Getting Ready

It has been a busy few days here. Tomorrow is our big meeting regarding Sam's Individual Educational Plan (IEP). I am anxious about the meeting, but I feel confident about our position and my ability to explain it. Hopefully it will go smoothly. We decided to get Sam a Mac Book (laptop), and we'll probably go get it tomorrow night. The new laptop will be for work only. Not sure yet whether he will take it to school or not, but at home he will work and communicate with a combination of the iPod and laptop. We already scoped it out at the Apple store, so it should be pretty easy. I have already purchased software for it. One out of the three that I want. The last two will require a phone call and receipt of the discount voucher from the Dr./SLP (speech and language pathologist) we took Sam to last week. I also ordered Sam a new hammock swing that fits in the doorway with a pull-up/support bar. That we can put it in his room, but we can also take it with us. Lastly, I got a timer clock to help Sam keep track of time and activities when he is doing work at home. I haven't figured out how I am going to get/make a Velcro board for First/Then cards to help him know the order of what we are going to do. I want to figure out an activity schedule for the afternoon , a group of short activities that he can accomplish by himself, as well as some work that will be rewarded by edibles and free computer/TV time. So that's my plan for my role as Sam's newest therapist. I really want him to work on typing to help facilitate communication.

The other big project is reorganizing the toys in the playroom and redoing the shelves. So Mom and I went to the Container Store today and I got a whole bunch of mesh wire baskets in various sizes and we filled every one of them. Of course, the basement is now a disaster, as we can't put the baskets back on the shelves until everything is done. And house projects tend to go slow here due to the small people who run our household. But, we have begun. And we got rid of several boxes of old toys that nobody plays with anymore. Now we just have to actually get rid of them...