This is just a wee short one to correct any misconceptions I might have planted! Mum told me today that did I realise that I'd written last time that I'd been teaching S "homophobes"!!! You'll be relieved to hear that certainly not and rather it was homophones and I have learned the lesson not to write my blog on my phone and if I do to be far more careful in proof reading! Sorry!
So far we are having a pretty positive week so I didn't think it would be a bad idea to write a wee entry rather than to go on about the negatives. My girls have both been unwell - one more than the other but thankfully we seem to be coming out the other side and as I write the twins and S are running around the house with toilet paper bandanas on their heads!
Despite S's initial grumblings about having to work whilst his sisters have been watching endless movies snuggled up on the sofa, he has actually been really quite productive working away. I'm noticing how much happier S works when he's not sitting on his bottom. I and no doubt most folk who read this) learn best sitting properly and concentrating. S however seems to learn best standing up and constantly moving! I have read that this can be quite common with people on the autistic spectrum but am still at the stage of being constantly amazed at how true to the books S is behaving! This week we are completing our work on fractions. I'm aware what we are doing is tricky and also more and more aware how maths is all linked and when one element of maths is weak it can affect so many other parts of it. He's getting there though and we have been doing work with the fractions cubes which has helped. In English we have been working on his story and looking at commas and vowels. Unfortunately my computer has been a real burden this week as it seems to have lost his whole story and my work on it!! Groan! We need to replace it but are trying to time things right with finances, internet access etc and it isn't really a simple thing just now! Very frustrating though for S and I who have just lost some really good work!
Anyway, that's all for now. The week is quite mad ahead. I am getting away child free for a night on Friday which I am so looking forward to recharge my batteries spiritually and mentally but which also means I have quite a bit to get through before I go.
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Friday, 24 February 2012
A week of 2 halves!
Well. What can I say? If I had written this blog on Tuesday it would have made for a depressing read! Tuesday was a bad day! If there was anything at all S could refuse to co-operate with then he certainly did! My patience struggled big time and at one point I simply had to excuse myself from the room to calm myself down! We had to have serious words as I can no longer take this day after day, hour after hour. I think S actually got a bit of a shock to see me so emotional and certainly the threat of returning to school was enough for his attitude to improve! I hate threatening him with school. It is quite obviously a distressing thought for him but I have tried to explain to him that the constant moaning from him is doing our relationship no good at all and that he needs to be more considerate if his mum. In saying all that in the forefront of my mind is the fact that I am saying all this to an autistic child and whether what I am doing is really quite unfair and that I should be more adult and carer minded. Having said all that our relationship is an honest one and I have always believed that if you are honest with your children about hoe you feel (obviously there will be some limits) then they will be honest with you.
Anyway, from Wednesday onwards it has been like teaching s different child! Today a bit of grumpiness definitely returned but he has had 3 productive days! Despite having a rubbish day we have had 4 pretty good days. We have looked at fractions this week including a fair bit of work on his times tables. His mental arithmetic and tables I don't think are very solid so I am trying to get him looking at them every day. We have learnt how to find fractions of amounts and equivalent fractions having spent Monday revising what we did in October. In reading we have started stage 11 books in ORT and he is loving them. We did some comprehension on the first 3 chapters and have had good discussions. We have looked at indexes , homophones and synonyms and I ordered him a great (cheap) child's thesaurus which we have started to use. We have done some story writing. S didn't really like my idea but was so enthusiastic about a football story that I let him write it. It was the most he has ever written and he really enjoyed writing which is a first! We have agreed we are going to make a whole newspaper this term with a set that granny gave him. Finally we also looked at wind and water power. We attempted to make a windmill which was a disaster but today made a water generator which he absolutely loved and proudly showed off to everyone later. That ended the week on a real high! Don't really think he gets the energy concept yet but we'll get there.
So not bad overall. The encouragement from friends and family has been crucial for me this week as I was struggling so much. I have had so many other things on my mind too which are not really helping "clear my head" so it is such a help to know that there are some folks out there not waiting for me to trip up at the first hurdle but really praying for S and me as we work together.
In the midst of all this we started gymnastics, went to swimming lessons and had all the other normal goings on! I now have a sick twin so must go and resume mummy duties.
Anyway, from Wednesday onwards it has been like teaching s different child! Today a bit of grumpiness definitely returned but he has had 3 productive days! Despite having a rubbish day we have had 4 pretty good days. We have looked at fractions this week including a fair bit of work on his times tables. His mental arithmetic and tables I don't think are very solid so I am trying to get him looking at them every day. We have learnt how to find fractions of amounts and equivalent fractions having spent Monday revising what we did in October. In reading we have started stage 11 books in ORT and he is loving them. We did some comprehension on the first 3 chapters and have had good discussions. We have looked at indexes , homophones and synonyms and I ordered him a great (cheap) child's thesaurus which we have started to use. We have done some story writing. S didn't really like my idea but was so enthusiastic about a football story that I let him write it. It was the most he has ever written and he really enjoyed writing which is a first! We have agreed we are going to make a whole newspaper this term with a set that granny gave him. Finally we also looked at wind and water power. We attempted to make a windmill which was a disaster but today made a water generator which he absolutely loved and proudly showed off to everyone later. That ended the week on a real high! Don't really think he gets the energy concept yet but we'll get there.
So not bad overall. The encouragement from friends and family has been crucial for me this week as I was struggling so much. I have had so many other things on my mind too which are not really helping "clear my head" so it is such a help to know that there are some folks out there not waiting for me to trip up at the first hurdle but really praying for S and me as we work together.
In the midst of all this we started gymnastics, went to swimming lessons and had all the other normal goings on! I now have a sick twin so must go and resume mummy duties.
Monday, 20 February 2012
Here we go again!
I am still not quite used to just how much I am needing the school holidays these days! In a relatively short time I have gone from being a full time stay at home mum who found the school holidays more like work and saw the first week of term as holidays to now - still a stay at home mum (a bit confused as to what exactly my role is) who loves the holidays so much and enjoys the chance to lose one role and enjoy fully relaxing with the kids!
The holiday was great! It highlighted to me once again just how tired S was before the holiday. Retrospect is a fine thing and seems to be teaching me the same lessons repeatedly - when am I going to learn them?? I have been teaching S way beyond his level and am determined this term to teach him more appropriately. Surely this might help to stop the lack of cooperation I am beginning to dread!
Today was a good start. The first task was too hard so with my new found attitude we abandoned that straight away and changed track. He then flew through his maths, language and reading. We tried to finish the morning making windmills. We are going to look at energy for the next wee while and I had already changed my plan due to the weather. The windmill was hopeless! My gut reaction was to get him to do something else but I decided not to move the goalposts for him and call it a day. He was positive, I was positive, he'd done some learning, I reckon that's not too bad a first day!
The holiday was great! It highlighted to me once again just how tired S was before the holiday. Retrospect is a fine thing and seems to be teaching me the same lessons repeatedly - when am I going to learn them?? I have been teaching S way beyond his level and am determined this term to teach him more appropriately. Surely this might help to stop the lack of cooperation I am beginning to dread!
Today was a good start. The first task was too hard so with my new found attitude we abandoned that straight away and changed track. He then flew through his maths, language and reading. We tried to finish the morning making windmills. We are going to look at energy for the next wee while and I had already changed my plan due to the weather. The windmill was hopeless! My gut reaction was to get him to do something else but I decided not to move the goalposts for him and call it a day. He was positive, I was positive, he'd done some learning, I reckon that's not too bad a first day!
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Regaining some perspective
If there is one thing I am learning about home schooling is that you can never assume you are "sorted" and that you have "nailed it"!
Last week was positive at the end. This week has been a rollercoaster! I have had to be forced into reviewing everything I am doing having come to a crunch point with S this week. His lack of co-operation really got to me at the beginning of the week and I took some time out while S played with his dad (on his dad's day off). I only needed an hour away but was so important and helped me to refocus and realise that a massive amount of his frustration was caused by me!
I have been asking him to do far far too much every morning. The timer system we started (did I mention that last week - I can't remember) actually helped not just S but me to see how much work I was giving him! Even once "complaining" time was deducted off the time he was doing well over an hour of maths work and English work. He is 8! He is not about to sit standard grade exams! On a one-to-one basis that is far too much! The task I'd given him which tipped him over the edge on Monday was a book report. Now while I don't actually think a book report is a bad thing at all the way I'd presented it to him was way beyond him! I'd given him a list of 8 questions I wanted him to include in a book report. In retrospect that was BONKERS!! He is 8, with a language difficulty! What on earth was he going to make of all that!
So, when I returned that night I had a surf on the net to find book report templates and started again. I decided that the "maths test" I'd scheduled for Wednesday was totally over the top (- why do I need to assess so much when we are at home?) and took a step back from what we are doing.
As a result yesterday went much much better. I decided to try going over the score with encouragement which had (not surprisingly ) a positive affect on S and he loved it. He spoke about his complaining and quite clearly has absolutely no concept of how difficult it can be on other people to hear complaining all the time. He loved the new book report template. He did struggle when he was to draw a picture (this is not one of his stronger areas) but we resolved that when I let him photocopy the picture he had in mind - he loves using the photocopier and we got through that hurdle straight away! He completed the report no bother and now has a lovely report to show for the last book. He even said at the end of the day that his book report had been his favourite piece of work that day!
I have been very much reminded today that home schooling a child on the spectrum is hard hard work. Nothing can be assumed and everyday can through up the same battles over and over again. This can be very waring as a parent (+ teacher) but then on the flip side there are such wee gems of times where the penny drops or when there is an obvious feeling of security seen that the hard work pays off. I really really need to get it into my head some of the things that the "spectrum" does definitely affect in the schooling process. This week a lot of the problems have been me completely forgetting not only the spectrum issues but also S's language issues. I can't forget these things for his sake!
With all that this week has taught me I'm going to look at next term differently again. This term has been good to start the routine that Mon-Wed are desk days and Thursdays and Fridays are practical days. I think we will carry that on. However, I am going to not overload him next term. An hour of maths and an hour of english are too much (and often he has been doing more) and so I'm going to reduce them both to half of that and try to include more variety in his tasks.
What is the biggest surprise of all is that S is very keen to continue! Despite my grumpiness and nagging him to write neatly, try harder etc etc he is so happy at home! I am traumatised after a session of complaining and moaning yet he so quickly forgets all about that and has a great ability just to remember the productive parts and the bits where he achieved success! I wish I was like that! I am learning so much from him!
Tomorrow my mum is coming to do some history and family history with him. We are all looking forward to it very much. I'm looking forward to seeing someone else working with him and it will be good to be out and about. On Friday we are going "geocaching" with a neighbour - weather dependant which should be good too!
So - that's our wee update for now! Thanks for folks comments. Again - they have made a massive difference to me and have helped me wise up at times or simply encouraged me to keep going!
Last week was positive at the end. This week has been a rollercoaster! I have had to be forced into reviewing everything I am doing having come to a crunch point with S this week. His lack of co-operation really got to me at the beginning of the week and I took some time out while S played with his dad (on his dad's day off). I only needed an hour away but was so important and helped me to refocus and realise that a massive amount of his frustration was caused by me!
I have been asking him to do far far too much every morning. The timer system we started (did I mention that last week - I can't remember) actually helped not just S but me to see how much work I was giving him! Even once "complaining" time was deducted off the time he was doing well over an hour of maths work and English work. He is 8! He is not about to sit standard grade exams! On a one-to-one basis that is far too much! The task I'd given him which tipped him over the edge on Monday was a book report. Now while I don't actually think a book report is a bad thing at all the way I'd presented it to him was way beyond him! I'd given him a list of 8 questions I wanted him to include in a book report. In retrospect that was BONKERS!! He is 8, with a language difficulty! What on earth was he going to make of all that!
So, when I returned that night I had a surf on the net to find book report templates and started again. I decided that the "maths test" I'd scheduled for Wednesday was totally over the top (- why do I need to assess so much when we are at home?) and took a step back from what we are doing.
As a result yesterday went much much better. I decided to try going over the score with encouragement which had (not surprisingly ) a positive affect on S and he loved it. He spoke about his complaining and quite clearly has absolutely no concept of how difficult it can be on other people to hear complaining all the time. He loved the new book report template. He did struggle when he was to draw a picture (this is not one of his stronger areas) but we resolved that when I let him photocopy the picture he had in mind - he loves using the photocopier and we got through that hurdle straight away! He completed the report no bother and now has a lovely report to show for the last book. He even said at the end of the day that his book report had been his favourite piece of work that day!
I have been very much reminded today that home schooling a child on the spectrum is hard hard work. Nothing can be assumed and everyday can through up the same battles over and over again. This can be very waring as a parent (+ teacher) but then on the flip side there are such wee gems of times where the penny drops or when there is an obvious feeling of security seen that the hard work pays off. I really really need to get it into my head some of the things that the "spectrum" does definitely affect in the schooling process. This week a lot of the problems have been me completely forgetting not only the spectrum issues but also S's language issues. I can't forget these things for his sake!
With all that this week has taught me I'm going to look at next term differently again. This term has been good to start the routine that Mon-Wed are desk days and Thursdays and Fridays are practical days. I think we will carry that on. However, I am going to not overload him next term. An hour of maths and an hour of english are too much (and often he has been doing more) and so I'm going to reduce them both to half of that and try to include more variety in his tasks.
What is the biggest surprise of all is that S is very keen to continue! Despite my grumpiness and nagging him to write neatly, try harder etc etc he is so happy at home! I am traumatised after a session of complaining and moaning yet he so quickly forgets all about that and has a great ability just to remember the productive parts and the bits where he achieved success! I wish I was like that! I am learning so much from him!
Tomorrow my mum is coming to do some history and family history with him. We are all looking forward to it very much. I'm looking forward to seeing someone else working with him and it will be good to be out and about. On Friday we are going "geocaching" with a neighbour - weather dependant which should be good too!
So - that's our wee update for now! Thanks for folks comments. Again - they have made a massive difference to me and have helped me wise up at times or simply encouraged me to keep going!
Friday, 3 February 2012
Think we might be getting somewhere...
I'm cheating a bit! It's not even lunch time on Friday and I'm writing this! Truth is I'm not feeling very well today and quite honestly would like to go back to bed! However, in 10 + years of being a mummy I've learned that you ain't allowed to be "ill" and you have to keep going! So, we've (kind of) done a morning's work and we are off to the home ed network's sports afternoon in an hour - so I reckon I can take some time out whilst S is in his imaginary world of football world cups (playing in the same room as me with a small ball!).
This week has overall been a positive week. I've been very aware that I think I'm slipping into the dangerous trap of moaning and seeing the negatives which is obviously coming across to other folks and I've had a couple of implied comments that I should be packing S back to school. This is the LAST thing I would do and realised that I have to be more honest about how things are going and not so negative. We have done a huge amount but more importantly S is a happier boy. My eldest is just one academic year ahead of S and there has been a definite shift in what is going on in the playground, the language used and the issues at school (not the language used by him but what he is telling me about). The more I see the kids and what they tell me about the more I am convinced we have done the right thing! My other 3 kids are so much more able to tell me about what is going on and discuss things and cope with things but it makes me sick to think of S being back in that situation. I've realised also that my negativity is partly because of the isolating nature of home schooling - and home schooling an autistic child possibly more so (although I can't really comment on home schooling an "unautistic" child! I decided this week that I have to be far more proactive at making opportunities to socialise for both of us. So, this week on the 2 afternoons that we have free we had friends round. What a joy! What a difference for both of us! I feel far more human (I could never survive on a deserted island!!!) and it is so good for S too!
This week has been an experiment. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we worked intensively on maths and English and did a little speech therapy work too. On the whole this went well. One area we looked at in maths was far too hard for S and we came across some pretty big time uncooperation but we overcame that, changed the method and got through it. We have looked at subtracting 2 digit numbers, time, number sequences and money work. He did a lot of work! We finished stage 10 reading books (so that is 2 stages completed since I started teaching him), and have looked at grammar and spelling. He has been given the task of completing a book review on the stage 10 books he has read that I will then hand into the school. He is really excited about this!
Thursday and Friday have been "non-desk" days! Yesterday we made a CD car racer with an elastic band, CDs, a pencil and a toilet roll tube with inserts from a kit. We had great fun racing it in the hall and discussing ways to make it faster and better. S decorated the wheels. We discussed what made it go and what makes other things "work" too. What was energy? What are forces? This we decided would be a good topic for science for the next few weeks. S then made scones. He did the whole thing. Whilst normally scones would take 10 mins to prepare it took S an hour and a half! I was a bit twitchy about it at first but then relaxed and realised it doesn't matter at all how long it takes him - this is the beauty of home school! He LOVED it and made some beautiful scones!
Today we have completed speech therapy homework and played a recycling game that I picked up in a charity shop! It was good fun and we discussed what recycling was, what you can recycle and then after the game watched a short you tube clip on how to recycle!
So - a busy week. Outwith official "home school" time S has started a swimming club, gone to his football training and our church kid's club and today it's the home ed network sports afternoon so there is definitely no lack of interaction with other kids this week!
So lessons learnt for both of us this week. S is beginning to understand (I think....) the need to not be so negative (we have introduced the "incredible emotional scale" today which I explained to him) and I am also beginning to understand that in a different way to S! I'm hoping today to finish prep for next week and then start next week on a positive footing and go for it!
This week has overall been a positive week. I've been very aware that I think I'm slipping into the dangerous trap of moaning and seeing the negatives which is obviously coming across to other folks and I've had a couple of implied comments that I should be packing S back to school. This is the LAST thing I would do and realised that I have to be more honest about how things are going and not so negative. We have done a huge amount but more importantly S is a happier boy. My eldest is just one academic year ahead of S and there has been a definite shift in what is going on in the playground, the language used and the issues at school (not the language used by him but what he is telling me about). The more I see the kids and what they tell me about the more I am convinced we have done the right thing! My other 3 kids are so much more able to tell me about what is going on and discuss things and cope with things but it makes me sick to think of S being back in that situation. I've realised also that my negativity is partly because of the isolating nature of home schooling - and home schooling an autistic child possibly more so (although I can't really comment on home schooling an "unautistic" child! I decided this week that I have to be far more proactive at making opportunities to socialise for both of us. So, this week on the 2 afternoons that we have free we had friends round. What a joy! What a difference for both of us! I feel far more human (I could never survive on a deserted island!!!) and it is so good for S too!
This week has been an experiment. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we worked intensively on maths and English and did a little speech therapy work too. On the whole this went well. One area we looked at in maths was far too hard for S and we came across some pretty big time uncooperation but we overcame that, changed the method and got through it. We have looked at subtracting 2 digit numbers, time, number sequences and money work. He did a lot of work! We finished stage 10 reading books (so that is 2 stages completed since I started teaching him), and have looked at grammar and spelling. He has been given the task of completing a book review on the stage 10 books he has read that I will then hand into the school. He is really excited about this!
Thursday and Friday have been "non-desk" days! Yesterday we made a CD car racer with an elastic band, CDs, a pencil and a toilet roll tube with inserts from a kit. We had great fun racing it in the hall and discussing ways to make it faster and better. S decorated the wheels. We discussed what made it go and what makes other things "work" too. What was energy? What are forces? This we decided would be a good topic for science for the next few weeks. S then made scones. He did the whole thing. Whilst normally scones would take 10 mins to prepare it took S an hour and a half! I was a bit twitchy about it at first but then relaxed and realised it doesn't matter at all how long it takes him - this is the beauty of home school! He LOVED it and made some beautiful scones!
Today we have completed speech therapy homework and played a recycling game that I picked up in a charity shop! It was good fun and we discussed what recycling was, what you can recycle and then after the game watched a short you tube clip on how to recycle!
So - a busy week. Outwith official "home school" time S has started a swimming club, gone to his football training and our church kid's club and today it's the home ed network sports afternoon so there is definitely no lack of interaction with other kids this week!
So lessons learnt for both of us this week. S is beginning to understand (I think....) the need to not be so negative (we have introduced the "incredible emotional scale" today which I explained to him) and I am also beginning to understand that in a different way to S! I'm hoping today to finish prep for next week and then start next week on a positive footing and go for it!
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