Angela Moore

This article may of be insterest to you if you have a child that has sensory issues. Even if you do not fall in that category,there are many other potential ramifications if legislation is passed to remove sales of incandescent light bulbs. Please check out this article for additional information and then sign the petition if you feel you agree.

Potential to eliminate incandescent bulbs and only use fluorescent lighting

I saw an email recently from our local Tucson Autism and Asperger’s group (TAFA) where someone is starting a Legos club for our kids. What a great idea. You may want to look into seeing if there is a club in your area. Here is another article that I came across recently that shows how successful Legos are in helping build creativity and social skills.

My son starting playing with Legos about a year and a half ago when he was 8. It was actually at the suggestion of our psychiatrist when he told us about Applied Behavioral Therapy and how it can help kids. By letting your child be in charge just for 5 minutes a day it can make a lot of difference. The Dr. mentioned that it had to be with unstructured play and recommended something like Legos. It has been a huge hit in my house ever since.

I saw an email recently from our local Tucson Autism and Asperger’s group (TAFA) where someone is starting a Legos club for our kids. What a great idea. You may want to look into seeing if there is a club in your area. Here is another article that I came across recently that shows how successful Legos are in helping build creativity and social skills

Children with autism build creativity and social skills with Legos

If you have a great story about Legos and your child, please share it.

My son has been having his best year ever at school. He is in 5th grade now and I had the first parent-teacher meeting last week. I was so thrilled to see he had 80 and 90% plus in all areas with the exception of reading comprehension. And his spelling is not great but they are not starting him off with any modification like they did last year. In fourth grade he was able to do the third grade words with tips. Now he has jumped to fifth grade words without yet mastering the 4th grade list. I did have him study the 4th grade list over the summer but I think he still needs to have a modification there this year and the teachers seem open to that if he doesn’t improve in the next week or so.

I feel very fortunate with my son attending the school he is in now. Even though AZ is at the bottom of the barrel education wise, he does seem to have a set of educators that care about him. Perhaps it is his sweet and kind nature at school. As long as he has taken his meds he is not bouncing off the walls although he does still have his fidgetiness and sometimes his attention span is an issue but they seem to be able to pull him back in.
I received an email today from the local Autism society on something I hadn’t seen before – at least it is not in my array of saved sites for resources so I thought I would share it. It’s regarding the Response to Intervention Research, the RTI Action Network. Here is the synopsis of the email I received and the link to the site. Would love to get any feedback on this.

“Before making decisions, is your school able to show you your child’s response to their interventions (RTI) on academics and behavior?
Where should your child’s intervention fall? Within Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3?

Great articles on this state-of-the-art model that seeks to leave No Learning-Style Left Behind:”

RTI in schools: Response to Intervention

I decided to start my own marketing company and it has been great but there is a lot of work involved. I offered my daughter a partnership and she quit her job to work with me. The biggest issue is time. I do have a contract position with another company that is trying to launch a new product so that keeps me busy a well.

My new company is Six Degrees SEO. I have a degree in marketing and I have always wanted to have my own business and help others. I help business dominate Google and generate leads and customers. I absolutely love helping small businesses so this has been very rewarding. If you know any local business that needs help, please feel free to send them my info. I do offer a $100 referral fee to anyone who sends me a client that hires me

So here are some tips if you want to get a business started but have limited time:
1) Find a partner you can trust who compliments your skill set. If each of you are great at the same thing and not so great at the same thing, it will not be much help. If you don’t want a partner then I suggest outsourcing the work you don’t want to do or aren’t so good at but that will cost you some money.
2) Offer a referral fee to people you know. Put your announcement up on FaceBook, LinkedIn and even send out an email message.
3) Be prepared to sacrifice. If you are already working and want to launch a business of your own, you will have to devote time each day and week to get your business up and running. You don’t want to get burnt out so stick with a plan that is doable for you.
4) Don’t expect results overnight. Give yourself time to learn and then once you have a good handle on things, give yourself another 90 days and reassess at that point. If what you are doing is working, keep it up. If you not getting results, make a change.
5) Don’t forget to have a plan. I keep a weekly planner and stick to that as close as possible so that we can keep on track.
6) Always be learning. There are so many tips and tricks available. Try and find what applies to your industry and sign up for some newsletters and to some Blog feeds and try to learn something from everyone. Check out YouTube for videos as well.

That’s it for now. I’ll be posting once a week for a while as my blog is one thing that I will have to sacrifice at the moment. I am giving my blog a facelift actually. I also chose to do away with my home based business opportunity and some of the previous categories I had. I really want to focus on my business and things that make more sense to me for now. Sometime this week I hope to get my banner changed on my blog but it’s not a huge priority at the moment. Thanks for taking the time to read this post and if you have some advice for those starting a business, please leave some comments

There is an upcoming webinar for social skills and friendship:
Facilitating Social Skills And Friendships: Working One on One With Students With Autism
Tue., Sep. 14, 2010 4:00PM – 5:00PM ET
According to The Council For Exceptional Children this webinar will focus on strategies to aid paraeducators and other educators in enhancing the social skills of students with autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities. Specific attention will be given to friendship facilitation strategies which can help or hinder friendship opportunities and development in inclusive K-12 classrooms.

Sign up for the webinar or get more info

I read an article today fromthe Citizen Times in Asheville, NC about a boarding school that is available for kids 12-20 years old. I love the fact that there are more and more resources for kids with special needs but for me personally, I would be very sad to send my son off to boarding school. He is only 10 now and my views on that may change as he gets older. He is still afraid to do things with other people as it is but we are working on that.

If you want to read the article you can find it here:
New boarding school in Hendersonville offers students with Asperger’s, autism a chance by Sandra Rodriguez

It has been almost a week since my last post and my blog must be wondering why I have ignored it . Actually I have been experiencing computer issues (heavy sigh). I finally decided to go and get a new system and I have not been happy with Windows Vista, or my Dell, since I purchased it last May. Usually I get a new computer about every three years and the one previous to the last I kept for 5 years, the Sony Vaio was my favorite computer of all time. We’ll see how this new HP stacks up. It’s the all in one with Windows 7 and I spent until 9:30 last night getting this system set up and most of my programs installed and then swapping out my son’s computer (the Sony), for my last system (the Dell which I had repaired before giving it to him).

I have to say as much as I love getting a new computer, I hate setting them up. Backing up all my files (which I should do more often anyway), gathering all my programs and registration keys and passwords – ugh what a chore. Plus we ended up getting new tv’s as well since we got such great deals and my daughter had the dinosaur tv from 2002 BD it is her 21st birthday in about 5 weeks. So new tv’s to set up and move the old ones. New computer to set up plus get one fixed and then set up for my son. I’m exhausted. I feel as though I’ve had no rest this weekend.

Single parents pretty much have to do things on their own, especially when they can’t find any helpers. We thought we were going to have to replace the garbage disposal too but after a trip to Home Depot and making new friend who helped me realize I just needed to unclog mine (nice $100 savings there), that was a relief. Still we found we have calcium build up in the bathroom and will have to replace the toilets – oh joy. But also found that Home Depot has a” How To” tab on their website (great for people like me). The woman I met is also in charge of the Do It Herself Workshops, which I am anxious to sign up for and attend.

I just purchased my first house two years ago and there are still some things that I need to do. I’m about half way done with what I wanted to fix and change and have had a handyman helper most of the time. But I have to say I am quite excited about learning how to do it on my own. It’s not that I enjoy it so much but it gives me a sense of empowerment to not have to always need someone else to fix things for me. So let me encourage you, if you have stuff you need to fix, head on over to Home Depot and see just how eager they are to assist you. Oh and I entered the contest so maybe I’ll even win the $5000 gift card – now that would be sweet!

What a wonderful time of year, back to school. My 10 year old son went back to school this Monday, August 9th. He was nervous at first but loves 5th grade already. He is getting to be one of the big fish now. We found out who his teacher was about a month before school started and found out his best friend is in his class again this year. They are two peas in a pod. His friend is also in his resource class as well, although I do not know what the other boy’s diagnosis is, he did not know what Asperger’s was so we know it’s not that.

So now we are back to the routine that we follow in the morning. Being a single parent, I have to handle all the preparations before school, homework help and getting ready for bed at night. [...]

Ready to shoot for a new fundraiser? Why not try a basketball tournament. You can charge an entrance fee or you can offer up advertising from local and national sporting goods stores or apparel. Anyone who may want to sponsor your event. Give the winning team a portion of the funds that you raise and perhaps a nice trophy. You can make it an annual event and as the years progress, I’m sure you’ll get more sponsors as well and more entrants.

You’ll be promoting healthy physical fitness in your community as well as raise awareness for your organization. You can offer food and beverages, as well as a schedule of when teams play and if there are enough teams that would require more than one day of play, you can offer additional advertising on each or your program schedules. Advertising does not have to be limited to sporting companies so be sure to offer up to any type of organization that is looking to get exposure to this type of target market. Think healthy food and drinks, fitness clubs, personal trainers and even sports camps for kids.

There is no limit on what you can achieve. If basketball won’t suit your area, try volleyball, ping pong or even horse shoes. Whatever you feel would bring in the most entrants and sponsors in your area is what you should try. If you try this, or have tried it, please let me know how it works out for you.

This story was just too good not to share. It reminded me of when my daughter was six years old and tried to make breakfast in bed for her dad and I. She decided she would make chocolate scrambled eggs – doesn’t that sound interesting. I wasn’t brave enough and told my husband he had to try that gourmet meal. Looking back I wish I would have eaten it all and told her what a fabulous chef she was. I did thank her though.

MAKING PANCAKES
Six year old Brandon decided one Saturday morning to fix his parents pancakes.

He found a big bowl and spoon, pulled a chair to the counter, opened the cupboard and pulled out the heavy flour canister, spilling it on the floor.

He scooped some of the flour into the bowl with his hands, mixed in most of a cup of milk and added some sugar, leaving a floury trail on the floor which by now had a few tracks left by his kitten. [...]