Do YOU socialise with 1000+ of your peers 5 days per week? Then you're just not socialising enough!

Right, you lot!
You, you and you - up the back, hiding behind the lamp post, chewing on your hair - you're all to come up here and give a public speech about how you all socialise with 1000+ of your peers every single day.

*waiting....waiting...waiting...*

Come on now, surely you've been to school?
Surely you've been taught 'the proper way' to socialise with gazillions of total strangers you have nothing in common with and been taught to enjoy your discomfort even when most of them farted the alphabet in science class after egg sangas at lunch?
And, surely to goodness, you're continuing this tradition now that you're all growed up and socialised proper?
(the socialisation, not farting the alphabet around the water cooler to impress that weird work experience chick from accounting)
*rolls eyes*

No?!
What do you mean you "don't associate with that many people even at work" ????
Is this some kind of madness?
You've been to school, that's where you learn to socialise!
Maybe you didn't learn properly?!

*rolls eyes again*

I have been told that to ensure correct socialisation (which is apparently the cause of a teenager hearing voices and hurting himself) the answer is to send an anxiety-ridden, mentally unwell child back to an over-crowded secondary school.
Because, apparently, belonging to 4 different sporting clubs, a drama club, lapidary club, a social group with a social worker and psychologist on hand, not to forget having frequent excursions...none of these count.

 *rolls eyes wildly until they fall out of head*

Plonk

Got to love those who are so rigid in their beliefs that homeschooled kids
A) don't get taught anything
B) have no socialisation
and repeat ad infinitum only what they know - that 'normal' schools are the only way to educate and teach kids to be social.

*rolls pre-plonked eyeballs wildly across bench top in attempt to be sarcastic*

*avoids teabags on bench cos those sting eyeballs like a mofo*

Cos, goodness knows, we all spend about 8-10 hours each day with over 1000 people, behaving in a socially acceptable manner at all times, never wishing to have time to ourselves and, because we are all Borgs/replicas none of us ever feel anxious/nervous/claustrophobic or stressed at sharing so much of our lives with these strangers we have little in common with.
Don't we...?

*No eyeballs were hurt in the making of this dribble*

Rocking the education thing the homeschooling fun way

So, this homeschooling bizzo got cranked up again.
Printed off a shedload of worksheets for Aspie teen to explore the Bunjilaka Gallery at the ever-fabulously-wonderful Melbourne Museum (available on the Melbourne Museum website).

Gotta love these critters...or, maybe...not?
I swear it was a Pokemon in another era...

This helps him know ahead of time what work is expected of him, how much work he has, the style of the questions, what he needs to look for and gives him time to get himself into the appropriate headspace.

A teaser!

A tempting little peek at the Big Future Tutenkhamun exhibit being unpacked...

Got the Aspie teen in there after lunch - after he'd had a minor meltdown over the fact that he'd outgrown a bajillion pairs of jeans ( and kept that fact to himself) and had nothing to wear (except the squillions of shorts he'd been living in for the past few months) but a quick trip to the op shop by his father got it sorted...and a couple of belts were bought as we had to ditch all the belts in the house after Certain Incidents happened a couple of times and hiding places were all found and the last time the police came........where was I again?
Oh, yeah, we got to the museum late but that was no biggie as we were concentrating on the one gallery and everything else was a bonus.

 Thought of Jah Teh when I cast my baby blues over these magnificent samples.

Have plenty of shots of the other pretties, will post more in future posts.

Sticking to the K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid) principal works well, totally removes the pressure and the kid teen is happily able to concentrate and learn.

He burbled about happily, filling in the worksheets, noting info, watching re-enactments/movies, filling his store of knowledge up a bit more and making mental connections between his previously learned info with the new facts he gleaned yesterday.
Cos he's a visual learner and presenting the practical component under his very nose what he'd learned the theory of suddenly pieces many seemingly random bits of info into a complex tapestry of facts in his mind.

 Yes, even shoving this under his nose gets a big thumbs up.

Cos he was settled, under no pressure, no one was harping at him to finish the set work, to send it in by a certain date, to critique his knowledge and put a value on it.
No offense to teachers out there but that is how he feels, that he doesn't measure up cos he needs to take his time to focus, concentrate, absorb the information and process it without the pressure of time frames hanging over him, catching up/keeping up with peers or his never-far-away ingrained fear that he'll fail.

If fear of failure was to have a visage then I think this pretty much fits the profile.

We popped into a few other galleries while we had the time and had a ball, the best was in the rainforest gallery where we we able to watch 2 male Satin Bowerbirds (the ones that collect all things blue) court and woo the equally gorgeous-but-adorned-in-green females of the species whilst weaving and building their nests.
Seriously, take your kids to see them, you'll never get that close to them in the wild and they are amazing!

Got loads of pics, difficult to tell which one is which til I post them so I'll probably post more in later posts - really attractive birds so easy eye candy in any subject.

Go on, you know what caption I had in mind when I took this....

"Crabz! I haz them!"

Homeschooling

So many parents of ASD kids are choosing to homeschool these days it's becoming more mainstream than mainstream school itself!
I suppose what we do at home here at the moment could be considered 'unschooling' (explanation HERE) as we see which way Aspie teen is headed, behaviour-wise, for the day.
Some days constant history or science programmes on the tv are enough, particularly when he's having an off day.
Other days he can romp through books completing 2 pages of exercises on each subject.
Our homeschooling excursions each week are a highlight for a visual learner as he can make connections between what he reads/learns about and then sees it for himself.
I've been slowly introducing little extras on each excursion - navigating via GPS then reading a map, working through the list of op shops, even wearing a watch and being the time keeper for the train home.

Kyneton Museum, the regionals rock

Climbed aboard the country train with Aspie teen this morning and Kyneton (Central Victoria) was graced with our ever-so-slightly chilled presence on this brisk Winter's day.
Aspie teen loves the museums and galleries but I'm easing him into visiting regional ones ahead of the school hols so we don't have to miss out on his favourite obsessions that will otherwise, in Melbourne at least, be packed to the rafters with People!
And Kids!
Mostly Screaming Kids!
Which doesn't do wonders for his Aspergerian anxiety but school hols are only small interruptions and we're hitting the regionals, baby.
The Kyneton Museum is a gem, a loved-up local gem and one that you should seek out if you get the chance.

Situated in the former Bank of NSW (original 1860s building), they have exhibitions downstairs with the bank manager's residence upstairs fully furnished in the period of the day, with movement-activated recordings of what would have been usual conversations.
The stables, laundry, kitchen and 2-pot (a double bunger) outhouse are intact as is the original squatter's cottage, Theaden Homestead, again furnished in period style with recorded conversations of daily life.
Fabulous set up, run by friendly people and something I'd highly recommend to anyone.

We wandered up and down the streets and side-streets of Kyneton, admiring the Neo-Gothic churches, the beautiful architecture of many buildings inspired by the heady gold rush days right through to the Art Deco years and the many uses one can find for bluestone.
The town is a grand place to visit; we actually ran out of time (only 6 hours!) to complete our self-guided tour and so shall be returning at a later date to visit the cemetery, Botanic Gardens, the Farmer's Market (every 2nd Saturday in St Paul's Park) and the many little side streets that beckoned to our curiosity .
But for next week Aspie teen has chosen we shall visit Ballarat.

My boy had a wow of a day

The Aspie teen has had a couple of minor meltdowns - and I do mean minor - with the yelling, swearing and aggro lasting all of 10 mins.
Yes, we thought it was such a lovely change from the hours on end of mental breakdowns he had to endure, too!
There's a couple of things we may be pointing the finger at - the gluten finally leaving and/or the build up of the fish, flaxseed and Evening primrose oils he's been taking.
He's calmer, he's making sense, he's almost back to his old self.
*sigh*
Took him in to see the Rupert Bunny exhibition at Fed Square; found some excellent homeschooling resources for it as it's had some education kits developed for use within schools. The downloads were for both primary and secondary students, very appealing, simple and easy but challenging to the student to use their observational skills in each painting.
He zipped through them without a complaint; fully focused and loving every minute of it, this is how I know he's getting better.
Then he chose some postcards of Rupert Bunny's and McCubbin's paintings, and quickly mentally calculated the cost (correctly), again showing that he's getting back on track.
Then we continued the homeschooling lesson up at the Melbourne Town Hall where they held a free organ concert;  twas fantabulous, the organist David MacFarlane brilliantly and wittily introduced each piece, explaining the strengths, the arguments within the music, who was influenced by what when it was created, etc.
The kid loved it so it was a great success.
The choice to homeschool him 4 years ago has not only paid off for him being able to spread his wings and explore both secondary and uni learning ahead of his peers but it's allowed him to have these hiccups along the way without putting more pressure on him with having to cope with mainstream school, too.

Shhh...

We've taken things back to basics and are trialling Aspie teen on just very basic literature tasks, such as reading & comprehension, words & meanings with appropriate use in sentences, etc.
As he's homeschooled we're able to be flexible with his work to suit what the Spectrum is throwing at us, thank goodness, and we can chop and change subjects to snare his attention and focus as it suits.
He's deeply disappointed at possibly having to skip footy, if he does further damage to his tendon this Sunday, but I reminded him the alternative was to sport a RoboBoot like Kelley.
He immediately understood having read about RoboBoot and how serious Kelley's injury had become, thus coming around to my way of thinking and taking it easy this footy match and resting himself as much as possible.
Yeah, could see that further injury would go down really well with him surfing the Hormone Waves at the moment!
Have been spraying lavender all over the house -it's supposed to soothe tempers and bring about a sense of calmness - so if it doesn't work at least the house smells pretty.
Still sticking to the GFDF diet, was going to make pasta from scratch but trialled the Orgran Rice and Corn Mini Lasagna sheets the other day - Very yummy, works well and just like regular lasagna sheets.

We are legion

They say we're having an explosion of Autism with more kids than ever before being diagnosed as somewhere on the Spectrum.
I don't doubt this, having met a plethora of other parents exploring the new pathway marked Autism; each time you meet someone new you look at each other as members of an exclusive club with secrets that only the other person would fully understand.

When school happens shit happens

Sometimes the whole school system idea works and other times it fails children miserably, depending on the school/teachers/child/if the moon is full that month...you get the picture.
My kidlet went to an Autistic-specific school for 3 days per week in a type of pre-prep programe.
He loved it - heck, any parent would love it! - average of 5 kids per class with 2 teachers and they closely followed the curriculum of mainstream schools as well as incorporating sensory and speech therapies.

More not so merrier

Tourette's showed up at our house one day when I noticed the very subtle head shake.
I don't remember inviting Tourette's in the door but there it was, blinking rapidly at me and jerking the head to the left ever-so-slightly.
So, we had medication for the anxiety, medication for the aggressive behaviour and now we had to consider medication for the new unwanted guest, Tourette's.