Friday, September 18, 2015

Scouts


So.
We are conflicted about scouts.  We're all signed up, Dominic has a webelos book, etc.


The first real meeting of the year was really controlled Chaos and I spent an hour trying to corral Dominic who kept wanting to punch the buttons on the elevator and go home, and do the work for him that he was not capable of (writing on popsicle sticks - no fine motor for that, doing a word hunt - dude he can't see the letters, etc).  I left that meeting not wanting to do scouting at all.  I'm tired enough as is, I don't need to add an hour of fighting with Dominic to get him to stay somewhere he doesn't want to stay.

We agreed we would try again because we REALLY want the social piece for him.  So this week the plan was for me to take him on Wednesday to OT at 4, come home and eat dinner then take him to his scout meeting at 6.   He had a rough OT - really didn't want to be there, cried, self injured, etc.  So when we got home I asked him if he wanted to go to scounts and he said no.  So I said okay, no big deal lets have supper, bath and bed.  And made him dinner.  I texted the scout master to tell him it had been a rough afternoon and we wouldn't be there.

then about 5 minutes before scouts started, Dominic got agitated.  he said mulitple things while crying and pointing at the car including
"go school" (scouts is right across the street from his school)
"see sidney"   (his friend who wants to have a sleepover)
"mommy car"


So I texted the scout master that we were coming afterall and we hustled over.  Fortunately its very near our house.  They were at the school playground doing work on their physical fitness belt loops.  Apparently belt loops are the boyscout version of patches.  Go figure.

Dominic did okay - he did a long jump, threw a soft ball, ran a 50 yard dash, and was able to recite the scout law (one word at a time with the scoutmaster helping him) all WITHOUT me because I got put in charge of timing the boys on the 50 yard dash.  When the time came to walk back across the street to the church, I was going to drive back because i parked at the school because we were late.  Dominic was going to walk back.  The scoutmaster is also an autism Dad.  Dominic totally bolted away from him towards me as i was pulling out of the parking lot so I drove him back. 

So ...  our SPED teacher has been a huge proponent of getting Dominic into scouts and had asked if we were doing it. When i told her we were conflicted, this is what she sent home.   So I think we will continue to take it one meeting at a time and see what happens.  There's rumors that there will be hiking and swimming soon. That would be fun.



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