For those new to this website:
Tamara Rubin is a multiple-Federal-award-winning independent advocate for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety, and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children (two of her sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005). Since 2009, Tamara has been using XRF technology (a scientific method used by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission) to test consumer goods for toxicants (specifically heavy metals — including Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Antimony, and Arsenic). All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable. Items are tested multiple times to confirm the test results for each component tested. Tamara’s work was featured in Consumer Reports Magazine in February of 2023 (March 2023 print edition).
Monday — August 28, 2023
First day of …
… nothing.
Just another day!
Maybe should be high school?
I dunno (lost track)!
He turned 15 in July.
–
This season is just one time of the year when many moms of disabled kids feel left out … all this back-to-school nonsense.
–
I don’t think most of you know how lucky you are to have found a school for your child. The schools in Portland, Oregon suck and their disability accommodations are “bottom of the barrel” (& actually verging on abuse in many cases — if not outright actual abuse).
–
Do you have children with disabilities (from Lead poisoning, or otherwise)?
Where do they go to school?
Is it a good fit?
Are they learning?
Are they happy?
Important context: Charlie really WANTS to be in school, but cannot fit within any program — so instead, I dedicate 100% of my time to
#WorldSchooling this boy and giving him everything I can. He’s brilliant, but he misses the social community that would come with attending a neighborhood school (which we tried) … and it just breaks my heart.
~ End ~
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That’s sad. Sounds like you’re a really good mom. I don’t think schools are good anywhere anymore. This is a crazy world we live in. I wish you and your family the best
I don’t know what’s available out where you are. I homeschooled my daughter who has dyslexia for four years Grades 5 – 8) and I have one serious regret about that. I was so worried about flaking off on the academics that I stuck strictly to a very structured curriculum (we used Calvert Verticy for the first two years and regular Calvert after that – with a test that we sent in for grading every 20 lessons). I had tutors that worked with her six hours a day. And I was taking her to Kumon besides. I tried to provide socialization by taking her to after-school activities (dance classes and performances, musical theater class, piano lessons), but it didn’t work really well. I did feel that she was good at socializing, but really need an academic foundation to function later in life. But, in retrospect, I should have stuck to the curriculum for the Reading/Writing/Math, but not worried about the other stuff (history, science) and instead joined up with other homeschoolers for more socializing and fun activities. I don’t know if anything like that is available out where you are or if it would even be appropriate at your son’s age. But it could be worth checking into. Out here, there are groups that seem to meet up for all kinds of activities, academic and not (my daughter couldn’t go since we had the six hour a day rigid schedule, which is what I regret). There are a lot of museums and parks and so on that seem to cater to those groups (weekday events during the day). Also three years would probably have been enough, but we couldn’t figure out where to send her after home schooling (that’s a whole other story). Amazingly enough, she’s in college now and doing really well. They do evolve over time….
I am from Canada, so I don’t know if the schools have gotten as bad in the United States as they have in Canada. I would like my daughter to take my grandchildren out of school and home school them. This summer, my 9 year old granddaughter told me that she has unicorns on her classroom walls and she doesn’t like them because they have a cover over their private parts that you can lift up. She told me that her teacher says that you are special if you are a unicorn. My granddaughter asked me why her teacher doesn’t want her to just be a girl and then she told me that she just wants to be a girl. My 12 year old granddaughter who was listening to my conversation with her sister, added that her teacher told the class, that now that the girls are 12 years old, it is legal for them to have sex with 17 year old boys. She also told me that they took her into a room by herself and told her that they would not tell her parents about their conversation. My granddaughter told me that they asked her if she was attracted to girls and also if she felt that she might be a boy in a girls body. My granddaughter then said to me “Nana, I’m just a kid”. I told my daughter about my conversation with my granddaughters and asked if she talked to the principle about what is being said to her children and she told me that you can’t say anything or they go after you. She told me that she is talking with the girls and they know to talk to her about the upsetting things that they are hearing at school and that she is considering home schooling. School is not what it use to be, so I don’t think it is a good place for any child.
That’s awful and so sad. I remember when teachers had good morals and were really nice people. That was a long time ago. So sorry you’re granddaughters are going through this.