Surfers for Autism

We got to Tybee Island around 3:30, and the hotel was the exact one that we parked at the last time we all came down here for fun. It was pretty funny. Our room is a decent size, and we had them bring Devon up a roll away bed so I get a bed to myself. We spend Friday just swimming and hanging out, and we went to the welcome dinner.

 Saturday we spent the whole day down at the beach and we swam and hung out while we waited for Landon's turn to surf. When they called Landon's group, we all went over with him to watch. He did pretty well! He decided right away that he wanted to stand up. 

Bailey and Devon were wishing they could try it so I got them some boogie boards and they did their version of surfing. 

We went to the after party Saturday night and it was pretty fun. They had a live bad and fun pools for the kids to swim in. 

It was pretty relaxing too, because no matter what Landon did, no one stared or cared about it. I didn't get anyone any at him all weekend. It was pretty nice! 

Landon's new school

The adventure involving Landon's new school started back in January when I got an unexpected invitation to attend an IEP meeting for Landon. Those meetings are normally at the end of the year, so I was a little confused. Ben had never been to an IEP meeting so he took off of work and met me at the school. I went into that meeting already extremely nervous and expecting to hear unpleasant things. Ever since the kids went back to school after Christmas break, I had been getting steady negative reports on Landon's behavior, and it seemed to occur multiple times a day. They would tell me that he would get upset and kick over the trash can, then later get upset and throw a stapler, and later still, kick the music teacher when she wouldn't let him have the microphone, and so on during the entire day. He was also having huge fits every morning before school where he would scream and beg me not to make him go. I would have to physically drag him out of bed and wrestle him into his clothes while he violently protested, cried and kicked the whole time. I had no idea what to make of it, and it was upsetting to know that he was so unhappy but there was so little I could do about it. So I walked into the meeting already nervous and expecting the worst. Just to be clear, Landon works with the best group of teachers there that I could ask for. They all genuinely care about him and they seem to really love him and take lots of extra time to try to accommotate his needs, but I still was embarrassed of what they had to say about him.

The meeting turned out to be a full reevaluation meeting where they would try to make sure that he was put in the right category and that he was where he needed to be. As Ben and I walked into the room I was overwhelmed by the large number of people all sitting around that conference table that regularly deal with Landon who were waiting to talk to me about him. The meeting was extremely long and very thorough. Everyone around the table discussed their role with Landon, his skill level at the beginning of the year, the progress he has made so far, and they said many positive things about Landon's progress, but after two hours Ben had to get back to work. It was then that they got to the part of the meeting that I was dreading, and I had wanted Ben there for. They said that his behavior needed to be discussed, and immediately my stomach sank, and I could feel my face burning. They said that ever since he got back from Christmas break he had been having a number of violent outbursts on a regular basis throughout the day. He would get so worked up that he would throw fits and start throwing things, and they had no idea how to calm him down once he would get going. They felt that his behavior was becoming dangerous to himself and the other students and it needed to be addressed. Their stories brought tears of shame to my eyes, and they told me not to apologize or feel embarrassed because it was their job to help him any way they could, but they weren't sure they were the best fit for him anymore. The autism specialist for the county suggested moving him to a new school into what they call a Triad classroom. It's for kids with autism who need help having their behavior regulated and maybe need more structure specifically geared towards their autism. I panicked immediately! I would NOT let them ship him off to a school that's for the kids that are so out of control that the regular schools can't handle them! I immediately argued that he had just gotten back from a long break and he just needed time to readjust and they agreed that I had a valid point, but I should think about it. I left that meeting emotioinally drained and frustrated. What in the world was I going to do with Landon?

A few days later Amy, the county autism specialist called me again to try to discuss the Triad class with me in more detail. I got really upset that they were pushing the point when I had already said no, and all I could think of was how to get her off the phone and get her to leave me alone. She started pointing out to me some of the things that his school was doing with him that she didn't think was very good for him, and I could tell that she was trying to make me understand that they weren't meeting his needs without sounding like she was bad mouthing the school. She pointed out that Landon had way too many transitions in a day and was being moved from room to room from one adult to another and she thought that any kid, autistic or not, would get frustrated with that. She told me how the kids in the Triad class are extremely well behaved, verbal children because the program is so good at focusing on their specific problems and needs. The more she talked, the more she got my attention, and I agreed to visit the school that following Monday. I immediately called my sister-in-law, Connie, who used to be high up in the county for special education before she moved, and she knows Amy. She told me that the Triad classrooms are actually highly sought after and people are always begging Amy for a referral but rarelly getting one, and if Amy was offering Landon a referral I should take it!

Monday morning I dropped Bailey and Landon off at school and Devon and I met Amy to visit Landon's possible new classroom. There were six boys in the room, and I was blown away by the fact that they were all sitting at their desks reading and doing their work. The teacher was moving around helping them, and when they finished they would get to pick an activity of their choice as a reinforcement. The room had such a laid back, calm feel to it, and the teacher assured me that Landon's behavior would calm down at school and at home almost immediately if he transferred to her class. They told me that he would have a parapro with him at all times, even when he was in specials, and I was very glad to hear that! I had been a little upset that he was sent to specials alone after his PE incident, and after some of the horror stories the music teacher was telling me. The more I saw, the more convinced I was that Landon would be happier here. I just could feel the calm, loving, easygoing atmosphere in the room and I knew that was what Landon needed. I told Amy that I was okay with moving ahead immediately, and she said they could have the IEP meeting to transfer him as soon as Wednesday! They recommended that I go pull Landon out of his other school and bring him by to visit so that he could be acquainted with everyone and make the transition easier. The only thing that was concerning me at that point was moving him in the middle of the year. As much as his other school was frustrating to him, he knew the routine and knew what to expect, and I didn't want to upset him by moving him in the middle of the year again.
I took Landon by, and he took to it immediately! The other boys in the class were very welcoming and said "Hi Landon!" or "I'll show him where the games are!" or things like that. He took part in their social skills class, played on the computer and even went to lunch with them. I decided not to send him back to his other school at all if we were sure that he was transferring. It would confuse him too much to go back and forth. His teacher invited him back to visit the next day and he excitedly ran into the school saying "Landon's new school!" He had so much fun in there that I was afraid that he would think his new school was nothing but play time, but his teacher involved him in lessons and assured me he would take right to it.
This is their social skills class. They wear capes and pretend to be super heroes.

He loves the computer!



We had his IEP meeting early that Wednesday morning, and it was unexpectedly emotional! His old classroom teacher sat there telling a story about his progress since the beginning of the year and she started to cry and had to stop! Everyone got emotional and said how much they were going to miss him and I certainly wasn't expecting it! I ran into his old parapro in the hallway and she tried to tell me how much they loved him, but got choked up and couldn't finish. They all hugged me and made me promise to bring him by when he started talking up a storm. His new teacher asked me to give her Thursday to get ready for him so he officially started at his new school that Friday.

They had requested that he be bussed to his school, but it takes time to get the bus going, so I had to drop Bailey off, and then drive Landon twenty minutes to his new school. His teacher had me call her cell phone when we pulled in and she came out to get him and take him in. He jumped out of the car and ran into the building without even looking back, and I felt a huge weight lift off of my shoulders! Every day he gets a report sent home, and it always starts with "Landon had a fantastic day!" He started out having one minor incident where he didn't want to do his work so he threw his pencil, but his teacher had him go to the calming room, and she said he came right back and finished his work and had no more problems the rest of the day! What a change from his day full of problems at the other school!
This is a picture that a boy in his class made for him on his first day. I thought it was sweet!


He started getting right out of bed and asking me "Landon's new school today?" and excitedly getting ready with no fuss! The relief of the morning stress alone was worth the transfer! The only problem was that I had to drop him off late after dropping Bailey off, and at the end of the day I would leave the house at 1:40 to get to his school at 2:00 and check him out early so that I could get back to Bailey's school in time to pick her up at 2:20! I was happy to do it since Landon seemed so happy, but it started to get very tedious after about two weeks!

I finally got a call from his new bus driver and he offered to bring him home on the bus that day which I happily accepted! I leisurely picked up Bailey and we went home and waited for Landon's bus. He gets dropped off and picked up right in front of our house so it's really nice! Landon loves the bus and happily hops around in the driveway in the mornings when he can hear it coming around the corner.


He's so happy now and he only gets good reports sent home. His mornings are mostly easy now unless I can't find his shoes and the bus is sitting in front of the house. He gets to stay in that classroom next year and as long as they feel he will benefit from it. If he progresses to where he doesn't need it then he will be sent back here to his home school, but he will go back there in the fall for sure. I'm so happy that he seems to like school again, and I am so extremely grateful that Amy called me to explain to me what the class really was and eased my fears, and that she took the time to make sure that Landon was somewhere that would fit him so well! It's so nice when people seem to really care about the kids and they work hard to do their jobs well!

Bailey's Christmas Program

I didn't mean for it to take me so long to get this video up! I had to take it with Ben's phone because mine was out of battery and it has taken me forever to get it from him. Bailey was in a Christmas musical program with the children's choir and this is a video of the dance number she was in. This song is about the shepherds that were tending their sheep and the angel appeared to them and told them that baby Jesus had just been born. She is the one on the far left on the end. This is all she really did in the show except sing in the choir but she was very proud of it. She expected everyone to come see her in it and so we got a babysitter and meet my parents there to watch the show. I had seen the dress rehersal and thought it was going to be painful, but the kids really pulled it together for the final performance, and it was actually very good. Ben and I even had a monemt where we were trying to covertly wipe tears before someone actually saw us getting moved by a silly children's choir performance.

Elf Kids

Every Christmas since Devon was just a few weeks old I have been making an elf video of the kids. The first one was a little odd because it just didn't look right to see a tiny baby's head on an adult body dancing around. I kept putting it off this year but Bailey insisted that I get on it, so here it is. I just thought I'd go ahead and put it up for anyone that didn't see it on facebook. This one is pretty cute this year! It's a swingin' Christmas beach party!

Gain, Loss, and Confusion

Yesterday was a pretty full day as far as accomplishments and stories of the kids' shenanigans. I had my VERY last final yesterday and it was to be taken online. The only problem was that it was 90 questions with a 100 minute time limit and I knew that I would never get that much time where Devon didn't bother me or need something. I guarantee that no matter now situated I thought he was, as soon as I clicked on the "Begin Assessment" button that something major would happen that would demand my attention! He'd bang on the door saying he was poopie, or say he broke something or he was hurt or whatever, so I knew that for the one last time, I was going to need reinforcements. I called my dad and he did have something to do later in the day, but I promised him that if he would keep Devon this time it would be the very last time I would need to ask him....until I stared my Master's Degree. He readily agreed and I pounded out that exam with over 20 minutes to spare, even though the last two were complicated essays. So...I'm completely finished with school. It doesn't feel amazing like I thought it would because I need to go straight into my Master's now and this dinky little undergraduate degree doesn't change much for me. Once I'm finished with my Master's in about two and a half years THEN I'll finally be able to teach. It's just frustrating. So, yes, I'm finished, which has been a huge weight on my back for so many years, but it's just the first step.
Later that day when I picked the kids up from school, Bailey asked me if we could go to Target and get her some new erasers for her pencils because the kids around her won't let her borrow theirs when she has a mistake she needs to fix. Of course that made me so irritated that I said we'd go to Target immediately! I just can't believe how mean kids are these days! So as we were walking into Target, Landon ran way in ahead of us and was acting more hyper and full of energy than usual so I decided I wasn't going to take my eyes off of him. We grabbed the erasers and then stopped by the toy section like we always have to, and Bailey and Devon stayed together and Landon ran off around the corner. I followed him to make sure he didn't do anything...odd...or run off. After a couple of minutes Bailey came down our isle and I asked her where Devon was. She shrugged and kept looking so I told her to stay with Landon no matter where he went so that I could call for them, and I went back down the isles to look for Devon. I walked up and down and up and down the toy section and he definitely wasn't there. I grabbed Bailey and Landon and made them search for him with me so that we wouldn't lose anyone else. We walked all around the areas surrounding the toy section calling and calling him. By then I was starting to get a little frantic, so we walked faster and called him louder and went all the way to the front of the store yelling for him. One lady asked me if he had on a red shirt and I stopped and thought about it and I was ashamed to discover that I didn't remember what he was wearing! I always make sure I know what Landon is wearing just for situations like this, but I've never had to worry about Dev before! I said "I don't remember! He's blond!" She and another lady walked all over calling for him and someone said they saw a little boy go towards customer service. I pulled Bailey and Landon over there and there he was, surrounded by Target employees barking on their walkie talkies that they had a lost child. I ran over to him and grabbed him and they reported into the walkies that they had "found the mother". I was actually more mad at him than anything, because he NEVER runs away, and the last thing I need is ANOTHER kid that is always doing that to me! Landon has embarrassed me like that more than once, and he even caused the Disney Store in Phoenix to completely lock down until he was found. I am always so mortified when this kind of thing happens, which is why I always try to keep close tabs on Landon. Devon always stays with me so when he was missing I kept thinking how he must be more than "lost" because he never runs off. Plus we were WAY back at toys and he had wondered all the way to the front of the store! What was he thinking?!! I still don't know, but I put him right in the cart and bought Bailey her erasers and got out of there immediately! I have decided that I can only shop during the day when my kids are in school and I only have Devon. They take advantage of the fact that there is only one of me and three of them!

So today I took Devon with me to Toys R Us so that we could look at stuff without the other two seeing what we were looking at. I mostly wanted to find something for Devon, and I wasn't sure how to go about finding what I needed. He has shown a great fondness for doll houses and they entertain him for hours! If a store has the Calico Critters out on display he wants to play with them more than with the train set, and he loved his cousin's Littlest Pet Shop house, so I was trying to find a more little boy oriented toy that had a similar theme. I saw some castles with knights, but I thought I had found the answer when I came across a little farm that came with animals and a farmer. Isn't it cute?

The farmer is a boy and farm animals are pretty unisex, so I was going to get that, but a store employee told me he had a better idea. He took me over to a toy Bat Cave that came with a Batman, Robin, and lots of accessories. Here's what it looked like:



I didn't get either one because I'm just a little confused. Why is everyone so afraid that a little boy is going to play with a toy that was made more for a girl? Why are men so afraid that their little boys might enjoy playing with little toy animals that are purple and pink, or a toy kitchen or something that just draws and keeps their attention? Why did some stranger stop me from getting my son a farm and direct me towards a super hero lair? I don't understand why it's so important to everyone that we steer our male children in the proper direction from a young age so that they don't think that sissy toys are acceptable. They make sure they know it's for girls and that they should never go near that stuff, and that's why little boys are so rude to little girls about their "dumb dolls". It's my personal opinion that making a little boy play with a cave that two men live in alone together isn't necessarily a step in the right direction. But then again, maybe I just don't understand boy's toys. I'm sure Ben would love to play with the Bat Cave with Devon, so I may just leave the decision up to him.

When we got back from picking Ben up from work that day we had a huge styrofoam package waiting on our doorstep that we certainly weren't expecting and didn't know what it was. We looked at the label and it had been sent to us by Ben's new boss for a Christmas present! We opened it up and it was a huge assortment of different meats from Omaha Steaks! Ben has never had a boss give him a Christmas present before, and I was so excited! Look how big it was!

FUN! They are now resting comfortably in our freezer awaiting their faits.
So now that I'm finished with school for at least the next semester I don't know what to do with myself. I keep running through my head trying to make sure I'm not overlooking something that is about to be due. Bailey keeps asking me if I have homework to do and she can't believe that I'm actually finished completely. I keep telling her I'll go back again soon and she can't understand why I would want to. After being out of school for a semester I may be asking myself the same question.

This and that

Well, it's been a while since I blogged which means that nothing crazy has happened in a long time. There definitely have been some incidents but I didn't know if they were worthy of their own post, so I decided to make a "mix tape" of sorts, a montage if you will, of some things that have happened here and there that have made our days a little more interesting. A lot of this stuff was put up on Facebook so I apologize if you have already seen and heard all that follows. I do hate to repeat myself. These are in no particular order, just as they come to me.
First of all, there was a day where Landon did a few things here and there that made me wonder if he was trying to see how much I could take before I lost it. We had dropped Bailey off at her dance class and so I took the boys to Chic fil A to eat and play on the playground until she was finished. When we got there the boys ran to the playground and I got in line to order. As I was standing there reading the menu I saw a streak of red go by (which could only be Landon in his Murray Wiggles shirt, which is all he wears now) and I saw that the red shirt was all he had on! He was wearing his underwear but for some reason he had stripped off his pants and shoes inside the playground and decided to run around the restaurant. He is just so tall that it looks like a third grader is running around with no pants on and it just looks odd. There was a large group of high school girls right behind me and I was sure they were going to get loud and laugh and make a big deal about it, which would call attention to him more. I went ahead and yelled at him to get his pants on, and he turned around and ran back to the playground and I braced myself for the backlash that always comes from the people around me, but no one said anything! The high school girls barely looked at him or acted like he was strange and didn't even look at each other like "What's wrong with that kid?" I greatly appreciated it! So because no one freaked out and he got his pants right back on it turned out to be very minimal compared to how it could have been. I even tried to get a picture of him putting his pants on in the playground but he was too fast for me.
We later got back in the car and went to pick up Bailey and we ended up being pretty early. She and her class were learning a little dance number and Landon stood with his face pressed against the glass door watching every bit of it. Later they asked all the parents to come in and watch them all do their dance so we went in to see it. The girls lined up and the music started and Landon decided that he knew the dance as well as they did so he jumped up, got in line and danced with them! I was going to grab him but Bailey's teacher didn't act like she cared at all and he was doing a pretty good job so I just let him stay up there. Here is the video of some of it. It was the class before Halloween which is why they are wearing costumes.



Last night, though, Ben came upstairs to get back to work on his homework and he found that someone had written in his notebook. He said "Bailey, did you write 'cats' in my notebook?" She was confused and said she didn't do it. That made us even more confused. We looked at it and it was obviously a kid's hand writing. Ben asked her again if she did it, and said she wasn't in trouble, but we needed to know if she really did do it. She insisted she hadn't done it. Then Landon came in, walked right over to the notebook and pointed at the writing and said "cats" and then walked out again. I had no idea that he could read the word "cats" let alone write it. I was especially impressed with his "s" because that's tricky for anyone. Here's what it looked like.

It looks pretty good for someone having Occupational Therapy to teach him how to hold his pencil the right way.
Bailey had lost her two front teeth and it was exciting for her because everyone else lost theirs a long time ago. The only problem is that she has my tiny mouth and her permanent teeth had nowhere to come in. The little gap that was left from her baby teeth was nowhere near big enough for her new teeth so they ended up being partially behind her baby teeth that are next to the gap and they pushed them up and out and made her look like she has two rows of teeth! You can see it a little bit in this picture but it wasn't that bad yet here.


She called them her snaggle teeth and we had to take her to the dentist to get them pulled. They discovered some cavities while they were in there so she had a pretty big ordeal going on in her mouth that day. They wouldn't let me go back for some reason and I knew she wouldn't like that so I went to the front and pretty much demanded to go back. I found her with the laughing gas over her nose and watching the Chipmunk movie on a TV on the ceiling and she didn't act like she cared that I was there. I went back out and left them to it and when she was finished she came out with cotton in her mouth and she was mad! She didn't like it that I left her in there alone and she didn't like it that she couldn't feel her mouth and she was just miserable! What's funny (well not really funny but more almost sad) is that they mentioned that her lower jaw isn't growing as fast as the rest of her mouth and I just hung my head and sighed. I had noticed it but I was hoping she wouldn't be as bad as I was. It looks like she may have it worse because mine wasn't showing up when I was as young as she is. It looks like she may have to have my jaw surgery one day too. *sigh*
She also woke up on Halloween morning really sick and I had to take her to the Minute Clinic where she turned up positive for strep throat. She got some antibiotics and slept most of the day, but she was too miserable to go trick or treating. She got dressed and tried but after three houses she just couldn't take it and I took her home. She had to stay home sick on her birthday one year too, and she just thinks she has the worse luck with holidays! Devon was really charming and brought home more candy than Landon so we had more than enough candy to share with her.
I'm looking at my post for this time and I hate it that I don't have more pictures, but the sad thing is that I just lost my phone on Friday and it had all my pictures in it! I had pictures of them on Halloween and Bailey getting her teeth done and all kinds of fun stuff. I had it in the pocket of my jacket when we dropped Bailey off at a Brownie camp out, and then when we drove off in the golf cart, Landon got in my lap and started bouncing around. When we got home it wasn't in my pocket anymore and I went back looking for it and calling it but I never did find it. I should be getting a new one in the mail today, but in the mean time my blog has very few pictures in it.
I did take some of Landon playing basketball in the parking lot of the church while we waited for Bailey to be finished with her choir rehearsals. Bailey is going to be in a Christmas program sometime in December so I'll be sure to get some shots of that for later. Anyway, after Landon's incident in PE his teacher lets him do what the class is doing or just play basketball, and I hear that he chooses basketball every time. He's getting pretty good at it. I say we mold this skill since he's already super tall and we may be looking at a boy that's going to get up to 6 foot 5 someday. Ben's brothers are about that height, so I say let him play basketball all his wants!




Here are some pictures that I took with my phone that I did get uploaded before I lost my phone. I did post most of these on Facebook but I'm going to go ahead and post them here too because I really love them!



This is Devon running in this shot







I'll be taking more pictures as soon as I get my new phone in the mail. This blog post was a litte disorganized but I didn't have one specific story that I wanted to tell. I am truthfully stalling and doing whatever I can to keep from doing to work that I need to do. This is the last month of my last semester and I have tons of projects, papers, case studies, observation reports, and exams coming up in the next few weeks. I may end up posting more now that I'm super busy just because I need to take breaks now and then. I'll try to make my next post more interesting, but for now, lets all be appreciative that my post was fairly tame. I know I am!

The Adventures of Landon in PE

It's been quite a while since I've had an instalment of "The McArthur Tales" that was an actual story of a crazy situation that one of the kids has thrown us into. It's been quite pleasant to have some slow blog days, but alas, I now have new blog material. I am calm enough now to be able to blog about it without taking on an angry tone, and I can even see a bit of humor in it now that it's resolved.
As we know, Landon is in a regular kindergarten classroom this year, and he has lots of help and even his own special ed parapro in the room that is specially assigned to him. They all love him and think he's really sweet, and he's had next to no problems at all so far. Our problems originate from the fact that once a day Landon goes to specials, like music, PE, or art, and no parapro or anyone accompanies him. Despite this fact, he has had no issues up until now.
Our story begins on August 31st, yes, Bailey's birthday. I pulled up and picked the kids up from school and we happily chatted all the way home about all the fun birthday things that Bailey did that day. I was blissfully ignorant of the note in Landon's backpack that would bring my good mood to a screeching halt and throw the next two days into almost constant worry and stress.
When we got home I pulled out the kids' folders that have their "choice cards" that report their behavior for the day, and I got a pen out to initial them so I could put them away and start making them a snack. When I pulled out Landon's choice card, I saw that an extra note was included in the folder that appeared to be from his PE teacher. As I pulled it out and read it, my eyes got bigger and my mouth fell open as my eyes went down the page. To make a relatively long and silly story short, the kids had been playing on scooter boards in PE that day. I wasn't quite sure what exactly one was, so here is a picture of some just so that you get the idea.

The kids sit on them and push themselves around the room with their feet. Apparently they were playing some kind of game on them that day, and during a pause in the game, Landon decided to pick his up and throw it in the air! It came down and hit another kid in the head and that kid had to be taken to the clinic and put under watch in case they needed to call 911 for a concussion. The PE teacher was nearly irate and this is part of the note that he sent home in Landon's backpack.

If you want to read it, it should get bigger when you click on it.
Anyway, it pretty much says that Landon's behavior was dangerous and unacceptable and he was not sure if Landon would be able to come back to PE. He says he can't risk the safety of the other students whether Landon intentionally hurt someone or not. He says he even called the principal down to deal with Landon.
I have to say that I was so mad that I about hit the roof! Yes, it was dangerous, and no he shouldn't have done it, and it's terrible that another kid got hurt, but this guy totally overreacted and handled this all wrong. Landon has an IEP that says that he is unpredictable and tends to do things like this, which is why he has a special parapro in his room with him. He doesn't have one during PE because the teachers all take a break while the kids are in specials. If Landon is in a big room with two or three other kindergarten classes, and he ends up doing one of the silly things that he tends to do, I do NOT want him getting into that kind of trouble and then having a scathing, almost threatening note sent home about it! If you have a problem with him, you call his special ed teacher who knows him and knows how to handle him. You do NOT yell at him and then call the principal down to yell at him some more like he's a normal kid that's just misbehaving! Landon really didn't know he was being dangerous and probably didn't even know why everyone was yelling at him.

So, I spent the rest of Bailey's birthday writing emails and making phone calls to get this addressed. His teacher said she understood why I was so upset, and she forwarded my letter to the principal who promptly called me the next morning. She was VERY sweet about it and said that Landon will not be taken out of PE. She had ideas about how to modify the activities for him so that he was still included but didn't have anything in his hands that could potentially hurt someone if thrown. I asked her if the PE teacher even knew if Landon was Autistic because the letter was worded so strongly that I thought he must now know. She said she hadn't seen the note and wasn't sure what it said, so I read it to her. She was apologetic and sweet and assured me it would all be taken care of with no problem and that he would be most welcome back to PE on Thursday.
So Thursday he had PE again, and I was really nervous that something would go wrong! I could just see Landon acting up because he had a bad experience there the last time, and I wouldn't have put it past the PE teacher to find an excuse to send Landon out of the class.
I picked them up from school and I went straight for Landon's backpack as soon as we walked in the door. He had a note from his teacher that said that he'd had a great day in PE that day, but also I had this note from his PE teacher.


I just started to laugh when I saw this! All I could think was that this guy was suddenly backpedaling pretty fast and trying to kiss by butt. I wondered if after I read his letter to the principal she went down and jumped onto him for shooting off a letter like that to the parent of a special needs child. The truth is that he didn't follow proper protocol for dealing with an autistic student, and I bet the principal was angry that she was having to clean up his mess, because truthfully, if I was that kind of parent, I could have made a pretty big deal out of this. I do appreciate him giving Landon a chance to still play and have a good time, and I like that he was willing to turn around and say how well Landon did right after he had been so mean.
And so, as night fell on the land, the angry mother was appeased, the little prince was happy, and all was forgiven. A lesson was learned by the new PE teacher, and the school's principal became intimately acquainted with little prince Landon and would be on the lookout for him for the rest of his days at the school. A trying experience turned out to be a learning experience for all, and they felt better prepared for whatever might lie ahead.
Stay tuned for the next installment of many to come.