The Over Stimulating Start of the Wet Season.
It is pouring here. The monsoons (wet season) have finally set in. Steam is rising from the roads as heat is released and I forgot to switch our solar hot water to electricity booster. Rainy days equals cold water for the showering!!!
Children with Asperger's often don’t cope well with change. Our endlessly wet days are a change that Boy is struggling with. He has slept badly over the weekend. The smells, sounds and colours from outside are different. Although his favorite past time is his computer (an inside activity), the wild electrical storms have at times mandated everything being unplugged from the walls.
Oh dear oh me: The changes that the rest of us take for granted and just live with! Boy has awoken, late, in a weird mood. He is as jumpy as a cat and his eyes are darting around the place ensuring that at least the inside of his home has remained the same.
Monday is the day Boy spends with his youth worker. These hours are counted as home schooling because Boy and Youth Worker concentrate on elements of emotional intelligence and life skills. Unfortunately the Youth Worker has had to change his times for this afternoon. Although Boy is aware of the change and understands the reasons behind it, he keeps seeking reassurance of the new pick-up time.
Thank goodness, I don’t have to serve Boy up a plateful of learning this morning. I have a sense that he is a thunderstorm waiting to erupt because he has gone into stimulus overload.
On this point, what do you other home schoolers do on days where you know that learning retention is likely to be low? Do you remain dogmatic in your endeavors to school or do you just allow some days to float by? My preference is for the latter but I don’t want Boy to think that he can force a “sick day” by displaying overload.
Photo courtesy of supajem at SXC Photo Exchange.
2 comments:
Hi, Megan!
Well, we have had lots of "interruptions" lately, and I am learning to do something for school, but perhaps not what I had planned. Last week N. was sick, for example--so we did school by reading out loud while wrapped in a "doona" (I do so love that word!) on the couch. Then N. did some drawings because he could handle that much. He could not handle math--so we did not do that part. It is hard for our AS kids to roll with the punches--so sometimes we have to accept that fact and make a lighter day. Lisa Pyles in "Homeschooling Aspergers" says that one mother she knows has videos on historical subjects and travel that she shows on overwhelming days. When I was a teacher, I noticed that on stormy days none of the kids had their usual focus--so I learned to change plans if I was planning to introduce new and difficult material. Teachers have to adjust in school, too, so there is nothing strange about doing so in the homeschool situation where the curriculum is matched to the child!
By the way--how are wedding plans going?
Hi Elisheva
thanks for the reassurance. It's nice to know that the best laid plans of other home schoolers do sometimes also run away. I think my Cathloic upbringing gets in the way and I am left feeling guilty if I don't achieve what I had set out for the day...but...my Boy is achieving a happy and calm home life and that's worth 20 loads of my guilt over a couple of waiting lesson plans.
Wedding plans are coming along beautifully. The RSVP's are coming in and it's time for us all to start thinking about what we're wearing (the girl's are all going Grecian - different colours, different dresses, but Grecian nonetheless). We're meeting with the celebrant tomorrow evening to plan the ceremony.
Mxx
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