As promised in my Bedtime Routine Visual Chart post, I’m following with the Evening Routine. Yes, I like to work backwards from the hour of sleep. Continue reading
Toolkits
Bedtime Routine Visual Chart
As promised in the Daily Schedule Template post, we’ll now talk about setting up the Bedtime Routine Visual Chart. Once again I have created a template file with Open Office you can download here if you’d like. Continue reading
The Daily Schedule Template
As promised in this post, I’m going to share in greater detail how I build and use the visual routine charts. I’ve already discussed the usefulness and value of these charts in this post. Continue reading
Holding It Together as a Bipolar Parent
Holding It Together When You’re A Short-Tempered Parent
This article was interesting for me. Not because I shared her experience but because I was the short fused person before having children and found myself becoming calmer after they were born. I didn’t want to be that frightening parent to my children. Continue reading
Clutter Patrol Routine
Normally I’ve been trying to save my tool kit feature posts for Saturday but today I actually been doing some cleaning around the home! @_@ Like holy cow, how did that happen? Well let me tell you around 2am this morning I got really, really, REALLY annoyed. I was tired, it was humid, it was the middle of the night and Little Bear was just pinging off the ceiling keeping my other sons awake and nobody seemed to care that the Quiet Time Rule was in effect. And for whatever reason, it was at this point the mess of the living room just really hit me. Continue reading
Mama Day without the Village
Call it what you need to, but it’s really just quality one-on-one time with your child. I used to spend the entire day with one of my boys once a week. Each week they would take a turn and they would get to decide what we would do for the entire day. I even included an entire day by myself in the rotation! Sadly for a variety of reasons, this practice has fallen to the wayside. Long story short, I don’t have a fully functional village. I know I’m not the only one. My children’s therapist, and mine, strongly encourage this quality one-on-one time. Continue reading
The Crisis Plan
Stories like these break my heart. The system failed these people. They had loved ones, trusted people, helpful people right there trying their damnedest and giving it their all but kept hitting one road block after the next. I’m really glad and relieved that the HR 2646 Bill finally passed and allows for us to plan ahead assign our trusted people to be the ones to care for us in times of need.
The thing we need to keep in mind, this bill doesn’t govern what happens to our children when we become critically ill. So it’s really important that when we know that we’re sick and have the potential to become that ill, we have to plan ahead for the sake of our children. Continue reading
Do not Engage?!
Another really good discussion came up in a support group I’m in. This time about how professionals often recommend to us parents not engaging with our aggressive children and then trying to work with them when they are calmer later. To many of us, this doesn’t make sense. How does this teach our children to control themselves and be responsible adults later in life? Why are they giving us this counter-intuitive advice?
To Those Still Lost at Sea
To all my fellow warriors out there, remember always that no one has the right to define your path to wellness.
The Value of Building and Using Visual Charts
My second son was diagnosed with Autism at 18 months old. He was non-verbal back then and I was told to not expect him to ever speak. I was told to look into teaching him other forms of communication. Without hesitation I chose American Sign Language because I have an aunt that was born deaf and I felt it would bring our family closer together. Many of us have already learned the language to converse with and include her when we see her at family reunions. The best part: she was delighted with my choice. My fluency in the language remains very broken. And a miracle occurred in our family: my Autistic son began speaking basic words in Kindergarten.
Continue reading