Ideas to help our autistic kids celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee

Finally it's the weather for outdoor parties and celebrations - and the Jubilee is right around the corner! Big festivals and street parties are currently not something we could consider going to as there's usually a lot going on and our autistic kids can struggle with this and all the sensory input. So why not take advantage and enjoyed a little autism friendly mini party or festival in your own garden.

Big festivals and street parties are currently too chaotic and there's no control over the things that could potentially upset or possibly even worse, entice our autistic kids.  Anthony has got over his fears of fireworks, which is great, but can still be upset by loud noises or music.  

David loves light shows, possibly to the point of not understanding that he can't follow them. Our youngest Jane, is a neurotypical girl, who is desperate to have fun in the sun and constantly asks for 'parties please'. The solution... having a mini street party or festival in our own garden.

You could do anything that you think your kids would like to celebrate like you would at a festival or street party. It could be anything from pitching a tent in the back garden, playing games having a picnic, baking cakes or making decorations and decorating for a party . We have previously camped in the back garden which went down well, but we also used the flags and festival things to have our own party in the garden.

So what could we do?

• Decorate and put up bunting around the garden
• Plant a flag
• Play games like hide and seek
• Choose and bake party food - decorating white icing with edible pens is a great one and...
• Put up outdoor tables and have a picnic
• Craft flags or crowns to celebrate the Jubilee
• Dance to music
• Print out or cut out things to and make a scrapbook 

These ideas wok for us because we could go with an activity for as long as the kids were interested, control things like volume and even get the kids to pick their own music.  If Jane wants to dance to the Frozen theme tune - fine.  If David needs to sit out making a campfire and play on the iPad instead, that's fine too. We can eat, craft dance and play all afternoon, well at least a little while. It's all exposure and fun at the same time.   And.. we can do it all again next week if we want to! 

What would you do for your own mini festival or to celebrate the Jubilee?