• adaptive ski
    active family travel - family - family travel - FASD - parenting - special needs - Travel

    Adaptive Ski Programs for People with Disabilities

    January 10, 2017 - By 

    Children with special needs face challenges that other kids don’t. Whether their disability is physical, mental or neurological, children and adults with special needs require extra support with certain activities. Many ski resorts are getting excellent at meeting this need. I have seen some adaptive ski programs at family friendly resorts like Smugglers’ Notch in action. Some are super impressive so I thought I would share a list for families like ours. Adaptive Skiing Shines at These Ski Resorts Children and adults with special needs face barriers too many places still. So when I find a resource with adaptive or inclusive programs sometimes…

  • brain facts
    family - FASD - Health - parenting

    5 Brain Facts You Might Not Know #YOTB

    June 3, 2015 - By 

    5 Brain Facts You Might not Know Did you know the human brain is still largely not understood? Scientists know the basics of how it works and what the different lobes do, but that knowledge is a drop in the bucket compared to the ocean of what they don’t know. Did you know it’s the Year of the Brain? [tweetthis]DYK it’s the Year of the Brain? #health[/tweetthis] The brain is a fascinating topic matter and a new frontier where scientists and systems need to concentrate more research and health policy initiatives in future. From FASD (fetal alcohol spectrum disorder to…

  • FASD - Health - Parenting - special needs

    It’s almost Back to School Time. Hold Me.

    August 22, 2014 - By 

      shutterstock Is that the sound of my sanity snapping? I think it could be. Here I am ALMOST at the end of August. In denial? Sure. Freaking out? Absolutely. WHERE DID MY SUMMER GO? So here it is, almost back to school time. The most wonderful time of the year. Right? RIGHT?? You know that commercial with the “That Was Easy” theme. Press a button and send them back to school with new supplies and then do a little happy jig that summer is over. Well, I kind of wish they had a version of that for special needs…

  • FASD - Health - Parenting - special needs

    What Pride Looks Like: On Report Cards, Respect and #specialneeds

    June 27, 2014 - By 

    Think they don’t care much about what is written on report cards? Think that little people are oblivious to how the teacher sees them and feels about them? Words matter, and never more so than when someone is assessing a child with special needs after a year of school. This is our first experience with a really accepting and lovely teacher who clearly understood and liked my youngest daughter. I am driving both my kids to Build-A-Bear to celebrate their last day of school when the little one cracks open her report card and starts reading it word for word.…

  • FASD - Health - parenting - special needs

    The Good News/ Bad News Week and #Giveaways

    September 27, 2013 - By 

    Shutterstock images This was an oddball week. A dog’s breakfast really. My kitchen is done. Stay tuned for the reveal. It looks great. So Yay! I had a stager come and look at our house to see what needs to be done. Boo. Not suprisingly she loved the new kitchen. Yay. And hated everything else. Boo. Just kidding. She didn’t really say that. I mean she’d not have many clients if she did, right? So painting and decluttering has become my life. Yay! I mean Boo! I had a pile of giveaways launched and a pile more coming next week.…

  • Back To School - FASD - Parenting - special needs

    Bittersweet August Algebra #specialneeds

    September 2, 2013 - By 

    August is the strangest month if you parent a child with special needs. Why is that? Patience and I will tell you. August is day camps, if you are lucky, and if you have found a camp that can accommodate a child with whatever needs your child might have. It is cottage and beach and sand and water and full on sensory experiences pretty much everywhere. Swimming, I am told, by a very clever friend of mine is akin to the body receiving a full head to toe hug. The ultimate sensory immersion experience.  My girl has some special needs,…

  • Back To School - FASD - Health - special needs

    Back to School Shopping with Sears #SearsBTS

    August 23, 2013 - By 

    Five outfits. Two girls. Just over $100.  I Love the math this year!! Yesterday was Back To School Day. We started the day with martial arts day camp, because it is a very busy work week for me, but I pulled my youngest out for a quick school visit to familiarize her with the building and the classroom again. It’s one of those necessary events that happen most years in late August. The visit went really well and it was funny seeing the school so empty and messy still. (Lots of work to do there before Sept. 3rd) Ainsley met…

  • FASD - Health - special needs - Travel

    A Word Called Inclusion: #Specialneeds at Camp

    August 13, 2013 - By 

    Remember this? Two weeks ago, when I was heading off to Chicago, I was still agonizing over whether Ainsley, my busy, sporty girl with special needs, could handle sleep away camp. I wrote a whole post about children with special needs at camp. Parents of special needs children are used to worrying. We worry about finances, and school, and life when we are gone. We worry our kids may never be able to cope fully, and enjoy, and be supported in the world without us. We worry with good reason, because frankly I have seen systems and systemic failures for children…

  • FASD - Health - parenting

    One Good Thing Today #specialneeds

    July 4, 2013 - By 

    If today were a golf game I would ask for a mulligan. Not that I know golf, or anything else much today. It is summer and I love the hot weather. I can’t get enough of it in fact. It is my favourite time of year. We had a fantastic weekend followed by one child’s birthday and a day to sleep in. Perfect, right? Not so today and yesterday. I have done two full summers now with scheduling my kids solidly almost every minute out of necessity. Their special needs, plus caring for my Mom and needing to be available…

  • FASD - parenting - special needs

    Sari Therapy Riding #wordlesswednesday #ldnont

    May 22, 2013 - By 

    A girl and her horses. She loves them all and could not live without Sari therapy riding. In 2010, I went to a workshop in Alberta that stressed how mental health and disability, and brain injury such as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, was not currently done well through traditional therapy and cognitive behavioural approaches. I already intuitively new that but it was nice to have confirmation of it from the experts. I learned at that conference that many people were having success with animal assisted therapies and therapy riding too. So I started looking into it when I got back…