Does your child break up today? Dd does but ds not until Tuesday :(

[blossomgoodwill]

My dd breaks up at 1.30 today but as she goes to a different school from ds he doesn't break up until Tuesday. I just wish they could both break up today and then I would feel as though the holidays could truly begin and I could relax and forget about schooly things! Have even thought about keeping ds off ( - naughty I know!) but it's not fair as he will be having his party on Monday and doing other fun things!
Just wanted to have a rant!!!!!

my dbro is sulking as he is in school until 23rd. He goes back a few days later than most so that's cheered him up a bit!

You're mad blossom- I was saying to my friend yesterday "thank god they don't break up until Tuesday". Actually just realised with horror won't be able to go to the PO or supermarket after Tuesday so I need to get a move on. Am desperately hoping to go into labout so someone else can deal with xmas and ds1 being home

It's actually a lot easier for me having ds home as he plays with dd. She misses him when he's not around although we are going to have another trip to Tescos on Monday to carry on getting her used to big shps etc.

I must admit mine break up today and I am dreading a whole week next week with nothing to do and no dh to help (he is working right up to the end of Christmas Eve! and tomorrow (Saturday) for the first time ever).

my dd finished yesterday.

Ds1 finishes today. The holidays are easier since we started using visual timetables but we have a terrible time trying to stop him 'policing' ds2 all the time. He's looking forward to Christmas this year as he's been learning all about it at school.

I'm not looking forward to taking both boys into town on the bus next week. Dh is working until Friday afternoon. Autism and Christmas queues just do not mix.

dds have broken up - they are home now. here begins two weeks of hell. No money left to take them places - all spent out on chrimbo presents .

wednesday here - are we the latest
they don't go back until 10th

DS finished at 11.30 this morning - he's got almost three weeks off. GS toddler group doesn't finish 'til wednesday 22nd.

Not 'til Thursday!

DD finished last Friday - we've already been to Switzerland and come back She goes back on 4 Jan though which seems hideously early - and some teachers will be working Bank Hol Monday in preparation for the return of the pupils.

wow SueW - that's what I call fast moving!

I break up on Tuesday, and then have the 2 weeks off from then, going back on Wednesday 5th.

THe kids in our school are in on Monday and Tuesday and I have an Inset day on Wednesday! Then to add insult to injury we have another INSET day on January the 4th!

Annual trip to the Escalade which DD loves. DH has been working out there so it's merely a case of picking up a cheap airline ticket and abusing his accommodation . Next year however, her school doesn't break up until 16 Dec so we won't make it.

coppertop- how do you set yours up (visual timetables that is?) I have a big one on the hall but both boys remove the cards and swap then around (weird as they don't do that on the PECS board at all). Also I never know what to timetable ds1- I timetable things like putting the washing on (because he likes that), cooking (which he doesn't lasts 1 minute if we're lucky).

And how do you timetable all the different trips out? I'm never sure whether to just put "out" or whether to be more sepcific "walk" or whether to be even more specific "local NT property- photo". DS2 is in nursery on Tue, Wed and Thurs so will have a chance to take ds1 somewhere then. The visual timetable did help a bit in the summer but I never feel like I'm using it properly (or that he's as responsive to it as he could be). Partly because most of the acitivities I can think to timetable only last a max of 3 to 5 minutes so we end up in a frenzy of cards.....

The good news is that in the last month he has started watching TV again (watching it properly) which is better than just stimming somewhere in the house so I won't feel so guilty leaving him be for an hour or so.

Labour vibes please- I could really do with someone else dealing with school holidays.

We keep ours fairly simple. We put the timetable on the fridge door. Ds2 tries to pull it down but so far it hasn't occurred to ds1 to try to mess about with it. If I haven't changed the pictures he comes and lets me know.

We have the main timetable which has space for 4 pictures. I usually do a morning or an afternoon at a time. A typical morning will have, for example:

1. Breakfast
2. Shops (ds1 accepts that this can mean either the local shop or the supermarket so we can be quite general with it)
3. Home
4. Lunch

We also have smaller strips (2 pictures and 3 pictures) which we use if we want to break an activity down into sections. We hold these ather than put them up anywhere. We used these to get particular activities into ds1's everyday routine, eg brush teeth, get dressed. Once he established them into his set routine he didn't bother with the pictures for them anymore so we phased those out.

Usually if we're going out I try to make it specific if I can. In the beginning I used to take along the 2-picture strip and put the destination picture on first and then the Home card. Now he seems happy with just a verbal reminder of "Do X then Home".

Sending some of those labour vibes >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>