How do you cope over the summer holidays if you have a school age child with SN?

[Staryeyed]

Im trying to plan because over the last few summers I have been really stuck and end up staying home most of the time.

Ds1 is 7 ASD he is quite well behaved but he is severly delayed and has limited interests and needs extra help woth most things. Ds2 is 3 and going through a really difficult > he is really pushing the bundaries at the moment. DD1 is 18 months. Dp is working all summer bar the last weeek in august. Money is quite tight.

So far i am putting DS1 on playsheme for first week. he then has swimming ( 30min lesson) for following week in the morning. For two middle weeks of august I have some ABA tutors coming probably for morning only. DS2 has no nursery until September. i have tried to make the garden as appealing as possible but even that is such hard work- DS1 eats mud etc and tears plants up.

How do you manage? What are you doing this summer?

I'm pretending it isn't happening

I've managed to convince our SW we need an extra 15 hours support over the 5 week holiday. Then she has 42 hours of Kids Club (6 hours per day, 7 days total). We lose the 15 hours evening Kids Club she attends though. So basically, it boils down to the same thing.

We have 2 hours support on Monday and Tuesday, then we'll have another 3 hours to choose.

I have a 3 year old and a 4 year old as well as DD1, so it's going to be a bowl of cherries

I'm in denial too!

dc3 is arriving next tuesday (c-section, not parcel post ). dd1 breaks up htis Friday; dd2 already off school.

on the plus side, I won't have to do the school run while we try to get organised.

pn the downside, we have just moved house, the place is a tip, the garden is a no-go area (even without the incessant rain), and I have no idea what to do with the girls for the summer. dh will take his 2 weeks paternity, but then back to work. I might be able to get some days at friends for dd2, but don't want her to feel pushed out (and can't even begin to contemplate entertaining here - we are still crammed full of boxes and have no working kitchen...)

maybe it'll fly by in a blink

I've joined the gym so I can put them in kids club. They do different activities to cater for ages and interests and it means that I can put ds2 in and take ds1 swimming on his own or vice versa or I can put them both in and hide in the cafe.

i have 2 with asd age 11 and 8 plus a girl aged 8 - both boys doing a mencap playscheme for 3 weeks but alternate days so will always still have one asd boy with me - got a camping holiday - im just trying to ignore it is happening plus we still havent sorted out asd 8 year olds school placement for sept - current school cant meet his needs - expecting statement with notice of appeal coming next week so my summer will be spent getting ready to appeal :-(

We have a backlog of direct payments from when we could not find anyone for months. I am going to splurge on Kids Club. Luckily his ABA continues for some of the summer so he can go there with his ABA staff for some sessions (and get social skills intervention thrown in & I don't have to scrabble around begging for playdates). I will still have the other 2 but at least they are not stuck doing things DS3 hates. On the down side we still have to be out of the house many mornings for ABA at 8.30 and DS1 and DS2 are not going to be impressed.

It should be better than last year when we had no help for 4 weeks and it was awful.

We have booked swim lessons for one week as well. Not sure how that will go. DS knows how to stim in the pool rather than swim.

I have also bought myself a large bottle of Pimms to self medicate.

parent voice is a good source of things on all year round, not sure if its applicable to you/your area.

DH took the first 2 weeks of summer holidays off work (we couldn't believe he actually got them - lucky!!!). So we're planning some inexpensive fun things to do with the boys. And then when DH goes back to work, we'll be meeting with friends a few days a week to do things with their children (similar ages) and other days the boys will probably spend just playing the garden, visiting their nan, and whatever other activity we can think of. We have tons of art supplies put aside so looking forward to using those.

DS will go to summer club at his school, with a couple of activities run by the Childrens disability team as well - not may of those as they mostly cater for kids who are able bodied, so not many of them are suitable, although they say they are .

He has a birthday and is getting a new games console, so I think that will get a lot of use!

How do you apply for direct payments? I keep getting pushed towards Short Breaks which arent generally suitable/ require me to be there.

You apply to your council to be assessed for direct payments, they try and put you off but persist.

the same as I do term time with DS signed off school..........................stay in!!

actually looking at the posts, I think I am missing out with support.

Ds finished today and is off for 7 weeks! He is 4 ASD/ LD and dd is 7 - I found last year very hard as the weather was so bad we couldn't even play in the garden. We don't get any help ie holiday club / respite etc but I do have supportive family around who help out. DD will have sleepovers at the in laws and my parents which she loves to do as it is time for just her and gives her a break from ds ie she can do craft stuff without him breaking everything!

This year dh is off for the middle two weeks of the holidays and we are going away - we planned it that way to break things up a bit.

I had a brilliant idea and asked DS's dad if he wanted to have him for any days in the 6 weeks so they could spend some time together. Currently he picks him up at 5:15pm and brings him home the following morning at 7:40am (this includes a drive back and forth to a neighbouring town he decided to move to) twice a week. Two nights of solid sleep for me but no quality time really for DS with his dad.

He's told me he may get Xdate off (one date only), and will pick him up "after lunch". That 4 hours extra is going to be such quality time isn't it - and really help me. He's said he will get back to me and let me know if it's possible. Like he's going to try moving heaven and earth.

AND to top it all off - I've been told today by paed that I should throw away the pull ups and start a full on toilet training regime again. So as well as a very intense 6 weeks, I'm also going to be scrubbing shitty underpants!

I really could cry!

Drink.

Oh and surf.

Ds1 started school last September and although I was relieved not to be living under the (benign!) tyranny of an ABA home programme anymore (most specifically having to be out of the house almost constantly during the week) I began to worry almost immediately about how I was going to cope in the holidays without that 'respite'. And more specifically the summer holidays we are now teetering on the brink of (dd broke up today, ds2 breaks up from nursery tomorrow and ds1 breaks up next Friday). I can't quite believe they're actually here after anticipating them with terror for so long!

I'm still pretty apprehensive, but a lot more hopeful that we'll all get through it now. This is mostly because we've been lucky enough to have been given some days at Kids Club for ds1, then we've got a week at Centerparcs (which, touch wood, is usually a lovely relaxing break for us all) and then dd1 (with a school friend) and ds1 are doing a week at Barracudas (kids activity camp). I'm most nervous about this part of the hols as I battled the council for funding for 1:1 for ds1 on the grounds that he should be able to access mainstream activities with support, but now I'm worried that it won't work out and we'll have to abandon the experiment after the first day

I'm hoping and praying that we all get to the other side unscathed! Still feels weirdly like I'm about to jump off a cliff....

I have 2.

Chocolate and wine are consumed. In vast quantities, sometimes.