You can also spend the year getting your kids ready for their roles at the public school.
Things to think about:
Will they need to wear their epipens and/or other meds?
Will they need to wear medic alert bracelets?
Can you do some role playing about what to say when someone offers them food? Do you want them to only eat food you send from home?
What should they do if they feel itchy or sick?
What about teaching them to use wipes before eating their lunches?
What if an adult is telling them to do something that wouldn't be safe? What should they do?
Get some books for kids about food allergies. These really helped us talk about situations that could come up at school.
Cathy

Quote:I think what is bothering me is with previous conversation with the school, they are not will to do action plan OR a preventative. And in my eyes, we need both. I've let someone who doesn't understand how severe my children are (inhalation and contact) tell me that what will it hurt to put them in the principals office for 20 minutes to eat every day. Surely they wouldn't be affected right? Wrong.
Oy. A section 504 designation would protect your child from exactly this type of discrimination/segregation. Of course your child needs a preventive plan as well as an emergency action plan.
Is this your elementary school? From the elementary school student handbook:
[url="http://es.scsd1.com/studenthb.html"]http://es.scsd1.com/studenthb.html[/url]
[i][b]Treats[/b]
It is the policy of Austin Elementary School not to allow students to bring homemade treats to school to be shared with classmates. If you would like to send in treats to be shared by a whole class, please be sure that they are store bought items. Treats must be unopened and sealed in the original packaging. If you purchase cupcakes or cookies from a grocery store, please ask the store to seal the package. If you order pizza for your child

This is another way to get your feet wet, so to speak. Cyberschooling. It [i]IS[/i] public school-- but 'at home.'
I understand where you are coming from. My DD is also very difficult to homeschool in many ways. Strong-willed and [i]MOUTHY.[/i] (This is a serious understatement.)
Having a "real school" to answer to has solved [i]some[/i] of those issues. Not all, by any means. But some. And it has given her [i]some[/i] peer interaction, which is certainly better than what we had before.
(We do have a 504 plan, incidentally. It just doesn't need to be anywhere near as detailed as it would for our local PS.... which would be a lot like building the Titanic with a butter knife and a tack hammer, truthfully.)
[img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

Corvallismom: our state doesn't have that I don't think? We were going to use the program through K12-public school at home, but the Indiana government voted against funding public schooling done at home. And the price tag isn't affordable for us to pay out of pocket. It's cheaper for me to just buy the books myself and wing it. Which makes me sad. In a perfect world, we'd homeschool, weave our own cloth, grow vegetables as a science experiment, but we aren't anything like that! LOL Some of the advantages of homeschooling, I just don't have it in me to do, like growing vegetables for example.
I'm printing out this thread to store with my 504 info papers to keep this going in my head and get the ball rolling for another school year. After we had discussed it, she had a massive panic attack about school. She *wants* to go, but only as a *normal* kid. She doesn't want to go if her life is in any way in danger. And it would be. Going into the world is dangerous for any allergy kid. And it's just hard to force her out into the world if she's not ready yet.
After all these years, we feel like as her parents, we are accepting that this is their life (hers and her sister) but my oldest is I think just not coming to terms wiht it, and mourning the loss of a life she sees others having that she can't have. The challenge here is how to teach her to live the life she was given in her own colorful way, make a difference. Change things. And that's hard to do if I'm too afraid to change it for her.
Thankyou for listening. I'm glad I revisted this place. So much info to absorb.

PA dd is starting kindergarten next month. We still don't have our 504, but are working on it. (small private school, two older dd's there, pa dd did pre-school there) They made accomdations for pre-school, and we're now pushing for "things in writing".
It may be too late to get a full blown 504 in place by start of school for you, especially if you have no prior relationship with the school. They DO have to accomodate your dd though. That is the LAW. My 2 cents would be to work on this thru the year, and maybe aim for spring semester or starting next fall. In the meanwhile, do you do HS activities with other kids? Is your dd used to being in a group? You could use these experiences to show her that she is safe there, and that a PS is an extension of those type of activities. If the classroom is PN free, then for most kids, the cafeteria is managable, and school will not seem to be the danger zone she might be perceiving it to be. That doesn't mean we, as the parents, don't see all the potential problems, but it might make her feel more comfortable. I would fight against eating in the office. Especially for a kid that came from HS'ing. That screams being ostracized.
There are a few threads about a federal office that will accept complaints about schools that don't accept 504 plans. Anyone have that link? It seems like that can be used as a last ditch effort into scaring the school into compliance. It's better to catch flies with sugar than vinegar, though, so working thru out the year nicely, if possible, will get you farther toward true compliance.
Good luck!
------------------
Lori Jo,
Rose, 7-31-02, PA
Noah, 7-29-05
Beatrice & Georgia, 8-14-99

I've really been thinking about your situation. What a shame that the turkeys in your state legislature have deliberately taken away an option that might have been ideal...
You might write an e-mail to your state rep/senator and let them know how this is impacting you. (And by extension, how it will impact an entire school population, no matter what you might wish.)
I agree that working toward a 504 plan is probably the best idea-- it really sounds as though you'll need to iron out those details FIRST, though, or your child is going to be very frightened to attend.
My other thought is that if you plan to (or feel like you [i]have to[/i]) continue to homeschool for this year, you might consider using a new approach-- or using one to modify the current one.
Some of the different pedagogical 'styles' of homeschooling are:
Charlotte Mason
Montessori
Un-schooling (but I would be wary if you plan to mainstream your kids later)
Classical (Well-trained Mind)
Eclectic (which can mean pretty much anything) can have different sub-styles too:
Unit studies, school-at-home, etc.
Sometimes kids just don't [i]do[/i] well or respond well to 'school-at-home.' Other kids don't respond at all well to less structured approaches (they crave the predictability).
Just thoughts. You might try a new twist or two this year (science unit studies, lapbooking, Craft Fridays, or 'book discussion club') and see if it helps. Whenever the going gets really rough with my own DD, I find that novelty really helps her get back on track. Even if that means packing up our stuff and going to the library for 'lessons.'

"I agree that working toward a 504 plan is probably the best idea-- it really sounds as though you'll need to iron out those details FIRST, though, or your child is going to be very frightened to attend.
My other thought is that if you plan to (or feel like you have to) continue to homeschool for this year, you might consider using a new approach-- or using one to modify the current one."
Yes, I do plan on working on this throughout the year so that we can have it in place next school year for her. Both her and us the parents are TERRIFIED to send her into a building with PB served daily. It causes anxiety attacks in all 3 of us.
For the schooling, we are going to try a new method for us. This is the first year she's old enough for the Prairie primer, so we are going to do that and try to take a whole new approach to how we learn. She's had traditional texts with workbooks for the last 3 years and it is so BORING to her.
I feel like I've gotten some GREAT homeschool advice here too! Thankyou all for that. We are having trouble with a cousin of hers that she idolizes and is really out of her age range. So it became apparent to me that I need to get her more involved in her own age group, so I'm going to find our local homeschool group again and get reinvolved. I tried when she was in Kindy, but I had a newborn and a 2 year old with her and a DH who worked 2 jobs and attended college. So yeah, it was just too much! Now, I can see we all need an outlet. They do more funstuff together than anything and I think that's what she needs.
Thanks for all the tips and advice. I do so much appreciate this. I feel like we're hitting a turning point with her and I need to get this done right.

I just saw an adorable Cars cake further down the page. Does anyone know if there is a Tomas pan? I have tried a few decorative cakes I think I could do it.

[url="http://www.wilton.com/cake/shapedpans/pdf%5C2105-1349ThomasandFriends.pdf"]http://www.wilton.com/cake/shapedpans/pdf%5C2105-1349ThomasandFriends.pdf[/url]

Mom2Ian-There is definitely a Thomas the train pan. Even without peanut allergy, the bakery cake would have contained egg & soy, right?
I've now been decorating (self-taught with a Wilton book) cakes for my kids for almost 5 years. They love seeing the result and I do hope it is one of the positive memories that comes out of growing up in an allergen-free (well, our allergens) house [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img] I am surprised by how good many of the egg-free cakes taste (chocolate is the easiest to have come out 'right').
My DD is allergic to eggs, as well as peanuts & tree nuts, which rules out any bakery products.
Good luck!
Nicole