Surviving the System: What made this weekend insane

Monday, November 2, 2009

What made this weekend insane

I love my life and kids, and I'm not complaining, but I just want to write down the agenda from this weekend. This was an especially tough one because my dear husband was sick and incapacitated for the duration:

Friday

Leave work early to make it to Fells Point to buy corn husks (middle school kid volunteered me to make tamales for a Day of the Dead party on Tuesday)
Go home to whip up pot luck dish for a dinner meeting for elementary school kid parents
Go to meeting with all 3 kids, older ones acting as chaperons - ends around 9:45 which is a late night for msk
Get msk to bed pronto so he won't be a disaster on Saturday
Count money and do book-keeping to prep for Girl Scout Cookie booth sales

Saturday

Get msk to Special Hockey in Reisterstown - spend an hour cheering and encouraging
Rush home so that msk can make it to a movie with his aide and classmates
Rush to Girl Scout leaders home for cookies for a booth sale
Spend 3 hours at a booth sale with high school kid
Drop off remaining cookies and pick up pre-packaged salad for Halloween Pot Luck
Take 2 kids to Catonsville for Halloween party
Come home and take msk trick-or-treating - a challenge for an autistic kid, but he loves it
Wait for midnight to pick up kids from Catonsville

Sunday

Normal grocery shopping with msk while kid #2 does Sunday school & church
Figure out some books that look new enough to give as a birthday present for a 5th grader
Start laundry
Rush to birthday party in White Marsh
Spend 2.5 hours trying to keep a very excited autistic kid in line in a hyper-stimulating environment
Come home and continue laundry
Start cooking pork and Chile sauce for tamales, finish with kid #2 when she returns from youth group meeting
Fix dinner
Help get a school project to print-out right (adjust columns for a tri-fold brochure)
Stay up too late doing laundry

Monday's plan (post script of the weekend)

Take msk for a haircut- often a challenge for an autistic kid
Roll & steam tamales with kid #2 into the wee hours

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About this blog

This will be anonymous because schools can be pretty political, but hopefully constructive. My eldest child entered Kindergarten 16 years ago and I figure I've got another 4.5 years until my youngest finishes. By this fall between the three children we've been enrolled in eight different schools. There have been CST meetings, IEP meetings, PTO meetings, PTA meetings, fund raisers and vast quantities of homework. We are in public schools because we believe that justice starts with a decent free education for all and if I want decent public education being personally involved is the first step.

Glossary and Acronym List

Autism Spectrum - the spread of behaviors that define autistics. The primary areas are difficulties with communication, social interactions and change/lack of order. You can see the official diagnosis criteria here.
CST - Child Support Team, a group (including parents) that meets when a student is having difficulties
ESY - Extended School Year. In our experience, related to special needs kids who go to school over breaks because there will be significant regression in skills over the break if they weren't in a school setting.
FAPE - Free Appropriate Public Education. This is the right of every American child, but is usually a term about creating or finding a learning environment that works for a special needs student.
IEP - Individualized Education Plan. A written plan of goals and ways to achieve them. Typically for special needs students
PTO & PTA - Parent Teacher Organization & Association
SST - Student Support Team, I guess this is the new term that replaces CST