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.

OOOOO ORGANISING WORKED TODAY

Hiya

Today was the first day of the new timetable which I'm supposed to be putting into action proper in September, but thought I'd use it from now to organise finishing work off ready for end of year.  There are only two subjects a day and regular social meetings are scheduled in, so no surprises.  It's a 2 week timetable as we do some things fortnightly, but it now shows Callum exactly what to expect and when.

So today he was up early surprisingly and remembered to shower.  Can't believe he remembered to shower as he normally needs reminding, so that was a good start.  We then sat having our first cuppa in the living room and started on a discussion which was another of those wonderful subject to subject to subject ones that never cease to amaze me and makes me thankful for my decision to home educate in the first place.  I can't exactly remember how it started, but I know we ended up going from currency to strength of the pound to affiliation with Europe and the Channel Tunnel to tectonic plates (Callum wanted to know if eventually the tunnel would collapse due to the movement of plates) to the moon moving away from us to world destruction to space travel and ideal planets to colonise and then onto orbits, lengths of days vs lengths of years and finally finishing on fact that a lot of what you see in the night sky actually probably doesn't even exist anymore.  We got out books; talked about programmes we'd seen and news items we'd read and obviously his own theories.  Surprising how you can cover geography, politics, economics and science in just over an hour without even trying.

Then off to sign up for khanacademy and codeacademy for computer studies session.  He ended up watching all the videos on how to work out areas and perimeters and after the initial grump about having to do it, found he thoroughly enjoyed it.  Didn't try any of the challenges, but that's for next time.  And as for codeacademy; I had trouble getting him off it.  Think that one was the clear winner and he'll probably be back on that one whenever the mood takes him rather than when he's told to.

Science next, had one failed experiment where we were supposed to create rainbows using water and light reflecting through, but didn't manage to create any rainbows at all.  Oh well, beauty of science; some work, some don't.  We then went onto refraction and used submerged coins and immersed thumbs to demonstrate Snell's Law.

The submerged coin.  Top one real, bottom one refracted image

The fat thumb

This afternoon was round at a friends for a belated birthday lunch and social time.  Didn't see Callum all afternoon.  Friend's house was lovely (had moved some months ago and we just hadn't managed to get round to visiting).  Was nice to catch up and have a good natter with lots of cups of tea, pizza, nibbles, cake and strawberries.  Left later than we were intending, but even then, Callum was reluctant.  Promised we wouldn't leave it so long for next visit. Got home just in time for his dinner which he wasn't really up for eating, so has eaten that a little later on this evening.

All in all a good day and all ran pretty much to plan.  Callum happy and has had a good day.  Hopefully tomorrow's meeting at Faversham will be as enjoyable (usually is).

Cya

HE'S CONFIDENT! I'M NOT! BAD ME!

Hi all

Wow, that week went quick!  Can't believe I last did this blog on Sunday.  You must think we've been really busy and I suppose we have, but not because we've been out and about, we've actually done some work.

Callum and myself are feeling a little non motivated at the moment so trying to get into the spirit of doing 'work' has been really hard.  He just wants to play on his games, occasionally see his friends and bounce around on the trampoline as the weather has allowed us outside in the garden for a change.  Now there is nothing wrong with any of that and he has still being doing all of that.

I'm ready for the 'end of year' and having some time to catch up with sewing, gardening, knitting, etc.  But I'm also very aware of the fact that the open day is looming and we still have stuff to finish.  I'm also aware that Callum is now 13 and I'm suffering from one of  my 'aaargh' moments.  Those moments where I feel that we aren't doing enough; what will he do about qualifications; will he get a job; all those questions that all  parents must have from time to time, but I also feel that if any of the above fails that it will be down to me!  I know that everything is really fine.  I know that Callum is learning, maybe not as much as he would do at school, but he's learning what he enjoys and enjoys what he learns and it's at his own pace.  I'm pretty sure that he'll be fine when it's time to find work, but I'm still panicking and I do every year and I'm sure that as the years pass, I'll get worse and worse.  The trick is not to let it influence my attitude towards what we do.  I don't want our home ed experience to turn into one of me being teacher in front of him at a desk telling him what to do and how.

Callum on the other hand isn't having any of those worries.  He is certain that he's going to get a job; he's certain that it will be in computers (games design) and he's pretty certain that he's going to end up emigrating to America to do it!  I wish I had his confidence and his certainty, but I'm glad he has it.  Before we started home education he didn't have any certainty of anything.  He was a scared little boy; a frustrated and angry little boy with very little confidence and no idea of what he was good at.  Home education has taught him that; it has allowed him to investigate his likes and dislikes and has allowed him to grow in confidence in his own capabilities.  He may not be the most sociable kid on the block nor is he the bravest, but he has inner confidence and that is often more important.

So what 'work' have we done?  Well, we looked at areas and perimeters of different shapes and looked at Pi.  We talked about nouns, pronouns, verbs and adverbs.  We talked about what books we wanted to read next year. We had a discussion about how our local area has changed since I was a kid.  We wrote up the Horrible Histories theatre trip.  We looked up Amelia Dyer, the Victorian baby farmer.  We looked up the Charge of the Light Brigade.  We looked at the Tudor family tree.  We discussed next year's 'timetable'.  He rediscovered Lego and built several Halo models and built a base to put them in.

 He built an alarm for his bedroom door and we went to trampolining lesson!

On top of that, we've had visitors, bounced around on the trampoline, read numerous Horrid Henry books and been shopping.  Oh and, of course, played on the computer!

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

THE WEEK BEGINS

Hi all

Just a brief one today. Monday morning arrived bright and sunny and at 9.30am for Callum!!!!! I decided to leave him to it this morning as we've been busy again over the weekend and had 2 early starts at the end of last week, but I wasn't expecting it to be quite so late. Oh well, beauty of home ed is that there is no school run to do or school to get to, so lessons start when we are ready.

10am he was curled up on sofa wading through his daily maths and literacy sheets while I was checking post (which arrived early today) and making us a cuppa. A shriek of "yay" went up and I looked up from perusing The Book People's catalogue to find that he was excited because of a fraction sheet! Yes, I did say fractions. Strange boy. Apparently circles divided into sections and shaded is his favourite way of doing fractions. He remembers doing them before and really liked them, so am rather glad I've used them to start fractions all over again.

Next was Science - Physics this week and we are looking at Energy. So big discussion on fossil fuels verses renewable fuels; looking at different forms of energy; water shortage(?) and how we would be able to 'clean' sea water for use (again ?) and then he came up with an idea for a self charging fan! Home ed does tend to wander off topic, hence the water shortage discussion, but then we went round in a circle and came back onto it. Callum strongly thinks that we should be using solar panels, wind turbines and renewable sources of energy which is a good thing and he wants us to have solar panels on the house (have explained that its rather an expensive outlay and although I would love to do it, we just can't afford to at the moment).

Anyway back to the self charging fan. He came up with the idea that if a fan used rechargable batteries to work and you put a smaller fan in front of the larger fan, facing it, then there was no reason that, after the batteries initially being fully charged, that the big fan blowing air into the smaller fan, which would spin, would be able to recharge the batteries which powered the big fan which blew air into the smaller fan making it spin which would charge the batteries, etc, etc, etc (hope that makes sense). Good idea in principle, but we did discuss that we would need to check that the smaller fan would produce enough energy in the batteries to continuously 'fuel' the bigger fan. Might have to find some inventor/engineering home ed friends and see if we can build one. Anyway A+ for the idea definitely.

After lunch and some damson jam making we had a visit from Terri, his sister, and her dad, Dave. Dave came bearing gifts from America which, of course, went down a treat with Callum.

After that he decided he would go out with dad and Draco the dog when dad got home so he could fly his kite again. Nice, as it gave me a bit of empty house time. Back home and it was back on computer. He's still obsessed with Command and Conquer Generals!

So that's it for today.
Cya later

FIRST FEW DAYS BACK

Well it's two days in and we are slowly getting back into the routine of home ed. Callum wants to concentrate on Science this year and have a dip in and out of other stuff. I've insisted on continuing with basic maths and him working through his literacy books though AND he has his Arts Award to finish, but most of that is now done (I just need to upload it).

So Monday dawned nice and sunny and he was up by 8.30am. He made me a cuppa and brought that and his maths and literacy into the front room. He zoomed through his one page of literacy and then attempted the 3 variety sheets of maths. I must point out that the sheets have approximately 50-80 questions per sheet, but he only has to do 5 per sheet a day, so it may sound a lot, but it isn't really.

Discovered he'd 'lost' the 5 times table (again). So have searched out some basics of that and will spend a week going over it all. What is it about times tables, he gets them, then he forgets them. However, he can do division!! Which, to me, does not make sense.

We were then supposed to do some science, however, it all kicked off out the front. Well, I say kicked off, I happened to spot 2 guys and a girl over the road hovering around a car, wasn't sure who they were, but then noticed one of the guys had his forearm up in the air and noticed there was blood running down it. Was just going to open front door to see if he was ok, when a couple of Police walked down the road.

Apparently one of the dogs over the road had bitten him. Needless to say that Callum was much more interested to watch what was going on than to go and do science and, admittedly, so was I. We have a bit of a dodgy guy living opposite us who is well known to the police, he has a Staffie (not that I have anything against Staffies as I know people who have them, but they have become a status symbol for those who want to have a hard looking dog without the size so I'm always a little wary). The women next door also has one, although that one has only appeared over the past week.

It turns out that the woman had ordered her dog to bite this guy. The bloke living opposite had obviously been outside at the time also because he legged it leaving his house open. The Police kept going into the unlocked house to check for whatever and the guy who had been bitten kept shouting that it was the woman and that she had gone downstairs to the flat below. He ended up losing his temper just as the ambulance turned up and ran off up the road with his mate running after him to try and calm him down. As I've said, it all kicked off!!

The woman was found and was talking to the Police, then her and her Staffie went off in a car with another guy. The Ambulance drove off as the victim didn't want to be treated. The Police loitered about for a bit, then secured the open property, waited to be recalled and then disappeared. This had taken over an hour from start to finish and had raised some lovely discussions on behaviour, control of animals, racial discrimination, the role of the Police force and how not to behave.

Later on the guy over the road return, but was promptly arrested and taken off in a Police car. Not seen either him nor the woman since.

So... Monday we covered maths, literacy and Citizenship! hehe

Today, the day dawned wet and windy. Over a cuppa in the kitchen we gave our thanks that we home ed and did not have to do the walk to school in the weather. Poor kids that did.

Maths went fine as did literacy. Then it was science. The experiment Callum wanted originally to do meant going outside and that wasn't going to happen so we decided on attempting to extract iron from breakfast cereal instead (Richard Hammond's Blast Lab Messy Mess Kit).

We managed to make a lovely mess in the kitchen but did extract some very very small black dots of iron filings from the cereal (Cheerios), so worth doing.




This afternoon I wanted to watch a movie I'd recorded and Callum was going to go upstairs and play, but he asked if he could watch the movie with me. When I say that it was The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas you may understand why I was a little apprehensive. But I thought, why not, he needs to know what happened and this may be a 'safe' option. He sat and watched it and I explained some of the basics of what was happening and he watched it until the end. If anyone hasn't seen it, be warned, it is emotional, but very good.

Callum was amazing. He understood it and was pleased that they didn't make it a happy ending. He actually said that he wished they would make more children's films with more realistic endings rather than the sugar coated ones you tend to get. I'm not sure if his Asperger has shielded him from the true horror of what had happened (I'm sure the lack of empathy that ASD people tend to have did), but I'm glad he appreciates the message and subject. He saw it as facts, whereas I saw it as an emotional rollercoaster.

Cya

OK! I CAN'T DO IT - HAHA

Right!! It's Sunday, it's 11pm and it's blog time. I'm not tired, although I will be tomorrow morning when I have to get up!

This week has been a lot better than last week. Neither of us have felt quite so ill, but we have still felt like hibernating! Weather has been a bit better, so I think that helps and we have been (or at least I have) in full swing getting ready for Halloween. (See other blog for info on my obsession!).

So, what has been happening? Well, the Sunday after the party we met up with a few friends at Gore Farm where we rent an apple tree. It's an annual thing and we all troop up to the orchard, boxes in hand, get allotted our tree and pick all the apples off it. There is normally at least 3 large boxes for each family to take home, so well worth the £10 per annum it costs us. It does tend to be the adults picking the apples and the kids eating them or running off into the orchard/meadow to hang out and this year wasn't really much different. However, the farm now has lots of animals on it which it never has had before, so there was even less incentive for the kids to pick fruit! Was a good afternoon though except for one little glitch. We all wanted tea and cake afterwards, but the cafe has some strange rules about when they serve food, so weren't serving cake. Callum was not amused and decided to sulk, even refusing an icecream as compensation, but he soon got over it.

Monday we slobbed about the house, but Tuesday we were out and about. First up to the library to pick up our 2 DVDs that we'd reserved. Up and Gladiator! Up for entertainment and Callum has never got round to seeing it and wanted to and Gladiator so we can have something visual for our project. Whilst there, I returned a couple of books and asked whether they had any other Asterix books. We were led to a shelf which had loads on so Callum was in heaven. He picked one out and was overjoyed when I told him he could have more. Found out we can take out 30 books on his card. A bit too many for us to carry, but we ended up with about 10. 4 Asterix, couple of dinosaur reference books, dinosaur origami book (dinosaurs being next month's project), another version of Midsummer Night's Dream and another gladiator book which turned out to be a graffic novel which Callum seems to have taken a shine too. Then it was off to my friend's new house for the afternoon.

Wednesday was slobbing again, but at least we had Up to watch which we both loved, although it was quite sad to start with. Callum didn't quite fancy Gladiator today, but went off and found a game on the computer instead. Then it was Bang Goes the Theory on TV tonight!

Thursday was trampolining as usual, but Callum decided he didn't want to bounce again. Am getting a bit worried about him to be honest. I asked why he didn't want to bounce, but he just said he didn't fancy it. Although he wants to at his private lessons. When I queried it, he just said that he preferred his private lessons as he has more time on the trampoline. He did join in with the foam pit though and he interacted with all the kids, so not a complete loss.

Friday was theatre day! Group home ed visit to see Shakespeare for Kids version of Midsummer Night's Dream. Met Liz and her children on the train (completely by accident) which was nice. However, at Rochester station a school group got on which put Callum out a bit, but not as bad as he's been before. When we got off the station we were in front and the school group behind us. It looked like Callum was leading the way and he cheekily said that if that was true he'd continue walking back round and up the steps to the train station and see if the school would follow. He did, but they didn't - oh well. At least he thought it was funny.

The theatre was packed with school groups and Callum wasn't dealing too well with it saying he wanted to go home. Luckily we had the back two rows, so he sat between me and Carol, his favourite other parent. I'd got him some sweets and he calmed down pretty quickly. The play was excellent!!! Very very funny. All the kids enjoyed it and all the school kids were joining in with the shouting and clapping. It was wonderful to see actually. This was Shakespeare and they were loving it!! Would definitely go and see another production by them.

We came out and decided to wander around the shops for a bit with Carol and Lauren as all the kids were heading back to the station. We left them half way round and met up with Liz again and then Carol turned up on the platform just before train due in, so we all travelled back together which was really nice. Did mean that we were late for my daughter though! Ooops, my turn! hehe. Whilst she was there the postman turned up and our Horrible Histories DVD was in there, so we then had 7 episodes of that being watched - aargh! Was good fun though, although probably not what Terri was expecting - sorry Terri!

This weekend he's been on computer designing road tracks for racing cars and I've been art and crafting for Halloween. All said and done, a much better week!

Cya

OK, OK, I'M CRAP AT POSTING!!

Hi all, I say rather sheepishly.

Just read last post which was, oooooo, nearly two weeks ago!! Hmmm, this is not going well. Said I'd post a Part 3, but I obviously didn't!! Slapped wrists for me then!

So, as I'm finding writing up a week at a time impossible, I'm going to try and do some dailies instead. Yeah right, I hear you say and you're probably correct, but, as my school reports used to say, I must try harder!! Writing weekly is a big thing and it takes me ages. I spend half the time checking on what we've done and then the other half trying to remember funny bits that Callum might have said/done and, as all of you out there know, two halves make a whole and that leaves no time for writing!!

Ooooo must watch out for them exclamation marks! Have had my knuckles severely rapped for using far too many of them by some pompous home educating mother who thought my email to the Royal Institute was too passionate and full of over punctuation! So sorry if I'm passionate luvvy, but I was furious!! And to show my anger and frustration I use exclamation marks in abundance, so there!!!!!!!!! See!!!!! Here's some more, so stick these in your knickers!!!!!!!!!

Ahhhh, feel better now, so I can proceed:
What have we been up to? Well, actually not a lot. We've both been feeling......how shall I say this? We've both been feeling.....CRAP! There is no better word for it to be honest. We're not ill per se, we just feel really.....crap! I've got no energy and everything feels heavy and I've been having a sore throat off and on all week. Callum has been coughing and just wanting to loll around in his pjs. Hasn't wanted to go out anywhere, so we haven't.

Apart, that is, for Youth Club on Tuesday night! His mate Callum D went along this week too so it was much better. Oh, but I now realise that I didn't tell you about last week! Went to Youth Club last week too, but as it was his first time there and his mate couldn't go, he clung to me like a limpet. We did play table football together and he eventually played a game with another boy, but he basically stayed with me apart from the couple of occasions where he chased the helpers that he knew around the room. I must explain that it is an ASD Youth Club run by MAGIC. They also ran the activity days that he did in the Summer and that he is going to again in October! I don't think it's going to be an every week attendance, but I'd like him to go at least once a fortnight. I don't need to stay now, so it will be a chance for him to have a little independence from me. And what will I be doing whilst he's at youth club? Will I be having a lovely tete a tete with my partner? Yes, probably, but it'll be in the supermarket, haha. We'll be able to shop without a boy going "I'm bored" or "Can we go now" or "I'm not standing in this queue", etc, etc. Plus I can monitor my partner's spending a little. He does so like to add brand names and the odd can or bottle or two or three if I'm not careful and we really don't have the money for that. I've noticed a distinct lack of food in the house since he took over. Admittedly the food is of better status; Heinz, Kelloggs, Princes... you know what I mean, but let's face it, I can't really tell the difference between Heinz soup and Sainsburys soup, although some really cheap brands are pretty dire. However, I'd rather have a better variety than limited choice and I'd like to have some fresh veg and fruit from the greengrocer than the frozen or plastic wrapped stuff you get from the supermarket, so I think I need to start intervening again.

Back to this week. Actually back to last week. We were rather busy last week, hence the reason not to worried about being hermits this week. Oh that's a lot of weeks, but can't think of another word.

Monday we went bowling, which was good fun. Tuesday, as mentioned, he went to youth club. Wednesday we went to Museum of Kent Life for a Romans day (our current project), which was brilliant and Callum managed 4 out of 5 of the workshops this time. Did one more than the WWII day so very pleased with him. Thursday was trampolining as usual and Friday we went to Tunbridge Wells to see George's Marvellous Medicine.

Saturday and Sunday we had to ourselves as it was my partner's weekend on. Callum decided to play board games and started dragging them all out. I asked which one we were playing and his reply was, and I quote: "We aren't playing anything, I don't want you to play. I want to play by myself and make up my own games." Ok! That's put me in my place then. What I should have done was write this blog, but I went on Facebook instead and played Fronterville. Bad news, but I'm ashamed to say, good fun.

Oh well, let's hope I can wean myself off the dreaded FB and start writing properly again.

Cya

WORK, WORK, WORK AND A PROFOUND OBSERVATION BY CALLUM

Hello everyone

I said last week that Callum had been energised by his little weekend away and had worked really well! It seems to have continued into this week too (or last week, by the time I blog this and you read it).

We have concentrated on our 'Castles' project and the 'sh' sound in literacy and this is where the extreme conflict in education really notices. One of the activities we are doing for our project is to compare different types of castle; look at different defences and discuss pros and cons, etc. This is actually Key Stage 3 work (11-14yrs old), but the literacy work is infant school. Callum is perfectly capable of doing the Key Stage 3 work and he's even produced a short Powerpoint presentation on it, picking out main points, importing pictures, researching on Google, etc and he has done it all by himself after an initial 'how to' instruction from me. He's also doing Key Stage 3 work in Science and coping really well with only a few stumbles on the scientific names (but most kids would do that at first). However, when it comes to getting this information down he is, as already mentioned, doing infant literacy so can't write things up without a great deal of help. Doing the Powerpoint was easy as he could copy and paste the bits he wanted and then had to do a slight edit to make the information fit the page. As his reading is fine and his general keyboard skills are good(ish) he's capable of doing that. But writing from scratch is impossible and he would tire mentally far too quickly and then get so stressed that nothing would get done.

I've talked about these issues on here many times, so I'm not going to go into it any further, but it's here that the true advantage of home education compared to school education shows because in home education it doesn't matter! At school he would just be finishing Key Stage 2 and he would be struggling desperately! Not because intellectually he couldn't do the work, but because he couldn't 'prove' that he could! This would lead him to have bad grades, probably be treated as if he was stupid and his self esteem would plummet. He would also be bored silly and, therefore, disruptive as they would probably keep him down at Key Stage 1 until he could write fluently!

Because we can work at the pace that suits our children, our children can be on lots of different levels in lots of different subjects and it doesn't matter if they are advanced in some and behind in others. I truly believe that at the end of the day it will all even out! What I think is more important is that Callum has fun and enjoys his education. That way he is more likely to learn, want to learn in the first place and to retain the information. Anyway, that's my little soap box bit done - hehe.

With regard to our project we visited Dover Castle this week. It was a straightforward train journey to Dover Priory (although our train was cancelled so the journey down didn't turn out as straightforward as we'd hoped, but at least Callum got to see a train of two halves become a complete one) and then we took a taxi to the castle itself. I knew it was on the top of a hill and didn't fancy my leg killing me before I'd even got through the gates. The castle was fab and I managed 3 flights of spiral stairs before giving up. Callum, on the other hand, made it all the way to the top!! We also went down into the medieval tunnels which were a bit dark, steep and creepy, but good! Actually we did a lot of walking up and down hills, stairs and over walls and I was quite impressed by myself as well as Callum - go us!!

The weather was lovely and we had a picnic lunch on the grass. This was our first encounter of the french pupils and we kept bumping into them off and on for the rest of the afternoon. It was while outside the shop that Callum made his profound observation. There was an English school group on the grass to the right of us who weren't really doing a lot and were more interested in chasing the pidgeons (they were about Callum's age, 10-11, so not little) and a French group to our left who were either playing games with their goodies that they had bought from the gift shop or waiting patiently on the grass for their turn to go in. Callum looked from one group to the other and then turned to me and said "Mum, the French children are much better behaved than the English ones aren't they? They seem really interested in what they are doing. Our lot are just being naughty!!" Wow!!! How's that for an observation and what does that tell us about our country? Hopefully, our school lot would be better behaved if in France, but something tells me that they probably wouldn't be.

Actually, talking about France, one of the highlights of Callum's day was when we were up on the look out point. As the weather was sunny and pretty clear, you could actually see France on the horizon! I pointed the hills in the distance out to Callum and asked him what he thought they were, he said he thought it was England, but a different bit (like we can see Grain from the Strand or Southend from Allhallows). When I told him it was actually France he was well impressed!! He could actually see a completely different and unconnected land mass and he thought that was pretty cool!!

After visiting the castle we walked down to the beach and we spent some time letting him watch the waves and see the ferries going in and out of the harbour. Then it was a quick walk back to the station and home. Needless to say he was pretty shattered and he collapsed on the sofa for the rest of the evening, even going to bed 1/2hr earlier as he was knackered, bless him.

We are downloading photos next week and finishing off our project.

We didn't go to the Fuse Festival in Rochester, but went to the SOS day at Hillyfields instead. Had a great afternoon, we met up with his mate Callum and his family, spoke to the SOS bus staff and the policemen; had icecream; a bounce on the bouncy castle and then a trip to the play area for a play. Weather was lovely and we had the advantage that it was a 5min walk home rather than a 20 min walk and train journey.

Well, that's it for now. See you all later!

Hello all

This past couple of weeks has been a bit odd on the home education front! It's been opposite ends of the spectrum if I'm honest!! Callum was keen last week for a start, haha! Which was a complete turn around from the week before which is where I suppose I should begin.

Weather was pretty good that week if I remember correctly and Callum (admittedly I was pretty much the same) just wasn't interested in doing anything remotely workbooky (I know that isn't a word, but it fits). With all this in mind we decided to say "let's have a social week instead" and he agreed! Now a lot of you may think that any kid would prefer a social week to a work week and I'm sure any school kid would love a week at home seeing his mates instead of being stuck in a classroom, but Callum, as we have ascertained on many occasions, is a bit different! Socialising to him can often be as stressful and as awful predicament than sitting in front of a workbook or, heaven forbid, sitting an exam! He doesn't 'enjoy' socialising unless it's on his terms and certainly not more than about once or twice a week, so the fact that he saw his best mate since nursery 3 times and had some children back after trampolining AND went to Gore Farm on the Sunday with my friend's (and his) girls was a bit of a shock!! 5 days out of 7 is a big thing!!! And he coped well and he enjoyed it and he wanted to do it, so all was good!!

I felt a bit guilty not getting anything remotely curriculumy (again I know that isn't a word) done all week, but learning to interact with others is just as important for kids such as Callum. In fact it is the only question/concern that his paediatrician has ever had about him being home educated; it was also the first question the LEA guy asked and that's before he knew about Callum's Asperger Syndrome. This leads me to wonder why all the concern with exams, SATS, school league tables, etc! If, once out of school, their only concern is social interaction, does this means that all those 'wonderful and interesting' opportunities that they get to learn in the said curriculum are a complete waste of time? I often think that they are! I sit there sometimes looking at the books and thinking 'I remember doing this, but I've never used it'! Yes, the ability to read is always useful. Of course it is! We wouldn't be able to read road signs, tell the difference between a can of beans and a can of peaches or understand the 1001 forms that we seem to have to fill in over the course of adulthood (actually I can read well and some of them still stump me). We do not have to have a love of reading to need the ability to read. The same is for writing! We need a certain standard, not so we can write the next bestseller, but so we can fill in those 1001 forms I've already mentioned. The same goes for maths, but honestly it's the ability to add up and take away that's of importance. Even multiplication and division could be argued as just a quicker way of doing the adding and subtracting. When was the last time you used a Cosine for example? Yes, if you want to make a shed, you need dimensions; if you have the desire to buy a new sofa, you need to be able to work out if it'll fit in through your front door (and we have made that mistake in the past believe me), but you don't need a degree in physics to do either, you need to be able to add up and take away! And when on earth have you ever been asked when Henry VIII ruled over England - only in an exam about history!!! My point being is that although I felt totally and utterly guilty about not doing 'schoolwork' I shouldn't have. My adult life has been spent having to interact with lots of different people from different walks of life, different ages, viewpoints, abilities, etc! So the fact that I spent a whole week getting him to interact was probably much much much more important! In fact, I should feel more guilty about this last week as we did 'schoolwork' and had an 'incident'!

Now the reason we did 'schoolwork' was because Callum wanted to, in fact he was very keen to do it! So keen in fact that one day he was filling in a worksheet at 8am by himself without my help!! He didn't do fantastically well at it, but he did it off his own back without prompting which is fantastic (it was a literacy one, hence the not being fantastic bit - literacy being his worst subject)! We don't follow a timetable as such, but we have a little list of things we'd like to achieve each day and last week we achieved and did more! Education City was a godsend and printing off the worksheets to do the following day and looking for similar pages in our various workbook collection helped to make sense of it all. We also baked cakes as I had an old friend come to visit and we rediscovered art!! He did see his best mate on Wednesday, but (as I felt really crap on Thursday) we didn't go trampolining and so he didn't see his usual crowd. But it didn't bother him! So looking back over the past couple of weeks from the sofa of ill on the Thursday afternoon I was feeling pretty smug! We'd socialised when it had suited him and it'd had been successful; we'd done schoolwork when he'd wanted to and that too had been successful. I thought 'I've cracked this Aspi thing'! However, Friday brought me straight back down to earth with a bang!

We were attending a workshop about castles at the Guildhall Museum, Rochester on Friday afternoon. I'd 'checked out' who was going to be there and there wasn't anyone who he didn't like; he'd been before, so no new situation; and most of the people going he knew/liked a lot. Plus the guy who runs the workshops is really good with our kids, so I thought we were safe and all bases had been covered! But no!!!!! Well, I say no; all bases were covered except I'd forgotten that Callum can be a bit of a git at times!! Now I don't mean that in a nasty way, I really really don't! But once Callum has 'one on him', it is incredible difficult to get him out of it! And to be honest he needs to learn how to get out of it himself! Callum had been fine about going for weeks, in fact he'd been quite keen until the day that is! Friday morning he spiralled into a mood of doom and gloom. By Friday afternoon he was the child from hell. I know I should have just not gone, but we all have to face situations sometimes that we don't want to (see previous blog) and I knew that it would be interesting and fun! Had it been London or had I known that there were people there he didn't like I wouldn't have pushed it, but I knew that that wasn't the case, so I did!!

We arrived early and met up with a couple of other families for lunch which he was fine with, then we got to the museum and again he was fine! But as soon as we went into the room he started! He refused, at first, to go in! I explained calmly that he didn't have to sit on the floor with the other children, he could sit with me, but that was good enough! I eventually ordered him in and he sat down with me, his back to the 'tutor' and proceeded to kick the leg of my chair and pinch my hand and arm! I tried to ignore it as I knew he was just after attention, but after 15mins of this I lost it - sorry, but I did!! You see I knew that there was nothing there that should have caused an 'Aspi moment'! I've been his mum for nearly 11years and home educated him for 3 of those! I know his triggers, I know what is going to set him off and I know damn well that there was absolutely nothing there. I avoid those kind of situations like the plague as it'll be me that suffers in the long term (who wouldn't avoid them?)! Sometimes Asperger/Autistic kids are just being pedantic just like neuro typical kids! They are just being naughty! And, I'm sorry, but to continue to kick my chair and pinch me for 15mins was being naughty! The workshop was interesting, it was hands-on and it was fun! If he could have come down off his high horse he would have enjoyed it! I know this because during an experiment which he refused to join in with, we went around the museum and he was fine! After the workshop, we went over to the castle and he was again fine! He was just being a kid who had worked himself into a frenzy of 'I'm not going to enjoy this and I'm going to prove I'm not by being disruptive'! If he truly had been having an Aspi moment he would not have calmed down at all, no matter where we were and what we were doing, I would have had to take him home, but that wasn't the case!

The outcome of me losing it was that I said something I never say "you are going back to school mate"! He looked at me completely aghast, stopped pinching me and turned around! It didn't mean that he joined in, but he stopped hurting me! That night I sat down and explained that I don't do this for fun, I do it because I care about him; because I never ever want to see him in a situation where he can't cope; I don't put him into those situations because I know how much they can confuse and frighten him; but I am not going to be his punchbag everytime he has a sulk! And if he can't respect me as much as I respect him then this will never work! He apologised and I think he understood and, of course, I would never really send him back to school. However, after having such a brilliant two weeks, we have ended on a bit of a sour note. I'm hoping that next week will be better and I'm sure it will be. It also just goes to show that, home educating or not, children will always be children.

xx