Evacuation Plan on your IEP When I was in school, we regularly had nuclear drills. We either hid under our desks or ran to a shelter in the school’s basement. We’re fortunate. We laugh about it now. We can laugh about it because first, nuclear war never happened. And second, the idea that being under…
Summer Bucket List Ideas for Kids I’m so glad you clicked! I am so tired of seeing summer bucket lists with things like “take the kids to Singapore” or “Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.” Hey, good for you if that’s your thing. I don’t think for my kids, that will be on their summer bucket list for…
Teaching Your Child about Peers with Disabilities. What better day than today to publish this post. Today is the first day of Developmental Disabilities Awareness month. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that…
Matthew Effect | Matthew Principle Ask any Special Education Advocate, and I bet they all will tell you that they have a huge chunk of clients that are in 2nd, 3rd or 4th grade. I can remember periods of time when all my clients fit into that category. Coincidence? Unfortunately, no. It’s the Matthew Effect….
Life Skills Classroom | Special Education Resource Room I really hate the term life skills. I mean, after all, we ALL need life skills. It’s just that what each person needs to be taught varies greatly. But, if your child has an IEP, and depending on their skill set, a “life skills classroom” or “life…
Functional Money Skills Remember when we were little, and we thought nickels were worth more than dimes, just because they were bigger? Ah, those were the days. As part of adulting, we need to teach our kids practical money skills. Money as a topic usually falls under functional math. However, for kids with IEPs, it…
What is Self Regulation? Emotional self regulation and the ability to self regulate is an invisible skill and is considered one of the executive functions. It is a huge problem area for IEP students, in my experience. Because, when a child lacks self regulation skills, negative behaviors often result. And, too often, the adults in…
What is Summer School? Summer school has a terrible stigma in this country. And, wrongfully so in my opinion. First, the whole concept of children having summers off is rooted in farm work. In today’s society, children are rarely needed in the summer months to help on the family farm. With the exception of maybe…
Summer Camp Activities (Note: this post was originally written during the 2020 pandemic, so the first couple of paragraphs may not apply. The summer camp ideas and summer camp activities are still great ideas!) Well, here we are. My son has been out of school for 2 days, but still has managed to log 1143…