Summer is great for lazy days at home, except if you have a child with learning differences! At least, that was my experience. My son is on the autism spectrum and summer was hard. It was difficult because the schedule changed. My first suggestion is to have a detailed schedule during summer. Share it often and help your child understand when transitions are coming.
The Summer was tough because I was "on" all the time. I needed to have activities planned and organized. We spent time reviewing academic skills. I played with him or orchestrated play times that my daughters would do with him. I supervised play dates. Why? There was a lot of extra time in the summer to work on skills and if I didn't plan and execute these events, they wouldn't happen and all the time would be lost.
If my son didn't have these daily "home therapy" times, he would go into himself and live in an autisic world that was very comfortable but not helpful toward making progress. The more he went into his own world, the more he would resist when I tried to keep him in the "real world." This made the start of the school year very difficult.
Did we make memories at home? Yes, we did slip and slide, croquet, sidewalk chalk, played on swings and many other kids summer activities. Was he independent? No, I was involved. Was it a lot of work? Yes, but it got easier over time. Does he remember doing these things. He does and I believe he has fond memories of them. I may not have as fond of memories but that wasn't the goal. I wanted Isaac to make memories. Mission accomplished. Yeah!
Posted with Blogsy