Last week I needed to up my homeschool game. Jackson was getting bored. He was unable to focus on the task at hand. Writing spelling words on his white board wasn't cutting it. So how did I solve this problem? I went to his closet and pulled out all his trains. I collected all the train books we own (which are a lot). I grabbed a few more supplies and set up a learning area filled with locomotives, coal cars and steam engines. Here's how we made trains part of our school Continue Reading
ADHD Is Hard and It’s Real
We decided we'd give him his ADHD medication after breakfast on Saturday morning. We were still trying to get a feel for the new meds, but giving them at at night had posed a huge problem - major sleep issues. For three weeks he had only slept through the night twice. Most nights he was wide awake at 3 a.m., ready to start the day. There were a few nights it was midnight when I heard him call out my name. We were exhausted and defeated. Saturday morning we gave him his medicine after Continue Reading
When Relief Outweighs the Sadness
I wasn't sure how I'd feel today. It's the first day of public school in our town and it's the first year I won't be sending my son through the elementary school doors. Last week I found myself wondering if I'd feel sad seeing my newsfeed overflowing with first day of school photos.Would I feel sad that my kiddo couldn't do a typical kiddo thing, or would I feel relieved? A day like today brings a mixture of emotions for a mama who is about to embark on her first full year of Continue Reading
The Day I Stopped To Make Paper Airplanes
Today I took the time to make paper airplanes with my kid. I didn’t even know how to make a paper airplane (at least one that could actually fly), so I did what any good mama would do - I Googled it. And by golly I made a pretty sweet plane that actually went pretty far once the wind found its way beneath the wings. We decorated them with our favorite colors - his blue and mine purple - and added stickers that spelled our names. He wanted to have a paper airplane show. So he set Continue Reading
Special Needs Parenting: It’s All About Adapting
For the past two weeks Jackson has attended Camp Communicate. It's an intensive speech therapy camp for children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech. I saved every penny from my photography sessions this year to cover the cost of camp, because it isn't covered by insurance. I had such high hopes for the last two weeks. As a special needs mama I should know by now it's best not to let my expectations get too high. I wanted Jackson to have a fun two weeks, make progress with his speech and have Continue Reading