I love visiting Little Bit Quirky’s blog . I try to get there more than once a week, but I always read her post of Thursday. She is one of Mrs. Matlock Alphabe’s students. It was through Mrs. Matlock that I first found her site.
Little Bit Quirky writes about her life as the mom of a wonderful young lady with autism. She is a valiant supporter of her daughter and seeker of what will be the best for her.
Below she questions why I asked her to write a Pause Life for a Moment. Here are some of the reasons:
1. She is a wonderful writer. Her words flow.
2. She is a mom I would love to sit down and chat with about life. I think she would have a lot to teach me. She already makes me pause for a moment and think about what is best for JDaniel.
3. She is so real in the way she writes. I wanted you to get to read her words and get to know her.
JDaniel4’s Mom asked me to write a post about how I take small moments to keep my sanity in this crazy life we call motherhood.
My first thought was, “Write a guest post? Is she insane? Who has the time? I can barely hobble together posts for my own blog!”
The truth is, I only have one child, who is now 7 and has been going to school full-time. She has Asperger’s, so I chauffeur her around to her speech and social skills appointments after school. I had more free time than I knew what to do with!
Because of this, I took a part-time job that allowed me to work while my daughter was in school, but be with her after school to be sure she does her homework correctly, arrange play dates, and take her to her appointments.
While I love working again, I have no “me-time” anymore. None. Zilch. Nada.
Why did JDaniel4’s Mom ask me to write a post on this topic? I’m so not the person to be doing this!
Anyway, over the summer, my daughter is attending camp 4 days a week. She stays home on Tuesdays because she has her speech therapy and her social skills class scheduled for that day. It’s the one day I don’t make the 2-hour commute (round-trip) to work. I don’t even work for the most part on Tuesdays! We use this day to sleep in and live life at a slower pace. It’s nice to have a day where we don’t have to run around non-stop like crazy, headless chickens!
Another interesting thing happened. On one of these Tuesdays, my daughter had an opportunity to play with a couple of sisters she’s never met before. In order to accommodate the long play date, I had to cancel her speech therapy. The play date was loads of fun, and my daughter had much better social interaction than she would have in speech therapy.
We did go to her social skills class. Interestingly enough, the behaviorist pulled me aside after class to tell me that my daughter did an amazing job in class. She had never seen her do such high-level communication skills such as read her peers’ body language to determine if they were listening to her, then change her approach to get her peers’ attention. The behaviorist was floored!
Me? I really thought the 6-hour play date had a huge influence on my daughter’s success in her social skills class.
Sometimes, slowing life down a bit can bring great developmental leaps!
Please stop by Little Bit Quirky and read more of her wonderful words.
Slowing down is so important! As is me-time!
It’s interesting the way the brain works and the connections that can happen from an activity. I’m not surprised at all that the fun playdate later helped her performance at speech therapy. That’s wonderful! 🙂
That’s wonderful to know that a little social activity away from the normal routine can have such an impact.
There’s a huge difference between learning time and applying time! I bet that play date did more to enforce what she is learning in therapy – because she got to use it in a secure enivornment (secure ’cause her mom was there). What a boost for both of you!
It’s interesting to see the affect from your daughter’s play date. What a great discovery, especially since she can slow down and enjoy her time.
Slowing down is so important! Sometimes that is when the best things happen!!
I’m so awful at slowing down.
Beautiful post. Sometimes not following the rules and not living by a schedule is the best thing we can do for ourselves and our kids. Someone remind me later that I said this … 🙂 JD4M – thanks for introducing me to a great writer!
social interaction is so important at a young age(heck, at my age too! 🙂