gcvmom
Here we go again!
I spent the day yesterday rounding up my two difficult child's from their respective summer camps. difficult child 1 was a little over 100 miles north -- took me about 2 hours and 10 minutes to get up there.
He was a real chatterbox of excitement when he saw me. (I don't think his patch had fully kicked in yet). He absolutely loved his time there (as expected). I met a few of his cabin mates and his counselors -- they said he had a great time and participated in everything. (One counselor commented that he as a LOT of energy -- wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Yeah, we know!) His new mohawk is cute, too.
So he said his good-byes and we headed south about 40 miles where we had to pick up difficult child 2 later in the afternoon.
difficult child 2 said he really enjoyed his time at camp. The counselors were nice. He made a couple of friends and even exchanged phone numbers and email addresses with one boy in particular. His main cabin counselor said that difficult child 2 did awesome for this being his very first time away from home. He commented that he needed a LOT of redirection (yeah, we knew that, too), but that overall he did just fine.
There were three adoptive brothers in difficult child 2's cabin. One was completely out of control during the drop off on the first day. Swearing, yelling, inappropriate sexual behavior -- I was worried! But apparently he did relax and behave once he got to camp. However, one of the other brothers, who was very well-behaved at drop off did a one-eighty and became like the first brother once they got to camp -- flipping people off, swearing, screaming, and he became violent kicking the counselors. Not good. The dad got a private conversation with the staff when they got back. I felt bad for all involved.
I met the mom of difficult child 2's new pal earlier in the week. He's got ADHD and is mildly autistic (really, really mild to an untrained observer like me -- in fact, if he's mildly autistic, then I must be, too
). He really seems like a neat kid, and I hope that if nothing else, he and difficult child 2 can be cyberpals (they live about 50 miles north of us).
difficult child 2 said he didn't mind that most of the kids were different. Although he was frustrated by one kid in his cabin who laughed inappropriately (at bad stuff, he said), was loud and bossy, insisted on the opposite of everything you said, and another kid who simply did not talk. He said it was nice that he was not the only one who had to line up for medications (he said most of the kids were surprised at how much he has to take, and that his pills are "horse pills" and that he can take them all in one gulp).
One boy with Down's got violent with difficult child 2 in the pool and was trying to choke and drown him with his hands around his throat
. Fortunately, difficult child 2 got away and was able to get help from the lifeguard. That appears to be the only significant thing that happened.
Although, difficult child 2 did say he forgot to go get his medications twice on one day. That bothers me a LOT, because his stability is so important and has been so fragile lately. I plan to address that in my feedback paperwork. They also don't seem to enforce hand washing too much, and I heard from difficult child 2 that a lot of the girls had been sick vomiting, and a parent said her kid came back with the flu one year. So I will be discussing that as well.
But overall, it seems like it was a good experience for him, and I think he'll probably go back again next summer.
We headed for home just as rush hour began, and as expected, traffic was horrendous (remember, this is California -- highway hell). We ended up getting off the freeway to go watch a movie for a few hours and wait for traffic to die down. We finally got home around 9:30pm, and everyone pretty much crashed for the night.
He was a real chatterbox of excitement when he saw me. (I don't think his patch had fully kicked in yet). He absolutely loved his time there (as expected). I met a few of his cabin mates and his counselors -- they said he had a great time and participated in everything. (One counselor commented that he as a LOT of energy -- wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Yeah, we know!) His new mohawk is cute, too.
So he said his good-byes and we headed south about 40 miles where we had to pick up difficult child 2 later in the afternoon.
difficult child 2 said he really enjoyed his time at camp. The counselors were nice. He made a couple of friends and even exchanged phone numbers and email addresses with one boy in particular. His main cabin counselor said that difficult child 2 did awesome for this being his very first time away from home. He commented that he needed a LOT of redirection (yeah, we knew that, too), but that overall he did just fine.
There were three adoptive brothers in difficult child 2's cabin. One was completely out of control during the drop off on the first day. Swearing, yelling, inappropriate sexual behavior -- I was worried! But apparently he did relax and behave once he got to camp. However, one of the other brothers, who was very well-behaved at drop off did a one-eighty and became like the first brother once they got to camp -- flipping people off, swearing, screaming, and he became violent kicking the counselors. Not good. The dad got a private conversation with the staff when they got back. I felt bad for all involved.
I met the mom of difficult child 2's new pal earlier in the week. He's got ADHD and is mildly autistic (really, really mild to an untrained observer like me -- in fact, if he's mildly autistic, then I must be, too
). He really seems like a neat kid, and I hope that if nothing else, he and difficult child 2 can be cyberpals (they live about 50 miles north of us).difficult child 2 said he didn't mind that most of the kids were different. Although he was frustrated by one kid in his cabin who laughed inappropriately (at bad stuff, he said), was loud and bossy, insisted on the opposite of everything you said, and another kid who simply did not talk. He said it was nice that he was not the only one who had to line up for medications (he said most of the kids were surprised at how much he has to take, and that his pills are "horse pills" and that he can take them all in one gulp).
One boy with Down's got violent with difficult child 2 in the pool and was trying to choke and drown him with his hands around his throat
. Fortunately, difficult child 2 got away and was able to get help from the lifeguard. That appears to be the only significant thing that happened. Although, difficult child 2 did say he forgot to go get his medications twice on one day. That bothers me a LOT, because his stability is so important and has been so fragile lately. I plan to address that in my feedback paperwork. They also don't seem to enforce hand washing too much, and I heard from difficult child 2 that a lot of the girls had been sick vomiting, and a parent said her kid came back with the flu one year. So I will be discussing that as well.
But overall, it seems like it was a good experience for him, and I think he'll probably go back again next summer.
We headed for home just as rush hour began, and as expected, traffic was horrendous (remember, this is California -- highway hell). We ended up getting off the freeway to go watch a movie for a few hours and wait for traffic to die down. We finally got home around 9:30pm, and everyone pretty much crashed for the night.
