Posted Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 22:12 by Anonymous
It’s been pretty quiet around here lately – not literally of course, but not much has happened in the past few days. Thomas had a pretty good week at school. Mostly “okay” days with a couple “good” days, so we’ll take that as a success. He did a great job helping me with a school project this week. We had to make a “feather” to put on the class turkey. Thomas’ teacher sent a note home with a large piece of feather-shaped manila cardstock with instructions for parents to write a short paragraph about what their family would do on Thanksgiving. The kids were supposed to decorate it with markers or crayons and stickers. I wrote the short paragraph and then Thomas went to town decorating it and coloring it in! Usually, Jonathan and I would end up doing school projects for Thomas because getting him to participate in the activity was difficult and, as far as Thomas could see, pointless. This time I waited until Hayley was in bed for her nap and Thomas and I sat down at the dining room table and he colored the feather with his big, looping circles and dots. He actually sat for a few minutes and did this. I think his willingness to cooperate has a lot to do with his teachers requiring him to complete a few minutes of “art time” during work-time at school every day.
Today was my birthday so we went to Chuck E. Cheese’s. I’d rather take the kids somewhere fun for them than try to drag them somewhere that would otherwise be fun for me, but will end up being a frustrating hassle for all of us. They had a good time, as usual. Thomas lost a little toy car there which made for a difficult departure. We tried to tell him before we went in that he should leave the toy in the car so he wouldn’t lose it. Of course he didn’t listen and ended up losing it. I’m sure some other kid picked it up at the bottom of the slide; Thomas kept sending the car down and sliding down after it. All the way home, Thomas kept saying, “I want the car!” I couldn’t believe how frustrated I was about the whole thing. Talk about being unreasonable; it was just a stupid little car and he has literally thousands at home. Also, whoever picked it up will doubtlessly take better care of it than Thomas did. I was just so irritated that he didn’t understand how it would have been better for him to leave it at home or in the car! Try reasoning with an autistic four year-old! I should know better. We all got over the incident quickly, however.
Thomas is asking more and more questions all the time. A lot of them are repeated from another time, but I still do my best to answer them as plainly as possible. I have the tendency to get a little wordy (no, really?) and explain things to the kids at maybe an eighth-grade level instead of a two year-old level. That will either confuse them to the point where they’re sorry they asked, or it will broaden their vocabularies and encourage reasoning skills - and make them sorry asked. Thomas always starts his questions with, “Hey, Mommy?” It’s so cute. And he waits for me to respond! He’ll keep saying, “Hey, Mommy?” until I say, “Yes, Thomas?” Making sure that he has my attention is a big deal, I think. Before, he would ramble on without making sure that anyone was listening. Now, he prefers a verbal response. Just looking at him isn’t really adequate for Thomas. Really, it’s not adequate for me, either. Jonathan could be looking at me while I’m talking, but a lot of the time he’s got a glazed look in his eye and I can tell I don’t really have his attention. He’s looking at me, but who knows what he’s seeing?
Just a three-day week coming up! We’re going to my mother-in-law’s house for Thanksgiving this year. I hope that Thomas doesn’t get too far out of the school-groove during this four-day weekend. By next Sunday night, I’m sure he will be ready to go back. I know I’ll be ready!
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It’s been pretty quiet around here lately – not literally of course, but not much has happened in the past few days. Thomas had a pretty good week at school. Mostly “okay” days with a couple “good” days, so we’ll take that as a success. He did a great job helping me with a school project this week. We had to make a “feather” to put on the class turkey. Thomas’ teacher sent a note home with a large piece of feather-shaped manila cardstock with instructions for parents to write a short paragraph about what their family would do on Thanksgiving. The kids were supposed to decorate it with markers or crayons and stickers. I wrote the short paragraph and then Thomas went to town decorating it and coloring it in! Usually, Jonathan and I would end up doing school projects for Thomas because getting him to participate in the activity was difficult and, as far as Thomas could see, pointless. This time I waited until Hayley was in bed for her nap and Thomas and I sat down at the dining room table and he colored the feather with his big, looping circles and dots. He actually sat for a few minutes and did this. I think his willingness to cooperate has a lot to do with his teachers requiring him to complete a few minutes of “art time” during work-time at school every day.
Today was my birthday so we went to Chuck E. Cheese’s. I’d rather take the kids somewhere fun for them than try to drag them somewhere that would otherwise be fun for me, but will end up being a frustrating hassle for all of us. They had a good time, as usual. Thomas lost a little toy car there which made for a difficult departure. We tried to tell him before we went in that he should leave the toy in the car so he wouldn’t lose it. Of course he didn’t listen and ended up losing it. I’m sure some other kid picked it up at the bottom of the slide; Thomas kept sending the car down and sliding down after it. All the way home, Thomas kept saying, “I want the car!” I couldn’t believe how frustrated I was about the whole thing. Talk about being unreasonable; it was just a stupid little car and he has literally thousands at home. Also, whoever picked it up will doubtlessly take better care of it than Thomas did. I was just so irritated that he didn’t understand how it would have been better for him to leave it at home or in the car! Try reasoning with an autistic four year-old! I should know better. We all got over the incident quickly, however.
Thomas is asking more and more questions all the time. A lot of them are repeated from another time, but I still do my best to answer them as plainly as possible. I have the tendency to get a little wordy (no, really?) and explain things to the kids at maybe an eighth-grade level instead of a two year-old level. That will either confuse them to the point where they’re sorry they asked, or it will broaden their vocabularies and encourage reasoning skills - and make them sorry asked. Thomas always starts his questions with, “Hey, Mommy?” It’s so cute. And he waits for me to respond! He’ll keep saying, “Hey, Mommy?” until I say, “Yes, Thomas?” Making sure that he has my attention is a big deal, I think. Before, he would ramble on without making sure that anyone was listening. Now, he prefers a verbal response. Just looking at him isn’t really adequate for Thomas. Really, it’s not adequate for me, either. Jonathan could be looking at me while I’m talking, but a lot of the time he’s got a glazed look in his eye and I can tell I don’t really have his attention. He’s looking at me, but who knows what he’s seeing?
Just a three-day week coming up! We’re going to my mother-in-law’s house for Thanksgiving this year. I hope that Thomas doesn’t get too far out of the school-groove during this four-day weekend. By next Sunday night, I’m sure he will be ready to go back. I know I’ll be ready!