St. Patrick's Day Activites

Next Tuesday is St. Patrick's Day. Have some fun with your kids. These activities will make your children look forward to St. Patrick's Day each year. After all, why should adults be the only one to have fun that day?

Find out what these activities are by reading my article St. Patrick's Day Activities parents can do for their Children.

Use a Behavior Chart for your Autistic Child

Figuring out how to discipline your autistic child can be a challenge. Autistic children often do not understand consequences like other children do. They may not have an attachment to any items and therefore would not feel anything if the item was taken away. They may not be able to understand if they act out in an inappropriate way they will have to face a consequence. The behavior chart will show your child exactly what will happen. Read more about how to make a behavior chart for your autistic child.

Finding Time to Post

Our life is so busy at the time I hardly ever have time to post. I wish I could blog about everything that happens here on a daily basis but I never seem to make that happen. I am going to try harder. If you like you can keep up with me on Twitter. It seems to be easier to post at least once or twice a day on there.

The latest saga in our life seems to be the PSSA test that is coming up in a few weeks. That is all the school seems to focus on. The kids are drilled daily. They bring home page after page each night to practice for the test. They even have songs to sing about the PSSA test. My daughter is a nervous wreck about it. She is so afraid of failing. The school teaches for the test. They don't seemed too concerned that my daughter still can't add or subtract without the help of a number line or her fingers. They are however concerned about right angles and times tables. Luckily my daughter memorizes things extremely well. She has passed her times tables with flying colors. The angles are a different story.

My daughter is in third grade and does not know what vowels are.How is this possible that the school has never taught the kids the difference between vowels and consonants? I guess that is not something they are going to be tested on. In their English lessons they are learning about adjectives, articles, prepositions, and such. Every few days they begin a new lesson. Does it matter if the child has mastered one of the lessons? No. Each night we do three worksheets and try to get my daughter to grasp the lesson.

Speaking of homework, we spend close to two hours or sometimes more a night on homework. No child should have to spend that much time. By the time my daughter gets home from school she is ready to shut down for the day. She does so well holding it together in school that all heck breaks loose at home. We have spoke with the school several times but they don't care. Her last IEP meeting it was agreed upon that her assignments would be shortened. Guess what they are not. If they are shortened they still send home the whole page and my daughter insists that she must do the whole thing or she will get in trouble.

I never thought school would be such an issue. We are checking into private schooling for next year. I would love to home school, but my daughter's B.S.C. doesn't think it would be a good fit. They are worried about her falling even more behind socially, and getting bored to easy.

So that is it from our place for now. I hope everyone is doing good. The weather is finally improving so soon we will be able to be outside more. Hopefully I will be able to find more time to blog soon too. Take care.