fighting the good fight...and losing

As you know my 8 yearold son is a high functioning autistic, he has been to 5 different schools and is only in the 2 grade, he repeted kindergarden, we have fought every school he has been to and lost every year and he has suffered because of it, he started out this year not doing to bad, but the stress is getting to him and his education is suffering because he cannot get the help he needs, it looks like we are going to lose again, he doesnt qualify because some jerk psycologist hired by the last two schools has decided that my sons condition is brought on by a chaotic home life and incosistant parenting, hes never even spoken to us personally and knows nothing of our home life, but the school says that although my son qualifies under the medical model he doesnt qualify under the school model, 3 doctors, an ot therapist, a pt therapist, a pscological therapist, they are all aparently wrong accoding to the school, and our pacer advocate says unfortunatly it is legal for them to go by their own psycologist, so while i am fighting the good fight with them my son is falling further behind, sitting in his desk with his hands in his lap not sure how to approach the teacher to tell her he didnt get a paper. I dont know where to go from here, we've tryed private schools, we've tryed 4 public schools, we've tryed home bounding with a public school teacher which worked, but was only allowed as a temporary fix so he didnt have to go to a new school in the last 4 weeks of the year, he did wonderfully during that time though, but i thought about homeschooling him myself, but i would be robbing him of his social experiance, but his social experience wont be a good one if he is 10 years old and still in the second grade either, and it isnt fair to him to lose out on so much either way, is it possible to have him go to a half day of school to get his social time and structured learning environment then do the other half at home so that i know all of his work is completed to the best of his ability without too much stress???are there any other options, we live in the country and there arent any autism centers in the area. I have no idea where to turn, I tryed the ausm site but couldnt find much help there, anyone know any other help places or resources besides pacer and ausm? post avice here or share your story.

finding serenity in everyday people

finding serenity in everyday people There are people in this world that go about life seeing everything as they want to see it and nothing as it is, they believe they have no reason to find sernity, we call these people........"ignorant"........there is a solid differance between being nieve and being ignorant and a solid differance between being ignorant and being a dreamer, a dreamer knows how the world is in its darkest places and hopes it will change to their liking, a nieve person hasn't had the oportunity to learn what the world is like, an ignorant person pretends to be blind to what is right before them but in truth is hiding their eyes in hopes that the scary truth will be gone if they just tell themselves long enough that it is. There are then those of us who see the world for exactly what it, who have felt it through their own experiences, we do not like it all but relish in the beauty we find in the small occurances of everyday life and are grateful for them, and do what we can in our own little ways to make changes in the areas that just dont work with our visions of paridise, it is not perfect but it is a way to find serenity in everyday people and everyday places. which one are you?

Welcome everyone!!!

I am really excited about this, I hope it will somehow benifet all who join the conversation. here is a little bit about me... I live in Minnesota. We live on a small farm which we just purchased about 6 months ago.My husband and I have 5 children living at home, he has one who just turned 18 and is on her own, the other kids are a 3 year old boy(early onset bipolar),a 6 year old girl, an 8 year old boy, another 8 yearold boy(pdd and aspergers),and a 10 year old boy. We've all done alot of learning and work to build thid farm in less than a year, but theres still alot we dont know and have new questions everyday, we raise dairy goats,meat goats, and potbellied pigs, and will be purchasing poultry in the spring among other additions. I am severly bipolar though I try very hard to stay on medecation in hopes that I have a better chance of keeping things under control. one of the 8 yearolds and the 10 year old have a birth mom who seems to believe that her mission in life is to make their lives as well as mine a living hell. My other 8 year old being on the autism spectum has had a rough road of it, 5 schools later and only in the 2 grade we are still fighting everyday in hopes that he may someday have a chance at a decent education. my daught was born prematurly and being the only girl at home is the center of everyones attention. My 3 year old has just been diagnosed this year and not a moment to soon, when your 3 yearold pulls his own hair out at the root and pinches himself to the blood and noone outside the family sees a problem, you start to question your own sanity or your own motherhood abilities. The name of my farm is serenity acres and the name of this blog is finding serenity because that is what I'm seeking in most areas of my life. Since I don't work I spend alot of time alone with the kids so I figured this is a good way to get some adult interaction, hope to hear from some one soon.