Sometimes we forget the basic "rule" that goes along with raising a child with autism. Structure is important. Not that we adhere to this religiously - by no means. When our son was young, he loved to line up his matchbox cars in specific rows - we would mess them up. We never ate (eat) dinner at the same time. Never had "Tuesdays we eat this, Fridays we eat that" dinner menus. We have always thought this was setting up a false set of expectations. The world is not ordered and structured and always on time, so we never were, and never allowed our son that option.
School has its own structure. Summer, however, is decidedly unstructured - to the point of being detrimental to his behavior. He only has horse back riding once a week, and swim lessons once a week. So today is the first day of a schedule - albeit a loose one - but a schedule nonetheless.
First off, exercise. He woke me at 6:45 to go bike riding. Then we went grocery shopping. Three times a week he has to help with the laundry. He has fun outings twice a week with his helper. Normally he is in charge of mowing the lawn, but it has been so dry here, we have little or no growth. In the afternoons, we are going to start heading to the Y for some swimming practice. In the evenings - several nights a week, the boys go fishing with Daddy.
There is still a lot of free time with nothing to do - because, let's face it, he is a teenager and hanging out in your room playing on your iPad seems the norm. If all goes well, the rest of the summer should be a little less stressful.
