HomeSchool Resources and TidBits (SpecNeeds)

Well, It is officially summer for our kids as of yesterday. Although we are excited as any family should be after the year ends we still have lots of questions as to why our autistic son has not progressed beyond a third grade level across ALL subjects.  Life keeps moving as we are sometimes overwhelmed by it all. But with every frustration in our lives in the quest of advocating and making it happen for our autistic son, there needs to be a plan in place to counter act the inaction of  public school education. You have to understand that it was not very long ago that our special needs children were not allowed in the very institutions we are fighting today just to support our children academically and inclusively. How much progress is enough? Is is right to move a special needs child forward to the next grade, when it is emphatically and apparently clear that there has been very little academic progress if at all? Only you, as a parent and advocate for your special ne...

Hello and Welcome to my Blog! Summer is 44 days away and I am totally freaking out as to what to do for the summer and beyond for my autistic son and his teenage sister. The good thing is that the kids will be able to sleep in most days and the challenge is keeping them occupied, having fun and learning in the weeks ahead.  When my kids were younger and did not talk back as much I joined several mom groups in my area and although they were great at first, it became quite clear that we just did not fit in. So I ended up trying to start a mom group at my church but that did not work out either. To make a long story short I mostly had to wing it and do what I could to be involved in my community. This was way before our son was diagnosed with autism, but it was still hard and very heartbreaking to see him not make any friends...well he did have one friend that we had met through a local online school for 6 years but unfortunately his friend's mom remarried and that wa...

Good Evening Everyone,  I know it has been awhile since I posted but there has been so many changes coming up and our family is buckling down to see what happens in the days to follow. You see, our son is attending school for a Full day in a public school setting for the first time and he has not done this for over 11 years.  I could sugar coat this and say how thrilled we are and look forward to this major milestone in our lives and his, but we have seen the possibility of what if this doesn't work out:-(. What is reassuring is that we know that he will have support, 1:1, peer support, para support and otherwise. But the what if's outweigh the possibilities of success because in our parental expertise and background experiences, it did not go well in the past. He will be taking two general education classes in the 6th grade level class, we are unaware of how big these general education classes are, but hope that they will not be too overwhelming. We will just have to wait ...

Hi and Welcome to My Blog,  I have had a website for awhile, but wanted a place that I could not only share what it is like to raise a special needs child, the good, bad and the ugly and all things in between.  My goal for writing this blog is to also inspire and uplift because us moms with special needs children are giving it our all day to day and this is a small portion of what the day to day struggles are, it really all depends on the teacher, how our son feels and other things.  So sit back and be patient of all that I have in store for you here at special needs tidbits. ~Mandu Owner of HomeSchoolSpecNeedsTidbits.com  US Army Veteran Lover of Life