I desperately miss the days when being a home ed family meant our calendar existed separately from the outside world rhythms. When late-August meant we joyfully reclaimed the parks, pools and museums that we had all to ourselves again, alongside other homeschoolers. (No shade to school-goers, but as an Autistic human, I like my peopling activities to include a lot of space to spread out). This time of year used to be all about observing little signs of change in the weather and the forest, where we would sit for hours with friends.
Not so much these days. Our young people are involved in a variety of activities and programs which require a good ol’ American style color-coded calendar and intense logistics to make it all happen. And this is despite having a brand new teen driver who can take themselves places!
The not-back-to-school season is kicking my ass. Organizing our science co-op, Girl Scout camping trips and meetings, navigating several different drop off programs, managing mentors and therapies for my PDAer, supporting executive function for my community college goer, and more.
Plus math at home. I actually love math, but finding the just-right-windows to fit it in is exhausting. The stars need to align for the ideal combination of time availability, interest, energy, and a quiet enough house. So we’re usually working with suboptimal conditions. And it’s times two, with both older kids wanting to have focused time for math, and needing support with it.
Not to mention my personal projects (!) - consulting clients, dissertation proposal writing, classes, podcasting, work with local friends (see #2 below!), and preparing conference presentations.
So once again I’m just squeaking in under my self-imposed, once-a-month writing deadline here on Substack, and apologies that it isn’t more substantial or lyrical. (I’m tired.) But I do have some work and opportunities to share with you!
Chris and I talked with our friend Caitlin Hughes of Divergent Dialogues about our experiences as adult PDAers. It was a great conversation and I hope you’ll check it out, as well as Caitlin’s other work.
This is specifically for local readers in Boulder and Broomfield counties. I’ve been hard at work on a resource for parents and caregivers of Autistic kids about understanding and accessing local supports. I’m really proud of this and hope it helps someone! We’ll be getting this out in other ways through the Louisville Family Center and our personal networks and I’m sharing it here first.
View Only Link or you can download it below.
I will be giving two panel presentations at the Stanford Neurodiversity Summit in September:
"What Happens When Autistic People Lead" with the absolutely amazing Yellow Ladybugs (!!), an Australian-based Autistic-led advocacy organization
-and-
"PDA Through the Lifespan" with my new friends Mady Snyder, Molly Herold, and Heidi Wheeler which is also going to be so great, it’s all about PDA lived experience
This conference can be viewed online for $25. Register here: https://lnkd.in/g7nwV_iF
Okay, having written that all down, it’s fair enough that August has been a lot. Onward and upward to September. :)
As always, I love to hear from you in the comments. What do you love about Fall? Is this season feeling somewhat manageable or already overly full for you too?
Marni
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