Dear Noah....school is out again today.....

We have had a lot of ICE and some snow...so they have closed the school the last 2 days! You are happy because you can stay in your pajamas all day and play computer games and eat cookies.

I found out today however that because we have had so many bad weather days.....your school will be requiring the students to report to school at least 2 of those days the week you were originally scheduled to be off for spring break. ..to MAKE UP "calamity days."

I imagine some parents will be ticked about that while others happy. I guess we will go with the flow on this because in reality if we are not going anywhere like on a vacation....you will still be out 5 days and that is good.....though one of those days you now have to go to school I would have also been off work and could have done something with you.

In social skills group Monday you talked about family and love. You brought home gift certificates you had made in class. One for me for McDonalds on Saturday, one for to send for your dad for a visit....and one for your Grandma C. for a party/visit. You wanted to have a Valentine's party on Sunday but it is too short notice now and the weather up here has been really bad. So another time perhaps.

You also had to write down someone you love but have not yet met. I thought it sweet you wrote down the name of a man who also has autism...who lives in Arizona...who is also really into trains that you correspond with. In fact, you have told me many times you want to go live with this man...or live closer to where he lives.....but this is only because of your common interest in trains and train signals and crossings.

You have been watching a "little brown boy" as you call this African-American boy on You Tube who also records his own THOMAS the Tank Engine videos. You informed me the other day you needed to find out his email address and full name and address because you needed to go spend at least a week at his house to show him how to record videos...etc. I thought that was cute too.

Meanwhile I am trying to find out from the school why you are getting the lowest scores sometimes on classwork assignments. Sometimes you are not even getting credit for them at all. I know a couple were during absences....but I wonder if some were because you are being yanked from the classroom sometimes to meet your IEP requirements/goals. If so, this is not to be interfering with your academics in any way and I have really laid the law down on that I think. I hope.

ALSO, if you are doing poorly in class when you are actually there I really need to know why. Because you have a helper who is there for you specifically to help address these things. IS SHE there helping you? You are even to have a "scribe" if need be on tests and quizzes so you can do better since you have difficulty still with writing your answers. You also sometimes need extra help understanding directions or more time to complete an assignment. Are you being punished basically because they are not doing things correctly? I do hope and pray this is not what I find out has been the case..but I find it rather odd you are scoring much lower for classwork areas than anywhere else...and that needs to obviously be addressed and corrected if need be. I emailed your teacher and also sent a copy to the principal.

I imagine they are pretty sick of me by now by someone has to be your advocate.

I love you Noah......here's to another snow day!

Mommy
XOXOX