Just 'cause you don't get it doesn't mean it ain't funny!

I'm notoriously bad at writing regularly in anything that bears a strong or weak resemblance to a journal. So, that would include this bog.

Something that I've learned over the past years with my son is that autistics can have a sense of humor, despite what some experts have said. There are plenty of people who do understand and appreciate the autistic sense of humor. Just because an expert doesn't get it doesn't mean that someone else doesn't or that it just doesn't exist! But it could mean that the expert is the one lacking the sense of humor...

My son enjoys playing with words, when it suits him. Playing with words like "Butch" and "bush" can provide endless rounds of amusement. And I do mean "endless" in all senses of the word. He can get stuck on the broken record which consists of nothing else but the phrase or bit of humor he is interested in.

Another form of humor comes in the bits and pieces of movie scripts that catch his fancy. Currently, a bit comes from Fiddler on the Roof. "The time has come. And the time is now!" A character is saying that as part of a speech rallying workers and students to fight against tzarist Russia. Well, that bit has been turned on him. When the "timer" goes off, and an activity is at an end or to start, we started saying his favorite quote to him. He gets a big grin, and has a hard time complaining that the timer has gone off.

Of course, there are the typical bits of humor kids find in sounds and noises they hear that are sure to drive the resident adults nearly to insanity. Or wish for easier access to rubber rooms and straitjackets.

One of the enduring types of humor my son relishes is physical humor. He enjoys watching and trying to act out what he sees. One of his favorite actors in this is Dick Van Dyke. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Mary Poppins, anything with Dick Van Dyke is sure to be a favorite.

And don't forget Veggie Tales....

Misadventures, adventures, & reevaluation

I realized the other day that it has been a very long time since I last wrote a post on here. Only three months, maybe, but still a lot has happened.

The long and short of it, though, is that my health had to take center stage for awhile. I really didn't have a choice, since I was quickly becoming unable to function normally. Two ER visits, surgery, hospitalization, and plenty of doctor visits later, I'm well on my way to full health.

This whole health problem really caused difficulties for my son. He found it hard to deal with the uncertainty that was in the air, and especially the difficulties of having Mom in the hospital for a week. As you may well be aware, a week is a long time for kids.

Education goals and methods took on a different look during all of this turmoil. To save my waning energy, I made sure my son had access to plenty of educational games and toys. I made sure that what he thought was fun was also subtly teaching him things.

Since our exodus from the daily routine of the public schools, there have been some great changes. My son's language skills have improved greatly. He's more free to try out new sentence structures, marking plurals and possessives and cases and all those grammar things we take for granted. The pressure, stresses, and overwhelming stimuli of the classroom has been removed. Now, he can relax and really listen and try out the language he hears around him.

He is using memorized scripts from DVDs with the right meanings. And to make it even better, he is able to jodify them to suit his needs and themeanings he intends. It's fantastic to hear this growth!

Now we are looking forward to what this year has to offer. Adventures and hikes in the neighboring forest preserve. Trips to the air and space museum. And so much more. But instead of relying on the "traditional" ways of imparting academic knowledge, I will be embedding those skills within topics that HE finds interesting. If he doesn't see any point in learning what it is trying to be taught to him, he refuses to pay attention. But when it is something he enjoys, then there is no stopping him in what he can and will learn.

Might as well work with his interests, right?

Things That Make Ya Wanno Go AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

I've encountered some behaviors this week that leave me perplexed. Choosing the right way to respond and manage the situations has been very difficult. And I don't know when I've done the right thing. I do suspect that it will take time to get this situation straightened out.

For some unknown reason, my darling son has taken to screaming when I ask him questions. He will also smack his hand on the table. Hard. On top of this he will also buzz his lips, like a french horn player would need to do to play his instrument. The resulting sound is very often accompanied by copious amounts of spittle. This has happened two days this week in a major way.

First day of it. I completely ignored the behaviors. He increased the intensity of the screams and hitting. I never flinched, winced, or otherwise acknowledged he was doing it. So, he would even try to tell me, with words, what he was doing. Sometimes I ignored his words. Other times I would respond with a simple, and bland, "oh" before continuing to present the activity we were working on. By the end of the school time, we managed to get most everything accomplished that had been planned. He assumed he'd be allowed to do the fun stuff he wanted to do. Didn't quite work that way! I took away computer privileges, DVD privileges.

Today was the second day of it. I wrote down the normal operating rules for talking to Mom. Didn't phase him. I gave him a lecture. He quieted down for maybe 15 minutes after that. Then behaviors resumed. And luckily for me, this was happening at the grocery store. We needed milk and bread, so HAD to go. Back home in the school room, he resumed the behaviors. I started with ignoring things. I started recording how long it took for me to elicit an answer for each question. Nothing phased him.

Finally, I calmly stood up. I put away everything. I turned off the lights. I told him that when he was ready to really work, he could come find me. I didn't have time to put up with his behaviors. I had too much to do. I then headed upstairs and started to clean up things. I put toys away, changed sheets on the beds, the usual necessary household chores.

He followed me around quietly. His face was a perfect show of confusion. What in the world was Mom doing? She had never done anything like this before! He told me he was ready to work, albeit with a whiny voice. I ignored the first time he said it. The second time, I told him I didn't believe him and why I didn't believe him.

After the third time, I went back downstairs and told him to follow me. I pulled out some math worksheets that were full of nothing but single-digit addition problems. I told him that when he was done with those, then we could talk.

I figured that if he didn't want to work when I tried to keep things engaging and interesting, I would oblige him and make sure the activities would be very dull.

The other option he had was to take a nap. He ended up deciding that was a good idea.

Maybe he was in the midst of a growth spurt. But that still is no excuse for the behaviors. Hopefully next week will go much better!

Last day of the month, already

It's hard to believe that October is coming to an end. Three weeks of homeschooling already gone. Done. Something like that!

I've found that removing the overwhelming distractions of the normal school environment has helped my son really focus on academics. Already we've achieved more than had been planned for him at school.

The normal ways of learning work. You just need more patience and more of it with some things. And that's more true for topics that may seem unimportant or very boring. So, you add excitement and incentives in other ways. Earn tokens of some sort for correct answers. Naturally you scale things back so it isn't just the token they're working for. The actual doing and learning becomes the reward.

The tokens we're using? Pennies. This is how he can get enough money to buy postcards at his favorite spot: the local forest preserve. I did show him what he could buy if he saved his money instead of spending it all right away. He caught on very quickly and has managed to buy some cool things.

And the extra cool thing is that sometimes after an activity, he doesn't remember that he has earned pennies. He really enjoys overcoming the challenge of new work! But, he does have that lazy side that we all tend to deal with.

He perfected school laziness once he figured out the facial expressions that most people associate with "low intelligence." He mastered the expression and used it to his advantage. He was able to con his teachers, which has its own reward of being smarter than the teachers. Also, he didn't have to work at school. The teachers thought he couldn't do it, so they didn't push it.

Slight problem with that perfected behavior. He tried to move it into the school room at home. He didn't meet with any success. Mom may have been born in the morning, but it wasn't yesterday morning! Mom sees through such things. Mom doesn't accept such behavior. Now the child has to actually work during school. Talk about being a shock to the system! He's having to figure out a new way of doing things so he doesn't keep running into trouble with Mom. If anyone wants to organize a pity party for my son, I'm sure he'd be glad for whatever help he can get.

We're working on rhyming words, short vowel sounds, money math, telling time to the quarter hour, handwriting, maps, family facts in math, Hebrew and whatever other things he wants to learn about.

His geography skills are way ahead of the average college student. That is a big challenge for me to deal with! The child knows where even the smallest island countries are. And their flags too. And he knows the countries and flags from all continents. Naturally Antarctica isn't included since there is no permanent population.

Yeah. I'm in trouble.

So I Think I Can Blog, Eh?

I'm really not sure how this will go. But, it is worth a try.

I'm a mom with Asperger's Syndrome. My son has Autism Spectrum Disorder. We homeschool. And our adventures (and misadventures?) will be featured here....provided I can remember to write regularly enough.

Check out this blog regularly. And comment freely! I do own a fully flame-proof suit, so you can use the flamethrower if necessary.

Welcome!
Mom Asparagus