Harmony Community School - here we come!

13 months ago we moved from Sioux City, Iowa to Celebration, Florida. Celebration is a gorgeous little Disney town near Disney. We LOVE it. We could walk to the restaurants and events with the kids. We were able to meet other people in our area with children. It is a lovely place and add a wine bar within walking distance from our townhouse and it was perfect for us. However, the school was far from perfect for us. The school told us from the beginning that they could not accommodate Gabriel's special needs. The school wanted to send him to a school 40 minutes away to an ASD classroom. We visited the classroom and while it is a fit for some ASD students, it was not a fit for Gabriel. He went from 80% secluded special education to 80% general education in K. Why would we backtrack and put him back where the teachers were dealing serious behavior management? Last year in September I wanted to keep Gabriel at his school and walk him to his classroom. That is all I wanted. I didn't even care if his other things were included on his IEP. I wasn't allowed to walk him to his room. In fact, a teacher stepped out of her room one day and screamed at me stating that I was not allowed in the school. Gabriel would have to walk with the other students. I will admit that I lost my patienct and told her that the school was out of compliance with Gabriel's IEP and if she wanted to be apart of the problem, I would happily include her name in my complaint. She finally moved out of my way and allowed me to procced. Geeze, I just wanted to get my child to his classroom safely without him wandering which he has done in the past at his other school. Did this teacher want to risk losing him? Strict rules were all this teacher wanted to worry about rather than the safety of my child. Fast forward to when we hired an advocate. I didn't even know advocates existed and certainly never thought I would need one. Surely, schools, teachers, staff, people in the business of educating children were interested in helping me educate my child? This was not the case with our sweet Gabriel. With the help of our advocate, we were able to keep him at the school and set up a system to get him safely (albeit one time) to his classroom. He had a coteacher, OT and speech services. Once we had a solid IEP written, I felt comfortable with the situation. Though that comfort level quickly changed. On a couple incidents, Gabriel's teacher stomped, yes, literally stomped, down the sidewalk to hand me my son. It was one of the most unprofessional things I have ever seen. I swear I saw steam coming out of her ears. My anxiety was high every day. Gabriel was supposed to be escorted to the gate every day for safety reasons but this did not happen. Instead, he would wander to the gate at the end of the day. Usually 10-15 minutes after dismissal. All of the other parents were already gone. One time a parent began panicking because their child wasn't at the gate at their usual time. I wanted to hug her - Yes, I feel your panick EVERY DAY. Little did I realize that just because an IEP is written, doesn't mean they will follow through. At the end of the school year, a therapist apologized for dropping the ball on Gabriel's sensory diet. While I appreciated the apology, she had a full school year to implement something. I supplied the teacher with things that helped Gabriel. Nothing was used. In fact, the teacher demanded that Gabriel wear a belt. Since it is a requirement of the county school uniform, I complied. I purchase several different types of belts. Gabriel worked on the best with his OT and showed that he could perform the task of doing a belt. What the teacher and OT did not understand is that many ASD children have "leaky gut" which is forceful diarrhea. He could not unbuckle his belt fast enough to make it to the toilet and he had an accident. Even after this incident, the teacher insisted that he wear a belt! Later, I asked that "no belt necessary" would be written on his IEP. I was told that they didn't want to take away this important life skill. Seriously? But having a poop accident in the classroom is age approproiate? Does this really need to be a fight for everything? A friend asked, "now that you are a trained advocate, why don't you stay and fix Celebration's attitude?" I really thought I could. I wanted to but what I've learned is that I can work with parents on their children's needs in the school. What I can't do is change the attitude of entire team who doesn't want the best for my child. I'm too emotionally involved in my own child's education and experience. I don't want to sacrifice my child's education for that of the possibility of changing a system. To be honest, I was sick of being anxious and I was sick of being yelled at by professional adults. So with that experience, we decided to tour private schools. I was hopeful that an ASD school would be our answer. It was a wonderful school but it wasn't the school for Gabriel. We toured NINE private schools. All of them were good or even great but they didn't seem to fit Gabriel's needs. We decided to try another public school.

We packed up our family and moved to a larger yet less expensive home in Harmony. As the summer progressed, my anxiety has grown. This is a big question mark - we've heard Harmony has a great school and it's A rated but we heard the same thing about Celebration. Maybe we would at least have a better start given that we have an IEP from the same county. I've had a conversation with the assistant principal and the compliance specialist at our new school. Neither one has told me that they can not accommodate my child. Both of them have told me that they want Gabriel to succeed. They want to meet with me prior to school starting. They want to work with me and they have an open door policy. The compliance specialist also told me that they have a sensory program in place. WOW! I shed many tears after this past year of school. I am now hopeful. No system is perfect but maybe this will be our answer.

Headed to Harmony

I thought I would feel worse about moving than I do tonight. I'm not excited like I've been for prior moves. I think the amount of work that needs to be accomplished is shielding me from feeling much more than anxiety. I hate seeing all of our belongings on one truck. It's a very uncomfortable sight for me
Lane jumps up and down whenever I pack a box. She is honestly excited
about the move. We had to explain to Alex why we are moving because he wasn't handling it well. Once he knew what was going on, he told Andrew, " well, then we need to move for Gabriel." Gabriel, however, has not been happy at all. He has been complaining and can't let go of the fact that we are leaving the townhouse
Today Gabriel cried and told me that this is the perfect house. As much as I want to tell him that we moving for him and hopefully a better school system for him, it doesn't seem appropriate. I just don't know if I should tell him
We have had boxes stacked in the living room for a couple weeks and the kids rooms have been empty just as long. It's funny how exciting it is to sit on the coolers. I am adding the photo please note that Alex was a statue in the photo.
They also played with things they haven't touched in months. Lane pulled out all of her dress up stuff along with her creativity. The kids also played with the wooden train track. I was shocked. We will have more space in our new house so it's possible we will be able to set our more fun toys for them.
8 hours and we will have the moving truck. Whew - I can not believe it

Silliness Pursues

We have a lot to accomplish before getting our house in order. We need the house in order prior to getting back to a decent routine.
This is our fifth cross country move but our first with three young children. Andrew has been back to work for two weeks and I have been left to my own devices to deal with daily tasks as well as unpacking and organizing. I also have to purchase furniture. It's fun to pick out things I like (or in the case of the red couches, something our kids like) but it takes time and extra energy with three children who have little interest in furniture shopping.
Yesterday I took a break from it all. I played with the kids and had a fantastic time. Of course, I feel guilty because I have to get this house in order so Gabriel's world is back in order. I have to start deep cleaning and get the kids back in therapy, classes, etc.. Oh well, for one day we were silly and lighthearted. It was nice to sit and interact with my three beauties rather than give in to the pressure of creating our home. I think it was good for my soul.
At night, I read the Go To Sleep Book. I highly recommend it to any parent. I laughed through the entire thing, again.
Here is a photo of Lane being a silly potato head.

Moving Days - Parts One and Two

We had a very short amount of time to sort, organize, donate, and pack in order to move from Sioux City, IA, to Kissimmee, FL. We will miss many friends who have supported us and helped us create wonderful memories. It was difficult emotionally to move but hope we will have visitors from Iowa in the coming months or years.
We got a much later start than we anticipated on Wednesday. The Trooper needed a new part for the transmission. We had far more to accomplish than we realized. We originally wanted to leave at 8 am but as we looked around Tuesday evening, we thought 11 was more accurate. Clearly, we do not know how much time three children require because we did not leave until after 7 pm. So much for meeting up with the Simonsons on the other other side of Iowa.
When we got to the hotel in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Alex was upset because a bug was flying near him in the van. I thought it was a moth and told him that it was similiar to a butterfly. Apparently it was a mosquito and it bit him. It completely flipped him out. He was belted into his car seat and he started screaming about hating night bugs. The poor child was terrified.
We ate breakfast at the hotel. Lane hasn't seen us eat donuts. She picked a chocolate donut and ate it with a spoon! It was hilarious!!
It is 95 degrees today so we can't leave the dogs in the car for long. Normally we would stop at a park or mall and let the kids run around but we are limited in what we can do with the kids since we have the dogs and it's HOT.
When the kids get out of the car, they are BONKERS! They have a ton of energy but little time to burn it off. We got to Hannibal, Missouri, and went to the Jones County Carnival. The kids ate and got to run around. I was quite impressed by Alex and Gabriel - they got on a spinning ride by themselves! These are huge developmental leaps for them.
On to another day tomorrow - we are hoping to make it to Nashville, Tennessee.