To all our followers, THANKYOU for staying with us! It's been a hectic year and we've been working on schooling with Riley, and are soon to start with our little girl too. We have decided that we will push Riley at school, as much as he resists going and makes it very clear that he is very unimpressed, we feel it is best for his social interaction and choose to continue. We have had some very supportive teachers, his pre-kinder teacher and aid will always be the most amazing and influential teachers we have had to date. We are lucky to have a great teachers aide this year whos son is on the autism spectrum (and is just like Riley, he loves drumming and soccer!). So again, thankyou, we will post photos of our trips around Tasmania and hope you are all well!

Deloraine

Lily and Riley on the train

Riley the engine driver

Lily taking a ride

Lily and Riley

Riley and a funky bit of art along the river

Lily and the same funky art

Riley and Lily on a stump

We spent the morning in Deloraine, it is a lovely town with lots to do. There is a wonderful train in the park, and a great bridge to cross the river which makes for a nice walk. The Autism school here is amazing, the staff are wonderful and ever so helpful and it would just be wonderful for every state to have a school like this (and for every ASD child to be able to attend).

Egmont Reserve

These are some photos we got at Egmont Reserve on Liffey River. This is down the road from us in Westbury (about 30 minutes out of Launceston). Lily was asleep in the car and Riley had fun coming down to check out the river.

Around Tasmania

Although we haven't done many more walks, we are lucky enough to have some beautiful places here in Tasmania. A trip to school involves driving over rivers, through forest areas and through farm fields. It is an amazing place and we though we'd share some photos of 'the rest of Tasmania' with you.

Riley, Amanda and Lily

Riley and Lily

We have the Tamar River which is just down the road from us, and although very silty, quite beautiful. Especially with the vine yards in the background!
We have a few more of the 'Liffey River' and a place called 'Deloraine' which has an amazing school called 'Giant Steps' which is for Autistic children. I have many great things to say about them, but that can wait until another post!

Hollybank Forest

Wow. We finally got some photos from Hollbank Forest. What we thought was a beautiful day here in the Tamar Valley turned out to be freezing at Hollybank Forest, so we all froze in out t-shirts. It was just mum and the kids today as dad had some important things to attend to. We are overjoyed at the facebook response we have had-we have over 500 followers. Our aim now is to promote more to Tasmania, as many people do not know what we are doing. We have now sent out nearly 200 letters asking for donations to St Giles Therapy Service to local businesses and friends and family and have just contacted a couple of local newspapers to try and get our kids picture in to promote our walks.

The walks are taking a lot longer to do than we had anticipated, it is just one of those things, i'm sure those of you with a child on the Autism Spectrum could understand. Just because WE want to go out, does not mean that Riley does!

I end here, putting the link to our website which looks TERRIFIC! (thanks Cowley Advertising) and hope that those of you that can, can donate to St Giles Therapy Services, who do such a wonderful job with Riley and other children in Tasmania.

www.trekkingtasmania.com.au

Liffey Falls

We completed our second walk 2 days ago, thanks to a computer glitch (Riley leaning on the keyboard) none of the photos or posts got put up! We had a much better walk with the kidlets both walking most of the way. Riley only wanted to be picked up a couple of times, and that was because there were other people on the track as well. We've had a big break from any form of therapy for Riley, spending a lot of time doing work with him at home. He really loves drawing and has been inspired by the "Laser Beak Man" books he received from his new friend Tim Sharp-our house was covered in his own "Chicken Leg Man". This post is being cut short due to competition for the computer, so thanks to those of you following us!

Tamar Island Wetlands

We completed our first trek yesterday with a 3 hour walk around the Tamar Island Wetlands. It was an eye opener as to how our kids are going to go with our walks. Riley made it about half way before needing a 'boost' on Mik's shoulders, and Lily wanted to walk the whole way, but her little legs weren't up to the distance. It was a very leisurely stroll and we took in a lot of scenery and had a picnic at the tables on the island. We already have our second planned for Wednesday, yes that is tomorrow! Looking forward to it very much.