Positive Reinforcement ~ Treasure chest

I have quite a few targets for DS; by targets I mean, new skills that I'm encouraging him to use, or new or challenging behaviors that I need him to master to be more effective at school or certain social venues.

DS responds more to positive reinforcement. One method that works well for us is a token system. I keep it basic by rewarding positive behaviors with a token. If we are going to be in a store for a while, I give DS the rules before we get into the store and remind him of what's at stake. It typically works.

I tried to get a little creative and added onto this method. DS has been into pirates and treasures lately, so I found a container that can pass for a treasure chest and told DS when he gets 6 tokens, he gets a map to find a hidden treasure chest.

In the chest I have faux diamonds, rubies, sapphires, money, etc... It's still a work in progress, so I'm adding other treasures as I find them. I then add a surprise in the chest (something he normally doesn't get; candy or a special toy). The map is a hand drawn map of our house and I mark an X to where the treasure is hidden. This is great skill building too, because he has to use the map to find the treasure.

It's a hit because the prize is always different and so is the location. Eventually the token system will turn into money when he gets a bit older, but for now it works.

The token chart is hanging on his wall in his room. Tokens are pictures of things he's into, instruments, trains, etc...

Arrghhh... treasure!

You put what where?

Last night, I was working on the computer and DS walks in and says,
"Mommy, I have a pencil stuck in my ear".

Rapidly, I jump up and on initial inspection, he has nothing sticking out of his ears. As I'm firing questions at him... "OMG... Are you okay.... What happened.... How did a pencil get in your ear... Why did you put a pencil in your ear...." I'm grabbing the tweezers and the flashlight and peering inside. I see nothing. I ask him to tell me what he did. Remember, he has Autism and his communication skills can be limited.

I conclude that while he was drawing with his colored pencils, he just decided it would be interesting to put a pencil in his ear; I'm thinking the point was loose and fell inside.

I attempt to flush it out. Nothing.

It's about 6:45pm and I'm trying to make a quick decision. Go to the emergency room (on a Friday night and endure a 2 hour visit) or find a doctor to see him in the morning. I didn't want to wait. Due to his language, I was wondering, was it in fact still in there, or was he just in pain and just telling me what happened.

Immediately, I google after hour care clinics and find a pediatric after hour care clinic not far from my house. We get in the car and go. The whole time DS is happy and fine and just saying his ear hurts.

No one is in the clinic... yay! (Very nice place too~I must yelp about it) I tell them what happened and the doctor exclaims, with a chuckle... "What?! A Pencil!?" We go into the exam room and he checks his ear and yes, she sees something green. We all kinda laugh, like wow, DS... a pencil is really stuck in your ear.

I'm shocked. In 6 years, this little boy has never stuck anything anywhere, not even a sandwich in a DVD player.

So they try to take it out with tweezers, but it was too far in. They then flush it out and it comes right out.

We were all so happy. He's fine. We will go over a social story that I'm going to write about 'Keeping our Body Safe and Healthy'.

Here it is; yes I asked to save it. I want to remind DS when he gets older. LOL.

Email in Kindergarten

I just got an email from my son's classmate--addressed to my son, but sent to me (all parent's emails are listed in school directory, so that is where he found it). I opened it up and his friend John wanted to know if he got his yearbook.

Sometimes I can be behind the times, but do 6 year olds have email accounts now?

My mother made me an offer... not sure I should refuse

My mother has offered that she take DS over the summer for roughly 4-6 weeks so that I can get ahead financially.

Right now, I have a very part-time job and it's not enough money to survive and pay for therapies. DS' father is doing his share as far as support goes, but I still need a new job.

I was working for about 2 years teaching a girl on the spectrum, but that job ended this spring. I now teach one boy, once per week.

The problem I'm having is paying childcare. Childcare costs about $13-$18 per hour on the low end. With DS being out of school in 2 weeks, he would need all day care; so that would cost me a couple of thousand dollars per month... that is crazy!

I could look for a daycare option, which could run me about $750-$1000 per month, but not sure the daycare could provide the attention he requires due to some needs.

Which brings me back to my mother; she offered to watch him for 4-6 weeks so that I can work work work work work, catch up on my bills and save. She lives 1 hour away by plane and about 8 hours drive.

I'm pondering this and as a single parent, I feel like that would be a tremendous gift and gives me a jump on my savings, pay off some bills and allow me to more money to take care of DS, without giving it to a childcare provider.

I just don't want to feel like a bad parent for leaving him for so long; we've never been apart for that long. But wouldn't I be a good parent, by working and saving more money for his basic and therapeutic needs? I don't want him to feel abandoned either. But we would talk every day, and he would understand I was coming back; he can mark off days on the calendar.

Some parents fight a war and leave their babies behind. I surely can leave my child for 4-6 weeks while I go work.

If I were to do this, it would truly have to be worthwhile. I would set a goal of saving $5,000 in those 4-6 weeks. So I would need to hustle!!! I have a few ideas.
a) Get two jobs. Temp agency by day, bartender by night, and also my student on the weekends
b) Sell stuff! I would try and sell up to $250 worth of stuff. I would take donations, whatever I can do to sell things. With $250, I can give my son 2 speech therapy lessons.
c) Summer sublet a room. I have 2 bdrms and 2 baths. IF, I decide that DS can stay with his grandparents, then why not capitalize on that space? I can get at least $750. That's 5 and half speech therapy sessions!

So I'm leaning towards doing this, but I need to feel 100% sure about it. I don't want to do this and then regret it or feel bad about my decision. But he's with his grandmother and if all else fails, I can get him earlier.

Just seems like a good offer for everyone. But still a hard decision for me to come to grips with. Logically, it sounds great. I just am not sure how I will do emotionally.

My sword hand is never free

Words cannot describe the nonsense that I'm currently going through with DS' IEP team. It's so convoluted that I don't even have the strength to type it all out. Bottom line is, we want our son to be mainstreamed in reading. He can read at a first grade level and he loves to read. He is socially motivated and wants to reach out to his typical peers, so why restrict him? There are also a few over the top issues, we have with the district, but I will spare you, for now.

I fight and will continue to be an advocate for my son's needs but it still blows my mind, how things are handled. I will turn into warrior mom and I will charge on my horse with my samurai sword drawn the entire time. I plan to cut off the heads of district members in the way of my son's education. I will do it gracefully though, they won't even see the blade coming.

I act in the best interest of my child and I want him to live to his potential, whatever that ends up being. I have no idea what is driving/motivating his current IEP team to make the decisions they are making; I can only imagine.

Now we have to create a task team to prove DS can be mainstreamed into the general education reading class... complete with Legal Advocates, Clinical Psychologists, Reading Assessments, etc... And that's fine with me, I have no problem doing it.

Having received my Master's degree in Education back in 1997 and studying about the future of mainstreaming and inclusion being collaborated in general education; I would have never guessed that in 2011 in the state of California, that I would be fighting for a socially driven, highly intelligent happy little boy to be mainstreamed in one class.

Early riser

Not sure why DS is waking up at 6am; it's out of his character. During the week, I cannot do anything to wake him up .

He did it again today. He came into my room at 6am, crawled in bed, but this time he didn't bother me and let me sleep.

We ended up getting up at 8:30am.

Just wondering why he is waking up so early. Not sure, but we'll see how the week goes.

It was a good day, considering...

I was up at 6am.

Today, my darling son, woke me up at the ass crack of dawn! by tipping into my room and getting under the covers; I allowed it of course. I figured, as long as he turns over and goes to sleep, not a problem. But that wasn't the case. Instead, he played with my hair, tossed and turned and then started singing... wtf??

On a school day, I can't pry him out of bed, but on Saturday you want to wake up at 6am and harass me? And was it just me or did I start to smell old urine?

After 20 minutes, I had enough. I was so tired from staying up all night catching up on my TV shows; I made him go to the bathroom and then back to his own bed.

I heard peeing but it sounded so close, almost like he was in my bathroom. (Which, is a no no; he has his own bathroom and my toilet is free from urine and smells great and I like to keep it that way. Thank goodness for cleaning wipes, that's the only way to stay on top of cleaning his toilet).

I try to listen for the faucet indicating he was washing hands; it felt like 10 minutes went by and I hear nothing. What the heck is he doing!!??

I sit up, look at the clock (6:30am) and I say calmly..."Wash, your hands and go back to sleep". btw... he is in my bathroom, but I'm too tired to care.

He washes his hands, walks past my bed to his room starring at me, like I just stole his bike!

I lay back down, find my stuffed dog under the covers and cuddle up (yes, I sleep with a stuffed animal, I am single)

I drift back into sleep only to hear... 'Mommy!! about 10 minutes later.

R U Serious!? I look at the clock... really?? I answer him and he asked to come back in my bed. I tell him, no go back to sleep.

I end up getting up at 7:45am and I go into his room and he's fast asleep, snoring and all. Thanks a lot DS! You get me up and then go back to sleep? Oh well.

He doesn't get up til 9:50am, I let him sleep in because I had emails to catch up on and love that free time in the mornings to myself.

So we begin our day. It's Saturday and it's beautiful out. I planned on going to a festival, but it was too late to find parking. I needed to do something free. I decided to take DS to Clocksmith, a clock shop that specializes in vintage/antique clocks. DS has had a clock obsession since he was 2 years old.


(this is the website photo, I forgot my camera and it was too bad, they had some awesome clocks)

Of course, he loved the clock shop and the cuckoo clocks were his favorite. We got there at 12:30 and hung around til 1pm to hear all the clocks go off. That was actually cool; the dings, the gongs, the dongs and the melody's all at one time; it was great. The owner said to come next time a few minutes before 11am or 12noon, the place is really jumping then with plenty of sound.

DS wanted me to buy a clock; but these clocks average $1k, so that was not an option today; especially on free day!

Next stop was Crystal Springs to ride scooters.

(website photo... there is a paved trail along the reservoir)

That was fun too. I packed a snack that included leftover cupcakes. How obnoxious when everyone else was running, jogging, roller blading, walking... but I just had to get rid of them.

Then back home. I made a nice snack of shrimp salad and a glass of white wine. So delicious.


(My camera is so bad, it just will not capture the true beauty of things)

Savings Alert: Safeway has red leaf lettuce on sale for .99cents per head; it usually retails for $2.69.

My shrimp salad recipe is very simple and easy and it taste pretty good. I do it all by sight, so I don't have actual measurements down.

Get fresh or frozen salad shrimp, miracle whip (I start with a tablespoon and then add as needed) and about 2 stalks of green onion, diced. I also do a squirt of French's mustard. Mix and chill and top on whatever you like.

DS hates shrimp, so I made him some GF pasta and sauce.

I really had a great day and we had a lot of fun.

Tonight, it's DVD night, we are watching The Incredibles and having turkey burgers with homemade fries.

Where do babies come from?

There was a commercial that asked various kids where babies came from. I had never asked DS this and was curious what he would say.

Me: Hey Don...

Don: Yes (said while looking up from drawing)

Me: Where do babies come from?

Don: The crib! (and proceeded to draw again)

Ha ha!! The way he said it was like 'DUH!!! where else'. I just thought it was too innocent and cute.