Get Inspired
"Children with disabilities teach us about who we are. When we understand children with disabilities, we understand all children. When we understand children, we understand ourselves.” - Dr. Erik
You probably have not even noticed when you’re being successful. While cleaning up the kitchen or taking your morning shower, think about what you’ve learned from reading the parent guides. What objectives has your child already mastered? Maybe you can already cross some goals off of your list. Which objectives are you going to look at next? Where else might you and your child start being successful?
INSPIRATION - FINDERS
The IEP for Home is food for your imagination. You will make up your own story about how you became your child’s best teacher. You will create your own examples for how your child started to learn. There’s nothing more inspiring than being your child’s best teacher. If you’re not inspired yet, try the following:
Take care of yourself
Keep on reading
Share what you’ve read with someone
Start imagining the changes you want to see in your child
Be the change you want to see in your child
Imagine how your relationship with your child will change
Find your own reason for reading this website. Don’t listen to others. Listen to yourself.
STILL NOT FEELING INSPIRED?
You’re allowed to wait for inspiration.
If you are still feeling uninspired, it might be because you can’t imagine being successful yet. Maybe no one showed you what success looks like. Wait for your inspiration. New habits are not hard to build, but you have to discover them first.
Be mindful and pay attention.
Be on the lookout for when you will take your first step. It might be taking care of yourself. There’s lots of habits you can build up there. It might be just having more fun with your child. It might be to always put your child’s homework kit back where it belongs, and teaching your child to do the same. It might be to stop what you’re doing at the same time each evening, so that you can have a healthy bedtime routine with your child. It might be to clean up your sink once a day, every day. Create a rule and then always follow it- for you or for your child. Feel good about the changes you made. Once you get good at it, you’ll get hooked. You’ll want to build more habits.
Develop a habit of simple persistence
Keep looking for those first steps that are so simple. They really are simple. The persistence is where it gets tricky. If the habit is small, persistence becomes easy. Try learning about simple persistence. Take one step at a time. Get one habit under your belt. Then, take another step. Be persistent, and take up more steps. Just make sure they are simple.