HALF TERM? MAYBE

Hi all

Here's this week's blog.  Finding it hard to write blogs daily, not because of time, but because it's difficult to write without going into the whole "we did this, then we did this, then we did that" kind of writing which is not only boring to write, it's boring to read.  So, I've started doing quick, easy, daily status updates on Callum's World page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/CallumsWorld?ref=hl

And then a proper blog at end of week (or whenever I get time over the weekend).

So, what has Callum been doing this week?  Well, for starters he's been very lethargic and typically teenager floppy lazy hrumph boy.  He isn't rude or grumpy, but I am getting the occasional 'grunt' reply when he's asked a question.  Hey ho, to be expected with a 13, nearly 14 year old, even with a neuro typical kid, let alone an Aspi one.

Our days still always start with a cuppa and a sit-curled-up-on-sofa-in-pjs chat.  I've normally been up a couple of hours before he surfaces, so it's actually nice to take a bit of time out and talk.  We go over how we slept, whether he had good or bad dreams, what time he finally got to sleep and what book he's currently reading.  We then discuss the day and I talk over what I expect from him.  He can then ask any questions, raise any queries and, quite often, try and compromise with me if he's really not feeling up to anything huge.  He can drive a hard bargain sometimes, but then so can I.  It always works out suitable for us both in the end though and I think it's a good lesson in negotiating.

It was our week for two trampolining lessons this week, private with Kim and group with James.  Kim always works him really hard and Callum certainly knows he's done half an hour of workout.  He was a bit worried this week as it's half term and he was concerned that there might be a holiday club going on.  He hates the idea that they might be staring at him and judging what he does, even though I am constantly telling him that they spend most of their time with their heads in their lunch boxes and talking amongst themselves.  Luckily there wasn't a club and he had the whole centre to himself (kids wise).  Somersaults went well although he did graze his chin after a particularly clumsy landing and he's practising the routine that he has to tack the somersault onto.  Kim always stops the lesson about 10 mins before the end to do conditioning exercises with Callum, which I might add, he hates.  This week he was getting a bit bolshy and telling Kim he wouldn't do it, but Kim, like James, is very good at convincing him otherwise.  Came out absolutely knackered and had definitely earned his Subway.  Group session today was more of a fun lesson which suited Callum.

As to 'lessons', as it's half term in school world, we haven't done anything too in depth, but I have asked him to do some more self monitored work like Khan Academy maths and today's science was reading matter with questions to answer.  He's getting a lot better at working on his own, but still needs me to dish out work rather than being self motivated.

Socially he's had a pretty good week too.  Monday was spent around his friend's house playing on the Xbox and Playstation.  He loves going there as he has known his friend and his family since nursery school, so he's completely comfortable there and I have no worries about leaving him.  Wednesday was the usual big sis visit with Merlin the dog and a now ever growing bump.  No cooking this week though as not in the mood and was tired (more later).  So lots of chat and play on Roblox.  Today, after trampo, it was the now regular visit back from Lauren for tea and cake and even more Roblox.

Tomorrow is his dad's birthday and we still have a couple of bits to get ready for his return from work, so a shopping visit in the morning and possibly a cake bake in the afternoon, but that may not get done until Saturday.  We like to spread out birthdays in this house, usually over a week, and as we are dog sitting his uncle's dog overnight on Saturday, we may have tea and birthday cake on Sunday afternoon when they return to pick up the hound.

He's had a good week even though he had a visit to the osteopath on Tuesday evening.  He only goes about once every six months, normally when he starts complaining his shoulder or neck feels stiff.  He likes going and Emma is brilliant with him, although he had to take off his Tshirt this time and he doesn't like stripping off in front of strangers.  A bit of cracking later and all he wanted to do was go to sleep, hence the sleepy eyed, excessively lazy Wednesday.  He's additionally happy as he received two more books in the Phoenix Files saga in the post along with dad's presents, so he's now rereading the previous three books in preparation of next two.  One more to go apparently, but that's not been released yet.

Sorry no pics this week, not really done anything worth photographing, but hopefully be back on track with that next time.

Cya

SHROVE TUESDAY

Good morning folks.  Whilst Callum is struggling to write a book review, I thought I'd write up yesterday while he, either gets his brain in gear or yells for help.

Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day.  It's traditional in this house to have pancakes all day!  Yep, breakfast, lunch and dinner (and dessert if there are enough left).

So breakfast was English style pancakes with lemon and lime juice and caster sugar - yum.

Terri came over late morning and then made American style pancakes which Callum and herself had with bacon and maple syrup:

Then dinner was cheese and ham English pancake wraps.

We didn't just eat all day.  Callum did another book review and we went to Aldi to get the ingredients for today's (Wednesday) cooking.  He's making pepperoni and olive pizza today.

He also did some research on what Shrove Tuesday means and printed off some info and a list of dates for future years.  Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, is the day preceding Ash Wednesday which is the first day of Lent.  Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the custom for Christians to be "shriven".  Pancakes are associated with the day because they were a way of using up rich foods such as eggs, milk and sugar before the fasting season of Lent, where all foods that give 'pleasure' are not eaten.

The custom of 'pancake races' which are still held in England is said to have originated from the story of a housewife in Olney, Buckinghamshire, who was so busy making pancakes that she forgot the time until she heard the church bells ringing for service.  She, apparently, raced out of the house to church still carrying her frying pan and pancake. Pancake races are traditionally run by woman, although if men want to join in they can as long as they dress up in an apron and scarf.  The most famous race is held in Olney and is run over 415 yards.  The rules are that the contestants must toss their pancake both at the start and the finish of the race.  The race is then finished with a church service.

The date of Shrove Tuesday changes each year as it is connected with the dates of Easter.

Anyway, that's enough for the moment.

Cya

BIT OF A BUSY WEEK

Good afternoon on this fine, if chilly, Saturday.  Not been around much this week, so this is a bit late.  Hey ho, fed up with apologising for not doing dailies, life gets in the way and to be honest I do go through a bit of an anti tech phase occasionally where I just cannot be bothered to log in; too much other stuff to do.  So anyway, this week:

Briefly;
Monday - hospital with Terri, my daughter, his sister, for her 21 week scan of pregnancy.
Tuesday - Private trampo lesson, subway, eye test.
Wednesday - Terri plus her friend Natalie over for cooking lesson and some arts and crafts.
Thursday - mum, me, at tattoo shop, so friend over and then both off to class trampolining lesson.
Friday - dentist appointment, bit of shopping and then friend's house for a couple of hours.
Today - computer, now Xbox after helping dad put up another shelf in bedroom to house growing collection of helicopters.

Monday
Didn't expect Callum to want to come to hospital with big sis to see baby scan, but he did.  I know he's been a bit worried so maybe him going would put his mind a bit more at rest or maybe he was just curious.  Also he doesn't normally like hospitals.  But off we went, managing to get a lift from Terri's dad (bit like an extended family outing) and got to hosp on time.  There was, of course, the usual wait, but we finally got called for scan.  Terri's dad had to go off for blood tests, so it was just Terri, Callum and me.

Baby Munn

I think he found it interesting and he was paying attention and, as he hasn't asked any more questions since, I'm assuming he's ok. So say hello to Callum's niece or nephew.

Tuesday
Private trampolining went really, really well.  He was full of smiles and managed to do 3 full somersaults in a row without using a mat, so whoop whoop to him.  Definitely deserved the 12 inch meatball Subway which seems to have become a tradition after the private lesson.  Then eye test afterwards; slight deterioration so new glasses on order.  Hoping to make the old ones into sunglasses for the summer once new ones have arrived.

Wednesday

Left to right: Callum, Natalie, Terri

The crafting trio

We did make carrot cakes first, but for some unknown reason Blogger isn't uploading the picture of our success, so may try again another time.  Anyway, the above picture shows the rest of the afternoon with Callum just about to start an Xmas coaster mosaic and the two girls making Valentine bits and pieces.

Xmas tree coaster

Thursday

I had my tattoo booked for Thursday, so wasn't around for most of the day.  However, my wonderful friend Carol agreed that she would take Callum to trampolining for me that afternoon.  As it was she dropped Lauren, her daughter, off to our house around 11.30am and Lauren and Callum played on the computer until it was time to go off to the lesson (admittedly they were a bit early).  They then came back to the house until it was time for them to go off to Lauren's next activity for the day.  Tea and cake was provided by Callum (I assume he made the tea and the cake was the carrot cake he'd made the day before).  It mean't that, in the end, Callum wasn't alone for long; about an hour, so I ended up feeling a lot better about it all.  Although Callum didn't really mind either way, I think he was happier having the company.

Found out later that evening that James, the coach, was beginning to get him practising backward rolls in prep for backward somersaults - Eeeek!!!

Friday

Not a day that we were entirely looking forward to as it was a dentist appointment first.  However, all was well except for Callum being advised to brush his teeth a bit better than he does now.  He still hasn't got fillings so was happy.  She did ask if he wanted a brace, but he replied with a definite and resounding NO!  To be honest, I don't think he really needs one.

Then a bit of quick shopping: jewellers for me to sell off a couple of bits of jewellery that I never wear and then health shop to pick up some marigold and chickweed cream for me to care for my new tattoo.  Bought some apricots for £1 on way back to bus stop and then off to friend's house for a couple of hours playing on his XBox whilst us mums drank tea and had a chat.

Today
Callum is doing the usual weekend things of computer, XBox or TV or combi of both.  He doesn't want to go out anywhere as we've been out pretty much all week (or had people here), so he's after a day to himself.  He has, however, helped dad put up another shelf in his bedroom (there are now 3) on which he can put his new helicopters on.  He's got 4 waiting construction and housing.

So busy week, not a great deal of lesson work done apart from maths on Thursday morning before I left, but then again, seeing a pregnancy scan, reading every night, cooking, making a mosiac, trampolining and seeing friends is all good stuff.

Cya

BACK TO NORMAL - WELL SORT OF

Good evening folks.  Hope you have all had a good start to the week.  We went back to normal today as Phil returned to work.  What does normal mean in our house?  Well, a quiet chat over a cuppa with Callum, a quiet tidy up, a quiet hour or so doing some home ed and a quiet couple of hours chilling out.  Note the common word in that rather long sentence - quiet!

My partner, Phil, has a tendency to put the radio on as soon as he's up and doesn't turn it off until it's time to sit down and watch TV.  So all week it's been a constant drone of noise.  Now Callum isn't a quiet soul and neither am I, but we both like a bit of quiet in the daytime, especially if we are going to do some work.  We both find the 'background' noise distracting so as the week progressed we were both starting to feel a little fraught, but each to their own.

So this morning we had an even more leisurely cuppa (in fact we had two) relishing the peace and quiet.  Then Callum went off to do some work on Khan Academy whilst I had a tidy and hoover up.  Unfortunately Callum couldn't find what he was looking for on Khan, so asked if he could finish designing his game on Roblox.  As he is creating a game almost from scratch, I'm happy to include this in his computer studies session, so that's what he did, finding a few issues when testing and managing to solve them by tweaking the script a bit.

As it was Monday and it's about the only day we have this week where we are either not going anywhere or not seeing anyone and after having a week with dad, we both were really slow on getting ourselves together. Add to that the printer has run out of ink (I've normally always got back up cartridges, but somehow this time I didn't).  The work I had planned for science theory today is all on the computer and needs to be printed, so we decided to finally watch the last episode of The Dark nature programme that the BBC ran a while ago.  Nocturnal activities of Humpback Whales, Pumas and Vampire Bats feeding on Sealions this time.

Then a mushroom and cheese omelette for a late breakfast/early lunch and a wait for Terri to turn up with Merlin.  I prepped dinner and he disappeared upstairs to watch some telly whilst we waited.

A good afternoon spent with daughter planning Halloween party and Callum flitted up and down the stairs doing whatever he felt like doing.

So an easy day, laid back and restful.  Was nice to be able to recharge the brain and just take our time.

Tomorrow is the proper start of the week.  Hope the ink turns up soon.

A GRAND DAY OUT

Good evening peoples.

We had an unexpected, unplanned day out today!  Callum's dad, Phil, is off work all week and although we have work to do, it was such lovely weather I asked if we could go out for the day.  As he had nothing planned it was a yes!  So upstairs I went to wake Callum and ask if he fancied going out.  Choices were Legoland, Hever Castle or a runabout at Romney Marsh or if he didn't fancy any of those, he could come up with something else.  I was convinced he'd say Legoland, but no, Hever Castle won the day.

So after a quick trip up the town to get some money and something for lunch, we drove off to Hever.  We have been before but not for ages.  Callum decided he wanted to go around the grounds and into the house, which he's never done before.

So after getting our tickets (I remembered to take his DLA letter, so got one adult in for free) we decided to do an anticlockwise walk around the grounds including a walk around the whole lake (something I've never done before either).  So a visual description of our day goes as follows:

1st Fountain

We have another photo like this when he was small

Off for the 'around the lake walk'

Ducks hiding

Red dragonfly

The Waterfall

The Weir

Phil and Callum on a jetty

The Water Maze

Callum in the Maze

Callum at the top

After our walk around the lake and a rest stop at the Water Maze for lunch and Callum to investigate and have a play around, we headed to The Loggia and had an ice cream.

The Loggia Fountain

The Yew Maze

Anne Boleyn's House

After doing a complete circle of the grounds we went into the house above.  Lots of rooms to explore and Callum had a good look round everything and even remembered who some of the people in the paintings were from the Horrible Histories show that we saw earlier in the year about The Tudors.

Topiary Pig

One of the friendly ducks after our cakes

After a cuppa and cake; they even did gluten free for me, we went into the shop and dolls house exhibition before making our way back to the car ready for the journey home.

Callum's favourite bits of the day were the water maze and the walk around the lake which doesn't surprise me as he loves water and he learn't "that I'm very good at mazes".

Bearing in mind that today was unplanned, Callum did fantastically well.  No kick offs, no grumps, but then we did allow him to lead us where he wanted to go (with a bit of persuasion occasionally) so there was nothing that he didn't want to do.

Hope you enjoy the photos.  Tomorrow we'll be writing it up and doing a bit of extra stuff on Anne Boleyn.

Cya
  

ART, COMPUTERS AND......IT'S BEYOND ME!

Hiya, don't think I'm doing too bad this week.  Seem to be doing an update every other day.  Could have something to do with me now having a laptop so I'm not fighting over computer time with Callum and, of course, I can do it from the comfort of my own sofa.  However, I also think it may have something to do with the new timetable as I'm now organised with work and Callum knows what needs to be done, so we are doing more.

I don't really notice the difference when we don't have a timetable until I actually have one.  I've mentioned before that total autonomous education doesn't work for us, but every now and again, either because we are too busy or I'm too knackered, we end up practising that style of home ed.  But I know that it doesn't really work and having this new timetable has proved it.  It isn't that we don't do any work at all when its autonomous, but I find that I can't suddenly spring to action when Callum wants to do something (I need to be mentally and physically prepared and that means organising) and I find Callum's motivation lapses very quickly and he just ends up doing the same thing all day every day and that's Roblox or now a game on Facebook.  Callum's Asperger means that he does need a certain amount of routine although as he has got older he is more able to cope with sudden changes that may happen in the day.  However, having a visual timetable and a breakdown of what he's expected to do on a daily basis written up has seen him motivated and self organising which is a vast improvement.  His concentration is better and he is more willing to try.  I know this form of education doesn't work for everyone and I know that having a full day's timetable would not work for us, but this semi structured (mornings), semi autonomous (afternoons) approach definitely works for us.  I just need to ensure that I stick to it plus it helps me as well as I know what I need to plan for.

So what have we done over the past few days.  Well, Wednesday was scheduled for Science and Art and Terri was visiting as she usually does on a Wednesday.  I sort of delegated to her for some of the work and they ended up doing a combination of Science and Art using some experiments which looked at colour and light.  This time we/they looked at reflected colour and light; shining a torch covered in coloured cellophane (red, blue and yellow) onto various toy vehicles of various colours (red, yellow, blue, green and white).  It was quite interesting how the vehicles changed colour when different coloured light was shone onto them.  Non of us totally understood it, but a collective conclusion was that the colour reflected was the strongest colour that was left on the spectrum after you removed the colour of the vehicle and the colour of the light.  Unfortunately the cellophane we were using was from sweetie wrappers and the red one was rather strong in comparison to the rest, so we aren't entirely sure if our results were totally as they should be, but it was fun and we kind of got the idea.

They then attempted to make blue sky by using a glass of water and dropping various amounts of milk into the water.  The torch was then shone from the side of the glass and behind the glass.  As the water became more milky, the light from the side shone through the milk in a bluish tinge and shone from behind in a reddish tinge.  Rather interesting. Will try and post some pictures later.

Then they 'played' on Photoshop on the computer to change a photograph of Draco, the dog, into various degrees of blue tones.  I'm hoping to get Callum to do the same using red and yellow tones.

The afternoon was spent with us all together watching Journey 2: Mysterious Island.

Today was Maths and Computer Studies.  Callum spent most of the morning on www.khanacademy.org continuing to look at areas and perimeters and www.codeacademy.com where he begun to learn to write some proper computer code.  Then it was a single maths sheet on areas and perimeters of triangles to finish off.

After lunch we watched the latest edition of Turn Back Time - The Family, which is a BBC programme about the life of families through history.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01kwlrr/Turn_Back_Time_The_Family_1940/

Callum enjoys this programme as do I as it isn't all about facts and figures, but more about the everyday life of families and how they lived, worked and played.

For the rest of the day, he has played on the Wii and has now started playing playing one of the games online with other people.  Not something that I would want to do or probably could even suss out how to do, but Callum, as do many others, just gets it.  I used to be pretty good using computers, but I think a lot of it is now beyond me.  But good for C, glad he can keep up as he'll need to.

Anyway, last ice skating meet before the holidays tomorrow and then a bit of a clean up of the house.

Cya folks

YOU REMEMBER IT WAS WORKING? WELL.....

Hiya folks, hope you lovely people are all fab and gorgeous. We are having rather interesting weather here so far.  It's been chucking it down one minute and then glorious sunshine the next.  So am glad we haven't got much going out and about planned this week.

So far we have had a lovely lazy Monday in pjs all day.  Now don't think we didn't do any schooling because we did, so there!  Subjects on timetable (remember only two subjects per day) were Maths and English Literacy.

Maths was a couple of worksheets on area and perimeter; one was a straightforward one and one was a bit more of an exercise in using areas and perimeters in everyday life.  It was called Martha's Garden and I found it on a website www.WorksheetWorks.com where there are loads of worksheets plus answers to download and they are free! Always a bonus.  Callum had to work out the perimeter of the garden to decide how much fencing would be needed and then work out different areas to see where different plants would be grown.  It was pretty basic, but it was interesting for Callum to see how the maths he is learning is used in day to day things.  This is something that he enjoys as, like most things, he doesn't like learning it unless he can see a reason for doing so OR he really likes the subject.  This is fine when it comes to using the computer or doing science, but the normal maths and english is something that he has to have a reason for.

Next was English Literacy.  He has a list of books (I downloaded the recommended reading list for year 9 and went through them making a sub list of what I think Callum would enjoy plus a few that I felt were 'classics'.  We have 4 on the list already; 2 that I own and 2 which we have obtained from the library.  The idea of the literacy lesson is to review the book using a question and answer sheet and to have a general discussion.  He's just started reading Slam by Nick Hornby and we had a little talk about the book, but as he has only read 3 chapters so far it wasn't a huge conversation and certainly not worth doing a sheet on yet.  So what to do?  Then I remembered that I had recorded a couple of the Shakespeare film adaptations that the BBC showed in their Shakespeare celebration and I decided that it might be an idea to watch one (or at least part of one).  We had 4 to choose from:  MacBeth, Twelfth Night, Othello and Merchant of Venice. Callum has already read MacBeth (in graphic form) and we had a MacBeth themed Halloween party last year, so he decided to watch that one.  I didn't mind as that is probably my favourite Shakespeare.

I don't know about any of you, but as far as I'm concerned Shakespeare wrote plays, not books, so I think that the best way of studying them is to actually see them rather than read them.  His language is often hard to read, but to watch it makes more sense and you can appreciate it more.  We managed an hour of an hour and 50mins movie and Callum began to remember what he'd read and associate it with what he saw on screen, so that was good and when asked, he said he was enjoying it.  It also meant we could talk about the story whilst we watched it.  We'll aim to finish watching later on this week.

After lunch, as Callum had got into watching some telly, he chose to sit and watch The Blues Brothers for the 2nd time (his 2nd, my umpteenth) and we spent a lovely afternoon having a giggle.

Today was English Language and Trampolining.  English Language had to be rejiggled as I, stupidly, hadn't looked at what was next in the book and it involved a lot of writing and I've vowed not to force him to do lots of writing as he says its hurts his shoulder to write.  We have a hospital appointment in August to check to see if anything is physically wrong.  So that page will be typed on the computer and we'll do that next time.  After flipping through the workbook we decided on the page which was all about changing sentences from two to one using connecting words such as who, which, because, so, etc.  He did really well and got them all correct.  It's frustating as he knows the language and how to put it together, he just doesn't like writing it or doing the sheets, but he's getting there and his handwriting is getting neater and neater.

Trampolining went well.  Routine and somersaults practised with him managed to nail 3 complete to feet somersaults, 2 of which were without using the mat.  So well done Callum.  He did get very frustrated with himself as he usually does because he could have nailed a lot more if he'd got his feet down instead of his knees.  Must admit his coach, Kim, is getting just as frustrated and it is quite comical to see them both grrrring.

After trampolining we went off to Subway for lunch and then I had an optician's appointment.  Callum decided that he didn't want to stay with me and for the first time ever he walked home, let himself in the house and waited for me at home.  Well done mate!  A small step each time amounts to something big in the end.

Tomorrow Terri should be visiting as usual and I'm hoping that the weather holds and she doesn't get wet.

Cya soon folks.

THE WEEKEND!

Hiya.  Update of weekend.


Friday went well, although we did get lost in Guildford on the way.  Followed AA route which took us through centre of Guildford.  Awful system that lead us round and round and into many car parks before we eventually found our way out!  Note to anyone planning on going to Dunsford...DON'T GO THROUGH GUILDFORD!!  Phil, of course, started to lose his temper and threatened to turn around and go home which was totally unacceptable to me or Callum.  However, a calming talk and a redirection finally got us there with a few minutes to spare.  Unfortunately that is a problem with Asperger; if something says a time, they have to be there by it or it's a complete disaster.  Callum has learned, being with me all day, that sometimes things don't always go to plan and there is nearly always a bit of leeway to timings.  However, Phil hasn't quite got there yet, but he does calm down pretty quick.


Anyway, back to the day.  There were a lot of people there all booking in and driving off in different cars with families taking pictures or videos so was a bit concerned for Callum, but we managed to find a corner with some plastic chairs and sat down to wait for his dad whilst watching all the different cars come in and out. .

People waiting

A number of cars

He was most impressed with the orange Lamborghini (below) and decided that Lamborghinis should either be in yellow or orange, Ferraris should be red and Aston Martins should be black or grey. 

Unfortunately the Aston his dad went in was red (well Burgundy coloured), but I don't think Phil cared which colour it was.

Phil attempting to get in (bit tight as he's 6ft 3)

Driving off

After the main drive which was four laps round the track (apparently the Top Gear track but in reverse) Callum was able to join his dad for a high speed thrill ride which was 1 lap round the track at mega speed in the car below.

Driving off

Returning (can just see Callum in the back seat)

Returned safe and sound and smiling

Needless to say the boys were on a bit of a high on the way home and I guided us on a different route which avoided Guildford altogether.  Lesson to self:  plan the journey yourself and don't rely on anyone else's directions.

Saturday was a small family BBQ as a belated party for Callum.  He only wanted his sister, Terri; her dad, Dave and his Auntie Teresa and Uncle Stephen (Phil's brother) to come so it was really little.  Oh and Terri's dog, Merlin.  Weather stayed dry, but did get a bit overcast and very windy.  Managed to BBQ the food and have a drink and a chat in the garden before returning indoors and all having a go at making origami boats from the instructions in one of Callum's presents that his Aunt and Uncle bought him.  Was hilarious trying to follow the instructions, but some of us managed to make boats and we decided to float them in the water butt outside.

There were origami paddles to be made to go with them, but we decided that the canoes were hard enough, hehe.

On the subject of Arts and Crafts below is a picture of the pot Callum made at Quex House (unpainted at present) and the Tribal Mask (also not finished) which I promised to post last time.

 


Sunday we were intending to go to Fuse Festival in Rochester, but due to our busy week and weekend, Callum felt that he just wanted a day at home being quiet (which means playing on the computer), so we didn't go.  First year for a while we have missed it, but then there is always next time.


So lots of photos this time.  Rest of week we are supposed to be sorting out his work for his Open Day next month and seeing what exactly we have, what is unfinished and what there is to be started.  Oh well, I'll probably be buried under paper and folders for a few days now. ;-)


Cya

Hiya all you lovely people.  Hope you all had a fantastic Jubilee weekend with the extended bank holiday and that you have all now recovered.

We had two parties to go to.  One family and one friends.  Sunday was our family get together.  Callum loves going to Uncle Stephen's.  They have a pretty large house and garden and a Bassett Hound called Floyd who is a bit naughty when it comes to food, so has to be permanently watched.  Not good when you are BBQing and have a buffet out.  Must admit at one point he did show his intelligence by pulling on the end of the runner and trying to get the tablecloth to come off the table and all the food with it.

Both Phil's brothers and their wives were there (obviously one of the brother's and wives would be there as it was their house) plus his elder cousins with their boy/girlfriends and his other cousin who is 16 and who is also an Aspi.  There was also Teresa's sister and hubby there; so a nice little group.  Lots of food and drink, Flotilla on the telly in the background and a silly 'Royal' quiz later on.

Managed to fit the BBQ in between the showers, but we ended up mainly indoors.  Left about 8pm which was just about right.

Next day we were off to one of my friend's house for her red, white and blue party.  BBQ again in the garden and two tables full of food within the house.  Pat does know how to provide a good spread!  Weather held off and the sun came out on occasion.  Had a firepit in the garden under the marque type shelter which is where Phil and Callum sat themselves for most of the afternoon.  Sean's son, Victor, was there too, so Callum had someone he knew there, even if it was only vaguely.

I had a great time catching up with people I haven't seen for ages.  Again, we didn't stay too late as Callum was getting a bit overwhelmed by the two days of socialising.

Tuesday we had a quiet day with no visitors or visits to make.  Spent it pottering about watching TV, playing on the computer and generally being lazy.

Wednesday Callum had his school friend Callum D round for the afternoon and Terri, his sister, did her usual Wednesday visit.  Callum and Callum D don't get together as often as they used to, but as soon as they are it's as if they have never been apart.  Sign of a true friendship in my book.  They had a great afternoon on the Wii and upstairs in Callum's room making up games using the marble run and Callum's numerous tanks.

Today we worked!  School work that is.  We had 3 write ups that hadn't been done and so we knuckled down and got them out of the way.  Bee Release at Dungerness; Tree Walk at Capstone and Mini Beast Hunt at Riverside.  After writing up the days; searching the net for a press release re the bees, pictures of things that we hadn't got photos of and extra info and putting all the photos we did have into a display with added info, 3.5hrs had gone by.  Must remember to allow an average of 1hr per write up in the future.  Was very interesting to see how much Callum had remembered and to search the net for information when the discussions led us down a slightly different route, but we were both mentally shattered at the end of it.

Tomorrow he has, hopefully, another friend round and next week his dad is off, so we won't be doing any 'proper' work now until a week Monday.  But as we will be out and about a few days next week, I'll sure Callum will have some new experiences and lots of fun.

Sorry no photos today, but I kept forgetting to take my camera out with me.  Silly me.

Cya

TEEN + HEAT = VERY LITTLE DONE

Hiya

I know I should be doing a daily blog, but to be honest we really haven't done enough to warrant a daily one.  Weather has changed here in the South and it's become hot, very hot!  It appears we will have to get used to swinging from jumpers, raincoats and wellies one day to vest tops, sunhats and sandals the next without a period of acclimatisation in between.  Add to this the fact that, as previously mentioned, Callum is reading until all hours and sleeping in later (Issac Newton's theory springs to mind "every action has an equal and opposite reaction") and we don't exactly have a lot of room in the day for getting things done before Phil is home and chaos reigns. Phil is also an Aspi (undiagnosed), but is one for strict routines (his, not ours) and woe betide we alter those or get in the way of them.  So anything we want to do that requires the kitchen, utility room or the TV and often the garden too has to be completed before 3.30pm!  Bit like school really.  I know he would argue that he isn't like this at all, but having experienced the hrumphing and the moaning, I beg to differ.

So this week; what have we achieved?  Monday wasn't too bad as we managed to write up our visit to the Imperial War Museum that happened the week before.  We did separate write ups for each part of the day as the Art Exhibition was going into the colour and light project we are supposed to be doing and the museum part is in the unrelated days out folder.  It appears we are doing rather a lot of those and I might have to go through it at the end of the 'school' year and perhaps pick bits out to expand upon into projects for next year.  The write up took rather longer than expected as, as usual, we got sidetracked by conversation, questions and online searching.  That's the one big thing that I love about home education, it can wander off topic, go onto lots of different pathways and then come full circle back to where we started.  Found a really interesting website whilst having a conversation on timezones (don't ask how we got onto those as I can't remember) which had lots of other stuff on it too.  We ended up 'playing' on here for ages:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

Tuesday was Faversham meet.  Callum happy as quite a few of his mates were there, so he didn't end up reading the whole time.  I did find it particularly funny though when I went to look for him as his mate and himself were in the computer room (no surprise there) but at opposite ends of the room talking to each other on Roblox (no surprise there either).  Oh and he actually spoke to another adult!  Well, I say spoke he answered her polite enquiries with stilted two word answers, but it's better than nothing.  Davinia, you are honoured! hehe

Wednesday I didn't see him all day pretty much.  Terri was over and as she needed to use the computer, he was upstairs in his room playing with his tanks and watching Family Guy and Have I Got News For You on his telly (he has Tivo in his room).  Lots of laughter coming from his room with the added occasional 'explosion' from his game he'd made up.

Today he didn't surface until 9.50am!!!!  And even then he was a bit lethargic - he'd been reading until gone 11pm the night before again.  So we decided to have a PJ day and watch a documentary that I'd recorded about why we need the moon.  It was really interesting and the presenter, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock was brilliant as it was explained in easy to understand terms (good for me as well, haha).  It isn't on iPlayer that I can see, but the link below has some information and clips.  Well worth watching if you can find it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yb5jp

This afternoon we dug out Callum's Alpine trough (well it's an old sink to be precise) and repotted with some salvaged old plants and some new ones we bought at the garden festival a few weeks back.

We just need to get some more gravel to fill in the spaces, but it's now looking a lot more healthy than it did as it was overgrown with weeds and unwanted seedlings.

Anyway, that's about it.  Ice skating tomorrow and then we are intending to plant some more seeds in the garden and into pots in the afternoon.

Cya

A WEEKEND WITH NATURE

Hiya


Thought I'd do an end of weekend blog.  Normally don't do anything over the weekend on the computer, but recent weeks have proved that there really is nothing worth watching on the TV and I've caught up on all my recorded programmes.  So have been spending more time on here listening to music and playing on Facebook and, tonight, I'm doing those and writing up the blog.


This weekend has been particularly busy as the weather has been good and we had a couple of events booked at our local Country Parks.


Saturday was Riverside for a mini beast hunt.  We obviously go there far too often as we don't even have to give our names now, haha.  But the events are really good, the staff are lovely and they don't cost much; the mini beast session cost £1.50!  So what did we do?  Well, we started at the pond for some pond dipping, looking out for different creatures that live in the water.

The Pond

The little pile of twigs and leaves (lower centre) is a coot's nest where they put their babies when they are off looking for food.  Bit like a playpen.

The Tray of goodies

It doesn't really show much in this picture, but the tray ended up with loads of water boatmen, tiny watermites, snails, caddis larvae which were really weird and waterlice (underwater woodlouse).  One boy managed to net a stickleback and another a newt.

Then off to the meadow with nets and jars clutched in hands to look for insects.

'fishing for insects'

Our ranger and some of the others

Callum with net

Admittedly there wasn't a great deal of diversity to find at this time of year, so it might be worth going on another hunt at the end of the summer.  Callum did find lots of red ants, a black ladybird, a tiny spider, lots of fruit flies, a few little beetles and a green winged insect that looked like a grass seed which I can't remember the name of and have looked on google, but can't find it.  Really need to invest in a good insect book.

All in all a good morning was had by the both of us.  In the afternoon we planted beans, cabbages and brussel sprout plants along with carrot and beetroot seeds.

Then today, Sunday; which didn't start off too well.  Both Callum and myself felt a bit rough; both of us have colds or the start of hayfever and both had very snuffly noses and not a lot of energy, but we wanted to go on our tree walk, so dragged ourselves up and off we went with dad in tow this time.

It was Capstone Park today with Ranger Dave for a 2.5hr walk around the park looking at the different types of trees that were there.  We, obviously, didn't identify every tree, but picked out the most common ones.  Will let pictures speak for themselves on this one.  

Common Oak

Large Common Oak Tree in Ancient Woodland

Hazel

Ash

Norway Maple

Field Maple

Whitebeam

There was a lot more than that, but didn't take pictures of them all.  Had a lovely walk and the weather stayed dry if overcast.  Both Callum and I felt a lot better afterwards.  Had the rest of the afternoon to laze; with Callum on Roblox catching up with his friend he's made from China for the rest of the day until bedtime, while I read my book.

So weekend over and a week of catching up to do as we don't have a lot of outings planned.

Cya