02/02/2026
This is almost as long as January was …. January was exhausting….. I literally thought I wonder how many hours I’ve been on zoom since last April.
Just in January …..
✔️ Decorating Dyslexia Kansas meeting
✔️ 6 hour Advocacy training with Families Together
✔️ All day workshop 1 of 5 for my Structured Literacy Intervention Specialist Practicum
✔️ 4 of 10 classes for Automation and Robotics
Then off zoom I complete a book report and submitted my first observation recording.
504 update meeting
And that’s just my training stuff….
I placed the initial Girl Scout cookies order
Lost track of how many ball games
And my cheerleaders planned all the things needed for Homecoming
January was a bazillion days long!
With all the things, Advocacy is what I want to share!!! Advocating is scary and hard…. It’s literally a fight…. The other side wants you to take their word and just comply…. That’s not what your child needs! So you fight, and stress, cry, clean your face and start over!
Your child might need accommodations… not just written in a plan… but actually implemented… implementing accommodations is not holding your child back…. Even if that is said to you…. And sometimes when you’re told something doesn’t work and no one likes it… it’s ok to see for yourself?
Long story …. But I’m getting to the point! This tool…. I asked about in the fall… I was told there was one available and they would show Liv how to use it. And they did, but not without telling her that most kids don’t like it…. Then this month I asked again… Does she like it? Is she using it? Can I take it for the weekend to play with it? It was stressed again that it doesn’t work well and that no one likes using it!
Listen… I am no one… because it is so cool…. It is true that it isn’t 💯. If the print is larger than the scanner it doesn’t read correctly and there were some fonts it didn’t like. Otherwise I give it 5 stars! And so did the vast majority of online reviews I found.
As I am learning to be a better advocate for Alyvia we’re also going to work on her being her own advocate!
Liv was so excited to show us this tool, but we had to charge it before we could use it. If the accommodations are not available, or it feels like an inconvenience to use them …. Kids won’t be comfortable using them.
I totally get it…. She isn’t the only kid in the room! That’s why we’re both going to work on advocacy.
In my workshop we were told that we have learned a set of skills and we are able to help these kids… I had been thinking “I’m in the process” or “I’m not there yet” my whole heart was completely full hearing this …. It was validation and acknowledgment of all we had accomplished! We are here! We are doing the hard things with these kids! We are still growing ourselves! And all of that is such important work!
I have a feeling we will be buying one of these scan pens in the near future! Did I mention it was a super neat tool!
