END OF THE WEEK...HOW COULD I TELL

Good evening peoples.  Wasn't sure if I'd get this blog done today as we've had (mainly me if I'm honest) a funny old day.

Firstly I didn't sleep very well last night so, although I was up bright and early, I have to admit I wasn't really with it.  That isn't a particularly good state to be in when you want to use the day to tie up all the loose ends from the home ed week and get other things done.

Callum has been an absolute star today and I don't think I could have got through the day without him.  Sometimes the whole 'not in my bubble' state of mind can be a wonderful thing as he sees me getting stressed, but doesn't see the reason for it, so can usually calm my waters in just the same way I can calm his. I'm convinced that I've got some form of ASD (but then they say everyone has), either that or being in a household with two of them has made me throw myself into their world to such an extent that theirs is normal and everyone else is odd!

Anyway, enough of me!  Started off by getting pancake mixture made ready for a late breakfast (Friday has become pancake day again) and then set up the apples, pears and quinces for Orchard Fruit Butter (a kind of jam made from sugar and pureed fruit pulp).  Was just wondering where Callum was (it was now gone 9.30am) when he appeared with his washing and proceeded to put on the kettle for tea.  Then it dawned on me.  We not only have a timetable of 'lessons' that we want to do each week, but we also have a personal timetable for him with scheduled showers, teeth cleaning, tidying of bedroom, emptying of bedroom bin, stripping bed and bringing in the milk (at 13, he is perfectly capable of taking responsibility for simple jobs, but he does need a prod, hence the timetable).  Today he was scheduled to tidy bedroom so I can hoover, strip his bed and have a shower.  He'd had a shower and had tidied his bedroom, although he did admit that he might need to do a bit more once I take the hoover upstairs.

So, fruit butter on to cook fruit down.  Then a friend turned up for a cuppa, chat and for me to give her some sage (scheduled visit, people rarely just turn up).  So Callum went off and stripped his bed, after jokingly arguing that he wouldn't do it, sarky lad, and then went on the computer to play Command and Conquer.

After my friend had gone and pancakes had been eaten, we decided to do a bit of basic work, although he wasn't really up for it and neither was I.  The potato experiment still hasn't been written up and will now wait until Monday, the maths revision sheets needed help and I was up and down into the kitchen checking on the fruit, so we left that too.  What we did look at was why Jews don't believe in Jesus as the Messiah.  Why?  Well, it's Jewish New Year next week and they are on a different year to us and we decided to find out why.  Didn't do any written work, but looked up some reasons, read through and had a 'compare and discuss' session.  I don't want to do religious education as a main lesson, but thought I'd look at important dates throughout the year and do a bit of work in relation to those.  I think it's good to have a look at all different types of belief from Christianity through to Pagan.  Callum can make his own mind up what he believes in when he is ready.

After our hour long chat we decided to finish off his bedroom, so he carried the hoover upstairs for me, bless him, and we gave his room a good clean.  He even carried the hoover back down for me too.

Other things he's done today; played in his sandpit, made me plenty of tea, told me to sit down (a lot!) and generally been fab!  Thank you mate!

Tonight he's on the computer again and I'm feeling a lot better after a long soak in the bath.

What has he learnt?  Adults get stressed about little things sometimes, Jews don't believe in Jesus because they don't recognise him as the Messiah as he didn't fulfil the prophecies written in the Old Testament and Orchard Fruit Butter and Plum Leather tastes rather good.

Oh and he dried up for me and put away the dishes!  Big hugs and a big fat star pupil me thinks!

Cya

A SLOW START

Good evening all you lovely people out there.  How was your day?  Ours was a bit of a slow start to be honest.  I was shattered and didn't wake up until 8.30am and by the time I'd mentally surfaced after a cup of tea it was nearly 9am.  Callum was still asleep, but woke about 15mins later.

I hate waking up late as the plan is normally to get up and do housework stuff before 10am, which is when we are supposed to start.  Callum was still very sleepy.  As he's now 13 I'm convinced the teenage hormones are really taking hold as he seems to be constantly hungry and constantly tired.  But will he go to sleep early....well, sometimes he resists and goes about 10pm instead of midnight, but he still fights it.  Routines and Aspergers can sometimes be a bit of a nightmare.

Anyway, as I really couldn't give him 100% attention this morning as I had so much stuff to do, I decided that today would be a good day to start the revision pages on maths that I'd typed up.  I knew he could be left to do them without too much necessity for me to be there, but he could still stop me and ask if he didn't quite get the question or he needed to double check with me that he was on the right track.

Due to late rise we had a late breakfast, but it was a good opportunity to teach him how to do scrambled egg and beans on toast using the toaster and the microwave.  I was washing up at the time, so he had supervision.  He was really chuffed at how easy it was and that he'd managed to produce himself a decent breakfast by himself.  Only thing he really has a problem with is the tin opener!  I'll have to teach him how to do it properly a bit later, haha.

This afternoon we returned to the group trampolining class that I'd originally set up 6 years ago when I first pulled Callum from school.  Having private lessons is doing him the world of good and he's progressing well, but I can only afford them fortnightly and he is beginning to find that he is falling back on the basics, so going fortnightly to the group class in between the private lessons will ensure he can practice the work Kim, his coach, gives him and keep on top of the basic moves.  This will hopefully mean that his private lessons can concentrate of the elusive somersaults.

He thoroughly enjoyed the lesson and he loved seeing some of his friends again that he doesn't get to see as often as he'd like.  So all good.

And what did he think of today?  Well, he said that the trampolining was brilliant and that he felt more confident in what he was doing.  He also said that he was beginning to understand why he was having trouble with the somersault landings as he was becoming aware of his legs.  After one extra lesson, I'm rather pleased, so long may it continue.

On our return he went out in the garden and played in the sand pit and then did some more on the computer to the Command and Conquer mission he's doing.

Tomorrow with be a catch up day before the weekend; tying up loose ends and making sure we know what is planned for next week.

Cya

A DAY OUT - NO LESSONS REQUIRED

Good evening peoples.  And what have we been doing today?  Well education in it's formal and most obvious state wasn't on the menu today.  Today we had a day out; no lessons, no workshops, just a day out with friends.

We were taken to Greenwich today for the Chinese supermarket.  I've been cooking a lot of Indian and Asian food recently and was in desperate need of expanding my store cupboard.  So Carol and Lauren, myself and Callum were let loose with a trolley for each family unit into a vast warehouse full of goodies.  Was amazing to see so many things that are often so difficult to get hold of and when you can they are really expensive.  Here it was available and reasonably priced.  I was like a kid in a sweetie shop and Callum pushed the trolley and enjoyed looking through all the bits and pieces and boxes and bottles and cans and packets.  As a pescatarian and gluten free individual (one through choice and one not) I find buying foods often difficult and/or expensive, so to be able to get large packs of rice, rice noodles, rice wrappers (for summer rolls, like spring rolls), a wide variety of dried mushrooms and frozen fish at ridiculously cheap prices plus all the condiments I could possibly wish for was fantastic.   Callum even got a large box of prawn crackers (I can't eat them, but he loves them) and a gigantic box of fortune cookies which we split between Carol and myself (again I can't eat but Callum also loves) for £11.  I also treated myself to a bamboo steamer for just under £7, a pack of beautiful chopsticks and a couple of other utensils which would be handy.  Spent rather a lot, but most will be things I will never have to buy again and the rest will last me months.

Then off to Hall Place for a picnic lunch, where we had to fight off the geese, and a wander round.  Weather stayed lovely even though they had threatened rain today.

Callum at Hall Place

 There was a stream/river running through which, of course, drew Callum's attention and this is the view from the bridge we walked over.  The rest of the pictures are me playing with the macro button on my camera in the green house including one which shows the fish in the pond.  The large one, middle right, was Callum's favourite (of the fish that is).

Frangipan blossom

Bananas

Grasses

Bottle Brush Plant

After having a good walk around and looking at everything, including eating mulberries off the tree and swiping a couple of quinces, we made out way home, stopping off at Morrisons so I could show Callum the wide variety of fresh fruit and veg that they have and so he could see the 'dry ice' machine that they use to keep things fresh.

Carol picked some rosa rugosa hips for me and then it was home for a cuppa and a division of fortune cookies (one rather full carrier bag each) and then me attempting to find a home for all our wonderous goodies.

Callum's favourite memory of the day "FORTUNE COOKIES"

Tomorrow will be back to normal with lessons and then group trampolining.  Cya

AND OFF WE GO

Hello again...yes scarily I'm here for the 2nd day in a row.

So what of today?  Well apart from me being up before Callum, which is beginning to happen more often than not as he's getting older (another plus for the home edding, no forcing a disgruntled teenager to get up and get out of the house on time), we managed to be ready 1/2hr before we needed to leave to catch the train!!  We still managed to have our morning chat over a cuppa although neither fancied breakfast today.   Lunch was made and packed, I remembered to take everything I needed to and Callum had time to sort out extras that he wanted to take just in case.

We decided to leave a little earlier and go and do what we were going to do on the way home rather than sitting about knowing it wasn't worth starting anything and just watching the clock go round.  WHSmiths didn't have the book we wanted, but we managed to order it which saved us P&P and it should be here by the end of the week.  Bank was next and then the train station to head off to Faversham picking up Callum's friend on the way.

Home ed meet was brilliant.  Lots of people today including some newbies.  Callum disappeared with Stewart as soon as they got there which meant I could have a good natter and gossip with the mums and dads knowing that he was safe and happy.  Travelled home with some more friends and he got an invite to a birthday party which he is looking forward to.

We love our Faversham meets, such a lovely group and the activities are fab and as diverse as the children.

Tonight he is knackered to the point where he has decided to go upstairs with a cuppa and watch some telly in his room.  Wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't doze off on his bean bag AND we are going out again tomorrow.


As to the science experiment we did yesterday:

The two potatoes side by side (both were the same size)

The salt has been absorbed by the potato and the crystals are coming through the skin.

The potato wasn't particularly shrivelled, but had shrunk in comparison to the other non salted potato.  I think it's pretty much successful.  Just got to right it up now.

Anyway, that's it for today, cya later folks.

SUMMER IS OVER AND THE WORK BEGINS

Hello all you gorgeous and lovely people.  I hope you have all had brilliant, albeit wet, summers...we have.  We didn't do a great deal as we tend to stay nearer to home during school holidays, but we did have a break from work (hence no blogs), but we are now back, so hello again!  We have, however, continued to go to our Faversham meets and Callum has been doing his fortnightly trampolining.  We were going to try and make the park meetings, but never managed it.  Callum spent time on the computer (surprise, surprise), caught up with his school friend Callum D and we've been out and about to some small events.

Most of the schools around us went back last week, but we decided to eek out an extra week before starting again proper today.  Last week was spent reshuffling the timetable, sorting out books and tying up loose ends before the work got too much.

So today!  What was our first day back like?  Well it was a bit chaotic and a bit mishmash, but then home ed is always like that.  Our two lessons today were Computer Studies and Science.  We didn't start until 10am as usual because we sat around and had a chat; talking about the week ahead mainly plus we are looking after my daughter's dog, Merlin, for a couple of days so a play was required.  Then off to the shower Callum went while I did a bit of clearing up and sweeping.

Breakfast of beans on toast was next with another cuppa before finally switching on the computer ready to do some work.  Computer Studies is supposed to be split into 2 sessions; one on Khan Academy and one on Code Academy.  However, Callum didn't feel up to Code Academy today, so he stuck with Khan.  I wanted him to refresh prime numbers, factors and prime factors so he did that; watching a couple of videos before doing some of the test work.

Then we moved onto science.  This month we are going to look at plants; cellular structure, photosynthesis, plants as food, growth, etc.  We had covered a bit about cells last year, so I got him to read over that plus a passage about photosynthesis.  I'd also printed off a few experiments we could do with regard to plants and he read through those too.  As it was the first day back, I wasn't expecting a great deal of written or theory work, so we had a few discussions and then went off to do some experiments.

Number 1 was called Shrivelled Potato.  It is supposed to demonstrate how certain plants need fresh water to develop and survive.  One half of a potato is placed in a saucer full of plain tap water, the other in a saucer full of salt water.  The potato in the salt water should shrivel as the salt draws the moisture from the plant, the other should remain the same as originally placed.  We are going to leave it overnight and see what happens. Will post a picture if experiment works.

The next thing we did was with regard to classification of food plants.  We had to select various fruits and vegetables that we had around the house, cut them and decide if they were truly a vegetable or a fruit (ie tomato), then we sub-classified the fruits into separate groups depending on how their seeds were produced; Berries, which have seeds all the way through (blackberries, strawberries, etc); Drupes, which have one large seed (plums, peaches, etc) and Pomes, which have seeds around a central core (apples, cucumbers, etc).  We had 10 various items and Callum produced a bar chart from our results to show what we had found.

When asked what he had learnt today, he answered that "not all vegetables are vegetables and that there were 3 different types of fruit"  plus "prime numbers are a pain in the bum as there is no pattern to work out which ones there are".   Hmmmm, at least he's honest. haha.

Anyway, we spent the rest of the day in the garden with him doing his trampoline exercises and then playing in his sandpit and me trying to clear the garden of the dead plants and some weeds.  Managed to fill up a brown wheelie bin so far.  Can't do any more until Thursday as need an empty bin and we are out and about for next few days - my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

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.