Cuneo Mansion's Holiday Light Show - Vernon Hills, IL

This is a drive-through display of holiday lights that wraps around the 75-acre estate’s gardens.  It’s a 2 mile route that passes dozens of light sculptures.  The admission was $10 per car when we went. This is a nice warm way to watch holiday lights.  They tell you which channel to put your radio on to listen to Christmas carols as you drive through the different themed scenes.  The line to get into this place was crazy long but you do get plenty to see once you get in.  Aiden was younger at this time. He liked what he saw when he would actually look at it. We had to do a lot of prompting.

Clearbrook Wonderland of Lights - Arlington Heights, IL

This is a drive through holiday lights show.  There are lighted sculptures and a lighted tunnel that you actually drive through.  It features 100 animated scenes and plays out over a 1.6 mile course.  There is music you can listen to through your radio to accompany the light scenes.  This was the first holiday lights drive through show that we took Aiden to so he was very young at the time.  It was still very difficult for him to focus on things that weren’t super close up to him so there was a lot of “Aiden, look at this” “Aiden, look at that”.  It’s easier now, but he’s still gets distracted and/or overstimulated.

Piano - NISRA

The private music lessons at NISRA are for piano, guitar, and voice.  They are half hour lessons with a professional instructor every week.  There are also 2 locations to choose from and a recital at the end of the season.  This was the class that I knew for sure I wanted Aiden to be in.  It was difficult deciding where to put him because piano, guitar, and voice were the exact 3 things that I wanted him to try out.  Aiden really didn’t care either way so I chose piano for him.  I figured that’s what he’d start with because it seemed that, for him, it would be the easiest to learn and learn he did!  He’d go to class once a week, we’d both have to learn something new, and then the rest of the week we’d spend practicing it.  I think it was during this time, when he first started taking piano, that I discovered that he could sing. 

I started noticing when we would drive in my car.  I’d have the music playing loudly and every now and then I could swear I’d hear another voice singing, and on pitch, with the radio!  Once I knew for sure it was him I was so excited.  I wanted to jump on this right away so I told his piano teacher about it and she said we could work on some voice lessons along with the piano and that at the end of the season he could perform both piano and voice at the recital.  He did end up doing just that and he did an awesome job on both, but his weekly lessons remained mostly focused on the piano.  He did a great job with the song that he sang at the recital but that was because he practiced a lot at home. He stayed with the piano for a couple years but we eventually stopped when it became a luxury we could no longer afford.  He still sings, still has a great voice, but doesn’t always know how to use it.  I will hopefully get him some instruction one day.

Discover the Dinosaurs - Rosemont, IL

This is an exhibit of moving and replica dinosaurs and dinosaur scenes.  You can touch these dinos and take pictures with them.  There’s also kid activities like inflatables, a dino dig, gem and fossil panning and a dinosaur ride.  It was a nice walk through the event but there were so many people it was difficult to get good pictures with the dinosaurs and the kid activity lines were really long.

Santa's Village Azoosment Park - East Dundee, IL

I think we’ve taken Aiden here twice. I’m glad we took him when he was a lot younger because he was almost too big to ride most of the rides by the last visit.  I think they’ve added newer older kid type rides since our last visit, but when we were there it was mostly younger children type carnival rides. It also has a petting zoo that I thought Aiden would enjoy because he really likes animals but he actually ended up getting pretty scared and started crying.  For the most part though, he did have a really good time here.  I think at his size now he’d only be able to ride half, or less than half, of the rides. This place is pretty pricey (around $24 per person at that time) so I’m not in a big rush to get him back there. But maybe one day.

Pirates' Cove - Elk Grove Village, IL

Pirates’ Cove is a children’s theme park with paddle boats in a shallow pool, a carousel, playground, bounce house, giant slide, climbing wall, train, and other fun stuff.  It’s designed for children between the ages of 1 - 9 and it is only open in the summertime, June - August.  I really liked this place.  We took Aiden here when he was younger and it was great.  He enjoyed nearly everything there and it looked so cute, like a little Great America for little kids.  It also has a craft activity area and concession stand, although you can also bring your own food if you’d like.  Aiden has aged out of this place now but I’m so glad we got to take him here!

Fox River Trolley Museum - South Elgin, IL

This is a genuine historic trolley car that runs a 4 mile route alongside the Fox River in South Elgin. 

We thought it was pretty cool for it’s history.  Aiden was little at the time so he just enjoyed the ride itself.  

The conductor even let him honk the horn.  

We went on a typical weekend ride but they also have special events like a Polar Express ride in the winter and a Ghost Story ride in the fall.

Kohl Children's Museum - Glenview, IL

What’s cool about this museum is that it’s interactive, hands on learning. And many of the exhibits reflect real life scenarios like grocery shopping or taking a pet to the vet. All of the exhibits and programs here are designed to make learning fun and interesting for children up to 8 years old.  Aiden was very young when we took him here but he still enjoyed it because there was much to see and touch.  It also has outdoor exhibits as well.  This is really a great educational place for younger children but it does get very crowded.

Yu Kids Island Woodfield Mall - Schaumburg, IL

This place is an indoor kids play area, inside of Woodfield Mall, that is covered in soft padding.   It has several things to play on like a spinning tree, bouncy area filled with balloons, a revolving tube, etc. Aiden used to really enjoy this place. The only reason that we stopped going here was because he got too tall.  This place is only for kids 48 inches or shorter.

Fox River Bike Trail

This bike trail runs from Aurora to Algonquin.  We, of course, only did a tiny portion of that.  We walked from the west side of Carpentersville to downtown East Dundee.  Aiden was younger then and I wasn’t sure if he would be able to walk that far so we took the wagon too.  It was a nice walk through neighborhoods and a park.  We ended near The Depot and ate at a little outdoor restaurant right off the trail.  There are a few restaurants, stores and bars right there so you have choices. 

Special Olympics Young Athletes

Special Olympics Young Athletes is a sports and play program for children with intellectual disabilities, ages 2 to 7 years old.  It introduces basic sports skills like running, kicking and throwing. Aiden participated in this while he was in preschool. He was always such an active kid so I thought he would enjoy this.  Well sports aren’t just about being active. They’re also about following rules and directions, taking turns, etc., a lot of things that Aiden just didn’t have the ability to really focus on at that time. There were some activities he would participate in for a little while but he mostly just wasn’t ready for something as coordinated as this was.

Chuck E. Cheese's

Aiden has been to Chuck E. Cheese several times.  He’s even had a birthday party there before. This is one of those places that he’s always enjoyed.  There were some really super easy games that he was able to play but mostly he liked riding the rides and playing in the play area.  He also liked Chuck E. and his friends when they performed.  And of course, Aiden has always loved pizza!  Is Chuck E. Cheese an overstimulating environment for Aiden?  Probably, but I think he typically reacts so well here because he has the freedom to run around and release his anxiety.

Mall of America - Bloomington, MN

Mall of America has 520 stores, 50 restaurants and several attractions. We took Aiden to Sea Life Aquarium and the indoor theme park, Nickelodeon Universe.  The aquarium was pretty cool.  Aiden got to touch stingrays as they swam by in a shallow pool and then we walked through a clear tunnel and got to see the sharks, turtles, etc. swimming around and above us - excellent views. Afterwards we walked over to Nickelodeon Universe and Aiden got on almost every ride, several times. And of course, we ended the day at the Lego store.  Aiden really enjoyed everything about this trip and I’m pretty sure he would love to go back.

Vision Therapy

In the beginning of our autism journey I read a lot of books about treatments and therapies for autism. And one of the books that really stood out to me was about vision therapy.  I learned about the difference between vision and eyesight.  I knew that Aiden could see (eyesight) but what I didn’t know was how his brain processed what his eyes saw (vision).  Many people with autism have difficulty processing and responding to information from their senses - sensory issues.  I knew Aiden did.  And vision therapy is suppose to be able to help with these sensory issues because it “retrains” the brain. Since the visual system relates to motor, cognitive, speech, and perceptual abilities, these areas can also be affected when the visual processing is interrupted. The goals of the treatment program are to help the individual organize visual space and gain efficient visual information processing.  Sounds great! Sign him up! That’s what I thought and that’s what we did.  But like our trial with music therapy (although this was way more expensive), we were unsuccessful.  Aiden was very young, very nonverbal, and very all over the place.  He just absolutely could not keep his body still enough to focus on anything with instruction.  And this was not something that we just tried for 2 weeks then gave up.  We did this for probably close to a year and looking back now all I can say is that he just wasn’t ready, or these therapies needed dramatically more time and money than we had to give. Aiden is way better suited now to try this out but unfortunately it is very expensive and just not something we’re able to do right now.  Maybe one day.

Easter Egg Hunt - Sleepy Hollow, IL

This past year I took Aiden to the Sleepy Hollow Easter egg hunt.  I think I had heard about it through Aiden’s baseball program coordinator. I knew that they were going to have a section for special needs kids so I was excited to take him.  The reason for that section was so that our kids actually get a chance at finding some eggs.  All the eggs were scattered about the field and then the field was roped into sections by age categories and special needs.  They didn’t want all the kids to start hunting at the same time so the kids had to wait until their group was announced.  The problem with that was that they called the special needs group last or very close to it.  I realize that all kids are impatient but to try to keep some of these children with autism still was difficult and they couldn’t understand why they couldn’t look for eggs when they could see all the other kids doing it.  I think the organizers should have had the special needs kids start at the same time as the youngest age group kids. Other than that, I think it was a pretty decent Easter activity.  There were little candies inside the eggs and if you were lucky to find an egg with no candy but a ticket instead, you could go up to the table and choose a big regular size candy bar.  Aiden really liked that.  They also had the Easter bunny ride in on a fire truck to give hugs and take pictures with the kids.  It was cute but the loud siren did seem to be a little overwhelming for some of the kids.  Aiden was a little startled but then he got okay with it.