Greetings Everyone -

Well it has been just about a month since my last newsletter and a little longer since the last article. Life has been hectic in my home. During this time we visited the middle school for an orientation meeting, I went on a tour another day and sat in on a classroom, had Nicholas's triennial IEP, an amended IEP for comp time for SLP for Matthew, attended a due process committee meeting, a parent union community meeting to get sixth grade back into the elementary schools, had the Developmental Pediatrician here for a home visit and decided to homeschool Nicholas for sixth grade.

There is not much information around on homeschooling children with autism in middle school. I bought a few books, joined some groups and hope to have a compilation of some resources in the very near future.

Matthew's school is going from year round to a traditional calendar year next year as he enters the fifth grade. This means three weeks of summer after the camp ends instead of just a few days. We will be asking for more hours of Floor Time to keep up Matthew's routine. I will also be doing a pro and con list for homeschooling as I gather all my information.

Nicholas turns twelve next week and puberty is setting in - he has become very moody. He enjoyed watching a Wallace and Grommitt movie today and will watch Flushed Away tomorrow. He already got his new Gameboy Advance PC and is busy playing with his new Pokemon Game. I picked up a science item for him at Toys R Us and a computer system that teaches social studies, foreign language and other subjects to help the learning process.

We got two items I had purchased from Flaghouse for Matthew and his floortime therapist has brought many new items, so this means toy reviews are forthcoming. Anyone have any feedback on homeschooling feel free to send me a note with any links or resources. A neighbor also asked me to do a character reference letter for her for a court proceeding with another neighbor. Several years ago I needed letters from therapists, teacher, Dr and other professionals to make sure the supervised visits continued with the father. Here is a great website that has sample letters for any reason:

http://www.boxfreeconcepts.com/reco/

Don't forget that tomorrow night (SUN 18th) is the MTV show True life series with the topic on autism. Looks like it airs at 9 pm for one hour, but check website or your tv guide for local times.

http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/truelife/series.jhtml

Here's the latest two articles from the Autism Spectrum Disorders site at BellaOnline.com.

Autism Products for April Awareness Month
Here is a summary of the autism awareness products I have purchased for April 2007.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art49952.asp

All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art49950.asp


Please visit http://AutismSpectrumDisorders.bellaonline.com for even more great content about Autism Spectrum Disorders.

To participate in free, fun online discussions, this site has a community forum all about Autism Spectrum Disorders located here -

http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=365

I hope to hear from you sometime soon, either in the forum or in response to this email message. I thrive on your feedback!

Have fun passing this message along to family and friends, because we all love free knowledge!

Bonnie Sayers, Autism Spectrum Disorders Editor
http://AutismSpectrumDisorders.bellaonline.com

One of hundreds of sites at BellaOnline.com