Month: June 2018

Helpful hints from Buster’s Job Coach

Tomorrow RC and I are heading out for a four day road trip to King’s Dominion and Bush Gardens. Lest you think I’m some kind of Supermom, I can assure you I will NOT be out in the heat riding roller coasters all day! That’s not gonna happen. Instead, I’ll be chillin’ at the hotel pool while he does his thing. My coaster days are over!

I still have some packing to do, so I’ll make this brief…

A few weeks ago I met Buster’s new job coach at JSSA. Here are some websites she recommended for job searches.

She also told me something I hadn’t heard before. Apparently, if Buster applies for a new job, there is an “Employment Coordinator” at JSSA who will follow up with the potential employer to discuss Buster’s situation — to kind of pave the way for him, so to speak. The employment coordinator can often get a good feel for whether the employer is open to hiring a person with disabilities. I would assume that other providers besides JSSA have someone who fills this role, but I don’t know for sure. Anyway, this is good info. I’m glad JSSA provides this added layer of support!

PEERS Wrap Up

We had our PEERS graduation party last Monday. We got cake and diplomas! Woohoo!

This was our second time going through the PEERS program – first with Buster and now with RC. In my opinion, PEERS is by far the best social skills program available, and this particular group was amazing! Just as a quick recap, here are five things we loved about this program:

  1. Parents were taught the same curriculum and we had ample time to discuss the assignments and trouble-shoot with our instructors.
  2. Students practiced the skills in class each week. It was hard work, but their instructor was very encouraging and she made it fun!
  3. Students practiced the skills they learned outside of class each week. Doing the homework was essential, and parents and coaches worked as a team.
  4. The parent group was very supportive and encouraging. It was a huge blessing to spend time with parents who truly empathized with one another. Plus we were all there with the shared goal of making a positive difference in the lives of our kids.
  5. The therapists who worked with us were very skilled, invested a lot of time and energy into the group, and they truly cared about our kids. I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with them.

If you are ever looking for a recommendation for a PEERS program, feel contact me anytime and I will pass on more specific info. We saw a lot of growth in RC and a huge boost in his self-confidence. It was definitely a worthwhile experience!

Sherr & Jon: Week 27

Sherr’s meeting with the transitioning counselor went well! The counselor (we’ll call her Dr. “Awesome”) is working with Jon to take ownership of his life, rather than depending on his mom run things. Dr. A and Jon ironed out his current goals and came up with the specific tasks he needs to complete before their next meeting.  Together they decided when Jon would complete each task. Next, Dr. A had Jon take out his phone and he added these tasks to his google calendar, along with reminders.

Dr. A told Jon she would be counting on him to complete these tasks (not his mom)!  He’s going to email Dr. A of his progress. He will copy Sherr on the emails just to keep her in the loop. Here’s a list of the tasks Jon will be completing this month:

  1. Send an email to Dr. Awesome to set up their next appointment
  2. Call DORS to check on their progress and email Dr. A to let her know what he found out
  3. Call JSSA to make sure they received his referral from DORS.  Set up an appointment with JSSA (for job development).

Go get ’em, Jon!

 

 

Sherr & Jon

This will be very brief since Sherr and I were playing phone tag today and I don’t have a complete update yet.

She and Jon went to their appointment with the transition counselor today. They also completed Jon’s resume. Hooray!

I will give a more thorough update soon — hopefully tomorrow. ☺️

Budgeting Apps

I’ve been thinking about Joy and Josh’s post yesterday and I just wanted to share a budgeting app that I have found to be helpful. It’s a simple tool for budgeting called Every Dollar.  The app is free and very easy to use. It only takes about ten minutes to set up a budget on Every Dollar. There’s a fee-based version that allows you to link the app with your bank account so you don’t have to enter transactions on your own, but it’s not necessary. In the beginning, I think entering transactions on their own is the best way to learn to budget. Josh and Joy have inspired me to help my kids set up a budget on Every Dollar this summer. They may not do it perfectly the first time, but it will be a good start!

There’s another budgeting app called Mint, which is very popular. This is a more comprehensive app that will track all your spending and investments, and it does link to your bank accounts for free, which is a huge plus.  But for teaching basic budgeting, I think Every Dollar is the best place to begin.

I also enjoy listening to financial podcasts, and I figure it can’t hurt for my kids to overhear me listening to them from time to time! Three of my favorites are Dave Ramsey, Clark Howard, and Afford Anything.

Anyone else have any suggestions for teaching kids to budget?

Fostering Independence

Below is a guest post from Joy and Josh. I like how they have set up independence goals for each of their children, and are tackling these goals one at a time. Teaching our kids to manage their money is a huge task (and a long, long process), but the rewards are well worth the effort! Since summer tends to be a slower-paced season, it’s a great time to work on some of these skills. Baby steps… We’ll get there!

For each of our three kids, we have an independence goal in mind (which we have not necessarily shared with them).  For R., who is graduating high school and going away to college, it is developing financial literacy and getting a summer job.  For S., who is entering high school in the fall, it is doing his homework without involving us in the drama around it.

For Matt, our goal is to get him to become more financially independent.   Matt receives disability support checks, which are supposed to cover his rent.   He also receives food stamps; from time to time, he tells us he has run out of food stamp money, and he also can’t use food stamps for things like toiletries. In those cases, we have also contributed to his account so that, in our mind, he could make ends meet.

However, since we get the statements from Matt’s bank account, we have been noticing that over the last couple of months, he has made some fairly large expenditures on acquiring radios/record players to add to his beloved collection.  This discovery has made us realize that perhaps Matt can make ends meet without as much help from us.

We now plan to look at what Matt has spent over the past three months.  Then the goal would be to start working with Matt on making a budget so that he doesn’t need to rely on contributions as much from us. We believe that he needs to learn that there is a difference between “needs” and “wants.”.  

We expect a lot of resistance over this.  Matt typically starts accusing us of trying to control his money.   At some point we may need to tell Matt that we are not giving him any more money until he makes a budget.  We don’t want Matt to turn out like some of our extended family members whom well into adulthood, seem to believe that their elderly parents are a money tree.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

P.S.  Matt just called to tell us that he went to the dollar store to get laundry detergent and supplies.  He must know we are concerned.

RC got the job!

mind eraser

RC interviewed with Six Flags on Wednesday and he was hired on the spot! Yay! According to RC, the interview was a piece of cake. It was a “group interview” with nine other applicants and everyone was hired! I’m confident he would have gotten the job regardless, though. He’s a perfect fit!

It’s funny how this job came so easily after RC struggled for such a long time searching for employment. I guess it makes sense that the hiring process is less competitive, since theme parks need to hire such a large number of summer employees. It’s something to keep in mind if you live near a theme park and have a child who is looking for a summer job.

RC will be handing in his paperwork tomorrow, and then will wait to hear about a start date. He said the employees are expected to be friendly and enthusiastic when interacting with the guests (lots of smiles and high-fives).  Being friendly with strangers is way out of his comfort zone, but RC seems ready and willing to meet the challenge. We are hopeful this will be a summer of growth (and fun) for him!

 

 

 

Matt’s Degree

Below is a post from Joy and Josh about their son Matt’s diligent pursuit of his college degree. This greatly encouraged me with my own situation, and I hope you find it encouraging as well. Thanks, Joy and Josh! When he graduates, please don’t forget to send us an invitation to the party!! 🙂

As we have talked about before, Matt is working towards his Associate’s degree at a local community college.  I wanted to talk about how meaningful it would be for us for Matt to receive this degree.

It took me 6 years to get my Ph.D. in biochemistry.  During those years, I seriously thought about quitting at least once, and several times during the process I wondered if I would ever finish.  But I kept plugging along, and on the day I got my Ph.D. I realized that as long as I live, nobody can ever take that away.

It’s similar with Matt’s Associates degree.  Matt will probably take about 6-8 years to get a degree that many people can complete in two years.   But Matt is not everybody else.  At one point, for example, a special needs administrator told us she believed Matt would never make it through kindergarten.  We often wondered if Matt would make it through high school.  But Matt did make it through kindergarten and high school.

College hasn’t always been easy for Matt. He has failed some courses (in one case, this was due to an in-patient psychiatric hospitalization) and has had to take some multiple times. But Matt keeps plugging away.  He has finished more than half of the required courses for his major.

We are confident now that Matt will one day get that Associate’s degree.  And nobody will be able to take it away from him.  He will be able to put it on his resume and it may help him to get a job in his desired career path like any “neurotypical” person.  Whether or not Matt goes on with his education, we are very proud of him for sticking with his program and having the patience to see it through.