A typical May is a month full of celebrations. May 2020 is by no means a typical month, given our world’s current pandemic status.
But we will celebrate anyway.
Graduations, birthdays, weddings, proms, holidays, and end-of-school chapters will still go on...
I'll admit it. When the news came that the kids would be out of school and my husband would be working from home for a while, I was almost, dare I say it? Happy! While our schedules would obviously...
We started off strong, with homemade checklists compiled from materials sent by my daughter's six different therapists and one teacher.
Our workbooks were secured, I put up a dry erase board, I had great online resources. I was ready...
A few months ago, out of the blue, my son hit a rough patch. He became impossible in the morning before school. Rather than talking, he would only meow, squeak, or scream in response to us. Any request we...
We are nearing the end of Autism Awareness Month, but we're not quite at the end of this difficult period of isolation. It has been a very challenging time in my home, and I am sure almost everyone else...
They were taking it hour by hour, trying to figure out what the next move was that would keep us safe. Now I know what they must have felt. And while I don’t have a pandemic playbook, I do have the knowledge that if I take each step with my children’s safety and wellness in mind, I’ll be doing the best I can.
We are better than this, my friends. Fellow moms, we are used to loving selflessly, giving when we don’t think we have anything left, and caring even when we don’t want to. Now is the time for us to lead. Not (just) by how well prepared we are or how well we protect our own families (although both are important), but by how we love our neighbors.
There are huge benefits of allowing children (and adults!) to listen to podcasts, which are essentially synonymous to the "old school radio shows" of the past. If used frequently, they can improve concentration, critical listening skills, and imagination. Attention and memory are also built over time in order to follow along with the story or episode. I went on a quarantine quest to find my favorite podcasts for kids, and I was totally unprepared with the amount of amazing material I found!
The beautiful truth is, the day I first told her about her CP probably won’t be a defining moment in her life, because she was really too young to remember it. It was, though, a defining moment in mine. It was a shift in the way we related to each other, and for the first time since her diagnosis I felt like I wasn’t lying to her anymore. It was in that moment I found the power of being honest, open, and matter of fact.
Be flexible. As we are learning from the current ever-changing news cycle, things change rapidly. Make a schedule — and set goals, because kids need to know what to expect — but be willing to hold it loosely, and adapt to what your kids are communicating. If they're having a blast building Legos, don't move things along to get to "requirements." Don't be so hell-bent on a particular goal that you miss the bigger lesson your kids are learning about kindness and care for others.
For now, we take each day as it comes. We learn together, and we overcome together. And yes, four years later, we still rock in our chair together.
When I found out I was pregnant, my biggest fear and most Googled subject was about food. I prayed and pep talked my son in utero about not being a picky eater. I kept a pretty balanced diet while pregnant, too, with my most specific cravings being apples, broccoli, and Honey Nut Cheerios (shout out to my husband for always coming home with what I wanted).
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