We arrived at our vacation destination this afternoon! It always makes me think, when I see other families vacationing. There are so many ages and parenting styles represented here, and all of them just want to have fun.
As we were walking across the resort, I heard a mom threaten you “ground” her small children if they didn’t stop running. I had to chuckle, as I thought of my own kids…it would be opposite. They move like turtles most of the time, and we thought it would be more likely that they would be nagged for moving too slowly!
My 13 year old can be very much “the absent-minded professor”. It has become clear that he has difficulty with executive functioning. This little diagram shows what that might look like at school. Today I saw it show up in other ways. When it was time to eat in the resort dining area, he was lost. I was taking care of Little AoA, and he was with the rest of the family. He couldn’t decide what to eat. I ended up choosing for him, and helping him get through a line and ask for pizza. We have been working on executive functioning skills for quite a long time, and it is a slow process. I have found that he needs support in many basic life skills, which typical 13 year olds would have. Even though there is a need for support in this area, he can reason and solve problems much quicker than I can, in his areas of strength.
Another thing the kids get to practice, is navigation. Within a day, they will pick up on how to navigate the resort, and use the transportation systems. This transfers as such a valuable thing to learn in many different settings.
I love the opportunity that our Disney vacations gives the kids to practice some self-advocacy and life skills. They can be pretty independent here during the tween and early teen years.
We are off to the first park in the morning! I am hoping that the Florida rain holds off, and that we have a fairly dry day of fun!
~AoA
Army of Angels: Part 2 
have fun
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