Wishes And Pixie Dust

Follow the journey of a Wisconsin family of 4 who relocated to the Walt Disney World area in July 2011

Category Archives: Schools


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Happy Nine!

Today we are celebrating our ninth month anniversary of arriving in Florida as residents!  The interesting thing about a moving blog is that it gives you an opportunity to look back at your thoughts prior to the move.  On April 13, 2011 we wrote this blog: 100 days and we thought it would be fun one year later to take a look at a few of the items on our “Top 100” List to see how we feel about them now.

10.  Start a new tradition of celebrating birthdays at Walt Disney World

This is an awesome tradition that we have started and will continue.  In February we purchased the Tables in Wonderland card and we anticipate that we will not only receive back the membership fee, but also extra savings above and beyond the initial cost.  We purchased our card from Guest Services at the Magic Kingdom, and received our card immediately.

14.  Have lunch at Le Cellier

Reservations are set for August 8!

18.  Explore the beaches of Florida–kids have never been to the ocean before.  We plan to go to both sides of Florida:  The Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

Done and done!  We have been to Anna Maria Island and Treasure Island on the Gulf side and Cocoa Beach on the Atlantic side.  We definitely intend to schedule in more beach days this summer.

22.  Exploring the city of Clermont and getting to know our new home city.

We haven’t done this as much as we expected to.  We even missed the annual festival Pig on the Pond due to inclement weather, something that we had been looking forward to ever since we made the decision to move to Clermont.

26.  Enjoy the Osborne lights at the Studios as many times as possible.

We never tire of this.

27.  Enjoy making new friendships with all our Facebook friends who live in Florida.

We really have enjoyed meeting y’all and we feel blessed that we are able to spend time with two different couples who we consider good friends of ours.   Facebook is a really great way to connect with people to begin that friendship.

33.  Chuckling to ourselves in February when the temperature is 80 and sunny, knowing that back in Wisconsin it is probably blowing and snowing and bitterly cold.  Will we miss snow?  No we will not!

Yea, we’ve done that 🙂  Although we feel it is ironic that Wisconsin had a mild winter this year.

34.  Taking in Bob Jackson’s show at the Port Orleans Riverside resort!

35.  Staying at the Port Orleans Riverside resort for old times sake!

We have not done either one of these yet, but it is definitely in the works.   We’d like to stay in one of the new Princess rooms.

37.  Riding down the Sassagoula River from Port Orleans Riverside to Downtown Disney (and vice versa)

See above!

40.  Being there for opening day of the new Fantasyland.

We were not there for the soft opening of Storybook Circus.  The crowds were absolutely packed in, and we’ve discovered as residents, it’s simply not worth it.  We went a couple of days later when it was not as busy.

50.  DisneyQuest

Yes, we’ve done this a few times, and thoroughly enjoy ourselves every time we go.  It’s a great alternative to a rainy day.  Our philosophy is that we do not go to the parks when it rains- it’s simply not worth the hassle of dealing with the ponchos.  We have been a couple of times, and it does detract from the magic of the parks.

54.  Flower and Garden Festival

We are not garden people by any means, but walking around Epcot looking at the various topiaries and displays was enjoyable.

66.  Take a family Christmas picture at WDW

Hmmm.  We did not do this at Christmas; may be a new tradition we need to start.

69.  Move in to our new apartment in Clermont

It was quite exciting to have that newness of being able to discover everything and experience many “firsts” but it was also overwhelming  to not have the basic necessities with us those first weeks.  While it is fun to buy all new items, it can be scary to walk into Target knowing that you need to buy “everything”.   Nine months later there are still a couple of pieces of furniture that we need to purchase, and a few assorted kitchen items, but we want to let our readers know that everything does not need to be purchased right away.  To do so requires gobs of money or extending yourself on credit, the latter being something we would never advise.

70.  Find the best pizza places in the area.

We have found two good pizzerias, and this is a goal we are still working on!

71.  Our first Saturday library visit to our new “home” library.

We still regularly visit the library every Saturday.  The kids are currently into the ‘Harry Potter’ series, and we pick up other books as well.   It is not as nice, nor as big, as our library back in Wisconsin.  There are no tables and chairs to sit at, and the kids used to enjoy doing that.  So consequently, our visits are shorter.

88.  Swim with the manatees.

We have not swum with the manatees, but Ben has become a huge lover of manatees, loves to visit them at Epcot, and we all are looking forward to visiting Sea World for the first time.

89.  Explore Florida’s state parks.

Between the poisonous snakes, alligators, bears and black panthers, this is not something we are so eager to do anymore.  🙂

96.  Enjoying the scenery of Florida, knowing that it will stay green year round, and not become brown and dead for six months out of the year.

This is still huge for us.  Love, love, love seeing all the palm trees, and it is so nice to see flowers in bloom in January!   Yesterday and today it was cool enough to open our lanai doors and let the fresh breezes blow in.

99.  Take a yearly family picture in front of Cinderella Castle.

We have not done this yet, but will need to do soon!  Another new family tradition!

We had heard prior to our move that it may take as long as one or two years after relocation to adjust fully to our new environment.  We still feel that we are in the adjustment process, but that it gets better every month.  We couldn’t have picked a better apartment complex to move into, for which we are very grateful. The cost of living is higher here than in Wisconsin; but we knew it coming in.   The only negative thing to report is the school situation for Ben, but we know God is in control with it and he will lead to us to the right school or option for Ben.


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Public School- FAIL

We are closing in on our third month of homeschooling Ben, and we have to say it’s been a rewarding experience.  It’s not the path we intended to follow; but as parents, we feel it’s our responsibility to ensure that our children get the best education possible, and it’s simply not available in the public middle school for special needs students.  We wanted to share a little bit of our experiences, so that any readers in our shoes may know what to anticipate.  We will also put forth the disclaimer that we am not asserting all public middle schools in Florida are like this.  We only have the one experience (so far).

We transferred Ben in with high expectations that the school would be similar to what we’ve experienced in Wisconsin.  We did our research online:  this is an “A” rated school.  We talked with the special education specialist over the phone and in person prior to the start of the school year, and we were reassured that modifications would be made to accommodate Ben’s needs.   So far, so good.

The IEP meeting was not held until after school started-red flag number one.  How could they possibly know how to accommodate his needs if no IEP was in place?  The IEP meeting went fairly well, but they seemed to disregard certain adaptations that were in place in Wisconsin, stating “we don’t do things that way here”.    One example is no time limits on when homework may be turned in.   Life with an autistic child is not predictable, and there were simply some nights that homework could not be completed.  They consented to give him one extra day to complete homework; however, we did observe that when Ben needed more than one day to finish he was not penalized for it.

In the beginning they failed to include directions for homework, and because Ben was not able to tell us what the homework was, there were assignments missed.    It seemed every week there was an instance of lack of communication between school and home.  Sometimes Ben’s aide would write us detailed notes.  Some days not.    Towards the end of October Ben’s Science teacher stopped communicating with us over missing homework and ignored our emails.  If Ben missed a Science lab or classwork, he would not be provided with the missing information.  Ben was told by his special education teacher that he would have to go to a special school if he didn’t stop making bad choices; the “bad choice” being a meltdown that he had no control over due to his autism.  It was believed that he was choosing to act out to avoid work, but that’s not our Ben.

In short, they failed to recognize what an awesome and talented young man he is, and instead focused on his challenges.  He was not accommodated, he was bullied in the lunchroom, he was suspended a couple of times over petty circumstances, and in the end, school administration failed to abide by IDEA laws and then covered it up by saying “it wasn’t intentional”.

So, we made the decision to homeschool for the rest of the school year.  We don’t know what his educational future holds; we may decide to enroll him in public school again, and we are considering virtual school for seventh grade, but we feel it is our responsibility to provide him with a safe, nurturing learning environment, and right now that place is home. A child simply cannot learn if he is afraid of doing and/or saying the wrong thing, afraid of being suspended, afraid of making the wrong choices.    We feel this middle school is way too strict, and really not conducive to students with disabilities.    It is definitely not his least restrictive environment, and administration is to blame for setting the tone of the school in such a way.

Hindsight is 20/20, but had we realized the extent of how the school year would be for him, we would have opted to stay in Wisconsin until Ben graduated high school.  If you are satisfied with your child’s school, are planning a move to Florida, and have children with special needs, please consider staying in your state until your child graduates high school.    There is a reason Florida has a high attendance rate in their virtual schools.  We have friends all over the state, and dissatisfaction with the schools seem to be the norm.


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6 months & counting……..

We passed the one year anniversary of our decision to move to Florida a couple of weeks ago, and it felt a little strange that we didn’t even think to recognize it.  We now have been residents of Florida for six months, so in recognition of both anniversaries, we thought it a perfect time to update our readers on how life is progressing for us now.

We love the city of Clermont.  It has everything we need within a five-to-ten minute drive, and the people here are very friendly and welcoming.  I don’t believe we have encountered one rude person here yet.  We love our apartment complex; it was a little unnerving when we first moved in, because we have always rented houses in Wisconsin, and were a little concerned about noise and privacy issues.   However, we never hear our neighbors, so it’s totally not an issue at all.   We really have embraced apartment living–we love not having the responsibility of lawn care and pool upkeep, and maintenance is extremely efficient when it comes to repair issues.  The apartment is a little smaller than we’re used to, but we have plenty of room for the four of us, and when our lease is up in October, we plan to renew.  We may consider purchasing a home in the future, but for the time being, we are content here.

A favorite saying of ours is “Toto, we’re not in Wisconsin anymore”.   As much as we love the area, it becomes obvious that there are definitely different attitudes and experiences that are prevalent here.  Some experiences are very good, such as 80 degree weather in January.  What northerner wouldn’t absolutely love that!  We’ve had a couple of chilly evenings (30s and 40s), and cooler days, but we’re proud to say that we have not yet turned the heat on, nor have we needed to use a winter coat.

Unfortunately, the middle school experience we have to put in the negative column of attitudes and experiences.  The school Ben attended is very strict, and really not supportive of children with special needs.  It was so detrimental to him that we made the decision to pull him out and homeschool him the rest of the year.  It was very discouraging to us to think that all schools in Florida may be similar, but we recently learned of a middle school in Orlando that is autism-friendly, so it really gives us hope that not all schools are deficient in addressing the needs of students with special needs.  We will not be able to send Ben to this school next year; it would require a three hour daily drive just to take him and pick him up, and that’s simply not feasible.  We are in contact with another middle school in Clermont, and we are hopeful that it may give him a more positive school experience for seventh grade.

Another regional difference is the availability of our favorite foods.  In Wisconsin we shopped at one store, Festival Foods.  In Florida, we shop at five different stores:  Publix, Sweetbay, Winn-Dixie, Super Target and Walmart.  Each store offers something unique that the others don’t, in terms of products and specials.  Prices on groceries do tend to be higher here than in Wisconsin.  Our most-missed snack products from Wisconsin, apart from the variety of cheeses available in the dairy department, were bagel dip (from Festival), Baker string cheese and Johnsonville Summer Sausage.   Festival Foods, bless their hearts, gave us the recipe for bagel dip, we’ve discovered certain brands of string cheese that are an acceptable substitute, and we believe we may have found a store that sells Johnsonville Summer Sausage.  We will say that the Florida citrus is amazing!  We’ve never cared for grapefruit, but when it’s fresh off the tree, it’s a whole new experience.

You may be wondering if we have any regrets.  We need to be honest with our readers and say yes, there have been regrets.  It was extremely hard to say good-bye to Nick at the airport after Christmas.  We know that Ben would have had no issues with the middle school back in Wisconsin, and he would have been successful there.  It’s very difficult to walk away from what is familiar, and it is very easy to look back and say “what if”.

However we wouldn’t trade the moving experience for anything in the world.  Nothing can recreate the atmosphere in the car as we drove through the state of Florida towards Clermont.  It was absolutely amazing.  The kids are settled and happy, Ben a lot more so now that he is away from the negative school environment.  Really, who suspends a child for being autistic?  They have a lot more experiences here available to them:  we’ve been to both the Gulf and the Atlantic Ocean, Walt Disney World numerous times, a Disney Cruise is in the works, as are passes to Sea World and Lego Land.  It’s been amazing to meet people we’ve known only from Facebook, but meets are so hard for our son Ben that we don’t make as many of them as we’d like.

Will we consider moving back?  For us, it’s not an option.  We believe that when you allow it to be a possibility in your mind, you always have one foot in the past and one foot in the present.  You will not make a concerted effort to acclimate yourself totally, and eventually will rationalize the move back.  Will we look back on Wisconsin?  Of course, we have friends and family there, and it was our life for several years.  However, we are Floridians now.  We embrace the Floridian life, all that it has to offer or not offer.   We hope our blog provides some insight and perhaps even wisdom as to what a relocation a thousand miles away looks like, and we hope our readers know that even though our posts are now infrequent, we still welcome any questions regarding the relocation process.  Thanks y’all for reading and following along!


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A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes

As we usher out the old year and ring in the new, we thought it a perfect time to update our readers on our life in Florida.  It seems unbelievable that last year at this time we had no idea that we would be spending our next Christmas as Floridians.  It’s funny how a dream seems to kick into gear just when you least expect it to.

Is Florida life everything we expected it to be?  Yes and no.  The weather is as incredible as  we imagined and knew it to be, and really, the weather in late July and August is not unbearable.  There’s something very satisfying knowing that the temperatures will not drop into the 60’s in August.  Wisconsin summers can be very fickle, with 90’s one day and 60’s the next.  We have definitely been enjoying the ability to walk outside and not worry about grabbing a coat.

We approach visiting Walt Disney World differently as locals, rather than tourists.  There is no need to visit every day, nor attack the parks commando-style.  When we go, it is at a leisurely pace and we simply do what we want to that day.  We’ve learned that it is not necessary to go when it is raining, or when it is crowded, because the parks will always be there for us to enjoy.  This week in central Florida all the theme parks are extremely busy, and have even closed due to capacity issues.   We originally were thinking of attending this weekend, but have since reconsidered.  Why put yourself in the middle of the insanity if you don’t have to?

So what’s there not to like about Florida?   We have been struggling with the school system with both our children, but most specifically our youngest son.  We’ve discovered that there is very little tolerance here for children with special needs.   One of their beliefs is that the student needs to adapt to the classroom environment, and there is no consideration for accommodations being made for the student by having the classroom environment adapted for the student.  Any kind of physical contact is prohibited and results in instant suspension.  High-fiving another student will result in a week long lunch detention.  Hugging another student is considered sexual harrassment.  And in Ben’s case, if you involuntary swing your legs in the classroom and unintentionally kick another student, it is considered careless and malicious intent.  We have discovered that even with an IEP, parents have very little leverage in the process, and we feel right now it’s best to remove Ben from public school and homeschool him the rest of the year.  This was not a decision we took lightly, but at this point in time we feel the public school is doing Ben more harm than good and he definitely needs to be removed from that environment.  We’re not sure what the next school year holds, if we will try public school again, but we have time to make that decision.

We were blessed that our oldest son Nick was able to fly down and visit with us for a few days over Christmas.  It was very hard to say goodbye, however.  The past couple of days we have been questioning our dream, if it was worth it, with the issues with the school (none of which would have happened in Wisconsin), and the heartache of having Nick leaving and not knowing when we’d see him again.  There have been other smaller concerns not discussed in our blog (mainly because they were to some point expected and not a major concern for us, such as the lack of dairy items in the stores and the higher cost of living) and it all kind of struck us at once.

We have come to realize that our dream did not end once we arrived in Florida.  Our dream was not to move to Florida and enjoy Disney.  Our dream is to move to Florida, enjoy Florida and live our lives out here.  It would be easy to give up now, justifying moving back to Wisconsin citing various reasons.  However, God did not move us to Florida for a few months to enjoy Disney.  His plans are purposeful, and as much as we love Disney, we’re fairly certain that’s not the reason we’re here 🙂  A dream is not always a bed of roses, even when you live 22 miles away from the magic of Walt Disney World.  Life still happens, and not how you planned it.  You can either embrace it, or you can run away to where you feel safe.  We are still in the adjustment period, and it may very well take another year before everything seems normal.  Our mantra is to embrace what we have, enjoy life to the fullest and erase the doubts.  We will always look back to Wisconsin, because we have friends and family there, but Florida is home now.

We will be shutting down our Facebook presence on December 31.  We will be keeping our blog open here and posting occasionally.  A huge thank you to all our readers who have followed our journey and supported us through the planning of the move and the relocation itself.  We have been blessed to meet a few of you and make new friendships; it’s nice to know we’re not alone.  (Sometimes it sure feels like it!)  May God bless your families and give you a prosperous and healthy New Year!  Y’all are in our hearts.


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Four Parks, One Weekend

When we were first planning our move to the beautiful state of Florida, one recurring theme that kept surfacing was the anticipation of being able to visit the parks at a moment’s notice.  As we’ve mentioned before, what we envisioned as a short drive to Walt Disney World can actually take us anywhere from 35-55 minutes to arrive, depending on traffic.  We try to schedule our Disney trips in on Wednesday afternoons/early evenings (kids have early release from school) and the weekends.  School and homework commitments always take priority over our fun time at the parks, and there really isn’t sufficient time on a normal school day to drive over two hours round trip for an hour in the park.  This past weekend was a three-day weekend (end of the first grading period for the kids), so we were able to squeeze in an extra day at Walt Disney World.  It was not our intention to visit all four parks this weekend; just happened to work out that way!

We rely on the WDW Lines app (downloaded to our smartphones) when we decide which park to visit.  (Please see touringplans.com for more information).  It is an excellent resource and well worth the small investment:  it rates the individual parks based on how crowded they are expected to be, list show times, and estimated wait times for all the attractions.

We decided Saturday to visit the Animal Kingdom.  Believe it or not, this was our first visit to AK since our move in July, mainly because we didn’t feel a need to roast ourselves in the hot Florida sun.  For us, Animal Kingdom is by far the hottest park.  We know others may disagree, but we knew there would be plenty of cooler temperatures in the upcoming months, and we were fine with delaying our visit.  We were thrilled to see how close the parking lot tram brought us to the entrance, as we were used to quite the hike when we stayed on property and used Disney transportation.

[As a side note, one of our ‘wants’ is to stay on Disney property at each of the resort hotels.  We have decided that when this happens, we will use our own vehicle and not the Disney bus transportation service.  We much prefer using the parking lot and trams:  it is more convenient and less stressful.]

Ben faced his fear of Expedition Everest:  he first tried it in 2007 and quickly placed it on his list (of things he was afraid of!).  It is now a must-do attraction at Animal Kingdom!  He absolutely loved it!  Yay Ben!

Sunday was a Magic Kingdom and Epcot Day:  Epcot, because of Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, MK closes at 7:00.  We chose to take the monorail over to Epcot for a couple of hours.  Magic Kingdom is by far our favorite park, and while it can be an inconvenience to have to take a ferry boat or monorail from the TTC to the Magic Kingdom, most days we enjoy the magical approach as the way Walt Disney wanted it to be.

Naturally, this left Disney’s  Hollywood Studios for Monday; this is our second favorite park:  Rock N Roller Coaster, the Tower of Terror and Star Tours are absolute must-dos. We went into the 5 & 10 store on  Hollywood Boulevard for the first time ever, and discovered a lot of things that we would love to have for Christmas…:=)  Thought you might want to take a look too!

Toy Story Mania is also one of our favorites:  we always joke with Ben that he so needs to stop coloring on the walls, and that we’re going to have to take his crayons away :=)

We have been asked:  what is the best thing about going to the parks now that we live here?  We would say the ability to enjoy the parks and really take in the theming of the attractions and surroundings, without feeling the need to rush around and do it all.   Walt Disney World isn’t going anywhere, and neither are we–we have plenty of time to explore and enjoy everything it has to offer.