To Summer Camp Or Not

The question of the week has been do I send Adam to summer camp or not? Apparently I'm not alone in this delima as I come across this topic as I've been reading my blog feeder the past few weeks.

So, I'm gonna do the classic Pros and Cons list.

Pros:
-Northern VA offers camps on an amazing amount of topics-sports academics, enrichment-you name it, there is a camp for it
-We can afford it
-Opportunity to practice social skills
-Opportunity to learn something
-To keep Adam busy

Cons:
-Camps are all over the county, and with traffic I could very well spend 1-3 hours a day transporting him to and from camp
-He's unlikely to interact with the kids from camp afterwards-chances of them in his school, or nearby are actually not that big depending where oh the county the camp is.
-I could use the money spent on camp on trips to museums and water parks
-He can practice social Skills with kids in neighborhood who he has relationships with already
-If counselors don't have training/experience with Aspergers it could be miserable for Adam (and others around him)

I think the decision is actually not that hard. Each year I pour through web sites for summer camps and then decide the cons outweigh the pros. Afterall, isn't summer supposed to be about sleeping in, relaxing, learning in your own backyard, swimming at the neighborhood pool, impromptu play dates in the neighborhood, extra screen time, reading books because you WANT to, not because you were ASSIGNED to and exploring hobbies and interests on your own?

Yea. I think we'll do that again this summer along with some day trips into the city.

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Update on Summer

Summer is no longer on hold. Summer is back in motion and all the fun and smiles that it entails.

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Summer Vacation Is Put On Hold....

Apparently it's not so cool to have summer vacation after all. This thought would be after observing Son throw himself on the floor, screaming and tantruming for 30 minutes on Saturday stating "I hate summer, I hate this place, I hate this world, I want to go to summer school, I need to be back in school" among some other statements.

The antecedent to this share of emotions? Me telling him "You have 10 minutes until it's time to get ready for TaeKwonDo." And he melted. Could.not.handle.it..

I've noticed an increase in rigidity, persevering and decrease in wanting to play with the neighborhood kids in the past 3ish weeks. Instead of making Star Wars ships with his Lego's he's been making patterns with the blocks - mosaics he calls them. All this was expected. Transitioning from school to summer is a huge transition. But he was also excited about summer this year. His increase in the ASD behaviors wasn't really severe compared to what I've seen before.

And then with the conversations we had on Friday afternoon, I thought all was going to be OK in the transition to summer.

And ya know what, I think it still will be. After making him go to class (and sticking with his original decision to go and get some structure back into his day) he was fine. And he has been fine all day today. Although not very proud of him while he was throwing himself on the ground repeatedly like a toddler on Saturday, he's pulled himself together and is moving on. Enjoying summer as he should. I'm sure we'll have some more bumps on the roads as he completely adjusts, but when thinking back to years past, wow he's come a long ways!.

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Summer Vacation Has Begun!

Today, after picking up Son from his last day of school we stopped at the local Pet Store to get some crickets for his Leopard Gecko. After getting home he rushed upstairs. I called him down to take care of the crickets.

"What is it Mom? I'm wasting precious time!" he said after coming into the kitchen.
"Precious time? Precious time doing what?" I asked.
"Precious time of my SUMMER VACATION!" he exclaimed.

After taking care of the crickets he announced that he was heading back up to his room to play with his Lego's and to please not disturb his summer vacation (Said nicely).

Summer Vacation has begun!

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