"Things that Make Me Curious and Distracted" by Sky

I'm not sure I could heart these two pictures by Sky more. I love how he's made it his personal mission to tell the world (or maybe just me, his dad, and his teacher) how he thinks.  After all, the MOE family's all about educating others! Of course, the downside--and this is something I've noticed a lot recently--is that he believes that as long as he explains why he does what he does, the rest of us will accommodate his quirks, no questions asked.  In other words, Sky thinks that as long as we remember what makes him curious and what makes him distracted, he won't get in trouble when he's being curious and distracted (even if that means, for example, that he completely ignores us and misses dinner). We're still working on the idea that "acculturation" is a two-way process. Who knew my years of work facilitating cross-cultural exchange would be so useful in dealing with a kid on the autism spectrum!?!

CURIOUS

Sky prides himself on being curious. We often use this word to refer to his ability to hyper-focus on some things in order to better understand how they work. I suppose you could be negative and say it's very "autistic" of him to have such highly concentrated interests, but I'm pretty sure those things that make him curious now are one day going to make him a very successful researcher or engineer. 

click to enlarge all pictures

I love, love, love the pictures for "how bones stay together"

quite literal, this one

and "how people make paper."

because obviously trees are involved

And, by the way, the color picture of the boy in the "curious" picture is a spitting image of Sky. It's actually a bit uncanny how much it looks like him--particularly the cowlick.

DISTRACTED

Sky's need to distinguish between interesting (curious) things and distracting things kind of fascinates me. Is he making a value judgment between the types of activities he engages in, or does he believe there are certain things in this world, like his baby brother, that will get him off task every single time?

Of course my favorite thing about this picture is that the TV not only keeps him from doing the job he was asked to do, but it also results in him sitting on the head of his sleeping sister. 

So, obviously the take away here is that when gears, cars, bath water, toys, televisions, games, bones, trains, crashes, machines, animals, baby brothers, and people making paper are involved, Sky will be otherwise occupied and may sit on his sleeping sister. 

But, we should just get over it.