Beyond regular school is summer school. I never took a class during summer school. When I went to school, you took the summer off or you went to camps (for me, it was sports camps). These days, it’s quite common for kids as young as middle school to take a class during the summer. What…

In my last blog I explained how my child with autism now prefers to get ready for finals. Luckily, he accepted my suggested approach to start early and spread out the work. How does his high school organize finals? His high school divides finals up by periods. The school works on a regular six period…

As beautiful as expecting a child can be, pregnancy symptoms unfortunately may add some unwanted drama to your life as a mom. While each pregnancy is different, most women experience at least a few unpleasant side effects as their future sons and daughters grow inside of their bodies, according to the Mayo Clinic. Most side…

What do we do with finals? Finals creep into our lives twice a year. For me, twice a year I have to remember how finals work best for my child with autism. We really began to focus on how to approach finals in middle school. What happened in middle school? Middle school is the level…

This blog is more or less a follow-up to my last blog. I had alluded to transitions that relate to my son’s age—fifteen. My son recently transitioned to getting himself to school on his own (mostly) without help from Mom (he’s been on time since this transition, including making his own breakfast). We are also…

Autism and a New Mother’s Day It’s new because it’s different than it used to be, but that’s okay. Change is a part of life, and my son is growing up, and it’s all about change at his age! What’s changing? When your child gets to be fifteen, things begin to change. There are frustrating,…

You Never Know When Something Will Come Up. What does that mean? It means you never when something you did in the past will come back and add some good to the world, have an impact, be noticed, and be appreciated for trying to spread awareness. What happened? I was contacted in March by a…

My son used to have issues with unexpected changes. The unexpected would sometimes led to meltdowns. He just couldn't wrap his head around sudden change. Now that my child is a teenager, he has improved in that area. However, there was a time when an unexpected change would throw him. What happened? My son and…

My son is fifteen-years-old. Which means…he’s in the throes of puberty. What have been some of his issues? Many of these are common issues of any child (in this case a male child) going through puberty: *Dealing with growing facial hair. Learn how to shave. We bought him an electric razor and my husband gave…

What do strangers deserve to know? When was the first time we disclosed our son’s autism? Honestly, only one or two people knew about my son’s autism for the first, well, two years. Yep, that’s right. We kept it to ourselves. And, then we disclosed only to family. Then, years later, we disclosed…well, we disclosed…