Penny Williams

We are talking about college admissions, which I know is so difficult for so many parents of kids with learning challenges, because not only are we looking really for the right fit for what our kid might want to study or the right environment for them, we're also looking for the rank college or university for learning challenges. And if we go back to looking at that academic fit, especially around the learning difference there are a whole host of colleges that can be a great fit for your team, with whatever type of learning difference they have, because colleges are certainly aware that students are all different types of learners and they do make efforts to support students in that regard. And I think the answer to this is yes, but are there colleges that cater specifically to students with learning challenges who only have students with learning challenges, let's say, Pamela Ellis (28:32): But how do you start doing that while they're still in high school and middle school and really giving them those opportunities to own their learning, even then Penny Williams (34:34): I think success in high school makes you more confident that you could be successful in college, where if you really struggled in high school and it was just such a horrible experience, then can you hack it in college?

I'm really super excited in this episode to be talking to Kirk Martin of celebrate calm, and we are going to talk about sibling fights and what those are really about and how to help kind of reduce some of that stress. , got to get dressed, do all the things you don't want to do in the morning and go to school where you're going to be on red, on the behavior chart all day, right? I know it's hard for moms, but don't be afraid because it cause a lot of people who want to mentor you know, small business owners are really great with our kids because most of them have ADHD, which is why they're not working in a corporate office. And I'm so, so thankful that you gave us a little bit of your time to share some of what, and hope our parents we're going to link up Kirk's website, podcasts, social media, all sorts of ways to connect with him and learn more from him and Casey and their work.

maybe that you found through your local library, chances are it's going to be a pretty general group, or like Penny said, a religious group or a group that adheres to specific curriculum style where when you're raising someone who doesn't fit inside the box, they're not necessarily going to be able to fit in that box either just because if they're not fitting in, in a school system, they're likely not going to fit in, in a general community anyway. So you need to approach it more as a lifestyle and less as a classroom teacher kind of mentality because you're not, well, first of all, you're not bound to eight to three, or nine to four or nine to two or whatever the school timeframes are, you're not going be teaching your child or having them do homeschooling for the eight hours or six hours or whatever they would be gone for on a normal school. So I don't know if those in-person events are going to happen or if they're going to be online, but regardless, there's going to be opportunities for you to jump in online and ask questions, go to Facebook groups, ask questions about what you use with your kiddo who thinks like this, and then look at the websites and don't do everything, do one thing. We always say that even though we've now been in it for 11 years, it's kid by kid year by year, if at any point any of our children come to us with a compelling argument for why they need to be in a school setting, we're going to sit down as a family, and we're going to look at that

We used to, when my kids were little, they're both adults now, sadly, when they were super young and we were somewhat newly diagnosed and we were still trying to find our way with school and all of those things when Luke would have a win or if they both just had a really great week, I would surprise them with pizza and ice cream for dinner, you know, like let's just sit down and have your favorite foods. And when I did make that monumental shift to love everything that I'm going to operate from now is really going to come from a place of love and healing. And so we had to kind of double time at that point and really work on a lot of those skills, but, and even little kids, even little kids we can support in starting to become independent in this way. But I think, there were going to have to go through this period of reclaiming home as that calm, sacred space because of the pandemic and what we've all been having to bring everything home with us and parents to having to work from home when you didn't use to and having that