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We are home, everyone is doing well. Oddly, all 3 of them now have a cold and I'm feeling great. No one bothered to take a photo of me letting Cupcake suck on my left pinkie while she sat in her bouncy chair as I fed Biscuit a yogurt with my right hand at lunch today. (Why was I doing that if there were people here that could have taken a photo, you ask? Well, my husband brought me lunch and was on his way back to work and his mom dropped off some lasagna on her way to work. They took a moment to watch me, but then they took off.)
Today is my first day home with 2 KIDS. Who the heck let me have 2 kids??? Heehee. It went pretty well, but it sure was nice to have last week to just get a rhythm with Cupcake. She is a pro-breastfeeder. Doesn't like to burp though, so some meals come back up. I've learned to just keep going and insist that she burp. No point in sitting there and her working so hard and then having it all end up on my shirt.
I decided to go ahead and put a few photos up on my Flickr account.
I'm really loving this discussion over on Kerflop. I'm one of those people who was gifted and yet never bored in public school because I could find something to learn (not to mention that since parental disappointment was my greatest fear I never would have acted out if bored).
Now I'm faced with this same kind of decision with my son at the ripe age of 2. I've already been asked twice by his educational team if I've thought about what I want to do with him next year. Since he has Down syndrome he is eligible to start in the public system at age 3, but I'm not sure that even early school with trained professionals is the right way to go with him. Every child is an individual and he is (thank you, God!) at the far end of the spectrum of developmental delays. He probably isn't going to be reading above grade level like I was, but that doesn't mean that he won't be bored and unchallenged in a special ed class. I'm concerned that we will lose all the gains we've made if he's put in a situation that expects him to be slow in areas where he is not just because of a label that has been applied to him.
Really, our concern is that he will start on a path that will lead to an attendance certificate when he actually could earn a diploma. I don't want to squelch any of the joy that he has, for life or for learning. Now if it turns out that even with the best help he isn't capable of earning a diploma then (while heartbroken) I will accept it. But I'm not going to give up when the boy isn't even 2!
SO, (blah, blah, blah) I love the links and advice that I've been able to read on Kerflop, but does anyone out there have links and advice for kids that are not geniuses and gifted and skipping grades?
"Yay" to Heather from OMSH for her post that led me to this video about Autism by Five for Fighting. I didn't see the info on the video page about the band donating money, but I'm willing to take her word for it. Besides, I heard a great song and learned a little, and what's so wrong with that?
I have to admit that I do have one concern though: do we really want a world where everyone with every kind of difference is cured? I've been through this with deafness, I've been through this with Down syndrome. I haven't yet learned how Autism would be different. In my opinion it would be better if we could accept people who have differences and learn to value their outlook on the world as equally valid to the "normal" way of seeing things. On the other hand, I can imagine that Autism can be (emotionally if not physically) painful for those who have it. I certainly wish that pain could be removed, but... I want a world with unique people who have interesting perspectives.
