That's a wrap, folks!! (cue the music!) A huge THANK YOU to Naples High School for letting us come and invade their school. What an amazing group of students!! A And Monica Morgan Rodriguez for organizing it all! And of course the amazing Enjoying the Small Things - Kelle Hampton for bringing her creativity, talent [...]
"At the end of the day, you realize that YOU are your kid's best advocate. There will be resistance, setbacks and disappointments, but more than anyone it is us, the parents, who know what our kids are capable of and how they learn best. Follow your heart, keep your expectations high and keep on doing [...]
I know we have been talking a lot this month about the importance of being included in an educational setting and how it benefits everyone. And while I certainly feel that is a very important piece to the puzzle, I have also been asked several times about how hard/much we work with Ruby at home, [...]
Shanika Bonipart is a student at Winthrop University in the Winthrop Think College program. It was her dream to live on campus and now she does with her roommate Jasmine!! Her current favorite class is entrepreneurship because one day she would like to own her own business. She is very involved with her campus church, [...]
"If you choose to separate them, they don't get the opportunity to learn from each other. And that's what we do in life, we learn from each other."
Educators and researchers are still discovering the full educational potential of people with Down syndrome which is another great reason why inclusion is so important. Ruby blows me away on a daily basis with the new things she is learning (and I have high expectations!). It may look a little different than the work of [...]
Ok peeps...if you do anything today, take one minute to watch Ruby and Fiona's "Secret Handshake" in this video clip. And then watch my sweet Ella Mae pour her heart out to her mama. I think a lot of parents when they get a diagnosis of Down syndrome worry about the effect it may have [...]
We had Ruby's Pre-ARD Meeting last week, and these meetings can make even the most calm, cool and collected of peeps anxious. An ARD meeting is where you come together with your child's "team" at school and set the goals for the year that help guide them in the Individual Educational Plan (IEP) for the [...]
The first 2 years of formal school, Andrea Scott had a speech goal of making 2 - 4 word utterances and in later grades, her dad was told he must "understand his child may never comprehend the concept in math of more or less." Her dad insisted on full inclusion every step of the way. [...]
I asked my amazing mama friend Heather Avis to write me a little story of inclusion for this month...and OH MY MAMA'S HEART, you guys Please take a few minutes to read: This is a truth I know to be true: inclusion matters and inclusion is important for everyone. My daughter is in third grade [...]
