A Sensory Friendly Guide to Sea World

Sea World (Orlando) has been awesome for our family!  Sea World gives out teacher passes to all state educators and we take advantage of going at least once a year.  The other great deal is that from year to year Busch Gardens and Sea World offer a preschool pass, the pass gives children five and…

File Intent for the McKay Scholarship

The deadline to file for intent to use the McKay Scholarship is July 3, 2017 for the 2017-2018 100% award amount.  Parents have to file for intent by July but the paperwork for admission and enrollment at their private school by August 2nd. Just because you file intent does not mean that you have to…

Learning Through The Mistakes

Pretty sure that I have made a big and costly mistake!  Can you help me fix it?! So, this McKay Scholarship is all tricky and complex!  There are all these rules and processes and no real human to walk you thru the system.  It’s one thing to just file intent and fill out some private…

504 and High School

This post is different from most because it relates to high school.  Ruthfulness has a primary focus on early intervention for parents and students but as a high school teacher, I get to see how teens and their parents handle or fail to handle their/(child’s) special needs. Teachers, students, parents, and the community: A 504…

Sensory Friendly Movies

Saturday, I took the kids to see their first movie! We went to a sensory friendly movie at a Cobb Luxury Theater.  It was full of experience for sure.  I called to confirm about the sensory friendly environment after finding out from my ABA therapist.  It was advertised to have lower volume, more light and…

Ultimate Guide to Advocating

At my last IEP meeting I received a compliment from the compliance specialist in the district.   She has been in every IEP meeting this school year!  We had four meetings this year and she told me,   “I just want to thank you for being so thorough, detail oriented and prepared for each and…

Hug, Kiss and High-Five

Affection and Autism Social/Emotional deficits are one of the three common domains that children on the spectrum or diagnosed with autism often struggle to understand.  Emotions can be difficult to read or display.  Some criticize people on the spectrum for their lack of personal and physical relationships.  Other family and friends worry about relationships, emotions…

Surviving Stress and Exhaustion

Today, I needed a clone!  I needed another person to meet all the responsibilities on my list.  Yesterday, I knew that I needed to step back, breathe, and set my priorities.  I also realized that I needed to get some things or some people into the “box”.   Yesterday, I started getting a migraine at…