Read more about the article Guess who didn’t go to school this morning 
Elliott / Emmett John / My thoughts / School

Guess who didn’t go to school this morning 

Just a quick update to let you all know that Elliott is home from school today. He's running a fever and not feeling well. Emmett did end up at school, but not without some serious convincing.  My Mom was kind enough to get Emmett to school, despite his efforts to stay home, because he didn't want to go alone.  Elliott's spent the day resting, and his fever is going down. Gavin's spent the entire day in his room, doing things with his team of super best friends. I guess there must have been many things to do in the Super Robot (Gavin's base of operations).  Lizze will be home shortly, in theory. There are some traffic things slowing that process down a bit.  I will pick up Emmett and bring…

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May 24, 2017
Read more about the article It’s a really big day for our #Autism family
Elliott / Emmett John / My thoughts / School / Victories

It’s a really big day for our #Autism family

I'm really looking forward to today. Not only is this the last day of the second to last day of school, but it's martial arts promotion. Both Elliott and Emmett have been anxiously awaiting today.  This is always a really cool experience, except it's unbearably hot in the dojo, and there are a lot of heavy, heavy smokers. Obviously, no one's smoking inside but you can still smell it, and it's horrible.  Aside from that, the only downside is that Elliott's promotion is first thing in the morning and Emmett's is towards the end of the day.  Typically, they have always been one after the other. This time however, there's roughly four hours between them. I guess we will have to go home and grab lunch or something. 😁  Anyway,…

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May 19, 2017
Read more about the article Check out Emmett’s report for school
Emmett John / School / Victories

Check out Emmett’s report for school

Emmett has been getting these assignments from school that are similar to esay questions. This particular assignment had Emmett answering the following question.  Would you rather play outside in the snow or stay inside and drink hot chocolate?  His teacher basically wanted to know if he'd play in the snow or stay inside and do something else. The idea is to get the kids familiar with writing basic paragraphs.  The kids are allowed to type the paragraph and email it because that's teaching them to utilize technology, as well as learn to use Microsoft Word.  Below is his paragraph.  I would stay inside and play with my ferret Fat Tiny instead of playing in the snow. I like to play with Fat Tiny because she’s fat, fuzzy and warm.  I…

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March 4, 2017
Read more about the article 1 MAJOR reason I’m so proud of Elliott today
Elliott / My thoughts / School / Victories

1 MAJOR reason I’m so proud of Elliott today

I'm super proud of Elliott this week for a number of reasons but I'm just going to focus on the one for now.  Doing homework hasn't always been a pleasant experience for Elliott or us, as his parents.  Recently though, it seems as though we've made some significant progress towards making homework a more manageable experience for all involved.  In regards to this week in particular, Elliott has totally kicked ass on his homework.  When it's time to work on it, he sits down and for the most part, does it without any problems.  This is such a positive change and I'm really proud of him for making the choice to tackle homework, rather than fight against it.  

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January 26, 2017
Read more about the article The 2 awards my kids received this week 
Elliott / Emmett John / My thoughts / School / Victories

The 2 awards my kids received this week 

Elliott and Emmett have both received an award from school this week. Elliott received the below certificate, for completely the math groups listed on the paper. I'm not entirely sure what those are or how they were given to him but, he knocked them out and that makes me proud. ☺ Emmett received an award for having the most positive point on Class Dojo for the nine week grading period. He earned lunch with his teachers. This was really cool cause they buy him lunch from a fast food place. He chose Subway and was able to eat with his teachers today at lunch. He was so excited about this and as with Elliott, I'm very proud.. I'm always proud on the boys but it's something all together different, when…

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January 26, 2017
Emmett John / School / Sensory / Shoes and Socks

Sensory issues kept my son home from school again

The boys were up early once again. Everything was fine until it was time to get dressed and ready for school. Correction.. Everything was fine until it came time for Emmett to put something on his feet.   Lizze and I worked for at least an hour to help Emmett tolerate something on his feet.  We tried countless shoe/flipflop/slipper/crocs combinations both with and without socks. Nothing worked.   Lizze worked to desenitize his feet with deep pressure and spending some time in the rice box. We have a large box fill with dry rice and Emmett likes to stand in it. It has helped in the past but not today.  He wanted to go to school so badly but his body was fighting him at every turn.   Part of…

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November 29, 2016
Bullying / Elliott / School

My son is being bullied at school and here’s what we did about it

It's late, and I'm tired, so I'm just going to jump right into things tonight.  Lizze and I met with Elliott's teachers this morning in regards to our suspicion that Elliott might be getting bullied at school. We were concerned but didn't want to jump the gun because it was possible that Elliott was misinterpreting what was happening.   We just needed to get our facts straight before deciding how best to handle this. As it turns out, Elliott is indeed being bullied by a kid in his class. It was also the same kid we had suspected as well. What we hadn't prepared for were the teachers to know already about it.  That part caught me off guard because I had assumed if there was a problem, they would…

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November 29, 2016
Bullying / Elliott / Parenting Advice / School

We suspect our son with #Autism is being bullied at school and here’s how we’re handling it

We've spent a bit of time speaking with Elliott this weekend. It would be fair to say this has been a rough couple of days for him. It's pretty obvious that something is upsetting him but getting to the bottom of what that is can be tricky. Elliott will list things that bother him but they aren't necessarily what's bothering him. Does that make sense? Long story short, while we were discussing going to the after school program in December, Elliott mentioned that he's getting picked on at school. This wouldn't be the first time we've heard this but it's really the first time that I'm beginning to suspect that there's more going on than we are aware of. Elliott's a really sensitive kid and so he can take an otherwise innocuous comment…

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November 28, 2016