The power of attempted persuasion

Jake and Lydia are playing with Backpack (Dora) and Rescue Pack (Diego). For some reason they are wanting to shove Lydia's little blanket in their packs and Lydia won't share with Jake because she claims he will keep it FOREVER. So, Jake tries to have me make her give it to him. No go. Then, turning on his charm, he says, "Oh great and wonderful sister. May I pleeeaassseeee borrow your blanket and I will give it to you when you are resting."

No.

Lydia is not going to have any of it.

Nice.


They play together so well. Of course they bug each other and pester each other like siblings do, but overall they are best friends and playmates. This just warms my heart and Craig's heart. He has been especially noticing it lately.

There has been a lot of....uhhhhhh...hmmmmm....hubub at the school lately about setting up an autism program for Jake and another little guy. Craig and I have considered it from every angle. We have diced out the best interests of everyone....Jake, Lydia, me, Craig, our family as a whole, this other little guy, the school, & any other children with autism who would like to attend this school in the future. (Those are in somewhat of an order.) We've decided that God has led us to homeschooling for a reason and that that avenue is the one we feel will best meet the needs of our children, us and our family. While we would like to see the school go in the direction of education kiddos on the spectrum, Jake has been a guniea pig so to speak this year and it has been a HARD year for our family. He has had absolutely no accomodations made for his diagnosis except ones that I have insisted upon when it got bad...like taking him to 1/2 days. I just can't see that our family, and particularly Jake, could handle another year of experimentation. We want our family to move forward and be relieved of stress. We want Jake to know and understand that we appreciate his diffrences and uniqueness and that we do not see it as something that is a "problem." He has come so far and continues to make wonderful progress. We are at a point where his self-esteem and feelings of self-worth are going to really start to take hold. We want to nuture and support that. And, while the school would have intentions of doing that, they cannot control his environment and his interactions with students who may not be as kind as we would wish them to be like I can through homeschooling. Is that a little overprotective? Maybe. But, he isn't as resilient as a typically developing kid right now. He is still fragile because these skills are not as innate to him as a typical kid. I want his foundation stronger before he has to face the unkind, the uncompassionate, and the intolerant to any significant degree. And, if anyone thinks we are going to avoid that by attending Christian school I can say that just isn't so. Kids say exactly what is on their minds and they repeat verbatim what their parents tell them about Jake. Just Friday a kid says to me right in front of Jake, "My mom says that Jake is 'wormy' because of the medicine the doctor has him on." Huh? Craig and I look at each other thinking, "What the heck is he talking about?" I just look at him and say, "You can tell your mom (who proceeded to harshly correct Jake this morning right in front of me) that Jake doesn't take any medication." At least she'll know that I know what she said. Jake doesn't need that kind of junk and neither do we. He is so much more valued, important, and deserving than that. He is my rockstar sweet boy and I want him to know it!