This year oldest has to move to a new school because he is moving into grade 7. This year will bring a whole host of new changes and I suspect issues as well to the forefront. We are adding rotary and instrumental music to the mix. I suspect it may be an interesting dynamic for him to deal with on a daily basis.

Just this year we finally acquired a true diagnosis for oldest and found him an amazing doctor. He was diagnosed with Aspergers with anxiety and OCD. He also has hyperaccousis (extraordinarily sensitive to noise) which heightens some of the other issues. He was misdiagnosed with ADHD Inattentive Type when he was 6 years old. Once diagnosed at 6 the doctors and teachers stopped questioning the problems he continued to have. Unfortunately many children who have Aspergers are incorrectly diagnosed with ADHD. As far as the anxiety goes his new doctor has prescribed a medication which is helping him a lot. On top of this he will be starting Cognitive Behavioral Therapy this fall with his new doctor. I am hoping these treatments will help to offset the problems that this new school environment may present.

Youngest is entering grade 3 at the same school he went to last year. I really don’t know anything about the teacher that he has been assigned to. They couldn’t even tell me if he would receive EA support in the classroom or not. Last year he received shared afternoon (his worst part of the day) EA support which worked well for him. I am hoping that his new teacher will embrace his need for structure, routines and schedules. Luckily for him the children at this school seem to be very accepting of his differences and very caring towards him.

I guess ready or not we will be diving head first in the new school year. It’s never boring and always an adventure!

I finally figured out how to get moved from here to there. I found out that there is a local charity they helps low income families with low cost moves. The price is less than 1/3 of the prices that I was being quoted. It includes two men and truck and it is a flat rate instead of hourly. The kids and I will move as much as we can ourselves in the few days between getting the new place and the movers coming. I need the movers to move the big stuff. The heavy furniture and heavy boxes.

Move date is coming soon and I don’t feel like I’ll ever be ready. Oh well back to the packing.

The largest issue we may have is in getting support of an EA for youngest who is high functioning autistic who is going into 2nd grade. They had set up a minimal amount of support for him by the end of the school year at his old school and I knew this fall I would have to fight for more but now I feel like I’m starting from the beginning again. The new school will need to learn both the good and the bad. The good thing is it is within the same school board region so they at least will have the records fairly quickly. How do you put it positively to the teacher that if they push my son too hard and watch for his cues they could soon be within his line of fire as he is big on physical aggression. Unfortunately the physical aggression has really started to come out early in new public situations with and without myself present which has caused some great concerns for those who are around him most often. Also youngest does not have an IPRC yet or a definitive IEP as he didn’t have a diagnosis until 1 week before school ended so that will also have to be tackled this fall.

The worst for the oldest will be the anxiety of a new school. It is my hope that he will get an excellent teacher who can make him feel comfortable but not coddle him.

The boys are very excited about moving into a house and actually have green space to run around in. There are also many parks in our new neighbourhood. One weekend I took them for a drive by of 7 parks in the area. We stopped and played at 3 of them. There are many more parks to explore.

I’ll just be glad when this move is over and we are all settled in!

I truly do believe though that things happen for a reason. We ended up where we are now because I was going to school near here. If we were not here youngest would never have gotten into the special speech grade 1 program that exists in a mere handful of schools. This year has brought him so far and we were meant to be here I believe for that reason.

I have been working alot of hours these last few weeks as all the regular staff goes on vacation. More hours for me means more money for moving which is good as I’ll need to hire some movers to move my furniture as I can’t do it myself. I am also going through and sorting things and selling some stuff on kijiji as it’s just been sitting around since we moved here 2 years ago.

The youngest has recently had a medication dosage increase it seems to be helping to an extent but I wonder how long it will last as it’s not been as great as when we first started this medication. I hate trying to find just the right medications. If we could avoid medication all together we would but it is just not possible.

Well I’m off to pack a few more boxes and toss more junk. Hurray for on site dumpsters and recycling with no garbage limit. Especially since the rest of the city has a 1 garbage bag limit.

Took youngest to the dentist this morning. Not exactly the most pleasurable task since he needed a cavity filled and i had to help hold him while he screamed.

Work however is going well so at least one thing is going right.

I have so much to say I don’t know where to start. Let’s start with the recent stuff and if I have time later I’ll fill in the blanks.

I graduated from my college course and I have a part time job. Hurray!!!

Youngest has been diagnosed with Autism. The doctor doesn’t want to split hairs between PDD and Aspergers so he has just left it as ASD.

We have to move (again sigh). The middle school that oldest is to start this fall is just over 2kms down a main road (4-5 lanes all the way). He does not qualify for busing even though he has anxiety because it’s not a physical disability. There is also no daycare available around either of their schools that is appropriate for my work schedule. These two factors make it impossible for us to stay here. The kids are not thrilled but then neither am I.

Looking for a new and appropriate place to live is sucking the life force out of me. That and issues with the children particularly the youngest. Also I must take into consideration school areas and school size as youngest won’t do well in a large school. Thinking about it all just makes my head dizzy

We’ve been to see the pediatrician a few more times. Oldest was moved to a long acting medication to see if we can get the anxiety more under control along with the ADHD. It seems to be helping somewhat but only time will tell for sure. Youngest is now on two medications together which seem to be helping with the outbursts of violence and inattention. We did have to up the meds once after starting but we seem to be on a fairly even keel now. Let’s hope it stays that way because I’m actually starting to enjoy youngest even more than before.

I was so happy last week when oldest read his first novel without prompting from me. Not to say he hasn’t read them before as he’s an avid reader well above his grade level. Usually I have to prompt him and convince him to read one by reading him the first few chapters and getting him hooked. He read Astro Boy The Movie The Novel. So this weekend I rewarded him by taking him to the cheap theatre ($5/person) to see Astro Boy. He was thrilled especially since I also let him take his best friend. Most of the time he choses to read comics like Garfield or anime “comics”. Still in my opinion reading is reading and as long as he keeps doing it I’m happy. I myself love to read and always have a novel on the go. This summer I read tons of books right now at the rate of a novel every 2-3 days and now I’m only averaging about 1 a month or so due to school work.

Youngest has actually finally started reading now for real. He now has the ability to sit for more than 3 seconds and try to read. This is an amazing feat! He has exceeded all the bounds they placed on him when he had psychoeducational testing when he was 4 years old. They told me I’d be lucky if he could spell his three letter name shortform by the end of first grade. Reading they predicted wouldn’t come till a few years later. He can spell his full 7 letter name and he can read! He is a math wiz just like his brother and can already quickly add and subtract in his head sometimes even 2 digit numbers but yet he always skips 17 when he counts which perplexes me.

Finals are coming. Not this week but next. Quickly approaching! I actually will be very happy to get this semester over and done with. It’s been a difficult one with some difficult yet mostly enjoyable classes as long as we don’t talk about Fridays ok Fridays I have service courses. That is their nice name for courses that you are forced to take that are not directly related to your course of study but can “help” you in your job. Uhm yep they could if we had the right teacher particularily for the one class of human relations. I’d get more out of the course if I read the text book than attended the class..I suggest I stop here as I could go on all day. Luckily we recently got the chance to evaluate our teachers through an anonymous system where they mix all of our comments together and hand them to the teacher, their direct supervisor and their dean and all comments are up for discussion. They do not get the comments until our final marks have been submitted and like I said it’s anonymous.

I have 3.5 weeks off after exam before I have to get back into the routine. For the first two months I will spend my time working in unpaid field placements. Then back to school for 8 weeks and then graduation . I finish school in mid april and hope to have a job by early May.

It’s 9:40 pm and neither child is asleep yet so I best go now and investigate. Hopefully I won’t leave you hanging so long again! Till next time…