I had a nice weekend with my family. We went up to Virginia, and stayed in a small motel in Williamsburg. Originally, we were going to find a place to camp, but the motel was having a special. Only $35.99 a night. My husband and I agreed to stay there for 2 nights. Nice, little air conditioned room. And it was little. The way I looked at it though, we only wanted it as a place to sleep.
Taking a vacation with an autistic child has it’s challenges. Add into that an almost 7 year old daughter, and you have your hands full. We needed to find things to do that didn’t cost a lot and were not too crowded. My son loves to wander around, and in a crowd, that makes for a very stressful day of me trying to keep up with him.
Our first night there, we discovered The Yankee Candle. This is a great store. It’s also a huge store. When you walk into it, it’s like walking into an indoor Christmas Mall, only it’s one store. There was one area that actually had it snow on you. Not real, wet snow, just white flakes coming down. Of course, they had an area where you could dip candles into different colors or make hand candles. My son didn’t want to do it, but my daughter loved making rainbow candles. I was in charge of keeping up with our daughter, while my husband chased our son all over the place.
The next day was full of walking and sight seeing. We decided not to go to Historic Williamsburg, instead we went to Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center. Neither one of us had been to those, and both
of us had been to Historic Williamsburg. We were able to get a combination ticket for both Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center, and my daughter just got in free. Ages 6 and under are free, and she is still 6.
With it being a holiday weekend, I was happy to see that it wasn’t too crowded. My husband and I took turns with keeping up with our son. We did not stick around for them to light the cannon at Yorktown Victory Center. With my son’s sensitive hearing, I didn’t think that was a good idea. I loved the indoor museums. It was nice to be able to spend half of our time there, indoors. The outdoor recreations were an amazing site. My daughter was fascinated with everything. My son loved the turkeys and chickens wondering around.
We ended the evening with a visit to Pirate’s Cove. This is a miniature golf course,
with a pirate theme. My son doesn’t know how to play, but he was willing to learn. At the last hole, he was able to swing the golf club on his own. Not that hard, but he gripped the club and swung to send the ball in the right direction. My daughter was fun to watch. She would hit/push the ball around to try to get it in the hole. By the time we were done, we were all ready to call it a night.
I picked up a lot of brochures for Williamsburg and Richmond, VA. I am hoping to plan a longer trip in the Fall. I don’t know if we will camp or stay at a motel. It all depends on whether or not anyone is having a special deal.
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My name is Crystal Lee, and I am a doctorate student in clinical psychology at Baylor University. I am beginning to collect data for my dissertation, and I am hoping that you will help me. My study is interested in stress and ways of coping with stress in parents of children ages 5-12. Specifically, I am looking for parents of children ages 5-12 in three categories:
1. Parents of children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder
2. Parents of children with Type 1 Diabetes
3. Parents of children with no diagnoses
My hope is to use the data from my dissertation to create an intervention to help parents cope with stress.
If you meet the above criteria, please take this survey: https://baylor.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0GJF7ldjuBwBWEk (the first page is the informed consent, so you can take a look at it before agreeing to take the survey).
If you do not meet the above criteria, please consider forwarding the survey to any parents you know that fit the above criteria. I've attached a flyer to this email with the information from this email that you can send to people at your convenience.
People who complete the survey can participate in a drawing for one of three $50 giftcards to Amazon.com. Additionally, people who refer others to the survey get their name added into the drawing for each person they refer.
The current study is being conducted by myself, Crystal Lee, under the guidance of Dr. Helen Benedict, who can be contacted at 254-710-2961 or via email at Helen_Benedict@Baylor.edu. This study was determined to be exempt by Baylor University's IRB. If you have any questions regarding the study, you may contact me at Crystal_Lee1@Baylor.edu
Thank you for your time and help,
Crystal Lee, M.S.
Doctoral Student
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Baylor University