
Tonight was the main event: the IEP for Rowenna’s 4K year. Honestly, I was nervous. After the surprise announcements from both of her teachers that Rowenna needed much more support than we realized, we had trepidations walking into a meeting where we thought we would essentially end up disagreeing with all suggestions. I’m also 39 […]
Sucker Punch(es)
A post in which we receive some very unexpected news. We’ve tried to create a team with the people who work with Rowenna at both schools. I regularly speak with her teachers and therapists, we use the communication notebook to some extent, and I am at every drop off and pick up possible to remain […]
Tea Party
Two weeks ago, Rowenna received an invitation to a classmate’s tea party birthday celebration. It was billed as an intimate gathering of young girls for tea, cakes, and delicate play time. I’m willing to admit that my first reaction was not elation. It was “uh oh.” One of our current challenges with Rowenna is a […]
Beginning of the Year Update
We’re two weeks into the school year and it’s so far, so good. I admit to being a bit nervous about sending Rowenna to two different schools. That’s two environments, two teachers (and sets of staff), two sets of rules and expectations…I could go on. I want to challenge Rowenna but structure has become more […]
