Imaginif is running a Christmas in July competition. 
Enter for a chance to WIN a Christmas Stocking full of Protective Play goodies from the Imaginif shop simply by posting your Favorite Christmas in July recipe.
For us in the the Southern Hemisphere, July is our cold, cold month. The time for stews, roasts and comfort foods, it is also the month that alternative Christmas dinners are celebrated with family and friends. 
We need some food ideas to keep us happy, warm and full of that nice Christmassy feeling. Your recipe could be a cake, a main, an entree or a snack for when friends drop by. Whatever it is, it must be festive, suitable for the kids to eat too and represent a time of peace and goodwill (in short, something that could grace a December Christmas table).
Post your recipe in the competition section at Imaginif's Safety Talk forum between now and July 24, 2007. On July 25, 2007, I will collate the recipes into a forum poll for all to vote on (you can vote for your own recipe).
The recipe with the greatest number of votes will win the Christmas stocking. Voting will take place between July the 25th and 30th. The Christmas Stocking winner will be announced in the Safety Talk forum on Tuesday the 31st of July.
Spread the good cheer by telling a friend and helping them in a chance to win a Christmas Stocking full of protective play goodies.
We hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas. We had a great time.
Boy sure did too. Amongst a squillion other educational products, he got a lap top: a long coveted item.
An expensive gift for an eleven year old but we figured that he would be needing one for our new home school adventure anyway so why not kill two birds with one stone.
Boy is happy. He nearly didn’t get the computer though. His behaviour leading up to Christmas was characterized by the over stimulus meltdowns experienced by people with Aspergers. I spoilt the surprise by telling him that if he didn’t moderate his behaviour I would be taking the computer back to the shop.
Aspergers or just tantrums I’m not sure but once the computer surprise was out, Boy tried really hard to stay calm and in control. He really wanted a computer to play World of War Craft. Little does Boy know that World of War Craft is going to be built into Math, English and an emotional toolbox exercise.
Boy’s older brother bought him a game of Battleship. What a great strategy game for a child with Aspergers. Boy has had to place himself in other’s shoes (or boats) and work out what their placement strategy was. The assessing psychologist from Minds and Hearts suggested that we play strategy games with Boy so Battleship is a great gift. Thanks Big Boy.
I’m excited about starting home schooling at the end of January even though it means I will be working and earning less money. I am so looking forward to educating in a way that suits Boy’s needs.
What sort of things did you buy your home schooled children for Christmas? Did you get gifts for the sake of gifts or did you link them to home education or Aspergers needs?
Colour, art appreciation and Christmas papermaking was the agenda for today’s home school. Although boy was supposed to attend school, he refused. Agreeing to do two hours of schoolwork, we managed to get into an intense argument over what the terms of agreement were.
I put my foot down big time and informed boy that the consequence for non-schoolwork compliance would be the loss of attending Laser Tag on the weekend. He complied.
Partner took him to work this morning to show him how people are paid – pay roll day. Boy even spotted a mistake prior to pay roll’s virtual fly to the bank. Excited he was and sang his own praises all afternoon. Partner was also grateful that Boy spotted the mistake.
After completing a work sheet on the colour blue, Boy made some Christmas paper from plain A4 photocopy paper. We are giving friends and family copies of my book, Bitss of Caramel Marmalade on Toast, and a single piece of A4 paper wraps the book with no paper waste. The wrapping paper is beautiful, boy had a great time and we were able to build some quality talk moments into the activity. Our talk centred around colours and art interpretation. How educational!
The winning trick for turning what started as a disastrous day, into a successful day, was to present the activities to Boy as though they were non-school related. This is my lesson to learn. I get so upset when he will not complete his set schoolwork tasks that I make the situation worse. I need to wrap my mouth with Christmas paper and remember that my words are a gift, supposed to bring pleasure, rather than being an extension of an institution that sets his Aspergers idiosyncrasies on a firecracker path.
I think his paper turned out well (pictured). What do you think?
