Today in my DSs class...

[Brightsy]

...I volunteered to do some story-time for the class.
Since it's Autism Awareness month and my DS happens to have autism I thought today would be a good oppurtunity to dole out a little education.
My DS is in a gen ed. classroom and is taken to a resource room for most of his subjects. This way he gets some valuable social-time w/ his peers and still get the curriculum he needs to do well.
Anyways... It started off with my DS introducing me to the class.
"Ewvwyone! Dis is my Sara!" (He's always called my Mommy until then.)
"I wuv her a wot." He said (cue silly smile and choked up-edness) "She tell stowy, wike BAD KITTY!" (This last was announced, with raised arms.)
Then he wandered off and had to be redirected by his aide.
I started by asking the kids to raise their hand if they'd heard of Autism. About 5 kids raised their hands. There were about 17 kids there today. So, I used my favorite go-to description. "We are PCs and Vinny is a Mac." They got that.
The first story I shared w/ them was "Different Like Me (a book about my Autism heroes)"
They were impressed to learn about the different people we think had autism. Like Einstein, Newton, Warhol. I told them about Dr. Grandin. They all asked some pretty intelligent questions and made some good observations about how some of things I talked about applied to my son.
I asked them if they thought my DS had any skills he was really good at. They all wanted to tell me something! Pretty much they all said the same thing, "He's good at art!" Then one boy said "He's funny too!"
It was a good little session.
Then I got into serious story time! I must have read 5 books (they gave me a whole hour w/ the kids!)
I've been asked to come back soon and read more. They also want to know more about the places I've been (being an Army brat/vet/wife and now a wife of a retired soldier I've been a lot of places...some exotic). They want to know more about autism, too, they told me. One girl said that she hopes my son is in her class next year because she wants to help him learn to be more happy in "our world" and so she can learn to see "his world." (She was definitely one of the more perceptive kids there today.)
One girl had to leave early and she was not happy about that. I promised her she could sit next to me for the first story next time.
I had a blast and the kids did too. DS was bursting w/ happiness and pride as his classmates told him that he had an "awesome Mom!" Made me pretty happy to hear that too.

 

[Tiggerish]

What a wonderful day you had. I was so happy to read such a upbeat posting. I hope you have many more.

 

[WeCantWait]

Awwwww, loved reading about your day! What a beautiful gift you were able to give to your son and his classmates. Very touching!

 

[bookwormde]

Wow, all we need is about a million more moms like you, to change the world.

bookwormde

 

[rodeo65]

That is fantastic!! It's also great that they gave you so much time to cover everything you wanted to with the kids.

 

[kirbydog48]

It's so great to tell kids the truth. They respond in amazing ways.

 

[C&G'sMama]

That's great. Kids are so good, especially if we tell them what's going on.

Talking about being perceptive. We were at a sledding party back in January and DD9 says, "who was the boy that's like G (DS6 aspergers)". "What do you mean?" "You know, has autism like my brother." The kid she was referring to is the 8yo nephew of a friend of ours. She has been telling us for 2 years that she think this kid is on the spectrum. DD knew nothing of this and this is the first time any of us have seen this kid in 5 years.

Parents are in denial but are finally getting testing for ADD, I think, through the school.

But a 9yo who doesn't know this kid before and has no pre-conceived idea picked up on it.

 

[blessedmom4]

LOVE your post, Thanks for sharing!!!