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!"

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!

Lamination progress huzzah!

So, I've gone a little silly with the laminator.
Weeeell, maybe not so silly.
I've printed up the step-by-step way of having a shower.
Yes, I even reminded him to grab a towel!
Then the step-by-step order to start his day with breakfast, starting with the first step of "No Coke!!!!"
He's a bit of a fiend for that, self-medicating with the caffeine for his ADHD plus once he does something it gets cast in concrete that he Must.Do.It.The.Exact.Same.Way.Every.Time.
Has to have a glass of fizzy lolly water (coke, Fanta, Sarsaparilla, Root Beer, Dr Pepper, lemonade, etc) right before Every.Single.evening meal.
Sometimes he'll have just finished drinking water or juice but the OCD kicks in and he almost turns magenta arguing for his precious glass of fizzy soft drink.
I digress.
I've printed up small business card-sized prompts for him to tuck into his wallet; one states that he has Asperger's, Tourette's, ADHD, OCD and anxiety, asking the person to be patient with him, with an autism ribbon to underscore the message.
Another is a prompt card for when he has a panic/anxiety attack, with suggestions of focusing on Pokemon, Doctor Who, etc, taking deep breaths, that kind of thing.
Another is a prompt card for beginning a conversation with a new acquaintance, how to share the conversation with the other person rather than dominate it with his own hobbies/interests, etc.
I've also printed up the order of getting down to work with his textbooks; some days his head is off in la-la land and he can take hours to do what he can finish within 30 mins some days.

Bizarrely, these are the exact same things we chant to him every day yet, because he is such a visual learner, reading them in black and white has already helped him get his work done with no angst and he's thrown his medication down his throat with greater speed than seen on Usain Bolt on a track.
He's never been one for the social stories or picture prompts but these lists have really clicked with him.

Beaufort homeschool excursion & Eltham heritage walk

Good evening, all you uber-sexy cosmonauts surfing the Aspergian highway!
No, I'm not on drugs nor have I opened a bottle of vino.
Had a brilliant couple of days with my boy; flittered off on Friday to Beaufort (near Central Victoria) for a homeschooling excursion on my Dad's, my grandmother's and my great-grandparent's old home ground.
We didn't let the family know we were in town as we wanted to kick around the place anonymously and explore for ourselves (besides several of the older ones have been quite ill and it was easier if they didn't feel they had to have us out to visit, if you get my drift).
The Aspie teen researched as much as he could on Beaufort before we set off and when we hit the community centre we found a fab heritage trail already printed with a map.
Many rural towns are now providing these printed heritage/history trail/walks/tours and are a great resource for visitors; not only are you able to wander about at your own pace learning fascinating bits of history but sometimes these trails lead your off the beaten track and you get to see things you may not have found if you'd stuck to the main thoroughfare.
We explored to our hearts content, found the cemetery and were amazed at the age of the burials; we found an original wooden grave marker, Chinese graves, an Aboriginal grave and some sad forgotten unmarked graves that were only lumps in the dirt.
The heritage map found us the old woollen mills, primary school (where my dad was a sometime pupil with his cousins and where his mother sometimes taught), my great-grandfather's blacksmith forge, the old Primitive Methodist Church which is now a lovely gallery and the fab architecture throughout the town which has been preserved by the sensible recycling of the buildings.
Aspie geek kid had a ball, learning how to use the DSLR, putting his map reading skills and time keeping skills into good use, not to mention him explaining to me how Beaufort came to be founded from his research.
He was totally enthralled to actually eyeball the blacksmith forge, albeit slightly altered, and the large number of original buildings that have survived the wreckers ball/developers.
Then yesterday we toddled off on a heritage walk in Eltham with the Eltham Historical Society; was a lovely time.
We saw Alan Marshall's old home, some great mudbrick houses (one which was designed by Alastair Knox, the Periwinkle House, that now has heritage protection) an old gold reef mining attempt, some fabulous views from the top of mountainous hills we didn't know we were climbing and a few sprinkles of rain that kept us out of mischief.
And a lovely, relaxing day today, spent baking GFDF goodies!

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.

Ballarat homeschooling excursion

We hit Ballarat while it was bucketing down with rain. Actually the rain barely let up while we were there and it chased us back to Melbourne.
But, hey, the more the merrier to break the drought.
Aspie teen totally loved the In Your Face exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat; political cartoons from 1760-2010, some of them far more risque than what our cartoonists get away with today (very chuckle-inducing, though).

The art gallery is the oldest regional art gallery in Australia and oozes history, it certainly appealed to Aspie teen. He seems more comfortable in an older, historic setting rather than post-modern minimalistic (which he says feels cold to him). We could have spent hours and hours there but we were on a tight time-frame so we will be returning to the art gallery at a future date to continue our love affair with its goodies.

Aspie teen's map reading skills are getting quite a work out on these trips; we picked up a travel booklet which included a map of the CBD of Ballarat and he was able to navigate us correctly to each op shop address I'd written (the fact the list was out of date and the op shops no longer at each address is beside the point, he got us there in one try lol).
We were given directions from a kind lady in one op shop we happened to stumble across and we had a great walk around the streets, eyeballing some fabulous architecture, history and beautiful buildings (with the full trimmings) still mostly intact as they were originally built over 150 years ago.

In all it was a highly successful homeschooling excursion like the last; these weekly trips are proving to be good for him in so many ways, not to mention getting him ready to travel out of Melbourne during school hols to avoid the crowds. He's able to navigate us around strange cities without using the GPS (and without a meltdown), his ability to look for street addresses and work out which side of the street or how far down the street the building may be is becoming better and he's enjoying himself, which is the most important thing in all of this.
So long as he's having fun the learning comes naturally in those circumstances and it stays with him as it's associated with a pleasant time.
We were unable to get to Kirrit Barreet, the Aboriginal cultural centre, but Aspie teen wasn't upset as he's keen to learn about his fathers people, the Dja Dja Wurrung, who are from the Bendigo area and part of the Kulin Nation.
Maybe when we go back again soon we'll get to have a visit there.

We'll always have tomorrow...if you believe Scarlett and Annie and The Beatles

And so tomorrow we're off to Ballarat at the crack of Dawn.
People will start to gossip at the amount of times I've seen Dawn's crack of late.
Yes, yes, I'm a crude poppet at times.
But fortunately Dawn doesn't mind.
Dragging the carcass of Aspie teen out of bed will be such fun (that was sarcasm if you missed it).
His Lordship has requested a visit to the art gallery in Ballarat and he was rather happy to hear that there was an Aboriginal gallery/culture centre, too.
And 17 op shops.
Count them.
S-e-v-e-n-t-e-e-n of the buggers.
Yes, I'm packing the mega-large backpack with extra storage and His Nibs will be carrying a backpack of his own.
So I won't need to order that shipping container he was eyeballing.
I hope.

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.