Class of '18 still nattering.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

forgot the old link hang on a mo...

Monkman and Seagull book
Now there's an idea...

I'll have to ask DD about gender splits. Ther are over 300 in her History. and about 30 in Greek. Not sure about Classics.

MsAD glad to hear your DDs been to orchestra!

DD has a reading week, which was a bit of a surprise. its the same as my half term but will wait to see what she wants to do, and how much work she needs to do.

Which university is your DD at raspberry?

Flat - thank you for asking.

Apprenticeship seems to be going okay. He’s cooking well - fresh salmon the other day. He has nice flat mates. He’s never been a big party animal so hasn’t joined them on all their late night clubbing. Dh isn’t worried buy this, whilst i’m Concerned he’s isolating himself.

Was due to visit him in a couple of weeks, but he’s down in London for a training course and will be travelling on the Sunday.

Sounds good @Petalflowers - am very interested to hear about apprenticeships. Fab he's going on training course. I don't think the clubbing thing matters so long as he's socialising well the rest of the time. Good to hear about the healthy cooking!

There seems to be a lot more apprenticeships around. I know of two people who,are doing higher apprenticeships in London in different fields (finance and project management) plusmothers who are doing other apprenticeships. Three years ago when we started thinking about university, they weren’t really a thing. Now they are popping up everywhere.

I think the main disadvantage for those moving away from home to do apprenticeships is that you are thrown in the bid bag adult world staight away. University is like a half way house. Although you move away from home, there is a lot of support out there, with freshers fairs, inductions events, social events, etc which makes it easier to settle in and make friends.

With appremticeships, you have to do this all yourself, but work out council tax, contents house insurance etc, so it may be harder for some people to settle.

Don’t get me wrong, i’m Happy dc is doing an apprenticeship, but it’s something to consider when applying for one.

I have spoken to various friends who have children doing A Levels and many have said that their DC's are looking into degree apprenticeships rather than wanting to go to university full time. If there had been something that DS was interested in said he would have gone down that route. It's interesting to see that there are more apprenticeships being released.

Ds2 has taken enormous pleasure out of high quality clothes, small amount. He still talks about the excellence of his duffel coat which gets him through football matches, and wears his Levi 501's daily. I think that is because it is hard for him to know exactly what clothes to wear, and what the "peer" code is, so he is relieved when someone else makes the decision for him. I go to Cotswold and invest for him. He is still trying to squeeze into the bright orange fleece I bought him when he was 12. He also likes interesting posters, of maps and things like that. If you buy him a CD he will listen to it over and over again, but he would never buy his own, despite his savings.
Whereas dd wouldn't wear/listen to anything I buy for her and hates my taste in wall hangings.

Ds rang up and has had a long chat whilst we had people to dinner. He says uni are laying on free food every now and then (to entice them to lectures perhaps?) and that he doesn't see the people in his flat at all. But that doesn't seem to bother him. Sad though, it was meant to be a nice cosy base socially. I don't think he realised that interaction would be so limited, and may have assumed that he would get on with them without putting much effort in, the sort of efforts that constitutes eating together, waiting in kitchen to say hello, or arranging to eat together. I'm not really sure, but he doesn't seem unhappy about it, just it hasn't been a "thing". Personally I think he is wary of falling out with them, to the extent he has decided not to share any facilities with them, possibly a repeat of home life!!

The above post was about "presents" for a young man on the spectrum btw in case you wondered what I was waffling on about..

lol Nettle! dd likes maps and things like that too. I'm going to see if she needs anything to facilitate the enjoyment of the societies she's joined.

Petal it sounds like a steep learning curve but also gives them a debt free head start over their peers. It seems highly attractive for the right individuals.

Are there any unis that are particularly good for students with ASD? Any experience appreciated!

captainoftheshipwreck
All universities should have an accessibility team who offer support to students on the autistic spectrum.
DSA should fund weekly meetings with a specialist mentor.

The University of Bath holds a residential summer school (long weekend) each year at the end of the summer holidays for prospective students with ASD.

DS also likes maps...we bought him a new world map to go on his wall at uni as it calms him down if he's feeling stressy. Musically he chooses to listen to gaming tunes on You Tube, so things like Mario and Crash Bandicoot, so you can't really buy a CD of that

He is only communicating with us if we instigate it, and even then it is very brief answers, so not really sure how well he is getting on. It's like how it was when he was taking his exams...answers consist of 'fine' and 'alright' mostly. I do know he hasn't done any washing or shopping yet, and he has been away two weeks. We only sent him with enough proper food to see him through the first week (in our opinion) but he insists he has plenty left

Third - thankyou that's really useful - Bath is one that was on the list.

I was reading an interesting post from a student at Oxford who is represented in the videos about students with disabilities, and what is offered at Oxford etc to help/widen access. There are individual case studies. What was quite heartbreaking from reading a further article by that "person" in a student mag online, was that he spent the first four terms in his room, and felt very intimidated, despite going in expecting an inclusive and "quirky" atmosphere. I think whatever is offered it is hard, if you are too shy to make friends or you have no obvious interest group to bond you with others.

Ds I think has the problem that the thing he likes best (musical theatre) is dominated by loud confident types who can dance and act, so the world he wants to be part of is actually wrong for him. He probably needs to be behind the scenes writing screenplays, knowing what sounds good but not actually having to be out there singing it.

DD2 has joined the film club. I think she's enjoying having something to do which isn't drink related. Course work seems to be going okay so far. Her subject follows on from A level so no shocks so far.

doistay ds seems to have mysteriously survived without any grocery shopping, or what I would call grocery shopping, ie fresh fruit vegetables meat cheese dry goods. He admitted last night he doesn't cook at all. Dh suggested (I tried all holidays to suggest he learnt to cook, I think we managed to stay in the same room for spaghetti bolognese) he fried two eggs, some rashers of bacon and two pieces of toast, and opened a tin of baked beans and he actually said..
oh, I hadn't thought of that. Is that cooking? I could probably manage that.

Then they discussed "potato wedges" from a real potato. But I think he lost him on the peeling bit.

Nette DS took frozen toad in the hole, some chicken breasts, one jar of pasta sauce, frozen fajita mix and tortillas, frozen chips, one pizza and a few tins of soup and beans. Oh and some cereal and breakfast biscuits. If he's only used half of it in two weeks I can't work out how! He doesn't do fruit and veg. He's coming back in two weeks so I'll interrogate him then I suppose, other than that I'm trying not to think about it.

One of the reasons I was happy he picked Birmingham was that the flats were only for 5 or 6 around a shared kitchen, whereas Warwick was halls of 12-16. The opportunity for him to become isolated in that set up seemed far greater than in a smaller flat. So far, I think this has proved to be the case, although he did say the Malaysian boy didn't really talk or go out.

Nettles I've spent months trying to get DS to cook as he's known since this time last year that there were no catered options. I think he's living on Cheerios, cup a soup and microwave lasagne. He has cooked a chickpea curry for the whole flat and fish, chips and peas for the flat so it's not that he can't cook, I think it's more that he can't be bothered. I'm hoping he'll branch out when he gets sick of lasagne.

doistay from a different perspective, DS1 was in a kitchen of 16 at Warwick. For him it meant that there was always someone to chat to in the kitchen and out of 16 people a real chance he'd get on with some of them. 5-6 is great if they are all similar and get on, not so good if they aren't. He now lives with 6 others from that first kitchen.

He doesn't cook anything like enough. Too many pasties and ready meals, chicken nuggets and oven chips. Oh well.

I think we will all need to be feeding them fruit, vegetables and nothing else when they get back at Christmas to stave off scurvy.

I did joke about scurvy to which the response was a photo of a smoothie.

Nettleskeins - I think a potato peeler would elicit the same response from DD as the masher suggestion