how to answer my six year old

Below is my latest post for moms magazine at momsmagazine.com


http://momsmagazine.com/2015/02/09/answer-six-year-olds-questions/

Children and adults on the autism spectrum have struggles in three main areas: behavior, communication and social interactions. That is the definition I see each and every time I search for the meaning of autism and try to understand my sons diagnosis more. Not once have I ever read that being autistic meant not being smart or unable to learn or be taught. And after almost four years since being diagnosed never has my son ever showed that he wasn’t as smart as his peers.  I know I’m not the only parent who feels this way. Yes, everyone believes their kid is the next Albert Einstein and no I’m not saying my child is some genius that’s misunderstood. I’m writing to express my thoughts on education and autism.  I’m so tired of hearing he scored less than this percent and less than that. Of course he will score less if he’s being tested the same as children not on the spectrum. How can you take a group of children all with different strengths and weaknesses and tell them they all have to take the same class, learn the same thing the same way and take the same test. But, if you can’t give the same answer the same way as majority of your peers then you are not a smart as them and you need to be in a slower class and labeled as "below average." (This is an issue i have with common core too but I’ll save that for another day) And this goes for all children not just children on the spectrum.

With 1 in 68 children being diagnosed why aren’t more schools equipped to properly teach children on the spectrum? 

Homeschooling gives parents the opportunity to become hands on with their child’s education.  It allows the child to spend as much or as little time necessary to focus on all strengths, weaknesses and interests.  All children should be allowed to learn and develop at a pace comfortable to them. 

  Deciding to home school my son wasn’t a hard decision but one my husband and I didn’t take lightly. We’ve seen drastic change in our son after having one on one, hands on therapy and attention.  This has help improve his behavior and social interactions tremendously and we believe the same approach with his education can help show that he is at the same level if not higher than other children his age.

www.gofundme.com/f1vzag

www.walknowforautismspeaks.org/ncnj/christianscrew

Help me reach my goal!!

http://www.gofundme.com/f1vzag

I've decided to set up a gofundme account to help raise the funds necessary to set up a classroom in the house. 
If you read my previous post you will know that my husband and I have decided to homeschool our five year old autistic son. We have chosen  a great online charter school and we would like to attempt to set up a little learning area for him. Any help would be appreciated. 
Thank You

Here is my boy Christian!! 

http://www.gofundme.com/f1vzag

decisions

Of all the blogs I've ever posted or ever will this may be one of the most serious ones i write.
Recently my husband and I have been considering home schooling our oldest son.
Hes 5, in kindergarten and Autistic. 
He is very bright and we really believe he can one day attend a public school and thrive just not en next year this year or even next year. He was no verbal until almost 4 years old so he doesn't have the same speech abilities as the other kids in his class and still lacks the fine motor skills to properly right his name . Today he was sent home with a paper saying show and tell is a part of his homework grade and he must bring in a picture if his family and present it to the class. -__- 
How exactly will my child who, like i said before, has poor speech and has a diagnosis that makes it almost impossible to look someone in the eye, speak in front of the class? 
Next week he will have his first test, identifying shapes , drawing them and describing them. Again, how do i prepare him for this?
homeschooling seems like the best option for us right now because we now exactly what he can and cant do and we wont compare his development to another child. 
Homeschooling will allow us to still teach him the same curriculum and the other students in the district but at the pace that best works for him. 
Once we feel he has developed enough to attend school with his sister he will. Until then I just can not have him falling behind and just going from grade to grade doing the bare minimum or being thrown in "slower" classes because his way of learning and communicating is misunderstood . This decision wasn't a tough one but it did require a lot of thought . Being a stay at home mother of 3 kids and now trying to add full time educator to my resume shall be very interesting. 
Wish me luck as we begin this journey and pray for my sanity! 

Peace Out

My first cake! !!

Once my mother put the idea of making our own castle cake for my daughter's birthday there was no looking back. Although the cake looks nothing like the cake we decided to make , I am super proud of us. Not only did it look great it actually taste good too! It took us until 2:30 in the morning to finish but it was worth it. I posted a few pics of the finished cake and some of the steps along the way. I'm for more birthdays and more dark challenges.

Milestones

As a mother of an autistic child there are no such thing as little milestones. Most children this age are already reading and writing so seeing a video of my child may seem like nothing to most. I'm proud , excited and hopeful about his future. He was once considered no verbal and was so delayed that we never thought he'd speak let alone read. From days of constant crying because he couldn't tell us what he wanted or needed to now him being able to speak just amazes me. I wish I was able to post videos on his development but I guess just blogging my thoughts will do for now. 

Kateerahs.bigcartel.com

Come shop!! We are new but we are worth the look!!

I'll post different items we sell..