More Accountable Kid....

I'm really impressed with this program so far. Michael is really taking ownership of his board, and moving his tasks from one peg to the next. Today he actually asked me to help him with his music task.

I am thinking that maybe his routines weren't as obvious to him as they were to us. For me, it's just expected that you get up, get dressed, brush your teeth, etc., and then you get to play. For him, I am guessing that the list of things to do seemed arbitrary. Now, he knows exactly what we expect from him and he can do it mostly independently. Win for everyone!

And, tomorrow is the last day of summer school! Then we get to enjoy August and relax a bit. Between a family trip and day camp, it's going to be an exciting month!

Accountable Kids, Day One!

So, we started the Accountable Kids program with Michael this morning. He had seen the task board with his name on it over the weekend and was very curious about what it was and how it worked. Last night I walked him through all his reminder cards and showed him how he could flip over each card as he finished a task. I explained that this was a way for him to know exactly what he needed to do before he could play. He seemed curious and excited about it, so I had high hopes for this morning.

Michael had trouble sleeping last night, so he had a hard time waking up this morning. But, he came downstairs, looked at his board, saw which cards he could flip over right away, and gave me a big smile. Before I knew what was going on, he had rushed off to brush his teeth so he could flip that card, too. I didn't have to say a word! It still took him a little time to get through breakfast, but he ate it all and then asked if we could wait for the bus outside. This has to have been the smoothest morning we've had in ages!

I know it's only the first day of the program, and I'm not doing everything we're supposed to - I am at a complete loss for how to use the tickets with Michael. He sees all the pegs on the board and wants to know what they are all for. He did seem interested in finding out more about the date cards and the tickets, so I'll have to come up with something.

So, for day one, we're off to a great start. I can't wait to see what happens next!

How did it get to be summer?

We are getting ready to try a bunch of new things with Michael this summer, and I realized I haven't posted in a while. Life has been incredibly busy, but I really need to be able to get my thoughts out, so here goes operation blog reboot!

Michael is in summer school for the month of July. On one hand, I feel bad that he doesn't get to do all the typical kid summer things, but on the other, the consistency is so good for him. And, I'm hoping that I can use this month and next to try to introduce a little more structure in home life. I'm evaluating a couple different approaches, and will let you know what we decide!

For now, the biggest new thing is that we've signed Michael up for swimming lessons. He loves the water, but it scares me so much that he can't swim. I hear stories so often of kids on the spectrum wandering and drowning. We still participate with Project Lifesaver, but drowning can happen so fast.

So, there was a groupon for 4 classes, and the teacher has some experience with kids on the spectrum. I just hope it goes well! At the end of the four weeks, we'll have to decide if we want to continue or not, so I have my fingers crossed.