My wine and cider homebrew is puttering along nicely. Makes me happy.
I’m not good at homely things so I’m impressed! Have you made it before?
Yes, I’ve made fruit wines and various kinds of ciders for a couple of years, and bought wine kits with concentrate from grapes but tweaked with my own selection of yeast and other additions. It doesn’t require much equipment to get started but it is very rewarding to get tipsy on your own product. 🙃
I had 5 clients yesterday and now I’m thoroughly exhausted and have to do it all over again tomorrow but all 5 clients emerged happier so at least I’m not a failure even though my body is yearning for rest.
That’s excellent work! Well done
Today we’re expecting a call from the ADHD assessment people to finally get my kid some help. It’s been a years long process even getting to talk to someone about what they might consider testing him for. We had to go with a private firm though, so at least they won’t be financially motivated to turn us away. Wish us luck!
As a person from the spectrum. I f you expect your kid to be on the spectrum, try and look up what you can generally do to help them already. The moment we got out paper schools and such would help us finally, but it’s driven by the parents already. The better a home is the “emthier the bucked” for them is, and the easier they can handle other things already. There might be small things you could already start doing, which could already start helping the end results
We do try. We’re pretty sure it’s AuDHD, maybe anxiety too. So basically anything has the capacity to be upsetting, he needs structure and routines, but absolutely will not stick to them. It’s been a really challenging upbringing so far and we are open to any specific suggestions.
Stuff we’ve found useful:
One thing that works really well with my little fella when I’m talking to him and see him wander is just to stop DEAD mid-sentence. He immediately refocuses on me and then I restart from the start. Sometimes I have to do it multiple times to keep his attention to the end and get an answer. It’s not a cranky thing in any way. I’m always very gentle about it so it’s not a negative association for him when I do it.
He had been to a group therapy thing where they helped build emotional regulation and communication around colour zones (blue is sad, green is chill, red is angry / frustrated, yellow is “ants in pants”) and we found that very helpful. e.g. at bedtime I’ll say “It’s bedtime now so we need to move towards the green zone so you can enjoy your story” and he gets that. We had to go private for it and it wasn’t cheap (Granny paid. Thanks granny!) but has paid dividends.
We also implemented a “no screens before school and no screens after dinner” rule which has been a boon for getting him to bed without being in the “yellow zone” and also getting him to finish breakfast which, let me tell you, is difficult sometimes. :D
Finally, Minecraft (or in our case Luanti / VoxeLibre which is a free and open source version that will run on a potato). He’s actually really good at it and builds some beautiful stuff. I feel like it’s healthy for him to have that prolonged focus, even if it is a game.
Good luck with the assessment. Ours went really well. The folks where we went were all absolutely lovely humans.
You’ll find your own scaffolding to make life easier for him as you go but some reading does help.
Thank you! Talked over all these with the wife, we can use all this. We already have a very similar screen policy.
I still have no idea why neuro divergence coincides so much with Minecraft. I’m pretty sure I’m a little autistic but I’ve never been able to see the appeal. My kid loves it though, and I think he’s going to love Luanti and/or Voxe. Thanks again!
You’re very welcome! Hopefully some of them work out for you. If you come up with any you find work for you feel free to pass them on at any point in the future. I’m always open to improving :)
I still have no idea why neuro divergence coincides so much with Minecraft.
Haha. Ah my best friend has two young lads who went through a massive minecraft phase so neurotypical kids really do love it too but yeah he really really likes it.
Much like yourself I can’t see the appeal. One thing I did was go off and learn about it too so I could find him cool furniture mods, show him how to build a nether portal and the like. That was time well spent as he got a lot of joy from that.
The things we do for love… Yeah, I’ll look into it. Just uncanny how the second he became aware of Minecraft he just tuned in somehow and started telling me Minecraft facts. Wish I could do that with a topic.
I hissed “yessssssss” when the squirrel made it across the busy road safe and sound.
