Summer Holidays

When my daughter was still at school, the school holidays were a bit of a problem.  Mainly, particularly during the summer holidays, you had the change in routine.  Or should I say, change from routine to no routine at all.  I know many children with special needs find this very difficult and react in various ways. 

My daughter's reaction was to create her own routine, which wasn't necessarily a good thing as it seemed to involve the slavish following of a pattern of things that must be done at set times, plus an awful lot of staying in her room.  Now, as a busy mum who also works from home when not working in a school, initially this seemed like a good solution with her being able to occupy herself. However, after a week or so it used to become apparent that my daughter was becoming more and more isolated, introverted and less inclined to speak to the rest of us.  Not so good!  So I had to create a bit of a routine at home whereby she at least got out to the shops and for a dog walk every day, which luckily she was happy to do.  I couldn't sign her up for any play schemes when she was younger as she absolutely hated them.  As a result, the holidays weren't much of a holiday for me!

However, since she became an adult and joined adult activities, the school holidays no longer apply and the activities continue throughout the year.  At first I was a bit concerned that she would resent the fact that she had to carry on going somewhere whilst I stayed at home, but in actual fact this new routine has proved a Godsend.  Last year she was out of the house for two days a week during the break, this year it is now 3 days a week.  It has worked out splendidly - she gets to see her friends, have something interesting to do, gets away from me and my nagging (!) and I get to have three days in which to catch up with housework, run errands and get on with my arts and crafts work without interruption.  Which means we are both a lot more interesting to each other for the remainder of the week!

So I do recommend getting a holiday routine of activities in place if you can - it benefits everyone.