Kids and the net!

So the holidays are coming! You know that some of you out there are allowing children to use the net but how safe is it? What do they use? While not wising to ruin their fun how can you see what is safe?
Some tips I use are: Check it out! Look at what they are using. Sit with them and see if that site is ok. Book mark the ones that are fine. Most site that are games have age restrictions for a reason!
Teach your child that they should log out if in doubt! Talk about what they do on line. A lot of parents don't and so we get lost in what they are doing! Make an agreement, time on line, what they can do and then stick to it. If possible have the computer in a part of the house that is not too private, that way they are not tempted off the "safe" sites and you can check more easily. Chat about what they are doing, keep the communication open. Once at the beginning of the holidays is not enough. Report miss use by others to the Internet service provider. We would not allow our children to wander in adult only areas of our city's or visit pedophiles! So come on a little work in this field goes a long way. Keep it safe for your child, visit sites they have used ( you only have to look at the history bar) Teach them safety on the net. Then you and the child can see some wonderful thing on line.

Small, free things that help with holiday time!

Well like most parents the thought of the holidays brings good and bad. The bad can be the sorting out the child care for the holidays, working while your children are home. The extra bills of day trips, treats, holidays.
So here is a few tips that can really help. Check with friends if you can share the child care, that way you have no extra bills for child care. The children then have a friend over to play on that day or they are at a friends house for some days.
Do a "swap" with friends on videos, DVDs, games and toys. That way you save money and the children play, watch new to them things. No cost for you either! Please help each other by writing down what you have borrowed and when it has to be returned!
Plan for a few trips out that are free or next to no cost. Check your library for reading days specials, see if the local museum has special days for children in the holiday. Get a group of you to do a "Teddy Bear's picnic" in a local park. All these things can be cheap and great fun.
Ask around if any of you have a talent, face painting, cooking, story telling these offer group fun and lovely stops in the long holiday.
So plan a little helps. Talk to others in the same situation you will be happy with what can happen.

Planing to help your child!

Planing is the key to helping your child with change. Well I say that but it does boil down to having the time to do this, life often throws changes at short notice!
Things that help can be a simple day counter for the child to tick off as the count down. I have found rather than hide the fact that the doctors or dentist visit is coming up (which my child hates!) we have it on the planner and just don't get into a decision on the subject. We except that the appointment is there and that they are not looking forward to it. You see thats life we all have things we don't want to do. I have found that far from it building up to big upsets its put the "problem" into size! Way worse was the way that I used to drop it in on the morning of the appointment, then all hell would break lose. An other way I use this is the count down to a holiday with paper next to the count down to allow picture or words of the things that they need / want to take. This has worked really well and given my child the freedom to not worry that they haven't packed some thing that is impotent to them. Hope that help.

Tip for new school worries!

A great tip for you out there if your child is at all worried about their new school or if they have aspergers is to ask the new school for you to take photos of the school, class, coat-room, teacher and any thing else that helps your child. Put it together in a small photo album to get out and chat about over that long summer holiday. Time travels differently for children. Also useful is to help your child by meeting up with mums and children that will be in their new school/ class over the holiday. That way it will not be all new when they get there. I also found it helpful to walk the new route in the holiday with out the cars and children of the new term.
My son needed photos of the school toilets as well! I have to say it helped a great deal with his worries over the new school.

Aspergers help in 10 minutes!

Well my son is a little off color today and that means he's not his normal inventing self! While it gives me a break I find I miss the inventions!
A big help with my son has to be the "10 minutes" a day idea. This is where in that 10 Min's you do not offer advise, or help but allow him/her to play/ say what ever is going on in that time (that means no judging!) They call the shoots and you have to fit into what they want to do. This little bit of time allows there self esteem to grow and it builds in you knowledge and skills of your child. This is great as each child is unique! that can get forgotten when you have to deal with schools, home life! other children. The time builds up daily and at first the 10 minutes can feel long but once you both settle to the rules you see growth in both of you.The rules need to be kept as well so no going over the time that you set! How many of us have to spend all our time "fighting" for the child and forgetting to enjoy that same child.

Autism help

One thing I have been asked for is tips on things that help you child with autism to be able know where there things are. This sound really odd but it has helped so much I'm passing the tip on!

Use electrical tape to mark off a square on the floor to help your child to know where their shoes are. This helps a lot as the shoes are always there and they learn to expect them there and the soon learn to put them there. Great in the morning when you have to be quick!

I have found this tip works really well for placing toys as well. We found that with my son he would tip all his toys over the floor, not being able to think of this as a mess or of sharing "play space" with others. The up shot was rows so we used this tip (making it a larger square as needed) to our wonder it worked! in fact he then had to keep his toys in the box even when playing!

I have also know this tip to work in the school for sitting on the floor in the hall and reading corner. The child then understands with the physical prompt what is expected of them Also great for children with ADHD as the lose mat can just slide around with the child!

We hello out there!
It's been a while but the steady flow of visitors has got to a level that I can now think of other thing. While it's been great to see people from England you get to a point that you want to just have your house and time for yourself. I think I have done enough sight seeing of the same things for this year! Whats new to your visitor is not new to you! I had got to the point where if I had one more day trip I think I could do the guides job better than her. Now don't get me wrong I love what Turkey has to offer and the meals out have been of great quality but I started to miss the cooking on a budget. My sons home ed. had started to look like a joke and I just wasn't keeping up. Roll on August as he can then join an on line school. I think that now we have visitors in June / July/ August!! so I think I have to be recharged by then.
I said I would keep you all posted on my son and the changes in him with his aspergers and living here.WOW! he has improved so much more than I thought possible. He's not so stressed, the pace of live here is slower. He's not at all violent, even when on our medical they took blood, they tried to take his blood form his arm and it didn't work!!!!! So he allowed them to take it from his hand! WOW that hurt. We have a Turkish lady that has two days a week with him so he can pick up Turkish and we have time with out him, this is not too bad and at the moment he is coping with her. He is slightly allowing change to his menu and he loves eating out! At one restaurant we us a lot they see him coming down the road and get his bowl of rice ready for when hes there, which is a great laugh and he feels well love and important! People are just kinder and he fits in.