As well as keeping up with this blog, we are also getting out into the community to promote autism awareness. Last week, we were at the Otisville Fair and set up a vendor’s table. We had autism awareness merchandise available for purchase as well as general informative pamphlets to hand out. Many people bought shirts, hats, tote bags, pins, etc to show their support. Most of all, we did a lot of talking, talking to people who have a child or work with children with autism. We shared our testimonies and exchanged stories. The best part was reaching out to families who didn’t know about some known resources in our community. We even spoke to people who didn’t understand autism and wanted general information. It was an incredible experience. I was glad that we had the opportunity to reach out the community and spread the powerful symbol of the puzzle piece. We are looking forward to participating in more community events that are coming up. See photo’s below

What a wonderful time of year!!! After 2 months of hearing “I’m bored”, “There’s nothing to do”, and “But she started it”, I am especially ready for them to go back to school. Anthony is a little nervous about going into an inclusion class in our district for 6th grade. He has always been in BOCES, which is a separate special education school. But we feel that he is ready to be mainstreamed with regular ed students. We have a lot of supports in place and I plan on keeping good communication with the teacher. Destiny will remain in BOCES for “4th grade”. She is starting to do academics like basic reading and math concepts. But the focus of her program is supposed to be life skills and behavior management. Jasmine is going into the 2nd grade. She is very excited about going back to school. She misses all her friends. Jasmine likes school and she does pretty well. She is going to be my honor student. And Mr. Derek will go to day care/preschool for another 2 years. As we were school shopping, he wanted to join in the fun. So we bought a little backpack, notebooks, and crayons for him to bring to “school”. I am fortunate that on their first day of school, I don’t have to go into work until later. I plan on taking myself out to breakfast and celebrate this joyous time.