It’s the middle Saturday of the school holidays. Once again I’ve been sick this week so it’s not been a very enjoyable experience. We’ve still done things but I’ve been dragging myself out of bed to do them.
Monday we did our first trip to the movies for these hols. We went to see Rio. Not a bad flick as far as kids movies go. I’ve seen much worse. I find that the ones that combine real people with animation the worst so as Rio was fully animated it had a tick to begin with. The kids enjoyed it and we got hot chips afterwards which saved me making lunch when we got home.
Tuesday we went for a play at Bec’s house. Beth knows the drill now, she goes straight to the dvd pile and has worked out the remote controls to the dvds and foxtel. She’s a clever girl. Bill and Will are in the same year at school as are Bridie and Kasey so they went off and did their own thing. I always have a lovely time at Bec’s house, we never seem to run out of things to talk about.
Her Will also has autism and we had great discussions about schooling. Mainly because I’m still half thinking about the benefits of home schooling. Sue Larkey (a speaker who knows all about autism and schooling) put a question on Facebook earlier in the week, asking people’s opinions on home schooling. Except for me and my sanity issues (for myself) everybody else had an overwhelmingly positive attitude towards it. People spoke of how much their child had progressed when the anxiety of attending school was taken out of the equation. How their kids had learnt so much when doing one on one with them. Once again it really comes back to if I could handle it myself with no breaks. Also, I still believe I have to give Beth a chance at high school. I’m willing to change my mind if it doesn’t work out but it wouldn’t be as easy to go the other way. She has to start school with the other kids, otherwise she’d be not only the weird one, but the new weird one. It’s just such a scary prospect.
Wednesday we went for a visit to my aunt and uncle’s house. We try to catch up with Peter and Margaret each school holidays, it’s the only chance we get because they both work on weekends. Once again Beth sorted the tv out and plonked herself down for the majority of the time. They have all their favourite treats there and Beth was expecting them, asking Marg where the chips were when they weren’t on the table when she sat down! They came home laden with easter eggs and tummy aches but very happy.
Thursday we had Sensational Kids. We had a sit in Speech Therapist as well as Rod this week. She was lovely but I don’t think she got Beth’s sense of humour. After Beth trying to get info out of her for her standard joke she wasn’t sure of the punchline. Beth asks “what’s your favourite colour, part of the body, number and animal” one at a time. At the end she puts it all together. Her answers on Thursday made it (in her Fizz from the Tweenies voice – where it originated) “Your favourite thing is a green dog with six legs!” The speechie replied with “but dogs don’t have six legs so it doesn’t make much sense.” I had to explain that it was in fact a joke so not to take Beth too seriously. I didn’t say that they are also not green! She seemed lovely though and enjoyed Beth and Rods accents and burping the alphabet.
I had told Rod of my concerns with high school so he had drawn a picture of a girl being bullied by 2 boys. Beth had to help the girl and did quite well with what she said. Things such as ‘go away’ and ‘leave me alone’. She did seem to put herself in the girl’s position. After the session they went into the big gym. A boy had a Thomas the Tank Engine book which was playing the theme song, Beth jumped onto a xylophone that was on the ground and played some of it in the same tune. Maybe it’s time to try piano lessons once again.
Beth had a good session with Whiskas (not her real name) – the Occupational Therapist. They did a similar thing as was done in Speech as I told Whiskas my concerns. She made some great suggestions re aide time. She said when she was studying there were opportunities for the students to have work experience in schools helping with different students. If Beth’s aide time is cut in any way this is a possibility. It may even be a possibility for me at home if necessary. Whether Beth is part time of full time home schooled it would certainly benefit me to have assistance.
Friday we didn’t do much at all as I was feeling like crap! I had a doctors appointment in the morning and that’s it. He basically told me that as I seem to be running on empty most of the time as I had my hands full, there wasn’t anything left to give when I got sick. Basically my immune system is probably so low that there’s nothing left. I need to try and get healthier and fitter as I can see it’s only going to get harder.
We’re off to Inverloch on Monday with Amanda and her kids and Catriona and her son. That’ll equal 3 mums, 3 kids with autism and 4 ‘normal’ kids! Oh, and of course, Minka the Wonderdog! I’m looking forward to it actually, at least we get each other and the kids. We’ve already sat down over coffee to discuss our kids idiosyncracys. We discovered that they all still like little kids shows such as Playschool and Grandpa in my pocket. I did state that Beth didn’t like sitcoms or anything with laughter tracks but surprisingly this morning she’s watching them one after the other! Don’t know what’s going on there. She’s been great the last few days, seems pretty chilled out. Maybe not having to go to school is keeping her calm. She asked me last night “Mum, are you feeling better now?” Just like any ‘normal’ kid would. Sometimes she surprises me.
