No School Today

It is a weekend. That means, it is finally a rest time.

The boy has had no therapies being administered to him. He needs a speech therapy but we can only give that to him twice in a month. It is not sufficient but we are trying. We will not survive financially since his insurance does not cover this so twice a month is what we can offer best. Besides, we do an intensive teaching on him. His hours in school are not enough for him to gain knowledge as I believe there are lots of downtime on the part of the school. I will touch more on this matter later on when I have much time.

He had OT sessions before but it was stopped as his OT person told us that what he really needs is ST.

26 Sept 08 - 30th Day SY08-09

Jeez, BS P. Y., M. C. should have a copy now of AX psychological evaluation!! Fuck them and their ant brains. Okay, AX's psychological evaluation started today. The lady psychologist was so amazed that he sat with her without problems for an hour. Although, she said he was quite a handful when he was going to her office. It turned out that they did not tell her that AX must be occupied mentally during transitions. We do that all the time. We ask him to add, subtract and multiply one after the other. It works for us very well.

Anyway, AX did well in the cognitive part of the psychological evaluation. The average cognitive level is 90 - 109. AX scored 98. I think, the number is quite very good. That means, all along we are right in insisting to fucking two schools and this new school that AX is thinking and can think. That means, they should fucking teach him.

I asked again the ESE Specialist that if we could have the Reading book be sent home every so we can read to AX. I do not know what is the beef but the school is freaking keeping books stating the school has no extra copies.

I was told by the transition assistant that AX did good in Math test today. She said that AX loves Math.

There were no assignments inside his backpack.

25 Sept 08 - 29th Day SY 08 - 09

It was great to have less school time. You know why? AX will be able to learn more when he is at home. They did not mainstream him Thursday because it was an early release day. Is there anywhere in the IEP that states no mainstreaming when there is an early release day? What the heck? I call that laziness.

I dropped to the front office his Math HWs and additional Math work I asked of him to do. You see, AX is in the x2 now in the multiplication table. I let him memorize and understand that 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 are odd numbers and 2, 4, 6, 8, 0 are even numbers. You can ask him, "What are the odd numbers? What are the even numbers?" He will tell you correctly.

After 3 days without Reading and Language HWs, they gave him today.

23 Sept 08 - 27th Day SY08-09

AX got home from school today. He has a little round mark on top of his left shoulder and a scratch-like mark (roundish ones) on his lower left arm. His GE Math teacher put a note on the SW sheet that he did not do his schoolwork/classwork. She gave HW Math for Monday and Tuesday. AX did them after he ate his lunch. He was not given Grade 2 Language or any Reading HW by his ESE teacher.

Yesterday, we were given a letter from the principal stating that the sub-teacher will be replaced permanently by a new teacher from another school. The teacher who was on maternity leave decided that she will just take care of her kids.

22 Sept 2008 - 26th day SY08 - 09

An interim IEP meeting was conducted on 22 Sept 2008, 10:15AM. The ESE Specialist, Speech Therapist, GE Teacher, ESE Teacher, Autism Coach and the parents of AX were present. It only lasted for one hour because the ESE Specialist thought that the interim IEP is only for the change of service that AX is getting. You see, his Math is with the mainstream students now together with Science and Social Studies since the 3rd week of classes. The autism coach was informed two weeks before the meeting that we want to change the goals in the academic domain of AX's IEP. It turned out that he did not mention this to the ESE Specialist. Besides, he has been telling me about the books for Reading and Language that I requested for AX for weeks. It was only given today when we reminded that principal last Friday that we are requesting for books. Instead, they loaned us books for Science and Social Studies. We were able to get hold of the High Frequency word list from Preprimer to Grade 3 from the General Ed teacher. I hope AX will be able to read more or to recognize more words soon since it will be very hard for him as he grows older. His school is still not functioning well to what we are expecting (especially in what I am expecting) for AX to have. The ESE teacher has not shown any Reading/Language schoolwork since the start of the SY. I have been asking and they are not giving.

He was not given Reading exercises today.

We took him to the physician last Saturday (20 Sept 08). We showed her the video of the bruises and we took off his shirt to show the fading bruises since it is past 2 days now when the incident took place. She issued a certification. At least, it is one good proof that something is really happening to AX while in school.

17th Day of SY 2008 - 2009

We had a parent-teacher conference at around 2:10PM. It was Tuesday, 9 Sept 2008. The autism coach, ESE sub teacher and speech therapist were present. The autism coach did most of the talking. The speech therapist was very vocal. The ESE sub teacher was just listening and she hardly shared any ideas at all.

They showed the books that AX will be using for Reading, Science, Social Studies. I do not think, I saw something for Language and Arts. They told us that AX is using a transition book because he is behind in Reading.

more to come as I am trying to remember the things that happened that day.

25th Day of SY 2008 - 2009

It was not easy to bear another problem with the new school of AX. I am very upset that he has bruises.

The meeting took place at 1:30PM. The principal, assistant principal and ESE specialist were present. His father was the main speaker. The meeting was over in like 10 - 15 minutes. I did not like that his father did not expound on what happened to him. We had a fight over this matter. I asked the principal to issue an incident or accident report but she said that his tantrum does not warrant as such. Can you imagine that? The student with disability had bruises and two staffs (autism coach and speech therapist) saw these with their very own eyes and then no report will be issued? I told his father that we will issue our own report to the principal on Monday when we have our interim IEP. This incident needs to be documented.

24th Day of SY 2008 - 2009

I arrived at 1:50PM to pick up AX. The autism coach approached and told me that AX had a behavior issue in the morning. He said the he will talk to me once the speech therapist is around. The bell rang. Axell and I arrived to the car and then we waited for the speech therapist and autism coach to arrive. Once the two were around, I removed the shirt of AX. He has bruises all over his body. Sure enough, the autism coach told me that AX had a tantrum and all sorts of stuffs. However, the bruises on his body told me otherwise. It was not cool to see AX with his body bruised all over. He has marks on his lower back, upper arms, underarms and back right shoulder. I was displeased but did not show it. I was trying to be calm. I told them that he is not supposed to be held on his body and upper arms as these are easily bruised. If he is acting up, try holding him on the lower arm.

We arrived to the house at 2:57PM. I tried calling his father 3x but there was no answer. I called up the school. I talked to principal and told her that AX has bruises. She told me that she was told by the autism coach that AX had a behavior problem in the morning but she was not told of bruises. I asked for a meeting the next day, Friday (19 Sept 2008).

After the short talk to the principal over the phone, I called his father. As usual, he was displeased that I did not tell him first. I reminded him that there was no answer when I called him up three times.

I took a video of AX without his shirt. I took photos as well.

21st day of SY 2008 - 2009

Today, I was told by Ms. Aguinaldo that AX had a hard time transitioning. In fact, he failed to attend one of his specials because he was having a bad hair day. This stemmed most likely from the fact that he was so agitated to finish watching The Little Mermaid. AX and AL are now fanatics of The Little Mermaid.

He had a little scratch near his left breast when he removed his school shirt.

I was told that he got 100% correct in the first spelling test since the start of the SY. He also did well in the Social Studies' scheduled test today.

When I dropped him to school this morning, he has 3 insect bites on his forehead. He kept scratching them while he we were on our way to school. I did not know that he was bitten until we parked the car.

18th day of SY 2008 - 2009

There was an open house from 6:30PM to 8:00PM. We saw met some parents when we were listening to Mr. Hunter inside the classroom of Ms. Aguinaldo. Actually, we arrived late at around 7:00PM.

I asked about the books of Reading/Language and Arts for transitioning, Grade 1 and 2. I was told that the books are limited so I might be only getting the transitioning Reading book.

More to come...

13th Day of SY 2008 - 2009

We reached the school area at around 7:49AM. It is really not that good to have a long drive in just going to school. I still consider it a long drive despite 7 miles away from the house. Accidents can happen especially if you are pressed for time.

He was dressed in yellow shirt and blue pants. He was a bit teary-eyed when we left because we told him that he broke his eyeglasses yesterday so he has nothing to wear today. He did 2-digit subtraction with regrouping for his homework.

12th Day of SY 2008 - 2009

We arrived at 7:44AM. It was cool as usual. Monday was Labor Day so there was no class. AX wore his pair of eyeglasses and he has been using this since the second week of January 2008. His father called me up on the phone before lunchtime and said that AX broke his glasses. It was his first time to go mainstreaming as well. According to Mr. H, he was a bit off when he was mainstreamed so there was some sort of odd behavior. This is most likely due to new surroundings and his classmates are kids in mainstream. This explained why his pair of eyeglasses broke. Besides, he has some "lines" again on his lower right arm most likely due to the adults holding him very tight and he was struggling.

10th Day of SY 2008 - 2009

How time flies! The second week of school is almost over. We arrived at 7:44AM today and it seemed like the week will conclude without a noise. I hope so much. he was dressed in jeans and white shirt.

He was given a 5-sentence reading comprehension and he did it well. It was about the chickens. He was given 2-digit subtraction with regrouping. I gave him additional work to do apart from the school stuff.

9th Day of SY 2008 - 2009

Would you believe that last Tuesday (26 Aug 08) it was Employee Planning or whatever that means? In America, government employees in the Department of Education have darn lots of rest.

We arrived at around 7:52AM this morning. The first bell rang. AX was dressed in yellow shirt and blue pants. AX did the reading comprehension very fast right before he ate his breakfast. He was concentrated this time. Mr. Hunter asked me how he did with the homework and I told him that he did them well. He was given an UPPER GRADE Math workbook. It is intended for 3rd grade students.

AX's home note is weird today. We do not know if he has a good, ok or tough day. It seems like he did not have speech therapy today as it was not checked as "finished."

8th Day of SY 2008 - 2009

AX was dressed in blue shirt and khaki pants when he went to school this morning. It was 6:38AM when we arrived. It was early. It is much better than worrying while driving when time is of the essence. It is around 7.5 miles from the house to the school. We must really leave on or before 7:15AM to be on time without so much hassles.

Mr. Hunter flagged me down when I was about to cross the street. He asked me about the assignment of AX. I told him that AX did the 6 items of 2-digit addition in 15 seconds. In the reading comprehension, he is having a hard time. Perhaps, it was time to him to sleep or he was really tired. It took at least 30 minutes to finish a two-sentence "reading comprehension". His father arrived and he continued what I was doing. AX was not concentrated so he really could not understand. So, we just asked him to sleep. He fell asleep in few minutes after touching the bed.

He was not given his schoolwork yet. Let us see what Friday brings.

3rd Day of SY 2008 - 2009

Actually, today is the first day of school. Classes were canceled on Monday and Tuesday due to Hurricane Fay/TS Fay. AX dressed up in Gymboree brown striped shirt and Gymboree green pair of pants. These are second-hand clothes and it is better for our shaky $ than to use new ones. He has lots of new Gymboree clothes though.

The whole family arrived to school at 7:55AM and we took him straight to his class. We met his teacher, Ms. Aguinaldo and his teacher's assistant, Ms. Alvarez. It seems like Ms. Aguinaldo is from Asia. She told us that she will take over the class of Ms. Harriot for 10 weeks while she is on vacation.

His brothers and I waited for AX to come out of the door. I saw a Black man and I assumed it was the autism coach because some parents approached/talked to him. It turned out that he is Mr. Hunter, the autism coach of the school. I told the teacher to please give him more work in school. Mr. Hunter told me that Axell did a lot of work in school.

4th Day of SY 2008 - 2009

He was dressed in Gymboree blue shirt and Gymboree faded blue pair of pants. These are second-hand clothes and they are still good. I learned last night that he was supposed to have a uniform. It only means one thing: I have to buy new clothes for him.

We reached the school grounds at 7:55AM. I left back tire is not cooperating with us and I am a bit worried. I have to drive at least 15 miles x 2 during school days. The Chevy will suffer in mileage but I can not do anything because his present school is quite far. He is not eligible for the yellow bus because this is a reassignment.

It is the second time that I met the autism coach. He approached me this time and told me that AX got hurt during Music time. He has a cut/scrape on his right neck. I failed to hear properly how AX got hurt but somehow my husband was thankful that we were called on the phone about it. Just imagine, it is only the 4th day of school (actually, second day of school since there was a two day cancellation of classes due to TS Fay/Hurricane Fay)! The autism coach told me that they are doing assessment on him and AX did a lot of work. Nothing was sent on his backpack though.

5th Day of SY 2008 - 2009

AX went to school dressed in yellow shirt and khaki pants. We bought these from K-Mart and Wal-Mart in Pines Boulevard. It is his first time to wear a uniform in the first week of school. He was looking a bit out of place when almost all the kids are wearing a uniform. And so, I was in such a haste to find him something to wear in school. He was early to school today at 7:44AM. I took him directly to the right entrance door and it seemed like he was happy to go to school. He still has a tiny cut on his right neck and it was really reddish.

The autism coach told me that they are doing assessment on him. According to him, a home note was on his bag but upon reaching the house, there was no home note inside his backpack. There was no schoolwork as well but I was noted that he did a lot of work.

Whenever I pick up AX from school, I have always these two questions on hand.
1.) What did he do in school?
2.) How did he do in school (referring to behavior)?

6th day of SY 2008 - 2009

AX is dressed in white polo shirt and navy blue pants. These are new clothes we bought for him yesterday at Sears in Pembroke Lakes Mall. The items are 50% off the retail price but still hefty amount to pay for such plain clothes. He has not worn a uniform until this new school so he does not have these required colors for the shirt and pair of pants/shorts.

We reached the school grounds at around 7:50AM. The first bell rang when we were nearing the right entrance of the building. No one was there but we waited for like two minutes until a para opened the door and took him in.

The autism coach said that they are still doing assessment on him. He said that AX will mainstream next week. He started his speech therapy in the first week of school. He said that in the immediate future he can be put in a Math class. His present "mainstreaming" are those of the Recess/Lunch, Specials, Social Studies/Science. I told him that we might need to ask for a meeting to make sure that he is on track with what the school must do for him. Also, he said that assignments are inside his backpack. The work he did in school are with the teacher and he said that she is recording the grades so the work for the entire week can only be given on Fridays.