Bye Bye Homeschooling

Homeschooling is now a thing of the past in this house.
We've done it for 4 years and it was the best thing for our child for that time.
But.
Once he started Uni last year the genie was out of the bottle and it's been difficult to get him to settle back into homeschooling while he's taken a break from Uni.
And while his anxieties have climbed sky high.
The battles over schoolwork are just.not.worth.it.
So, we're hoping to enroll him in Distance Education Centre for next year.
He needs someone, other than myself, teaching him.
I'll be able to guide and support him at home but as a parent, not mum-teacher-lecturer-curriculum maker-excursion planner-person-to-argue-semantics-with all rolled into one.
Homeschooling is great; we are so lucky here in Victoria we are able to have that option to explore for our children when other mainstream schooling options are not suitable, but people change and Aspie teen has grown, matured and his needs are now different.
Like all things in life nothing is forever and this is the end of a chapter in our lives but also the beginning of another, newer, one next year.
Now we just need to fill in a bajillion forests' worth of paperwork and get things organised for him to be enrolled!

Geek kid alert

Hi-de-ho, yo sexy Mums of all kidlets!
Nah, she's not getting all creepy and crap, we need to praise the carers... cos we're the ones who cop the flack so let's cop some slack ;)
Had a fab meeting with the Paediatrician of Wonderful, who assured me Aspie teen will only tower over me a little (I'm 5ft 9) and he estimates he'll hit the 6ft 3in mark sometime in the future but we're happy to wait for that to come along.
I gave Aspie teen his laminated schedule and asked him to pick out at least one thing each day he wanted to keep, as we're re-evaluating everything to give him more down time to de-stress and off-load his anxiety.
So far, he's picked maths (text books), maths online and by email, science (text books), science online and by email, art, history, geography, culture and homeschooling excursions.
Yeah, he's ditched all the fiddly fun stuff, typical Aspie *snort*
Then promptly checked out the Open University units he'd like to do next year and followed it up by making a bajillion Lolcats.
We popped into the local library tonight where we bought a shedload of books, many near-new for 50 cents each - our library culls its books and sells them off regularly.
A book Aspie teen almost threw himself on to grab is a beauty The Physics of Atmospheres.
Yeah, 50 cents.
He's a happy lil camper but, almost as important, so is his mother's hip pocket!

Back again

Dad is back home and Aspie teen is more settled albeit more clingy.
Thank goodness we've come a long way since he was in mainstream school with his integration aide;  we are able to discuss the future of his grandfather's health with him plus he's able to spend extra bonus time with Dad being at home.
Some things about nursing Dad at home are perfect life lessons Aspie teen could read about but have little understanding until it's unfolding right under his very nose. Hopefully these are helping cement the foundations for him to follow in how to care for the elderly/infirm in his future.
He's so happy with his Silkie hens, they are another learning curve for him and he's spreading his wings a little in his new role of responsibility. They've imprinted with him as their parent and answer to their names when he calls them. The fluffy little mop tops are so sweet and cute; they have cheeky little personalities which make them appear as silly haughty madames strutting about in the Victorian era in their finery.

They are both a great distraction and a grounding mechanism to keep him focussed in this sad time.
We have no idea how long Dad has but each day is a bonus so we have to strive for positive thinking and keeping our chins up which is difficult for a teen at times.
The 2 cases of young teens being sprayed with capsicum spray has certainly grabbed his attention; his parents warning him was one thing but the police actually using it on kids his own age has given him a bit of a wake up call.

He's off for an EEG this week and still banned from bicycle riding due to his slow reaction times. He missed his first cricket match of the season as we were tied up at the hospital (almost but not quite literally in that sense) but he took the disappointment ok, only a few mild Tourette's grunts and tics.
We'll be reviweing Aspie teen returning to Uni study soon, too.
He has asked many times and loves the uni subjects, we'll just take it slowly to see what subjects are on offer (in his preferred field of study) and what really catches his interest (even those outside of his subject area).
Maybe a better time for him to start again, we'll see.

Stress/no stress

Today rocked.
It truly did.
My Aspie had an appointment with his beloved paediatrician who not only gives him great support and reassurance but today he saw Aspie teen's new anxiety manifestations in constantly clicking his fingers.
I know it's anxiety-driven but I can't figure out if it should be labelled a Tourette's tic or a stim...or even an OCD behaviour as he's sort of able to stop (sometimes) but he's got this overwhelming urge to keep going.
Anyways, the paed saw it and saw that verbal reassurance, coupled with hugs, back rubs and cuddles didn't cut the mustard, either.
It's interesting to note that while Aspie teen denied that he felt any anxiety or worry at the increasing noise of new patients in the waiting room his clicking increased when we walked out there.
I don't know if he's actually able to identify feelings of anxiety or stress as he's lived with them as a constant for so long it's like background noise.
We talked, oh so briefly as he was getting prickly, about stress on the way home and I tried to explain that many people don't realise they're stressed out or anxious until these behaviours appear.
At least I've sown the seed for him to think about and we might be able to discuss it further another day, soon.

The coming of the Aspergians

While we know we have a clever child we have never told him as such.
Yes, it sounds odd but it's not, really.
He knows he has Asperger's, he knows all about the Autism Spectrum, Tourette's, ADHD, OCD, etc, but he doesn't know he is what some call 'gifted'.
Because we have never used that word.
We have always encouraged him in his interests - mummifying the fish at age 9 (which I just found again in the cupboard the other week), completing several archaeological digs on the backyard, building mudbrick pyramid tombs for the deceased chooks (as you do), completing 5 university subjects so far, etc - but we've never referred to him as 'gifted' or 'a genius', he just is.
He knows he can prattle off the names off the geological ages of the Earth, explain what the climate is like on each planet in our solar system, describe the process by which iron ore is formed within the earth and extracted by man but he still takes awhile deciphering analogue time, tying laces is a slow process and his handwriting (like most Aspies) is akin to chicken scratchings.
Some people assume that because he's 'so clever' that everything comes easily to him - it doesn't.
Nor is he a novelty, a nine-day wonder or a freak act in the sideshow of the circus as some people tend to parade their 'gifted' kids.
He is Aspergian, he's an Aspie with ADHD, Tourette's and OCD (don't ever bump his things out of line!!!!!!) and he's my beautifully wired pumpkin-pie who subscribes to the Big Bang theory (and tv show) and thinks most people are bizarre little freakazoids.
No, the Martians won't be taking over; it'll be the Aspergians.
Be afraid, bizarre little freakazoids...be very afraid!