For those of my readers and friends who have known me for a while, you know that my younger son, Builder, is autistic. I have tried, for the past couple of years, to kind of invite people into our lives through blog entries so that they can see what autism looks like in our family.

This year is no exception. Some of the things you’ll be reading may be repetitious. Some of them will be new insights on our homelife today, and things I’ve been learning.

Remember: If you’ve seen one child with autism — you’ve seen ONE child with autism. You might see my son or someone much like him the next time you’re at the grocery store, the library, an amusement park or at the mall. You might not even know it. But then again, you might.

He or she might be laughing and reading things out loud and making fun noises. They might be dancing in circles, happily, or asking questions, or staring fixedly at a fire extinguisher.

Or they might be throwing themselves onto the floor in an expression of their frustration with the world around them and their inability to process all the input that you and I filter constantly.

Be patient. Be kind. Their parents will bless your understanding.

Tags: Autism, autism awareness month, Parenting

We are now a few weeks into Home Church for my little guy and myself.   Every week, I ask him what he wants to hear about (because I think that helps focus him as we start this new routine and it helps to give God’s Word greater relevance if he gets to choose) and then I find a coloring page or activity page and tell the story from one of the Bibles I used when I was still in Youth Ministry.  (Builder doesn’t like “kid Bibles” so this is a good compromise.)

Today, the story was David and Goliath.  Due to the necessity of keeping his attention, I do some acting out of the story, changing the language to more “contemporary” phrasing, while showing him what the Bible actually says.  This makes him listen and react, which is good.  Then he did the activity page. Today it was a word search.  With each word, I asked him who or what in the story related to that word.  “Armor. Who wore armor?  Afraid.  Who was afraid?”

I am thinking that when he runs out of stories he wants to hear, I will alternate stories of the Judges (Ehud really captures the imagination!) with Jesus’ teachings.  We’ll see how that works.:-)

After we have our lesson, we talk to God (after discussing what we wish to talk to God about) and then we have a snack and then our Sunday School time is over.  It isn’t perfect, but it is preferable to spending half of Sunday morning walking aimlessly about, or having melt-downs in class or in the Children’s Ministry.

It is a challenge, but I am trying to do what is best for my whole family, even if it isn’t always optimal.  Sometimes, in a house like ours, that IS the best that can be done.

Thanks be to God for his mercy, grace and sense of humor!

Tags: Autism, Bible study, children, God, home church, Parenting, Sunday School, teaching