Chit chat, I am so sorry, I forgot to ask Drew's teacher about the paed :8} I know she spent a long time working & living in Wodonga and one of her friends up there has an autistic child, so I am sure they know someone. I will ask her when school goes back if I don't bump into her during the holidays.

That's ok Kiwi - Thank you:-x

So glad you survived your mum. Am hoping I survive mine in October lol

just popping in for a quickie so that you don't forget me - Hi everyone!

Howdy all

Mizz, not a bad idea getting the two attitudes together........will have to see what we can do.

I just googled jackaroo/jillaroo and there is one in NSW. I will have to find it and put the link up for you.

Master 15 came back from Outward bound with 5 ticks and 2 leaches............eeeewwwwwwwwwwwww. One week wasn't really enough, he came back a lot nicer but I reckon another week would have helped more.

He is now on the year 10 retreat and comes home Friday.

I am thinking of sending him to the Jackaroo one in the xmas hol's.

all of these things are great experiences shep - send him on everything you can - heaps of self development opportunities. Have you looked into scouts or army cadets?

Kyliemaree, he did Scouts when he was younger and also Ambulance Cadets.

He was going to join Navy Cadets but I decided he needs to get his attitude sorted first.

Used to send the older ones to the Dept. of Sport and Rec. Camps during School Holidays.

The Jackaroo camp costs about $600 for one week. So I have enough time to save up if I send him at the end of the year.

wow! that's a lot of money - how long is that camp?
I think that the cadet programs might help with the attitude - did you think about discussing it with the officer in charge? he may be able to help you.

It is pretty religious but I am currently experiencing a lot of "behaviour modification" success with brigades. they seem to spend a lot of time on morals and ethics and appropriate ways to treat other people - and it is pretty cheap and they have lots of activities such as camps and hikes - especially for the older ones

morning all,

Just a quick catch up here as well. Glad to hear the camp was of some benefit for Mr15, it sounds like it is his type of thing.

Welcome to the newbies as well.

My Mr16 has a Yr 12 retreat right after the holidays, 3 days of "adventure" type stuff and intensive preparation for his final Yr 12 exams. Roll on the end of the year, says I again! He has quite a number of assessment things to get finished over these holidays so he can seriously get down to studying for exams. So far he hasn't started other than to write a timetable last night and the holidays are nearly half over 😞

For him scouts was a disaster, it was full of behaviour problem boys whose parents were hoping for behavioural changes, he being such a quiet anxious kid didn't find it a good place to be at all. The kids who bullied him at school were all at scouts! I hear it works for a lot of kids though, I guess the people running it make all the difference, there are good and not so good there as everywhere

cheers
Rae

I hear and agree Island. at our scout group we had fabulous leaders for joeys and cubs but then when we got to scouts things went down hill.

where are you all?? hope all is going well 🙂

Just a quick update here too. I signed some papers for Graeme to go to an ED school on Friday. We looked at both ED and Autism and chose ED as he stays connected with his home school (main stream) so its part time ED and part time main stream and that will go for apprx 18 months hopefully it will be enough for him to carry through main stream for the rest of his schooling if not he will enrol into an Autism school at the end of 18 months.
So yes I chose the Ed so he gets the chance to carry on as normal as possible. If it doesnt work we wont have lost anything and at least we tried.