I loved my long summer vacations as a kid – riding my bike around, playing basketball with the neighborhood kids, watching countless hours of Happy Days re-runs*, etc. …
However, now that I’m a Dad, married to a wonderful woman & mom who also happens to work full time like me, I see 10-week summer vacations from school as something other than idyllic periods of quality time with the kids. To me, summer vacation becomes the Significant-Logistical-Challenge-Where-We-Scramble-To-Find-Stuff-For-Kids-To-Do, otherwise known as a “massive PAIN in the behind.” There, I said it.**
Reading all of your updates on MyAutismTeam – it’s quite clear that this logistical challenge grows even more urgent when your child has autism & responds much better to the structured, regular routines and schedules of the school year. With three weeks left before that blessed first day of school I imagine many of you are looking for 1 to 2 more activities for the summer. We recently conducted a poll on the MyAutismteam Facebook Page asking “What Activities Have Planned for Your Kids this Summer?” For those of you considering the #1 activity in the poll – “Day Trips” – you might want to check out Shannon des Roches Rosa’s phenomenally useful post on outings with children with autism.
Here are the results of the poll:
Did you find any great summer programs, activities, museums or destinations for your child that you could share on MyAutismTeam? If so, please take a few minutes to add them to your team and write a review. With your ideas – we can build one, national directory of all the summer activities for kids with autism. That could make next summer a little easier to plan!
* Hyperlink provided for those of you born after the ’70s.
** All opinions about summer vacations expressed in this blog are strictly those of the author – Eric – and not necessarily representative of the views of the other 10 people who work at MyAutismTeam. Please take this well salted.
Posted by Eric – GM, MyAutismTeam
