Podcast 0108; Season 7, Episode 1; 15 August 2023 As we start a new academic year and a new podcast season, I am trying to balance my health and my desire to be productive. At the end of every night, I complain that I haven’t done enough. I feel like…
Tag: elementary education
The public school experiment for 2022-23 ran its course by January 26, 2023, when we gave the fifth grader a mental health day at home. She won’t be returning this school year. During the last three weeks, we became aware of problems we didn’t know existed at the school, learned…
Podcast 0096; Season 6, Episode 6; 6 December 2022 DJ Stutz, Parenting Coach DJ Stutz is an Early Childhood Specialist with more than 20 years of teaching experience. DJ has an immense love for children, with 5 of her own, 12 grandchildren, and 70 nieces and nephews. She understands the…
If I were not home, our children would still require supplemental supports. Those are expensive and not fully covered by insurance. At home, I am the provider of physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, reading supports, behavioral intervention, and much more. Mothers (and fathers) knew this before the pandemic. Special…
Leigh has totally rocked her return to campus and even added her first major activity outside school: playing in a rock band. Her first show will even be in a local bar known for live music. Living in Austin, the home of “Austin City Limits” and SXSW, performing in a…
August certainly didn’t end the way we had hoped. “Anne” is back to homeschooling and I’m doing all I can to get her back on track after the attempted return to public school. It feels like she’s had every school year at home. I believe she’s had at least a…
Anne is now nine, which for our schools would be the age for entering fourth grade. Instead, we’re back to homeschooling her and trying to identify why she struggles so much with academic tasks. My cousin has a master’s degree in speech and language pathology (SPL) and helped guide us…
It sometimes seems that schools want to make it impossible to obtain supports for our students. Every child has a legal right to a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE); sometimes, an assessment determines which supports ensure an appropriate education. Unfortunately, school district evaluations can be superficial and incomplete. There is…
The back-to-school experiment lasted four days for the little one. By Thursday of the first week, it was clear that this wasn’t a good experience for her. I’m still in the processing stage. I’m the one who advocated for her return to school. I wanted to believe she would have…
Podcast 0091, Season 6, Episode 1; 16 August 2022 Back to School Each school year begins with preemptively contacting the teachers, administrators, and special education coordinators to ensure our daughters receive the supports necessary for success. My wife and I know that we need to communicate early, and clearly, to…