It is Friday again!!!! Another week of school without a solution or changes that can help my children do better academically. This week has been busy specially because my husband was traveling for work. Our children still have difficulty with separation but I have to say that this time the emotional outbursts were different and seemed to be less frequent. We have been following the suggestion of one of the therapist to give Elijah something special for my husband for him to take care of while dad is away. This time dad left his very special GI Joe. It really works. He would hold it in the afternoon when he got back from school and when he went to sleep. Somehow that helps him to remember that Dad is coming back.
Friday, September 20, 2013
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
On my mind today
If you are a parent of a child or children (my case) with special needs I know that you feel my frustration. Some would say that I should not complain because probably in the sixties children with any special needs would be put in an institution or just not go to school. Now we have a whole infrastructure designed to help educate people with disabilities. But as it happens with many other programs our humanness gets in the way and children continuously fall through the cracks . My job (as I understand it) is to make sure that my children do not fall into the "cracks". This becomes a very complicated issue and a very time consuming job.
I remember when we first brought our children home, it made me angry to see where they had our kids in school. It seems to me that due to an over crowded foster care system and overwhelmed social workers children in Foster care are deeply miss represented specially in the school system. When a family then adopts children we have to spend hours and years playing "catch up". Not only academically speaking but medically as well. All that frustration brings me to today and what is going on with Emmanuel on his first year of Middle school. I spent countless hours working on my children's IEP (Individualized Education Plan) to assure that they had on paper all that would be needed to help them succeed in school. The problem is that following the IEP doesn't come "naturally" to most school districts.
Now three weeks into the school year and I have more questions than answers and I am mad. Not an unhealthy mad I suppose. But I am determined to make sure that my son has access to all accommodations necessary for him to be able to learn.
As it happens not all is negative and we continue to see him blossom in many areas. I am a proud mama as I watch him play football at one of our local leagues. There in the middle of the field , where all you can see is heads inside helmets and kids eager to play, he is just another boy having fun. He jumps of excitement , he claps and screams his team's name like the other boys. At that moment it doesn't matter if he can't read or if his speech is hard to understand...He is just one of the boys enjoying the aftertaste of a game well played.
I remember when we first brought our children home, it made me angry to see where they had our kids in school. It seems to me that due to an over crowded foster care system and overwhelmed social workers children in Foster care are deeply miss represented specially in the school system. When a family then adopts children we have to spend hours and years playing "catch up". Not only academically speaking but medically as well. All that frustration brings me to today and what is going on with Emmanuel on his first year of Middle school. I spent countless hours working on my children's IEP (Individualized Education Plan) to assure that they had on paper all that would be needed to help them succeed in school. The problem is that following the IEP doesn't come "naturally" to most school districts.
Now three weeks into the school year and I have more questions than answers and I am mad. Not an unhealthy mad I suppose. But I am determined to make sure that my son has access to all accommodations necessary for him to be able to learn.
As it happens not all is negative and we continue to see him blossom in many areas. I am a proud mama as I watch him play football at one of our local leagues. There in the middle of the field , where all you can see is heads inside helmets and kids eager to play, he is just another boy having fun. He jumps of excitement , he claps and screams his team's name like the other boys. At that moment it doesn't matter if he can't read or if his speech is hard to understand...He is just one of the boys enjoying the aftertaste of a game well played.
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