Summer is coming!!!

I don't know about other Autism parents, but I DREAD summer holidays, long weekends, PD days, winter break or anything like that. My daughter spends so much time, in her school schedule, that THAT is her schedule to her. So when we have time off school, it throws her completely off kilter!

Summer break is fast approaching for my piece! I am working HARD as I can, to prep for summer on the worlds tightest budget of $0!!! Yeah, not an easy task. Excluding today and taking out the TWO PD days this month, my daughter has exactly 14 school days left. YIKES!

This year, I am dreading summer more then ever, because there is a LOT of changes for the school year coming for my daughter, that she is ALREADY stressing over. She is getting a new principal, moving up to grade one so she will have a new teacher as well (for Junior and Senior Kindergarten, she happened to have the same teacher and mostly the same classmates). My daughter has had a VERY rough Senior Kindergarten year, with bully from her teacher, classmates and even being pushed from the monkey bars resulting in face and neck injuries. She has had incidents at school that put her very on edge for her allergies and has had her teacher forget more often then she remembered to give my daughter her puffer.

My daughter fears for her life in school. Yet, she is SO used to her school schedule that changes are HARD!

This summer, I was fortunate enough to be able to get a few "sensory" items for my daughter. They were gifted for her birthday today. They include a bean bag chair, a climb through tube (she loves rolling around in them), foam mats for her yoga & some art supplies to add to our collection, that goes far too quickly!

I am preparing her summer schedule similar to how her & I did her Asthma puffer chart at school. With this then that style charts! She has some set in stone activities, that are the same every year. Soccer x1, Swim Lessons x4. Those are currently set in stone already. Other things we are hoping to have come through are dance and gymnastics. Originally we had plans for those, but due to some glitches, we have had to say no to the plans we had!

Each week we will have outings, planned out events, group gatherings with friends, playground fun, activities, quiet times, reading times, working times, "school" times and more! It's a very precise and planned out summer schedule. Even more so, since I will be more then a full time student this summer.

We are hoping to save up the money to do some special trips! My daughter has made a list of places she REALLY wants to go:

Toronto Zoo
Africian Lion Safari
Royal Ontario Museum
And several more!

We are hoping to give her some awesome days out this summer. We are also hoping to hit up a few other Toronto attractions and stay a weekend there and a weekend in Niagara Falls. Money is always the concern!

So with summer coming far too quickly, this is what we are looking at!!! Wish us luck on another switch in schedules and a successful summer! There will be plenty of updates to come!!!