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

“A long time ago” must be followed by “in a galaxy far, far away.”

“Cuvvies!” is a real word…in a pretend world.

“The sense of touch” is a cue to the other participant in the various hair-playing games we have.

And every new game has its own ritual that must be followed. Every time.

“What we have?” I hear often.  “Nintendo or Sony?” When he knows very well we have both.  The questions are constant, the answers must be the same…or when they aren’t, we can laugh over “being weird” but still, he must have the reassurance that yes, the answers are always the same.  Our world is still as it was, but with a twist of humor.

That saving twist of humor is what flavors my days and delights my memory.  Humor distracts a discontented boy and helps his family come out of the sometimes frustrating hours of someone for whom reason is not the same as it is for the more neuronormal mind.

“He’s tapping my hair,” leads to a circle of hair-tapping, where we count to three, and all say, at the same time, “He’s tapping my hair,” while tapping the hair of the person next to us and having our own tapped in return.

Games that involve the senses.  Games that involve patterns. Games that have rituals.  Daily interactions that take time but are also ways to bring back a little lad from an angry place, or a mental space of irritation that has no real solution.

Humor.  It’s the snappy twist that saves the moment.  I am thankful unto God that I have been shown how to use it to good effect.

Tags: Autism, children, humor, Life, managing, Parenting