Michigan

Micah has a new obsession. He is constantly asking to go get on a plane and fly to Michigan to see the Great Lakes.

My response? I had no idea what to say at first. His plan was quite well developed. He told me that he needed to get to the airport, then get on a plane where he would travel to Colorado, where he would have a layover (who told him about layovers?). From there he would get on another plane, which would take him to Lansing.

So...if your 8 year old came to you with this plan, what would you say? No? I tried that. He's not easily swayed to drop it when an obsession begins. I didn't know how far this obsession would go, though.

My next thought was to let him find out how much it would cost. We went to the computer and started looking up airplane tickets. He's pretty good with money, and knows when something is out of reach. Well, that put him off for that day. There were no tickets available to fly to Michigan that day, and there were none by way of Denver that we could find at all. He didn't drop the idea of a layover, he just said that he needed to fly to Denver and stay overnight.

Since this was starting to be quite the learning experience, I started to reward Micah with computer time to google Michigan so he could plan what he wanted to do there. So far, he has found an airplane tour of the Great Lakes, and he's trying to find where the best place to take a sailboat out, and how much that would cost.

The bill is really adding up. Still, he knows that if he is actually going to go, he has to earn the money himself. That is something that I am making really clear.

So we have started a Michigan fund. Micah hasn't come up with a total amount yet, so we are waiting for it. He has said that he doesn't want to take the girls, though. That means that he will probably only have to take one parent, which will keep his total down. He hasn't decided if he wants Mom or Dad.

Am I feeding the obsession? Sure. I figure it will take him a while to raise the money, though. I'm hoping that he eventually drops it, but if he doesn't, it's not going to break my heart to go to Michigan...or send Tony.

So, what next? What else can we learn about Michigan that would help Micah plan his trip? I don't want to run out of ideas. Maybe weather stuff? He's working on activities that he wants to do. He should probably start looking at when he wants to go, right?

I'm still working it out. We probably will have charts everywhere before the end of this. I am open to ideas if you have any.

This isn't Micah's first obsession, but it is the first that he has come up with on his own. He studies maps all the time, and this just came up. I'm not sure why, except when we were talking about states looking at his map of the US, he attached himself to the Great Lakes. I have tried to get him hooked on space, and that worked for a while...about a year. We did a little while being obsessed with Sea World and the animals there. Maps are the newest, and while I introduced him to them, the obsession was his own. He still likes to talk about states and capitols, and he knows the maps to Disneyland and Sea World like the back of his hand. Michigan is just an extension of that map obsession.

I really like the obsessions. It's probably one of my favorite parts of Micah's autism. It's a great tool for motivation, and when you use them right, they are great learning tools. It can get annoying, especially when Micah wants to go to the airport right now. Still, it's fun to see Micah get so excited about learning something. Overall, no matter how annoying it can be, it's still good for him in the end.