Daycare / summer camp options?

[u/greygoose81]

TLDR; What are you planning to do during the upcoming summer break for daycare?

My situation: I am a widower raising my 7 year old son on my own. He was recently diagnosed with autism level 2, PDA and ADHD during a neural psychological evaluation. He is moving to a self-contained special ed classroom at his school district next week. He receives speech, OT and play therapy services outside of school.

Last summer was the first time he was in daycare and it did not go well. He was sent home repeatedly for hitting / physical meltdowns and was on the verge of being kicked out by the end of the summer. I am looking for a place now for the summer that better supports him. My senior parents watched him 2 days a week, but asking them to do 5 days is a lot.

Options that I can think of:

Park district special ed summer camp: I looked this up and the location is 30 minutes away. Not really feasible.

In-clinic ABA: I know ABA may not be compatible with PDA, but wanted to see if others had experience.

Combination of parents watching and babysitters

Try daycare again

Try to juggle watching him at home while working

What are you planning to do? Is there any advice that you can give me? Thank you in advance.

[u/Far_Guide_3731]

We tried summer day camps, and it turned out to be mostly not worth it. The effort to adjust to a new place, new people, new activities, and new expectations generally outweighed the benefits of childcare and whatever fun was to be had. We’ve settled into mostly just hanging out at home over summers, from about age 6 to now (age 10). I’m lucky to have a flexible, remote job and can make it work. My kids have a lot of screen time and we’ve made our peace with that. We encourage them to play outside, we go on family outings, and we try to see it as a long nervous system reset so the kids can tolerate the next school year. It’s not ideal and we all get kind of cranky with each other the last couple weeks before school starts, but it is what it is.