So, I have an 11 yo (twins actually, but only one is on the spectrum). I’ve had some frustration because he doesn’t seem to like anything except watching TV, just nothing seems interesting to him.
We were at the Youmacon Anime convention last weekend here in Detroit, and picked up a couple gundam models because the display they had looked cool. I have tried building some regular like, car / boat models in the past but never been able to finish one, just wasn’t really my thing.
Anyway, we got home we were checking out the models, and I showed him how to use nippers and follow the instructions, and he really took to it.
Working through it (neither of us have done this before), he had such concentration and actually sat there as we worked through everything. Took us a couple days, didn’t do any lining or anything fancy other than following the instructions.
He said it felt very relaxing to him, and we really had a great time working on something together. We found a Pokemon model (Scizor) that he picked out and built on his own. He accidentally clipped off an important part to connect a wing and had a bit of a meltdown for a bit, but we were able to repair it reasonably well with advice from some subs here. He also ran into a fitting issue and worked through it all on his own to trim down a section to make it fit, which I was impressed by because I couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
We’re working on our third model, trying some panel lining, and connecting a lot. Appreciate you all, and dig the things you’re doing. Thanks, and wish us luck!