Good morning and Welcome to the 9th issue of my monthly HSSNTidBits Newsletter!
If you are new here, I post a monthly newsletter that entails all things about homeschooling an autistic son, life skills, recommended resources to help with homeschooling, inspiration and so much more. I hope you enjoy all that I have to offer you and more and welcome! But most of all that you come back to visit again real soon. Without further ado, let’s begin!
Inspiration from the passion of Waves
Watch the waves. Watch small waves and watch the large waves. Watch them coming in, on the shore untiringly. What do we see? We see the passion. We see the energy. We also wonder about the purpose of the non-stop motion of the waves.
Waves have the undying passion of meeting the shore. They never get tired doing that. One after another, they keep on coming. They keep on smashing on the shore and then subsiding. Then comes another wave. This goes on and on. We have watched the waves so many times that we don’t pay attention to this passion. This passion can teach us a lot.
The first teaching is not getting tired. Waves don’t get tired. They have a job to do – meet the shore again and again. So, they keep on. When we have a job to do, we must behave like that. Non-stop work without getting tired. We will surely get tired, but a visual of waves will remind us immediately that we have work to do, and we will continue despite all the tiredness.
The second teaching is work without any break. Have we seen waves taking a small break? Never. Same way, we are passionately working towards a goal, we have to keep that passion on all the time. Every moment that passion must drive us. No other thought but our passion. Great work is done only with such passion. You can achieve impossible with this kind of passion.
The third teaching is passion itself. Waves are passionate to meet the shores. They think of nothing but the shore. Similarly, we must develop passion for something. Love creates such passion. Romantic love can do that and so can the love for human beings, like Mother Teresa had. Develop passion for something. Whatever may be your occupation, if you develop passion for excellence, you will get unbelievable results. Let us develop that passion. Let us say – I will passionately work in a manner so that I am satisfied only with the best results. I will keep this passion on forever in my work. I will do everything with passion and will make sure that I achieve great results.
Take inspiration from the passion of waves and you shall achieve success, great success.
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Parenting Autism and Self-Care
Taking care of an autistic child/teen/adult or any child for that matter is hard, challenging and stressful. Now if your child has special needs, this is where you need to check yourself: mentally, physically and emotionally.
The world unfortunately does not always get it when it comes to how to teach your special needs child everything, he/she needs to know to succeed in this life and most of that will fall to you. It will not be an easy road, so make sure you find time to take a moment to breathe.
Anxiety ManagementBreathing in and out naturally calms you. I used to work out every single day, I mean I am talking 30-40 min. workouts, but that left me feeling exhausted physically and I did not have the energy some days just to be available to my special needs child on a daily basis. So, I adjusted my workouts so that they were more relaxing and gratifying with the time that I had. For instance, instead of a hardcore 40-minute strength training workout, I would opt for a 15-20 min. HiiT workout instead or a Yoga workout. At the end of the day, I still included my workout, and it left me satisfied but not depleted of my energy and I took care of myself.
Taking care of yourself is so important these days and especially if you have a loved one with special needs. Keep yourself mentally, emotionally and physically strong so that you can keep advocating and fighting for your special needs child and family.
Homeschool Tips: How to address Homeschool Nay Sayers
Everyone who decides to homeschool their children will run into at least one person, maybe more, that tell them they shouldn’t homeschool. The decision to homeschool, isn’t an easy one to make, and often isn’t popular. However, the choice in how your child is educated is entirely up to you, so you need to decide ahead of time how you will deal with homeschooling nay-sayers.
One of the quintessential arguments of a homeschooling nay-sayer is that you’re not qualified to teach your own child, regardless of if you have a Bachelor of Arts in Education or not. To this argument, I say poppycock! If you’re a parent, you’ve already been teaching your child since birth. Who was it that taught your child to talk, walk, and use the restroom by themselves? It was you and your spouse, of course. So, if you could teach them those skills, why wouldn’t you be qualified to teach them how to read or do math?
Besides being “unqualified,” other nay-sayers will tell you that teaching a child is too difficult. What I find even more difficult is the thought of having to teach with 20- 35 five- and six-year-olds several subjects all in one day. That is a difficult job; teaching one child to read is not. You can do it!
Another argument you might hear if you’re trying to decide if you want to homeschool is that the children need socialization. Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I want my children to learn all of the things they learn at school. Of course, all of the lessons aren’t given by the teachers. Many are learned as the result of being with other children.
To this argument, I say that homeschooled children are better socialized than 95% of the children in public schools. Besides being able to deal with their peers, homeschooled children can carry on intelligent conversations with people of all ages. Public schools create artificial societies, and these societies are not true to life. Besides public education, there isn’t a time at any other point in your life that you’re going to deal with people all your age. It just doesn’t happen, and it won’t happen, either.
These are just a few of the comments that you’ll likely hear as you are researching the possibility of homeschooling your child. All I can say is that it’s okay if you don’t know everything, you’re told you need to know. Take that as an opportunity to learn right along with your child. Since you want what is best for your child, you will be giving them the opportunity to learn at their own pace and concentrate on the things they are interested in learning.
Ultimately, it is your choice on how to educate your child. Although the nay-sayers may be loud, be polite and listen to what they have to say. Listen, and then choose to ignore them. Give your child the opportunity to love the learning process. Learning is not a destination, it’s a journey. Let them enjoy the trip along the way.
Every month I post on my lifestyle blog about a day in the life of raising a special needs autistic son. It all depends on what I am feeling or experiencing at the moment as well and/or sometimes I am wishing you all a holiday greeting or two. Whatever the case may be, it is worth a second look into the everyday experiences of an autism parent. Enjoy!
Seasonal Recipe: Easy Lasagna Roll Ups (Life Skills)
Lasagna roll ups are a twist on the classic Italian lasagna dish. Lasagna rolls
has many advantages over making traditional lasagna and they are so much simpler to make. It also looks neater and perfection portions for easy freezing and reheating.
Try this simple lasagna roll ups recipe once and you’ll never go back to messy lasagna.
squares again!
Lasagna Roll Ups
Ingredients
12 lasagna noodles
2 cups of marinara sauce
2 cups of mozzarella cheese
1 egg
1/2 a cup of diced onion
1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoon fresh parsley
1/2 tablespoon of chicken bouillon
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning
1 pound of 85% lean
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
NOTE: If there are ingredients that you may/may not have on hand or you have a food allergy, you can substitute the item. I omitted the chicken bouillon cube because I felt that the cheese itself had plenty of sodium in in already and the boullion cube was not really needed, plus we are on a low sodium lifestyle. Just wanted you to know that you do have options.
Enjoy!
All Group : 22 Free Meals, First Box Ships Free + 3 Surprise GiftsBook Recommendations
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