Someone asked my husband what I do with all of my free time now that the youngest two kids aren’t home with me all day. It’s down to just three of our boys homeschooling.

Guess what? I’m still plenty busy. But I definitely have more breathing room, which I’m super grateful for.

I’ve been having regular meetings with teachers and therapists for both Yirmi (6) and Rafael (almost 2). Though it seems the school year has hardly begun, I need to start preparing for Yirmi’s placement for next year. The first step is to get a certain kind of evaluation done, which has to be organized through the Dept. of Social Services. Most kids have this done at an earlier age but since he’s never been in the system until now, we’ve never had him tested.

You think it’s easy to reach a social worker at social services? No, they’re backed up and phones aren’t answered, messages aren’t returned. I was very lucky because after two weeks of trying to get through, someone spoke to the social worker directly about me and got permission to give me her personal phone number.

Once I had that, it took just a few seconds to get through! I had to get together various paperwork and reports for appointment, which was a pleasure – she even told me to bring flyers for my Leadership Parenting workshops so she can give them out to her clients!

While I was sitting with her, my phone rang. The Ministry of Education wanted to arrange a home visit for the next day regarding the kids who are homeschooling. Sure, why not? I have nothing to do with my days but have appointments. And so three representatives spent an hour at my home, asking all about how we homeschool and speaking to our three boys currently homeschooling.

Then the next day I had an appointment with Rafael’s speech therapist, who has asked me to have regular daily sessions in Hebrew with him working on language, and another daily session in English also working on play skills.

Then the day after that I had yet another hearing test for Yirmi. His hearing tests have been inconclusive – they show some kind of hearing loss but we can’t tell if it’s due to fluids or something permanent. That test had to be done in two parts because his patience for participating ran out. That test has confirmed significant hearing loss and now we need to see the ENT again, and from there hopefully we can start the process to get him hearing aids.

Then today I got a call from Rafael’s speech therapist that she just saw his hearing test that I sent her, and though I was told it was fine by the audiologist, she says he is showing some degree of hearing loss as well. Now I need to move forward on more testing for him.

Tomorrow I have blood work scheduled for both of them to have ready for the pediatric endocrinologist next week to check thyroid function. And the next day a school Chanuka party for Yirmi to attend (all parents are invited).

Then there was the meeting in Jerusalem that I attended to learn about the changes to the inclusion law in Israel and how that will affect Yirmi’s school placement. Basically, discrimination has now been legalized. It’s very clear that inclusion in this country is only an option for the children whose parents have a willingness to fight for their child (every parent there who I spoke to, hearing that he will be going into first grade said something along the lines of ‘Get your boxing gloves on!”), combined with ample financial resources and/or the luxury of a parent who isn’t working full-time to facilitate his inclusion.

Very sad that despite it being well known that inclusion benefits not only the child but the other children in a positive way, a country as advanced as Israel is moving towards the Dark Ages.

I’ve spoken to one school about Yirmi and they said they might consider it for the year after next but not the coming school year. The problem is they hear ‘Down syndrome’ and they’re so concerned his needs will be too much for them that they don’t want to meet him to see who he actually is and what he’s capable of (much, much more capable and much less extra effort on their part than they’re thinking).  I’m going to need to have a follow up discussion with that principal.

It’s never boring and I haven’t yet found myself with an abundance of extra time to sit around in a quiet house and nothing to do but meditate. 🙂

Avivah