Wednesday 9 December 2015
Friday 14 November 2014
w/c 2nd & 10th November 2014
This week M had difficulty with his Briteschool maths assignment on fractions, which for M is very unusual and so this took up more of our time than anticipated. M is behind in maths, not because he lacks aptitude for the subject but because his previous school career was so disjointed and he spent several years unsupported and unable to access the curriculum.
We also went for our first appointment at the new GP to get the persistent verrucca on his foot looked at. I was so pleased that he allowed his foot to be examined and asked sensible questions about the wait and procedure to have it removed. The OT's advice at our last appointment was superb and really made the difference as prior to her prescribed desensitisation programme M would not have consented to the examination. This represents a major success in coping with his sensory issues for M!
Wednesday was Bonfire night and M's recent forays into reading the newspaper have made him curious as to how the government actually works. To begin we used the excellent free resources and lesson plans available here on the topical gunpowder plot:-
http://www.parliament.uk/education/teaching-resources-lesson-plans/gunpowder-plot-part-1/
M finds the bangs of fireworks problematic, so this helped to keep him distracted. (He does enjoy the visual displays so we watched the fireworks over the Swansea valleys from the upstairs windows of our home armed with ear defenders & his sympathetic whippet). He did manage to attend some of the neighbours celebrations
http://www.tomorrowsengineers.org.uk/Careers_resources/Engineering_activities/ A useful free link we uncovered.
We've discovered the funding for the Children's University does not cover passports for Welsh home ed children and so are cheering on those who are off to a meeting with the National Head Office. Hopefully they'll come away with a result that will mean home educated children will be able to record credits on this scheme, in the way that Welsh school children can.
M is now halfway through the 12 audio book series entitled "Flat Stanleys adventures around the world". This puts him on target to join the postal scheme with his own Flat Stanley after Xmas which is great, as I think he'll derive a great deal out of it.
Our weekend was disrupted by the D&V bug that has been doing the rounds. This meant that most of the week commencing 10th November once M started to feel better was spent playing catch up with Briteschool homework. He will probably need to listen to a couple of the lesson recordings before he can tackle the homeworks set due to feeling under the weather. One of the huge advantage of online school is you can still participate from bed if need be!
We also went for our first appointment at the new GP to get the persistent verrucca on his foot looked at. I was so pleased that he allowed his foot to be examined and asked sensible questions about the wait and procedure to have it removed. The OT's advice at our last appointment was superb and really made the difference as prior to her prescribed desensitisation programme M would not have consented to the examination. This represents a major success in coping with his sensory issues for M!
Wednesday was Bonfire night and M's recent forays into reading the newspaper have made him curious as to how the government actually works. To begin we used the excellent free resources and lesson plans available here on the topical gunpowder plot:-
http://www.parliament.uk/education/teaching-resources-lesson-plans/gunpowder-plot-part-1/
M finds the bangs of fireworks problematic, so this helped to keep him distracted. (He does enjoy the visual displays so we watched the fireworks over the Swansea valleys from the upstairs windows of our home armed with ear defenders & his sympathetic whippet). He did manage to attend some of the neighbours celebrations
http://www.tomorrowsengineers.org.uk/Careers_resources/Engineering_activities/ A useful free link we uncovered.
We've discovered the funding for the Children's University does not cover passports for Welsh home ed children and so are cheering on those who are off to a meeting with the National Head Office. Hopefully they'll come away with a result that will mean home educated children will be able to record credits on this scheme, in the way that Welsh school children can.
M is now halfway through the 12 audio book series entitled "Flat Stanleys adventures around the world". This puts him on target to join the postal scheme with his own Flat Stanley after Xmas which is great, as I think he'll derive a great deal out of it.
Our weekend was disrupted by the D&V bug that has been doing the rounds. This meant that most of the week commencing 10th November once M started to feel better was spent playing catch up with Briteschool homework. He will probably need to listen to a couple of the lesson recordings before he can tackle the homeworks set due to feeling under the weather. One of the huge advantage of online school is you can still participate from bed if need be!
Tuesday 4 November 2014
w/c 27th October 2014 Highlights
This was the week I felt like social activities for M in our new home and locale are finally falling into place. Our regular activities are now as follows:-
Monday Evening - Social club at Families for the Disabled. (Council activity for SN kids with any diagnosis).
Wednesday Evening - Puppy Training class
Friday Evening - Youth Club at the Trehafod Gospel Hall
Sundays - Sunday School at the Trehafod Gospel Hall.
Monthly - Porthcawl Home Ed Group (date will vary as some activities are more suitable than others).
In addition we have learning related Home Education Trips planned with other home educators at various points during the year. I'm particularly looking forward to the Tudor House trip to Tenby. Unfortunately M's current diagnosis means that he is ineligible for Trehafod organised autism outreach activities and I have to admit this has confirmed to me that a mainstream school in Swansea would have been wholly unsuitable for his needs. Previous bitter experience has taught us both that behavioral support must be given through an autism lens or it is always doomed to failure. It is a shame we are cut off from that form of support but not a surprise, given our experiences to date. Thank goodness our informal network is proving to be a great form of support for both of us.
I now feel that M has several regular outlets for socialization that can meet his need to make friends and that will help him settle into our new community; both with schooled children and those who may live a little further afield but share the home education experience. The routine social meets meet his need for regularity and structure but are not so onerous that we can't find time for impromptu playdates and outings.
Academically I am still chuckling at M's reading attempts. He is quietly reading an article from the newspaper daily alone with his mid-morning snack. He is gaining confidence about asking questions about what he has read. He now asks the neighbours as well as myself so is gaining ground. He is however still liable to shut down when asked to read out loud directly. I feel like we are at a delicate stage now, where gentle encouragement and provision of regular access to titles on the High Interest/low ability book list provided by Swansea LA is important.
I do worry that he will be put off once more if any outsiders question him too deeply, as he is still very anxious about reading. It is lovely to see his fledgling research skills emerge ably encouraged by his Briteschool teachers and he is gaining confidence in looking up text articles for himself on various topics. Our Monday morning global breakfast encourages this activity as he is keen to find out more about the nation whose cuisine he has just sampled each week.
The new exercises that the OT recommended at our last appointment are becoming entrenched into our routine and I am seeing M reaping the benefits, and improving his own ability to recognise when he is becoming over stimulated & take appropriate mitigating action. This is incredibly useful as his sensory issues do seem to flaring up at present.
On a practical level M is still adjusting to his mattress being moved to the floor. He was breaking his bed slats on a regular basis. The adjustment means that he is having trouble sleeping and being awake from midnight till 4 am is affecting him a little during day time hours. This is something we are just going to have to work through as he needs to be safe at night. Last week's inadvertent school reminder has also had an impact and is still troubling him at night a little.
Monday Evening - Social club at Families for the Disabled. (Council activity for SN kids with any diagnosis).
Wednesday Evening - Puppy Training class
Friday Evening - Youth Club at the Trehafod Gospel Hall
Sundays - Sunday School at the Trehafod Gospel Hall.
Monthly - Porthcawl Home Ed Group (date will vary as some activities are more suitable than others).
In addition we have learning related Home Education Trips planned with other home educators at various points during the year. I'm particularly looking forward to the Tudor House trip to Tenby. Unfortunately M's current diagnosis means that he is ineligible for Trehafod organised autism outreach activities and I have to admit this has confirmed to me that a mainstream school in Swansea would have been wholly unsuitable for his needs. Previous bitter experience has taught us both that behavioral support must be given through an autism lens or it is always doomed to failure. It is a shame we are cut off from that form of support but not a surprise, given our experiences to date. Thank goodness our informal network is proving to be a great form of support for both of us.
I now feel that M has several regular outlets for socialization that can meet his need to make friends and that will help him settle into our new community; both with schooled children and those who may live a little further afield but share the home education experience. The routine social meets meet his need for regularity and structure but are not so onerous that we can't find time for impromptu playdates and outings.
Academically I am still chuckling at M's reading attempts. He is quietly reading an article from the newspaper daily alone with his mid-morning snack. He is gaining confidence about asking questions about what he has read. He now asks the neighbours as well as myself so is gaining ground. He is however still liable to shut down when asked to read out loud directly. I feel like we are at a delicate stage now, where gentle encouragement and provision of regular access to titles on the High Interest/low ability book list provided by Swansea LA is important.
I do worry that he will be put off once more if any outsiders question him too deeply, as he is still very anxious about reading. It is lovely to see his fledgling research skills emerge ably encouraged by his Briteschool teachers and he is gaining confidence in looking up text articles for himself on various topics. Our Monday morning global breakfast encourages this activity as he is keen to find out more about the nation whose cuisine he has just sampled each week.
The new exercises that the OT recommended at our last appointment are becoming entrenched into our routine and I am seeing M reaping the benefits, and improving his own ability to recognise when he is becoming over stimulated & take appropriate mitigating action. This is incredibly useful as his sensory issues do seem to flaring up at present.
On a practical level M is still adjusting to his mattress being moved to the floor. He was breaking his bed slats on a regular basis. The adjustment means that he is having trouble sleeping and being awake from midnight till 4 am is affecting him a little during day time hours. This is something we are just going to have to work through as he needs to be safe at night. Last week's inadvertent school reminder has also had an impact and is still troubling him at night a little.
Tuesday 28 October 2014
w/c 20th October 2014
This week was a week of highs and lows on the socialisation front for M. On the one hand our first trip to the Monday social club was declared a roaring success. The children present were such a lovely range of ages and abilities, and the staff so welcoming that M immediately absorbed the non-judgmental atmosphere and soaked up the feeling of acceptance with gusto. I also appreciated being able to take 5 minutes to take a phone call about a recently hospitalised relative who is causing great concern. It was also nice to hear the Mums present swap stories about behavioral issues. No issues with M having me around in the background "just in case", at this event! The consensus from both of us was that this needs to become part of our regular schedule.
The success of Monday meant that the contrast with Friday's expedition was made all the more stark. M has been before, knows the children and some of the parents from last year's Rhos group. In addition we traveled there with his friend and her Mum. It was a disaster. At first I thought his extreme reaction, (a melt down followed by half an hour sobbing his heart out in the toilets) was due to his sensory issues, which really seem to be playing up at the moment. However once he'd finally calmed down enough to spend forty five minutes outside away from everyone on the scooter and collect his thoughts; he was finally able to share the source of his distress. It turns out that the perfectly calm and pleasant activity the children were doing had reminded him of school! The sight of the pencils, children sitting as a group round a table drawing, writing and creating graphs was just too much for him. It has confirmed that he still needs a considerable amount of time to recover from his traumatising school experiences before we even broach attempting that kind of activity again.
Sunday was another high as we ventured out to try the Treboath Gospel Hall Sunday School. Anxious though he was, both children and group leaders were so warm and welcoming that M couldn't avoid being charmed by them. He has agreed to try the Friday evening youth club at the same venue. I am hoping that both activities can become a regular part of his weekly schedule. As it is on our doorstep it's a really nice opportunity for M to meet those local children we haven't yet encountered on our dog walks.
I did reach out via the Welsh facebook board to see if any other Home Edders within walking distance might fancy meeting up to walk the dogs together in daylight hours now the nights are drawing in for winter. However I was informed that the SHED group, run by a committee based in Port Talbot objected rather strongly to this idea. I'm not a member of the said SHED group, (our one and only introductory excursion to meet them was rather marred by the organisers unpleasantness towards myself). I cannot verify what has been said and do rather hate listening to second hand information. Upon reflection it all seemed rather too politically charged for a simple dog walk and so I decided to withdraw the offer and stick with the lovely local pensioners instead. The local area is so beautiful that there are no shortage of nice companions to grab a flask and accompany us as we walk the dogs and socialise the new pup.
On the reading front M is currently presenting a bit of a conundrum. If he spontaneously searches for information it appears that his reading skills have improved dramatically. However if he consciously tries to read, all fluency is lost. It's as if we have to wait for him to consciously catch up to the idea that reading is not only possible but actually not that hard once you forget to fret about it. I'm doing all I can to create gentle prompts in the day that encourage him to read without thinking about it at the moment. The newspaper left lying prominently in the living room where he can find it seems to be the most useful tool for this at the moment.
The success of Monday meant that the contrast with Friday's expedition was made all the more stark. M has been before, knows the children and some of the parents from last year's Rhos group. In addition we traveled there with his friend and her Mum. It was a disaster. At first I thought his extreme reaction, (a melt down followed by half an hour sobbing his heart out in the toilets) was due to his sensory issues, which really seem to be playing up at the moment. However once he'd finally calmed down enough to spend forty five minutes outside away from everyone on the scooter and collect his thoughts; he was finally able to share the source of his distress. It turns out that the perfectly calm and pleasant activity the children were doing had reminded him of school! The sight of the pencils, children sitting as a group round a table drawing, writing and creating graphs was just too much for him. It has confirmed that he still needs a considerable amount of time to recover from his traumatising school experiences before we even broach attempting that kind of activity again.
Sunday was another high as we ventured out to try the Treboath Gospel Hall Sunday School. Anxious though he was, both children and group leaders were so warm and welcoming that M couldn't avoid being charmed by them. He has agreed to try the Friday evening youth club at the same venue. I am hoping that both activities can become a regular part of his weekly schedule. As it is on our doorstep it's a really nice opportunity for M to meet those local children we haven't yet encountered on our dog walks.
I did reach out via the Welsh facebook board to see if any other Home Edders within walking distance might fancy meeting up to walk the dogs together in daylight hours now the nights are drawing in for winter. However I was informed that the SHED group, run by a committee based in Port Talbot objected rather strongly to this idea. I'm not a member of the said SHED group, (our one and only introductory excursion to meet them was rather marred by the organisers unpleasantness towards myself). I cannot verify what has been said and do rather hate listening to second hand information. Upon reflection it all seemed rather too politically charged for a simple dog walk and so I decided to withdraw the offer and stick with the lovely local pensioners instead. The local area is so beautiful that there are no shortage of nice companions to grab a flask and accompany us as we walk the dogs and socialise the new pup.
On the reading front M is currently presenting a bit of a conundrum. If he spontaneously searches for information it appears that his reading skills have improved dramatically. However if he consciously tries to read, all fluency is lost. It's as if we have to wait for him to consciously catch up to the idea that reading is not only possible but actually not that hard once you forget to fret about it. I'm doing all I can to create gentle prompts in the day that encourage him to read without thinking about it at the moment. The newspaper left lying prominently in the living room where he can find it seems to be the most useful tool for this at the moment.
Monday 20 October 2014
w/c 11th October Highlights
This seems to have been a week where M has demonstrated his mastery of skills learned and his increasing confidence in his own abilities. Lots of consolidation has taken place.
M has enjoyed using the skills learnt on his futurelearn science course to plot a graph showing the weight of his bantam eggs over time. It has been nice to see him easily generalising a skill independently without adult prompting as historically this has been a real area of difficulty for him. It was also useful revision of an important maths topic.
He enjoyed visiting a Church craft fete at the weekend with friends and is getting quite confident about money, change and the social skills needed for a purchase. So confident in fact that, he intends to do the shopping for the roast dinner he plans to cook unassisted for myself and his Gran. This is a new target he has set himself to accomplish and demonstrates his improvement in his motor skills. This week he learned how to make the roast potatoes and the yorkshire puddings towards his self-directed goal.
On Monday we had the second of three planned NHS OT appointments with our new PCT. It was great to see him enthusiastically engaging with the therapist and chatting away as they assessed him. I was excited too, on learning that they have ordered him a new weighted blanket as his recent growth spurt means the one a friend helped me make a couple of years ago has been outgrown. We agreed the safest thing to do is to put his mattress on the floor for the time being as he has been breaking his bed slats on a regular basis in his sleep and I had been getting concerned about the potential safety implications. he enjoyed showing off his improved fine motor skills through drawing & colouring tasks for the therapist. We also discussed how to desensitise him so that I can take him to the GP to get a stubborn verruca on his foot looked at in a month or so. (Time is needed to work through the desensitisation programme so that the doctor can examine his feet without it causing a major melt down). It was a very productive appointment and I came away feeling confident that we have the tools needed to help him continue to make good progress as he grows.
He is enjoying his Flat Stanley audio books and discussing the story lines at present and they are an ideal way to spend time when it is too wet and rainy to go out. We got a new gym mat this week to use instead of a rug in the living room so that we can bring some of his therapy activities indoors for the winter as the grass outside is too sodden for effective floor work. It will be time to pull out the wii balance board soon for the same purpose. When the weather is fine I am keen for him to get out in the fresh air of the field with his dogs and continue to learn to ride his bike. However he has broken one of the stabilisers on his bike. His weight means sessions are shorter now as I can only support him for so long. I need to source some sturdier stabilsers as soon as I can so we do not lose momentum.
M has enjoyed using the skills learnt on his futurelearn science course to plot a graph showing the weight of his bantam eggs over time. It has been nice to see him easily generalising a skill independently without adult prompting as historically this has been a real area of difficulty for him. It was also useful revision of an important maths topic.
He enjoyed visiting a Church craft fete at the weekend with friends and is getting quite confident about money, change and the social skills needed for a purchase. So confident in fact that, he intends to do the shopping for the roast dinner he plans to cook unassisted for myself and his Gran. This is a new target he has set himself to accomplish and demonstrates his improvement in his motor skills. This week he learned how to make the roast potatoes and the yorkshire puddings towards his self-directed goal.
On Monday we had the second of three planned NHS OT appointments with our new PCT. It was great to see him enthusiastically engaging with the therapist and chatting away as they assessed him. I was excited too, on learning that they have ordered him a new weighted blanket as his recent growth spurt means the one a friend helped me make a couple of years ago has been outgrown. We agreed the safest thing to do is to put his mattress on the floor for the time being as he has been breaking his bed slats on a regular basis in his sleep and I had been getting concerned about the potential safety implications. he enjoyed showing off his improved fine motor skills through drawing & colouring tasks for the therapist. We also discussed how to desensitise him so that I can take him to the GP to get a stubborn verruca on his foot looked at in a month or so. (Time is needed to work through the desensitisation programme so that the doctor can examine his feet without it causing a major melt down). It was a very productive appointment and I came away feeling confident that we have the tools needed to help him continue to make good progress as he grows.
He is enjoying his Flat Stanley audio books and discussing the story lines at present and they are an ideal way to spend time when it is too wet and rainy to go out. We got a new gym mat this week to use instead of a rug in the living room so that we can bring some of his therapy activities indoors for the winter as the grass outside is too sodden for effective floor work. It will be time to pull out the wii balance board soon for the same purpose. When the weather is fine I am keen for him to get out in the fresh air of the field with his dogs and continue to learn to ride his bike. However he has broken one of the stabilisers on his bike. His weight means sessions are shorter now as I can only support him for so long. I need to source some sturdier stabilsers as soon as I can so we do not lose momentum.
Tuesday 14 October 2014
Saturday 11 October 2014
w/c 6th October Highlights
The weather this week was very changeable. We had a lovely afternoon, and a morning looking at the free RNLI KS2 resources on beach safety.
We've also spent lots of time on social stories, to try and help M cope when he realises that older children are teasing him at social events and activities. It sends him into a panic and can upset him to the point of meltdown so really needs addressing before our next community farm visit in particular as some of the teens there honed in upon his vulnerability to torment him when we last visited. To do this we've used our "Lego Story Starter" trial pack and done lots of role play. Luckily our 15 year old neighbour is on the spectrum, and understand's M's fears - enough to role play the solutions after school M has decided upon with my help during the day.
Hopefully M will now be willing to try some new organised social activities in the weeks ahead, instead of just relying on play dates and dog walks with neighborhood children for his social life. It is a shame that he cannot use the local children's centre's after school club, but I do not have the requisite DBS check that they demand, in order for him to be able to successfully attempt an Introductory Session. It does make you wonder how many other children are excluded from activities at the children's centre simply because they need additional adult support in order to use their service. In addition unlike in many areas around the country Home Ed children cannot join in their local schools after hours activities. This closes off many social avenues for Home Ed kids to get to know the children in their locales.
M seems to have had a developmental leap recently regarding his drawing skills, so we have ditched the easygraph coloured pencils in favour of some erasable ordinary-shaped coloured pencils. I have let him spend lots of time this week drawing to his hearts content. Strike while the iron is hot, I say! He has a superb sense of colour and keen observational skills, so this will open up a whole new artistic avenue for him. Previously he was only ever confident working in 3 dimensions, his favourite medium being clay, for the sensory experience. I am also hoping that his new found confidence will extend eventually to his handwriting, and that we will reap the rewards of his hard work in this area too.
The Flat Stanley audio book series is perfect for quiet times after a mad race round the fields with the dogs. M is listening again to the book he insisted on hearing from beginning to end last week. He often does this with his Briteschool literacy lessons too, as he finds he often catches some of the language nuances he missed first go round due to his audio processing issues. After his second time of listening I know to expect lots of questions as he digs into the details of the language used. He'll then listen a third time, in order to solidify his new knowledge, It's a method that seems to have accelerated his receptive language skill acquisition in the year we've been home educating, so I let him run with it. It means he can appreciate far more sophisticated texts (and conversations from his Briteschool lessons) than would otherwise be the case too.
The homework load from Briteschool was fairly time consuming this week, so it was a bit of a squeeze getting all our jobs done around the house on Saturday morning so that we could attend a local Cancer research coffee morning and have time for his cousins to visit on Sunday afternoon too.
On Saturday we headed out with the neighbours for a McMillan coffee morning, and Sprog chose a book on DNA from the reduced section of the Usbourne stall. It's great to see his growing confidence in talking to people and handling money and change. It's also good seeing him become more comfortable with an increasing range of new social situations and people. I never complain when he spends his pocket money on books either!
M needed to hear his science KS3 lesson recording again before he fully understood what was required of him for homework. However it's good to see that he is taking the time to fully understand the key concepts instead of just letting things float over his head in order to fit in, as he did when he was at school. Deep learning in preference to surface curriculum skimming with no real understanding or retention of the knowledge gained is a concept I wholeheartedly approve of. I think I like the newest trendy educational meme from Canada, "Slow Learning", as it seems to incorporate the actual development rate of the whole child in a holistic sense, rather than mere curriculum tick box targets.
On Sunday I was over the flu and the sprog was feeling brave, so we ventured out to the nearest Sunday School within walking distance at the Treboath Gospel Hall. Another minor success as we have now been able to add another regular, local social activity to our week. (I've mentioned in previous weeks that appropriate Home Ed groups this year are all at some distance). I see this as yet another slot in the puzzle of M becoming part of the local community in which he resides. This is important to me, as in London we had local children in and out of our home daily, and were involved in several community activities. M has always enjoyed socialising despite the limitations of his sensory issues, and always had several close friends when he was at school.
Taking sole responsibility for my son's education is at times a little daunting, so this article about home education in another part of the country helped me hold my nerve, in this a week when I had flu. Article here
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