Tenacity | Lessons from my daughter

I am trying to write once again! I miss it terribly but can’t force my brain to heal faster than is required.

I am also hoping to be able to do a full week of work soon, I miss being on top of my game.

I miss my healthy brain!

Enough about me!

Emily has had a desire to be a cheerleader for years. We have gym mats on the floor in her playroom. In her world, she is a cheerleader!

She has the high school musical cheerleader outfit. She has many pom poms.

Even her American Girl Dolls are cheerleaders.

We tried to put her in a team last summer. They wanted to accommodate her but had no idea how to do it. It didn’t work out. Emily was overwhelmed and the solution proposed was to put a 14 year old 5’5″ tall with the younger kids… Like that wouldn’t make her the center of attention.

We refused that option, Emily was disappointed but got over it. We all did.

This past summer, another cheerleading club took a couple of kids with special needs and practiced the basics of cheer. It went well!

My bestie’s daughter and Emily’s best friend was one of the coach. I got updates here and there about how it was going.

When they decided to open it up to more kids this fall, we decided to give it a try.

Currently, there is only 3 kids registered and 4 or 5 coaches…. That’s great. More kids would be more fun but right now, Emily is getting the attention she needs to learn basics and build self-confdence.

I have promised Emily a trip to Lululemon in Halifax if she keeps going! I know I am bribing her but this is some serious exercise for her! After 40 minutes, she wants to call it quit and after the hour, she is sweaty…. 🙂

As Emily is struggling with some basic things like jumping while holding her arms up in the air or basic summersaults… I am thinking about adding yoga to our life… yoga for kids, Emily and I could do it and daddy would help with Emily’s balance… slowly, it should help stretch Emily’s legs and build more balance!

If you can suggest any program, please let me know. Wii or Kinect games are not necessarily good because they ask the person playing to perform up to a certain standard otherwise you are “not good enough” which is really upsetting for Emily. Programs on DVD would be better!

More to come on this project and how Emily is doing!

But before I go, please enjoy this 5 seconds accomplishment from my amazing daughter!

Last night was meet the teacher night.

Although Emily is 15, she doesn’t stay home on her own and hubby had a previous engagement for the evening so Emily and I went to school last night to meet her 5 teachers for her first semester of high school.

If you have read my last post A new milestone, you know Emily doesn’t want me to talk to her teachers as it is embarrassing…

I discovered last night that this seems to apply to one teacher which she particularly likes. I saw why in the 9 minutes we were in his classroom. He captivated his audience where other teachers didn’t really. He has this “teaching quality” you liked in your teacher when you were in school. I think she might find him handsome too but she denies it. 🙂

So, last night we met the teachers and Emily guided me in between her classes which was nice as it showed me that she knows where her classes are.

It did help put my mind at ease (a little) to see her navigate the school so easily and confidently.

I did something else last night before tackling the class visits.

I submitted my nomination to the PSSC (Parent School Support Committee)

If you’ve read my first day of high school post, you know I want to find a way to get involved at Emily’s new school so I am trying this.

From the PSSC’s website:

“The mission of the PSSC is to work with the principal to enhance student learning and development, and to enrich the educational experience of all children by increasing family and community involvement.”

Emphasis for me being the part about “all children”

Since way back when she started school to now in high school, she is my priority!

…

I did some digging and in reading more into it, here is what I found: http://pssc.weebly.com/about-pssc.html

You can get involved in:

Communications – Ensuring we have regular flow of communications to and from our parent community.
Educational outcomes – Examining how the school performing in terms of educational outcomes and learning where the challenges and opportunities are.
Health and Wellness – Examining where and how we can improve health and wellness of students and staff.
Exceptional Students – Looking at doing the best job in accommodating those at our school with exceptional needs.
Career Day – A very popular program for students.
PSSC Teaching Excellence Award – Approved in the 2011/12 school year, this new initiative will recognize a BMHS teacher who has shown exceptional teaching skills through the year.

I admit, my priority is point 4 – Exceptional students – but I see a need for all the others.

In preparation for last night, I printed a nomination form, filled it, got my seconder (another parent from the school) to approve my nomination and I hand delivered it.

Elections will be this month.

Wish me luck!

If this doesn’t work, I will find another way to positively impact the life of the exceptional students population of Emily’s high school… I will just need to find another way in! I am not giving up on this!

On a side note, thank you for clicking on my top mommy blog picture, so far you’ve made me #1 in the special need section of the site and as of this morning, I broke the top 50 for the entire site! Being on this website brings new traffic to my blog which helps me raise awareness for Emily’s syndrome! Thanks again for your support and help!