IEP Coaching & Advocacy

11/24/2025

Waking up to my inbox email message from a client who expresses her gratitude for my help is motivation enough to keep advocating!

Send a message to learn more

11/23/2025

The Recipe for a Happy Child at Daycare 💛✨

11/23/2025

The holidays are coming and boundaries might feel harder to set, but they're just as important. Here are some scripts you can use.

11/23/2025

This week, I’m teaching my students something that you won’t find in our standards: how to address and send a letter. The way to write one correctly. The way to mail it.

Do we have extra time for this? No.
Is it in the standards? Also no.
Is it real life? Yes.

And that’s exactly why we’re doing it.
Our students are growing up in a world where so much happens through a screen, yet they still need to know how to communicate beyond one. How to write something thoughtfully. How to send something out into the world with care. How to do a small, grown-up task that no app will do for them.
Not every skill we teach shows up on a pacing guide. Not every lesson gets tested. Some things make the cut simply because they matter. And this week, this matters.

Am I a perfect teacher? Never. Do I always get it right? Nope. But I hope that I always prioritize the lessons that matter.

I can remember, with clarity, every teacher that took the time to teach me more than what a standard said. And those standards? Man, they are so important. They really are. But those extra lessons woven in between? That’s the good stuff. That’s where the good humans are made.

11/21/2025

On average, parents reported letting their children take six days off during the past school year for these reasons

11/21/2025

Scissor skills develops in a progression. The key is to adjust the level of difficulty by using different grades of paper and thicknesses of lines. Here is a full explanation: https://www.theottoolbox.com/scissor-skills-recycled-wrapping-paper/

11/21/2025

Policies feel cold.
Rules feel like walls.

Yet every time you speak up,
you’re doing it for your child, who may be hidden behind paperwork.

This is why we advocate.
We want to go beyond compliance, to belonging.

Your voice isn’t “too much.” It’s necessary.
And you don’t have to fight alone.

Let’s make sure your child’s IEP matches their potential.

What rule or “policy” have you heard this year that made you push back?

Alt text: A quote graphic with a bright red, diagonal-striped background and a white speech bubble containing black text that reads:
“Behind every policy, every rule, and every procedure, there is a child whose potential is boundless, whose rights are non-negotiable, and whose dreams are valid.” At the bottom, ~ Charmaine Thaner.

11/21/2025

11/21/2025

Lots of options for supporting executive functioning skills through cooking tasks this next week. Here is the WHY you need to get kids into the kitchen to help: https://www.theottoolbox.com/you-can-help-kids-with-direction/

11/21/2025

We didn’t grow up learning about coping strategies or self-regulation—our version of that was chores. And even though we didn’t realize it at the time, those early mornings, responsibilities, and expectations quietly shaped our discipline, our resilience, and our understanding of what it means to put in real effort.

11/21/2025

The barriers we place upon children can start to define their progress— not their potential nor skills. Let’s advocate girlies. 💪💙