AN EMOTIONAL CRISIS - MINE, NOT CALLUM'S

Hello, thought I'd better post as it's been nearly three weeks since holiday and everyone else I know is blogging like mad - haha (you know who you are!).

It's been a weird few weeks, partly because of school holidays which changes our routine and partly because I'm trying to think of different approaches to our home education schedule as our current 'timetable' isn't really working. That's what I like about home education, it is forever changing and evolving.

Callum, as I have mentioned before, isn't really self motivating and after reading several of my friend's blogs about how their children love going to libraries and getting books out and reading to themselves and to their siblings; how they will happily go and cook or go on websites and look up information or approach their parents with ideas for projects, I was, I must admit, feeling a bit depressed and deflated and did begin to wonder whether I was doing the right thing by Callum. Maybe if he was at school he would be given all these wonderful subjects on a plate and he would have avenues of interest opened up to him. However, luckily for Callum and myself, this 'depression' didn't last long!

Callum is ASD. ASD children (or most of the ones I have encountered) are rarely self motivating in all subjects. They, by the very nature of their 'disability' (I put it in single quotes because it's only a disability when the rest of the world doesn't understand it) are usually interested in only one or two things. But when they are interested they will go at that subject hammer and tongs and know everything there is to know about it, to the extent where they can often bore the pants off of the poor unfortunate who has innocently asked them about it! Great if you have the same interest, but a nightmare if you haven't; if you know what I mean.

One of Callum's interests (his main one in fact) is road signs!! Yes, you heard correctly; road signs!! Not really a subject that can be easily pulled into normal academic subjects, hence my difficulty. He will happily read the Highway Code, the big yellow book of Road Signs, any catalogue (ie, Archers, who kindly sent me one of theirs) that contains road signs, traffic lights, bollards, etc, that you can buy and manuals on how to set up workways (as he calls them) in the street. Are you getting the picture? Try and get him to read anything else, even a simple story, and he reverts to a reading age of about 3 (no disrespect aimed at any 3yr olds who can read well). It isn't that he can't, it's just he doesn't want to. He says he can't read long words, but have you seen some of those manuals? I hit a brick wall and get no-where. However, he does like being read to! And he will, occasionally, look through a factual book if there are a lot of photos with very little writing. We've picked up a couple by a local author named Bob Ogley (Kent Weather and a World War II one) and Callum loves them. They are basically pages and pages of photographs with some writing to explain the who, where, when kind of thing. He doesn't read the information, but he adores the pictures and we've used them in recent projects to 'make real' some of the information I've been trying to impart.

Actually Callum loves photographs full stop. He loves taking them, uploading them and displaying them. So we photograph all our science experiments, take lots of photos while out and about and record bugs, flowers, seedlings, anything really while at home. I'm beginning, as I write this, to realize that we record pretty much everything we do and we don't need to supply lots of writing to back it all up. Epiphany moment me thinks! You see this brings me onto my next problem.

WRITING!!! He hates writing!!!! I don't mean he dislikes it or can't be bothered, HE HATES IT with a vengeance!! He has trouble doing it (he says it hurts his head) and has trouble with spelling because he doesn't always hear letter combination sounds easily. I have tried taking him back to the beginning with Jolly Phonics; I've tried working through workbooks; I've tried pinning up alphabet posters; Education City; typing stuff instead of writing; anything and everything, but still he hates it. He understands WHY he needs to do it, but just hates doing it. I've decided that I'm going to get a selection of forms that he can fill in instead as I've been thinking about how much writing I, as an adult, do and, to be honest, it isn't really a lot. I do email, I do blog, I do Facebook, I do txt, but actually proper writing (with the exception of the blog and several stories I have on the go) I don't do that much. Callum is hardly likely to blog and he certainly wouldn't write stories (although stranger things have happened), so what actual writing will he NEED!!!???? He will need to fill in a job application, possibly a mortgage application, he'll need to register with a dentist or a doctor (if he ever moves), but I've realised that basically it will be forms that he will need to write for, not novels or essays, so I thought why not get him some forms and we'll fill them in. He can practice his writing in a 'real and truthful' way and he will get some idea of what he will be expected to be able to write! So my task over the next few weeks is to amass as many different types of forms as possible and slowly work through them with Callum.

Another interest is Science. Oooo I hear you all say, that's wonderful! Well, is it? You see when you have a child who dislikes reading, hates long words and detests writing, Science becomes a bit of a nightmare! We do experiments, which he loves (check out our Alka Seltzer lava lamp) and we watch plenty of science progs on telly, but I want to take him a little further and he wants to go there. But how do I do Stage 3 & 4 Science without the reading, writing and long words? Hmmm, me thinks that may be impossible! However, I'm going to give it a go, so wish me luck!! I'm hoping, and this is a very long shotted cunning plan (is shotted even a word?), that his interest in the subject will inspire him to read and write, but only time will tell.

He also loves water, hence spending any spare time he had on holiday playing around in the stream! His choice of employment at the moment is either a lifeguard or a policeman. His reason for choosing lifeguard is and I quote "it involves my love of water and I can save people", aaah bless him, he is a kindly soul, despite the odd outburst. So projects on rivers, oceans, etc normally go down reasonably well.

What I'm trying to say after all this rambling is that when I actually sit back and look at Callum's interests and what we do to incorporate them we do actually cover quite a lot of subjects, it just doesn't feel like it and we don't always have loads of evidence to show for it! And I do still have to be the one, in the main, to 'spark' the activity. But by sitting back and taking stock of Callum himself, and not comparing him with others, and taking stock of what I actually do, and not what I expect myself to do, we are actually doing ok! I see Callum being happy, socialable and content. So what if he doesn't want to go to Scouts or karate or music lessons. So what if he doesn't leap up and suggest projects or immerse himself in a pile of books. Callum is Callum and I wouldn't change him for anything. Hence the 'depression' not lasting long.

And do I need a timetable, possibily! Does it have to be in depth, no! A rough 'guideline' is probably the best thing we could have and maybe a hatful of lucky dip projects that we could try. Only time will tell if this approach works and if it doesn't, so what, we'll have another rethink!