special interests

Poop

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The librarian was like, “…so…are you potty training, or…?” And I was like, nah I just have a four-year-old who thinks poop is the actual funniest thing ever, so we’re leaning into it. 😁 I’m here to tell you right now, if you’ve heard the advice “don’t make a big deal out of it and … Read more

You Don’t Have Any Blocks

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“I want you to build a tower,” I say. You agree, and you stand up to go get the bucket of blocks off the shelf. I shake my head sternly. “No. Did I tell you you could get up? Sit down. Build a tower.” You look confused. You point over at the bucket of blocks. … Read more

New Space in Your Brain

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I want you to imagine for a moment that…everything is really good right now. Imagine that all the things on your to-do list that feel like “have to”s (instead of “get to”s) are taken care of. Someone is going to bring you dinner and it’s food you love and your body is hungry for it. … Read more

Special Interests (AA23)

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If I say “imagine a historical figure who was known for struggling with socializing, possibly even considered a ‘failure’ by mainstream criteria such as schooling, yet was intensely successful in one particular area”, you might think of various great inventors, writers, scientists, mathematicians… While it’s dangerous to retroactively try to diagnose people with autism, especially … Read more

Wizard Scrolls

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A multi-week activity: a student and I have been working on making “wizard scrolls”. First we used teabags, coffee grounds, and brown markers to test which would make the best “aged paper” by staining them brown and crumpling them up, then letting them dry. Next, we looked at our dried experiments and picked our favorite … Read more