How did I not notice this board?

[Deleted]

Or maybe I knew forgot it was here? I mostly head straight to CEP or Book Club.

I'll try to pop in more. All I have for today is this confession: summer can't end soon enough. I thought I'd cobble together some respite for myself from my 6yo through summer camps sprinkled throughout the summer. A few hours a week to run hours and exercise, that's all I need.

We're two days into the first camp and it's not going well. His therapist is having to show up each morning to help DS transition away from me. .

Lesson learned. Next summer I'm not attempting mainstream day camps. Either at-home respite or drop-off with a program that can handle a hysterical kiddo who doesn't want mom to go. Younger DS is still in preschool 3 days a week all summer, so that helps. The days they are both home are rough.

[auntie]

@vanessadoof

Summers are hard. It's gets better.

DS is pretty high functioning and did OK with most special interest themed camps as a younger kid, especially those that were mornings only. He tended to buddy up with the teenagers running them. This was pre-dx.

Once he got to be school aged, it was harder to find camps that appealed that were appropriate for his needs. We did K'Nex camp, art camp etc until he was about 9 when he started scout camps and residential camp at Camp Summit.


www.summitcamp.com/

Summit was awesome, they are staffed by teachers and college students who are studying things like OT, PT, SLP. This helped DS be OK with being independent of us. He was able to build on this and do scout summer camp, high adventure camp and Jamboree for 12 days. This led to him being able to do his band tour and senior trip to WDW. Something to keep on your radar.

One thing I noticed, from my son and from other parents on my forums, is that kids tend to need slightly more support in camps than in school at first because the structure is generally looser. A mainstream traditional day camp might not be doable for a kid who is served in a self contained classroom without having a para on board. A lot of kids I know started in more therapeutic social skills fun camps and bridged to more mainstream interest based camps around the intermediate grades. 

DH and I were commenting that we're having the best summer since well before DS was dx'd. He's got his first job and lucked out nabbing a slot at the local tourist railroad. He's getting about 30 hours a week and happy as the proverbial clam. When DS was about three he told me that he "would do anything-even scrub toilets- to work there". He came home last week and said "Guess what I did today? Scrubbed the toilets!"

[Deleted]

auntie, that's awesome! We have a volunteer-run steam railroad on the outskirts of town that DS would probably love to work at someday. There are lots of teenagers doing apprenticeships there.

Thanks for the link, I'll look at that and have a better plan next summer (if its too late for this one). Maybe I'll luck out and find a spot, though.

He's scheduled for afternoon Lego robot camp next week, which in theory would be perfect, but I'm still not sure he'll part willingly. They say they're used to working with ASD kids, but my kid's separation anxiety may be worse than what they're used to.

I'm sitting in my car in case the therapist summons me back to the soccer field, as she has to leave. I'm laughing bitterly about the cost of the camp + insurance copays for her to be here.

Oops, I'm getting summoned. Shit.

Eta: went to the parks office to cancel the rest of our camps and the inclusion officer tried to help, offering support staff for him.

"Great! So I won't need to bring his own therapist anymore? Are they really willing to physically manage him if he gets upset and tries to chase after me?"

"Uh...no."

Apparently the one condition for including the SN kid is that they WANT to be at camp. So we cancelled and are hitting up our respite providers instead.