Some Good Results

Day 68 -

We’ve now been homeschooling on a Wednesday for a couple of weeks now and it seems to be working a treat. J is getting so much out of staying home for just one day a week and he is definitely far more relaxed on a Wednesday now. He gets up in the morning, eats his breakfast without any arguments, gets dressed without any whining and complaining and he is, (at the moment), enjoying the things that we are doing together.

We’ve now done 3 Wednesdays. The first Wednesday I took him swimming, where he amazed me by managing to get himself from one side of the pool to the other. He got a huge sense of achievement  and was rewarded with a prize! We also completed worksheets that I printed off for him, including some addition, a maze and other puzzles. We also played snakes and ladders, we’re still trying to learn the art of taking it in turns and losing without having a meltdown but we’re getting there

The second week I again took him swimming and was joined by my lovely friend D and her little man. The boys played brilliantly together, racing up and down the pool and jumping in……………. yes that’s right JUMPING IN!!! Again J’s confidence in water just grew even more and he also got some social time with his friend  During the afternoon I decided to try some writing with him. J hates writing anything more than his name! So in order to engage his attention I suggested writing some Mario words. He only wrote a few but we still managed to work on his pencil grip and letter writing, J can recognise all letters and can write most but some are written in his own unique way

This week due to him not feeling 100% I decided to give swimming a miss. However over the past couple of weeks his “dirty” thing has begun to surface again, (not sure why), so I thought we could have an arty day and work on the “being dirty issue” he has. First we had to decide on a subject for the day, J decided that he would like to “do sea creatures”. (choice making skills there ) Today we have drawn with crayons, with pencils, with paint and with chalk. We’ve talked about some sea creatures and J even wrote the names of some sea creatures!  (and all with minimum handwashing!! LOL)

I’m so glad we decided to homeschool for one day a week. J gets the break that he needs, he gets to develop his skills further in a relaxed manner and overall we have a very happy house for one day a week. I think he likes the one on one attention he gets and the structure that he has on a Wednesday. I also feel that he is being stimulated in a more challenging way. J is a very smart kid, so learning about the numbers 2 and 3 at school really isn’t doing anything for a child who can count to over 100 and can count in 10′s, add, subtract etc etc…….  He’s complained several times now that Prep has too many kids in, he’s bored, he’s got no-one to play with, he doesn’t like the room and so on. Maybe when we’re looking around at different schools for next year we need to be not only looking at class sizes and help that he will receive but also how they will structure his learning because as a smart little man he isn’t going to learn very much academically if he isn’t stimulated in the right way.

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Not Quite Snorkelling ……..

Day 66 – J’s confidence in water is growing, a few months ago he wouldn’t put his head anywhere near it now he’s got his mouth in the water!!

Close but maybe next time you could use the snorkel instead of the straw!

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A Few Of His Favourite Things…….

Day 63 –

J is obsessed with leaves and has quite a collection that he has built up over the last few weeks. When I collected him from school this week he told me again that 2 of his classmates had been “really nasty and broke some of his leaves,” he was quite upset by this. I know they’re just leaves but to J they are amongst his most precious possessions. He told me that he told the teacher and she had told him not to worry about it………………… probably not the best words to use because she meant it in a “don’t worry I’ll talk to them about it” way but being a literal thinker all he heard was “don’t worry about it”, which ofcourse he did! *sigh*

Here’s some of J’s leaf collection

Day 64 –

Every night when he gets home from school there’s nothing J loves more than sinking into his ball pit. We’ve gotten through a few of the inflatable ones, he loves to jump into them and rummage around unfortunately that has meant that he has popped a few, so we now use a small paddling pool. It works a treat!

 

Day 65 –

J’s most favourite thing in the whole world is his special doggy.

Special doggy comes everywhere with us, it’s very cute watching him talk to his special doggy on the way to and from school in the car and then he gives him a hug and a kiss…………. special doggy has to wait for J in the car whilst he is at school, he won’t take him into school just in case the other kids touch him           And of course special doggy is always with him at bedtime along with his skanky blanky

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Day 62 – Wild But Pretty

I took this picture of a garden near J’s school this morning. It’s a little wild but I thought it looked really pretty.

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365 / 60………….and 61

Day 60 -

Last night I helped J to make fruit kebabs……….. I wasn’t sure if he’d eat them but figured it was worth a shot……………… and he surprised me by eating pretty much all of them!!! YAY!!!

Day 61 -

Today we met with friends at the local pool and had an absolute ball! J’s confidence in water has improved dramatically since we ended his swimming lessons. He’s had lots o fun around at a friend’s house in their pool, which he can stand up in. This has helped his confidence so much so thankyou D for having us round so often Whenever we go to the local pool I now take along his swimming vest, which also has helped to improve his confidence in water, he likes having the security of it, just knowing that it helps him to float seems to make him feel alot happier in the water.

 

 

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Project 365 – Day 59 ……….. Celebrate!

Today I edged that little bit closer to my mid thirties!!!! I know……. where has the time gone? I’m really starting to feel like I’m getting old but I’m still celebrating. I have a chocolate cake………… I’m not a fan of chocolate cake but it’s J’s favourite so I thought I’d treat him and we’re having take away tonight…….. woop woop! LOL (Oh how you celebrate your birthdays differently once you’re abit older and a parent LOL)

These were a lovely gift from 2 friends of mine………. Thankyou ladies

And this was the gift that my little man gave me *bursting with pride and wiping a tear from my eye*

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Project 365 – Days 56, 57 and 58

I’m late posting these again, 2 reasons really, the first is that it’s been a very busy time in our house over the last week and secondly my PC has been playing games and randomly likes to freeze……….. mmmm think it may have another problem, may have to go, get it fixed *sigh*

Anyhow,

Day 56 – Running Free

Just look at those happy hands

Day 57 – Flying Off…….

Last night I got to “fly off” for the evening, I went out for a meal with some lovely friends to celebrate my upcoming birthday. We had a blast, it was a fun evening filled with laughter, so thankyou ladies  As for J, well Daddy never puts him to bed, so J took advantage of the situation and conned some extra time on the Playstation, 6 stories and an extra hour out of Daddy before he finally went to bed LOL

Day 58 – Meet Elton

This was one of the gifts that 2 of my wonderful friends gave me. Last week we went to see Gnomeo and Juliet and so this was a very appropriate gift. In honour of the film we have named him Elton

Thanks again Ladies xx

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Project 365 – Day 55 The Red/Green of School Life

I took this picture because the colours symbolise how we’re feeling about J’s school at the moment.

On one side we have green for go – the ECDP (EI) unit at the school is fab. J loves it there and we have noticed some big changes in some of J’s behaviours as a result of attending there. He also has a wonderful teacher who understands the kids and who listens to us as parents and to our kids but more than that she makes an effort to help and support.

On the other side meanwhile we have red for stop – symbolising the school itself! J is now only attending mainstream Prep 2 days a week and Wednesdays he is staying home with me. I have had comments made to me in an attempt to make me feel bad for taking my son out of school one day a week, (it didn’t work, we had a great day yesterday until bedtime when J started with his usual “I don’t want to go to bed because then I have to go school in the morning” behaviour). J makes a fuss every morning before school and on Prep mornings I have to literally drag him into school but I’m told “it’s all for your benefit, he’s fine when he’s here”……………… No he’s trying to tell everyone that he doesn’t want to be there, he’s not like it on a Monday and Tuesday (we only had 1 morning at ECDP like that) so obviously there’s something about Prep that is bothering him. And I got informed today that his class are going on a small excursion in a couple of weeks and here’s another quote “it’s only an hour on the bus, the kids always love the journey”…….. mmmmmm wonder if his teacher has ever been on any journey lasting more than 30 minutes with a child like J! We mentioned it to him on the way home and he already started to freak out about being on a bus for so long!  We also received a letter from the school today, dated 14th Feb telling us that he was to be assessed by an OT at school and we could meet with the OT to discuss what the assessment was all about but we had to meet with her this afternoon and we didn’t receive the letter until after school…….. seriously what’s the point?

With so many negatives at the school right now, we’re considering our options for next year. J will finish at the ECDP at some point later this year and I just don’t feel that the school will consider, let alone meet J’s needs so whatever happens I don’t think he’ll be continuing his education there. The sad thing is we’re not alone, I know of 4 other parents of special needs children at the same school who feel exactly the same way. *sigh*

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Project 365 – Day 54

Brief rain storm outside tonight…………….. meanwhile inside, HUGE “storm” at bedtime!  Can’t we tell it’s school tomorrow……………..

After getting some advice from various people about J’s issues with school, we decided to keep him home today. I was told several times by his teachers that if I kept him off before we had a meeting about homeschooling one day a week he would be marked as absent……………………… ah well guess he was absent today!

We have our meeting tomorrow after school, gee just for once I hope J is in his usual foul mood after school ………… just once I would like for them (the teachers) to see exactly what I’ve been trying to explain to them. So I guess we’ll just see how that goes, at the end of the day he’s only in Prep, which is not compulsory, so if they don’t agree he’ll just have to be absent every Wednesday………….. I’m getting too tired to fight anymore so if keeping him home one day a week means one (or 10) less arguments then so be it!

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Project 365 – Days 51, 52 And 53!

Ok, not doing too well with my 365 project but it’s been chaos in our house over the past week.

Sunday I caught a sickness bug that was going round and felt pretty yucky all day, although did manage to have a lovely time around a friend’s house in the afternoon. I did take various pictures of J enjoying himself in their pool, (he’s made huge progress in the water and is now even happy to be splashed!), but unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to transfer them onto my pc yet so instead I have this picture for you.

What is it I hear you ask?  Well J’s favourite song at the moment is Nanna Window by Chris Moyles, (UK radio DJ, very funny man for all my non UK readers, there are videos on you tube). This is his Nanna waving at the window

Yesterday I had planned to post my pictures here but we had a HUGE storm and the power kept cutting out and so I chose to leave the pc off in the end. However we did get some great pictures of the storm as it began. The sky looked absolutely amazing

And finally today’s photo………….. Tonight after school we made some gloop (cornflour and water) and J had the best time EVER! Watching him play left myself and his Dad gobsmacked……….. just utterly amazed!

Check out how messy my “I hate getting messy” little man is!!

One word WOW!

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