school – That ASD Mom

Am I ready for this?

Yesterday, I was at a meeting to fill out forms. When asked what my occupation is, my reply was “retired”, not “homemaker” or “housewife” as one might expect. I suppose it is a little odd to some that I retired at the age of 38 after working in healthcare for 15 years…

At the time of leaving my chosen profession, I had been asked if I was going to another office/field in the career path. My reply at the time was that I was going to do “something else” for a while and return to the profession in 10 years or when I was 50, which ever came first. At this time, I have no plans to return to my previous profession. So, I am retired.

As my life has taken a different, or unexpected path, I have had to educate myself about the provincial education system, provincial health care system, government resources, social media, and advocacy. I have now been retired for 12 years, a mom for 10.5 of those, and I’m exhausted.

When asked if I miss working, my reply is that I miss the money, and the people, but not the work. (Not the politics, not the stress, not the burn out.)

So as this school year is winding down in 2 months, we are preparing for the changes and decimation of the school structure. Staff policy changes mean that the schools want to change the support staff (ABA SW and EA) yet again, thus changing the amount of hours that my children have access to support in an effort to assist more children in need. As it is, the support staff is low. Recruitment at a district level seems to be non-existent and of course, the work is thankless, especially in pay (ask a teacher eh?).

My PAC has not been able to do much this year or really the past 2 years because of COVID restrictions. We had a hard time to get this executive together. I didn’t even want to be on it this year, and next year isn’t looking too promising either.

My son seems to have ODD (Oppositional Defiance Disorder) and hasn’t been doing much school work in class these days. He can’t tell me why. Just “I don’t want to talk about it”. And my daughter is officially done of school work and reporting. She is still behind because she also resists (Unless it is science, or art, or interesting). I have to make a plan for scheduling already for next year so that I can help her better.

… it is 7:45 a.m. Can I go back to bed yet? I’m not ready to contemplate the chaos that will ensue.

March .. so far

And…. it’s March. What will this month bring?

I spent last month doing more WikiTree, struggling with online learning and a son who doesn’t want to do the “work”. I either have to sit there (essentially go to class.. that I thought I was done with) or he gets distracted by … something and work doesn’t get done. Much whining, much protest from either twin.

March 1st was the deadline to apply for school supports (EA/ABASW) in our district, and this morning, I spent time looking at the Needs Assessment for our IST (Integration Support Teacher) in an effort to maintain or increase the support hours given to my children. As I have pulled my daughter from the online learning at school, my question was about what I face should I not enroll her in public school next year. She is behind, curriculum-wise, and so it is better to catch her up now, than to try in high school.

I think that today was the first time that I left the house (other than school drop off) this week as I had to pick up my kid’s report card (form to sign). We aren’t bothering with parent/teacher interview. (As hubby puts it, what can she tell us that we don’t already know?)

These past few weeks, we have also been more focused on Animal Crossing. We bought a switch for our kids’ birthday; specifically so my son could have Mario Maker that he had been obsessed with. He created a lot of levels, so many that he had to create another persona called “Storige” as the other is full. His sister likes Animal Crossing but it is Hubby and me who play it most. I tend to play it in the mornings when my son is in the kitchen for school. I have to sit there and listen so this is something to do when I “help” him. Yesterday, we bought the family membership so that we can visit others. So far we have been to 2 islands. This morning, I went to someone’s island that I met in a Facebook group for this game.

New Year, stilling flipping out

This is the first week of the first month of 2021. This month, we will finally send our children to school in face to face sessions. This is a big deal because the children have not been to school since Spring Break 2020.

We have been doing “blended” sessions, with online classes in the morning and we were supposed to send our children to school in the afternoons 3 days a week. After disastrous sessions this past fall, we have decided that we need to send them to school for my sanity and structure for them.

This morning, their EAs are working different hours so that they can be present when the children go face to face. I explained this to my daughter and she flipped out. So I had to deal with her flipping out and snapping at me, while trying to hear the teacher explain the location to meet when I take them to go later. So daughter was flipping out and yelling, so much that hubby had to come out of his office to offer support, while son was in the next room. Son had to tell teacher that daughter was here but she was “having a hissy fit in the other room”. (face palm)

Daughter was not happy and felt that she would not be able to do online school without her EA. IMO, having the EA online is not a help, as they keep telling my kids to listen to the teacher, when instead there are times that the child needs a hand holding and mommy just won’t do. I get that the EAs are supposed to encourage independence and responsibility to do the work but sometimes I wonder what the point is.