Another wee reality check!

The end of term is racing towards us! I am amazed at how quickly this term has gone passed and am amazed at how much learning we have actually done! This week alone we have tackled "equivalent fractions", "fractions of groups" and introduced decimals. That might sound like pretty mundane stuff but from someone who was told throughout secondary school that I "struggled to grasp the basics" I feel not only a sense of acheivement that S has grasped the topics but that I have been able to teach them! Actually, dare I admit it I am really enjoying teaching maths! For probably the first time in my life I am seeing how much all the topics in maths link together and how much it all makes sense! In the midst of all this though there has definitely been a build up which led to a reality check today. I have become slightly complacent over the past couple of weeks with the new calmness at home and the change of temperature. With S cooperating so much more it has been a bit too easy to drift through the day working. S has actually been doing more work than he was before and has learnt a lot but I have inadvertantly allowed him to take the reins a bit too much in deciding when we do things! I realised this today when he point blank refused to do his independent learning at the time I requested. It was a stark reminder all of a sudden of the attitude that I battled with for a lot of last year and one that I don't want us to slip back into! This has been my fault though and not S's. I had to put my foot down and instead of a more lazy afternoon that we normally have we worked all afternoon! This might sound very control freakish of me but it is so important for S. His behaviour was getting to the silly loopy stage which for S is the start of a spiral when he starts to get himself into a lot of trouble and we reach meltdown! He so much needs to have structure and I have to remember that if given an inch he takes a mile and we were heading down that road. I do think I got him back on track. Tomorrow will be another new experience for S. We are getting together with the other home ed families for "Roald Dahl book day". All the kids are to dress up as characters from Dahl's books and we are selling baking to raise funds for children with brain injuries (I think!). This will all be well and truly out of S's comfort zone. It is in a different hall from normal (although thankfully S knows the hall we are going to very well), the activities will be totally different from what we normally do together, and it's another day out of routine! I think that after tomorrow I need to be careful in the following two weeks to try to return to a fairly "safe" routine and limit the extra things that I've been doing. Whilst I have so much enjoyed getting out and about more and doing other things I need to have a balance!

I wonder who's learning the most?

I am amazed! 4 weeks of our home school term have flown past! It is our long September weekend here and we are racing on towards the October holidays already! This term so far is going really well on the whole. S's bank is working brilliantly! It has been a great incentive for S and so far he has earned more than 90p each week which is far more than I expected he would manage. It has given us both a very visual record of how the week goes. EVERY week he has earned his lowest amount on the Monday and his highest on the Wednesday. It has very clearly shown us how long it takes him to settle into the week and then again how much it flags by Friday! It also though has given S a visual way to see that some behaviours are not acceptable and that at the same time when he really puts his mind to something and works really hard his efforts can literally pay! I think for me the biggest breakthrough so far this term is our new "independent learning"(IL) slot. I really did wonder if this was going to be a step too far to expect him to do this every day when he is only 9 but really functionning at a younger lever. However, he has taken to it straight away! As long as I am careful not to introduce any new concepts to the work and it is all pure revision he is working away well. In fact the other day was amazing. I'd asked him to do 30 mental maths questions instead of 15 as we were going to be busy the following day at "IL" time, He went off and did 255!! He was so motivated and got a score of 251! Now, the control freak part of me was finding this a real test as I'd spent 6 hours the previous two nights planning the month's work! By S doing all of this he had basically used up 2 and a bit weeks of my mental maths planning! But it was a real lesson for me to let him run with it! What harm was he going to do by being excited to do his maths?? It was lovely! He not only did that but then completed the IL work on times tables and spelling! That was an easy extra 2p reward! Another breakthrough for me has been his continued enjoyment in reading. This term I am introducing more formally a time where I read to him. Last term we tried reading "War Horse" together but it was too hard for him. This term we are reading together "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory". It's early days but he is so much enjoying it! Today we came across a couple of idioms, one being "pulling her leg" and had great fun learning what exactly that meant. I thought he would find this book quite boring as we have watched the film endless times as it is one of his sister's favourite films. However, he has memory difficulties and his attention to detail is obviously not great watching the films as it is all as if it is brand new when he hears it read! It is a joy to read to him! We started the term reading a Horrid Henry book which he loved and even got his granny to read the funniest chapter to him for the second time. Alongside this we also have our official "reading books" which he either reads to me or we do paired reading with. This year he is either stopping to ask me to explain things or is finding the humour funny, both of which he has never done before. It is so good! If nothing else, this term I think is beginning to give him a new enjoyment of books which hopefully will be like a seed that I can water for him and we can grow it together! Language work I definitely find more of a challenge! I did get help from our local headteacher a couple of weeks ago as I find it really hard to guage if I am getting anywhere with him. I still am feeling a bit wobbly about that! Basic grammar I'm not so worried about but teaching him how to write stories and comprehension I'm not so sure about!! Having said all that we have had some great discussions on the books we are reading together and on the Solar System. I think I need to really work on my ability to think out of the box! Comprehension is happening in a very informal way throughout all our learning! Steven has very much taken to the concept of "Together Time" as oppose to his IL time and we have had good discussions together - again a new thing this term. In the midst of all this I attended my first seminar on helping autistic children. It was on anger management and was brilliant. For me it was such a good day to take time out and just think about the issues that S is faced with and we are faced with every day! Over the past month I have encountered all sorts of comments and opinions about life with S (which in itself is amazing as I don't actually get out and about very much!!). I am getting quite scunnered with folks constantly telling me that the things S struggles with are just normal struggles for all children - or that my children are just not well behaved. Or, I've been told to get S "back to reality". These comments actually hurt a lot! As a parent of a child on the autistic spectrum I am constantly berating myself for not pre-empting a situation or parenting him "properly". I constantly am in a situation where I can see S really not coping and then losing the plot and blaming myself for not handling it better. I am watching a child who finds the most simple of everyday tasks a munro to climb and for whom even flushing the toilet is a painful sensory experience. I think folks seem to forget I have 3 other children who are "normal" and who I am parenting and I can see quite clearly that S is finding things that bit harder. When the door is closed at the end of the day and we are on our own most of the folks who make the comments have absolutely no idea what daily life is like! We have altered just about everything we do every day because of S, in ways that even we forget now! We opt out of many things because we know of the stress that is involved if we do certain things. However, out of all my moans and groans above we are not parenting for the benefit of others and for a parenting award badge. We are parenting because God has given us 4 precious bundles to look after and to do our best for. S is an entirely different child from this time last year. The stressed child we took from school last October is unrecognisable now. There is a calmness and a contentment about S that is hard to put into words and whilst he might not be experiencing "reality" which parent in their right mind could put him back into a situation that caused him so much stress? The seminar I went to was so good for me to hear just why S finds things so tricky and to hear that it is not my parenting that has gone wrong and not to feel so guilty. It was so good to get positive help and ideas (that's a whole other blog in itself!!) and I am really excited to start implementing them. Maybe I've annoyed people by writing all that is above! Maybe I'm overstepping the mark by making these feelings so public! Maybe I'm overstepping the purpose of this blog. However, I don't think I'm alone in feeling like I do as a parent of a child on the spectrum and I hope that the blog does help folks to understand a wee bit more of what life can hold. Anyway, I'm rambling now so will sign off. So much more to say from the month - lego therapy, friends, ICT, and many more but maybe I'll get more chance another day...

We're Back! Let the term commence...

Believe it or not this is the third time I have started to write this blog entry! I have so much to write I get so carried away and then something interrupts my train of thought and each time I have deleted the whole lot! So, this time I am going to publish the post whatever happens! So, term has begun! I was so apprehensive about term starting! This was the first long holiday S and I had had together from home schooling and I had no idea how it was going to go when we returned. Many home educating families don't stop for the holidays and I can understand why that is but S and I so much needed to have a holiday and it really did both of us so much good! As the beginning of term approached I started to feel really quite nervous and became a bit fragile emotionally. Having had the children off all summer, whilst it really was a fantastic summer, I hadn't had 2 minutes to sit and get my head together about the term ahead. We moved house right at the beginning of the summer and the moving has been so much more work than when we moved into the rental house. The first week back was really just me bluffing to fill time! Of course we did totally valid activities - like writing a report on school holidays and some revision maths and spelling activities but really I was trying to buy time. Mum and dad came to the rescue and offered to take S for 2 nights to give me time to plan. It was fantastic and so much appreciated. I worked so so hard but got my head back into teaching mode and had a good think and got so much sorted for S. It has paid off!! We have had a fantastic first week and a half back to home school! For really the first time since we started not only are we learning a lot but I can honestly say we are both enjoying our time together. I have made some pretty big changes to our routine as if this is going to have a long term future certain things need to be established and I am realising how important it is to begin to teach S already the skills he needs to work independently. So what are our changes: 1. Independent Learning: Each day now begins with independent learning. During the first hour of home schooling S has to complete a mental maths activity, another maths activity and a spelling activity. Nothing will be complicated at this slot and mostly it will be revision. The tasks are written on a small whiteboard I got us and he has to find the right pages and complete the work by 10 o'clock. Whatever time he has once he's finished is his up until 10 o'clock when we start "together time". This morning he chose to start at ten to 9 and was finished by 9! On other days it has taken him longer but the point is that he is doing this all by himself. 2. Together time: This is the main teaching time of the day when I will sit with him and work through the English and Maths for the day which includes reading, handwriting, grammar etc. At times here I will set him tasks and then disappear to let him finish them. This time goes on until lunch time and once English and Maths are finished we move onto topic work. This term we are looking at the Solar System which he is loving already. Today we started making properly a model of the solar system which glows in the dark! 3. S's Bank: This is probably the biggest change for S. For many many reasons I couldn't face going into another term of lack of co-operation. The day before S went to mum and dad's was an incredibly uncooperative day and I didn't cope well at all! I am facing an op in a couple of months which will floor me for a few weeks and am so aware that S needs to start to co-operate and to work with me and not against me for home schooling to work at all this year! So, major changes had to take place! Now we have 3 home school rules above the desk: 1. No moaning at all 2. Try your BEST not your worst or a little bit! 3. No playing until ALL the task cards are finished. Here's the new bit! (which I got from a website!!!) Every day S starts the day with 20p. Every time a rule is broken (so every time he moans or he doesn't bother trying and does scrappy work) he loses 1p. If he does fantastic work then he can earn pennies. At the end of each day whatever money he has earned he banks. At the end of term we will have a treat up to the value of the money he has banked. I reckoned that each term is about £8. I could easily go out for a coffee and spend £8 and so thought it was worth a try. It is AMAZING!! One day he did moan about the money but when I pointed out no-one else I knew earned money by going to school he seemed to accept that and immediately get on with things. The moaning has gone from extreme to almost non-existant virtually overnight! Part of S's diagnosis on the spectrum means that he can be very very controlling. I'm hoping that S's Bank shows him that he can channel this controlling element of his character into a positive and not a negative. So far the lowest he has gone is 15p whereas today he earned 23p by working so hard! I so much hope this works for a long time! He has really enjoyed his learning. Where he does need help is learning to express when he is stuck! His language difficulties are definitely impacting his learning in a much more evident way. His maths is going from strength to strength. Last week we learnt the 7x table. In the car one day afterwards he reeled off quite happily the 8x, 9x, 11x and 12x table that he had worked out himself! His mental arithmetic is much much better than it was this time last year. His reading is really quite good but his understanding is very poor. His grasp of vocabulary is still so sketchy and this is causing him to misunderstand questions in all his subjects. Reading comprehension is a nightmare for him naturally. His lowest "bank" day last week was a reading comprehension day! It is fascinating for me to look at the week and see how clearly the difficult subjects impact on him as a whole. I need to learn too... So, all in all a very very positive start and an exciting start. This term and next hold a lot of challenges for us mainly with me being out of action but the signs are very good and I'm hoping that with the right amount of prep and planning things will go fairly smoothly! So, a long post again, but actually I think that's the main things I needed to say so will publish now before I'm distracted!! More soon...

The moment the light goes on...

I was going to write my final blog of the academic year tomorrow but this week has had so much to blog about I thought it would be better to get some of it down before swamping you with my rambles tomorrow! This week started on a flat note! The end of the week still seemed an eternity away for both of us and the prospect of getting through the final mental maths pages and then perhaps even more daunting "Money Maths"! Monday and Tuesday were a struggle! Then yesterday I decided to be spontaeous, break with my diary, down tools and take S down to a friend's farm for the day. While we'd been looking at the Olympics we learned that they used to train by carrying a calf on their shoulders. As the calf grew into a cow the athlete got stronger with the weight carried growing. This sparked off a big conversation with S about many things including names of baby animals which is still a big vocab hole for him. S expressed how much he would love to hold a lamb and learn how to talk to sheep. My friend who also home schools lives on a farm and I told her about this request. So, we were invited down and off we went. We had such a great day. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day for a drive south. At the farm we got a wee tour round the milking parlour, the calves, the hens and then S was taken on the quad bike up and around the fields to see the sheep. He loved it! We had lunch together of freshly baked bread and then the kids all played together whilst we put the world to right! S giggled away with his friend and was so happy! There are always little pointers with S as to how happy he is. There is an unrestrained laughter which to be honest we don't often see outwith the house as he is always working so hard to suss out a situation! He also went on the quad bike happily and ate the home made bread. These are 2 things completely out of his norm and comfort zone but he did it! A huge success! At the end of the day we were given loads of beautiful double yoked eggs to take home to the family. So a fantastic day. To see S so happy was just lovely. It did me so much good as well to speak to another home schooling mum who has similar dilemmas to me in various ways was so cathartic and to be out in the fresh air was much needed! So, this morning we approached our work with a fresh mind! We have really been struggling with subtraction and division and I have been losing patience. The penny has certainly not dropped and I was so reluctant to end the term on a negative note! It has been very interesting over the past couple of weeks to spend more time than normal with other home school families and to hear all the different ways of teaching. Some are very laid back in their approach to teaching their kids whilst some are really quite routinised. What is very clear about all of the parents is that they value their children just for being them and not for their achievements and abilities to "fit" in. I have been challenged about how rigid I am in working through our "curriculum" and not taking a step back to think about what is right for S at this moment. In my defense though I am so keen to teach S that when something is tricky or hard it is not right to just throw the towel in and not do it. I think sometimes with home schooling it can be very much the easier approach to abandon ship with a topic if it seems to evoke stress and be too hard. If I did this with S we would have done very very little since October. He wouldn't write, we wouldn't have touched money, time, multiplication, subtraction or symmetry! He would be an expert in his 6x table and could tell you all about fractions but that is all! Today was a perfect example of this. Following our pretty hopeless days on Monday and Tuesday I was dreading dragging him through the final pages of his mental maths book and maths workbook. After such a positive day yesterday I was determined to finish the term on a high! So, this morning I decided to try to take away all the anxiety from S that I could. S definitely is an auditory learner and finds it much harder to work out what he has to do simply by reading. I decided to read the questions to him and to be his scribe. This worked quite well for mental maths although still subtraction was not really clicking! I found a number square and decided to use that. Success! He flew through the final 10 questions. Now granted this is not mental maths but it's a strategy for S to use until he gets more and more familiar with the tasks! From this we moved onto the dreaded money. The first questions involved division. I knew they were going to be quite tricky for him. He's so tired that he is much slower than he is capable of and so I continued to scribe. For the first time though I drew a number line along the top of his workbook following the success of the number line in subtraction. It was great! The penny started to drop! What was the best bit was by the 2nd batch of money questions S took the pen out of my hand and said, "I want to do this next one. Let me do it!" It was fantastic. He had a spark! He had a twinkle in his eye and was ENJOYING his maths! We flew through the final two pages! It reminded me why I went into teaching in the first place. To be able to teach someone and for a topic to come alive is just fab! You may be thinking I'm getting a little overexcited at really quite a minor unexciting thing but I feel this has been a milestone in many ways! If I'd decided to just let S dictate what we studied we would have abandoned this topic and had a long long break from it. What I am learning though is that the excitement at grasping a difficult topic is so great for both S and I but actually more so for S that it is so good to persevere! Yes it is quite dull at times and yes it's a long road but the skills mastered are lifelong in many ways! I bet your glad I didn't put all this in tomorrow's blog! I'm asking S to write a "report" on his first year of home school to go with a report I will write (just in case the council do want to know which from what I've heard is doubtful!!). I'm fascinated to see what he writes!

So who exactly is on the spectrum?

We're nearly there... This term seems to be going on forever! At the same time though I have a scary amount to fit in to the following two and a half weeks so in many ways would like the days to have extra hours in them! Since I last blogged I have had much food for thought. S's diagnosis has been defined and finally, after many years, I feel that we can now really begin to understand and help S rather than survive with him and stay afloat! Saying all that increasingly, with regards to home schooling, I have been having to reign myself in from my own "spectrum" tendancies and be more aware of my son! Let me explain that! We have got ourselves into a great routine. I'm sure I've explained this before so bear with me as I spell it out once more. We begin each day with 15-30 mental arithmetic questions. We then do a page of S's maths workbook which is preceded by a little bit of teaching or revision. This is sometimes then followed by a game on Education City. After maths we have a wee break. Once fed and watered we return to spelling which is either 1 or 2 tasks on the week's words from his Andrew Brodie book. We then read a chapter of his reading book (Monday - S reads to me and then Tues-Friday we do paired reading) followed by a short activity or discussion on the chapter. This is followed by a language activity of some description whether that be a reading comprehension card, a page of grammar work, story writing or an education city game. Depending on how long maths and English take we then do Science work (either practical or book work related depending on our topic), or we do some Geography (we've been working on the continents this term) or some other activity. We then stop for lunch. That can be any time from 12:20-1:00pm depending on how long the work has taken. So it's quite structured! I'm so aware that we are in many ways more formal than many home school families are and I know that some would think I am kind of missing the point of home schooling by keeping it so formal. It has been implied that I'll in effect "grow out" of this way of schooling S and that I'll eventually become more relaxed. But you know it works for us! For S he knows now exactly where he stands and actually can go to the desk and almost work through the programme for the day himself. For me it has reduced the preparation massively and I am confident that S is learning the same as his peers in the main subject areas and that he will hopefully manage to keep up. Flexibility... well, that's a whole other area! Where I am noticing how "spectrumy" I am becoming! As S has become more and more tired at the end of term I am having to reduce our timetable quite a lot. S is coping with this fine! I however am finding it quite frustrating as I know we will not be completing work that I'd hoped we would. I really need to relax!! Today for example, I was wrapping presents for our girls' birthday and S asked if he could help. He did and he really enjoyed it! He then asked if he could learn to tie his shoe laces. I shocked myself and thought, "why not!" and so we mastered knot tying as the first step. It was a real learning point for me. Wrapping presents and tying shoe laces is not something that comes easily to someone on the spectrum and for S this was real life learning in a calm and stress free situation! Surely that is better than struggling through the basics of division when he's tired! I have been mulling over many other issues over the past few days. As I come to terms S's more specific diagnosis I am learning AGAIN just how much I need to challenge my own views of parenting with respect to S. I love him just as much as my other 3 children and want to offer him the same opportunities in life as the others. I am realising more and more though that things are not straight forward for him and that I really need to stop expecting him to just slot in to what other children can do. Being a parent for the past 10 + years has shown me just how judgemental I was and can be about other parents and indeed children and I'm mortified to admit that. Having a child with special needs has really highlighted that in me and made me really face up to what really is important in people and humanity as a whole. Being a Christian has really been a saving grace to me literally! To know that S and indeed all my children have been "fearfully and wonderfully made" is such a blessing to know and to know that God has a plan for each of these children and he has them in the palm of his hand. I must continue to strive to do my best for each of these children as I really do believe that this is the job God has given me to do just now. Very philosophical this week! I hope to blog again before the end of term but we are moving back to our own house (now it is all fixed :0) ) and so the next 3 weeks are likely to be somewhat mental! I'd love any feedback. Maybe you think I'm talking rubbish! For now though I will sign off!

The end of the tunnel is coming...

I am amazed that my last post was so long ago! The weeks are flying past! That surely is a good thing... So how has this term been? Overall I think things are going well and the fact that I haven't blogged in so long is probably a reflection that there hasn't been anything particularly of note to write about which I think is good! We have plodded on with our routine this term as much as we can. We are getting through the workbooks and topics and have accomplished quite a lot academically this term. The sun and the heat have been unusual obstacles for us to overcome! Neither of us are very good at dealing with the heat so it's just as well this is a rare problem for us to have! Having said that it did work to our advantage! For example, a lot of our maths this term has been revision of what we have done through the year. Symmetry came up. This was one topic that didn't quite click when we looked at it at first. This time though we were studying it when we were sitting outside at the "new" garden table which has an opaque black glass top. I pointed out to S the reflection of the objects in the table and how that was just like symmetry. It was lovely - the penny immediately dropped and we were off! Basic symmetry is now sorted! Over this term I have begun to realise just how much I depend on a routine as much as S! I'm so aware that a lot of home school mums are beginning to wind down as summer approaches and that there are so many distractions that things can change quite a lot. I don't find that so easy. S certainly doesn't find that easy and if we have one different day I pay for it by having two difficult days until we are back into the flow of it. I don't think that is helpful or fair for him and so try as much as possible to keep our maths, english and topic (which does change every day whether it be geography, history or science) going every day. Afternoons are totally flexible and that seems to work. I have been struck this week though at how tired S is. His stammer is returning and his stress levels are beginning to rise. The point of home schooling is to avoid this so I'm going to reassess my planning for the next 3 weeks to see if I can somehow change it to take the pressure completely off. I don't want to undo all the positives of the last few months by him becoming so exhausted that we go backwards! As my confidence is improving on the teaching side of things I am also beginning to see where we need to help him in other areas. I am very fed up of the moaning and groaning that comes with the beginning of each home school day. S has such a big moan and then once he gets down to work is great and seems to forget it. I however find it far harder to listen to such an exaggerated moan and then put it behind me! So, I have had to spell out consequences for his moan! We now have a points system and for everyday that he has monumental moans he loses a point and will fall down a point on the ladder. If he ultimately gets to 1 then I will phone a school! If however he doesn't moan and works hard he will stay up at home. We got to 8 this week but no further down and having just introduced the system this week it transformed the atmosphere in the house! We'll see how long that has mileage but i did explain to him that a positive relationship between myself and him was so important to me and if that was spoiled by home schooling then we would have to rethink the whole thing! I am so aware I need to start introducing more work on strategies to help him to deal with things in life he finds tricky. This is one area I so wish I knew more home schooling mums of kids with special needs! We have so much appreciated all our home school friends that we have made (mums and kids alike) but none of my friends are dealing with children on the spectrum and that can be a lonely experience! As our time together goes on it is fascinating seeing the areas that S really likes. He loves History and Geography! The reading books that we have done (Time Capsule - Oxford Reading Tree) have been fantastic in introducing different times in history. A big favourite was one about the 2nd world war which led us to look at Anne Frank. We found a great website that let us tour the Secret Annexe. S was fascinated by it! We have also been looking in Geography at maps and different continents. Again he has loved this and has really enjoyed finding out about different countries and cultures. This is so interesting for me. I never really liked history! To be honest I found it quite boring! Geography was similar although I did enjoy doing a crash higher in it in 6th year but think I would have hated doing a higher the traditional long way! This really tests my teaching though as I need to keep history and geography alive for him as he is so interested! I'm so pleased to see him so interested! My mum came over one day this term and spent the day teaching S. It was great! Mum was so creative with him and S just loved it! It was so special hearing them working together and really gave me such a break! It is good that what she did with him was so different and he coped really well with that. Hopefully we can do this more. Some folks have offered to help out and I think next term I might start taking them up on the offer more. So, my attention is now beginning to shift to next term. I am amazed we have made it to nearly the end of our 3rd term and it's gone so well. The other 3 kids are very happy too which is fantastic. I am starting to plan next year and S is happy to chat about it to. There's a LOT to happen before then though.... So, a long post but hopefully an encouraging post to update you on some of the things that have happened. I'll hopefully write again before the end of the school year!

And we're off...

Blogger in it's infinite wisdom has changed and "updated" so I hope this works!! I did start trying to type this on my phone but as I am constantly making mistakes I thought it would be wiser to wait until I got a moment to type it properly! When I was a "real" teacher my head of department once described the beginning of the school year like the entrance to a long tunnel. At the beginning of the session we would be heading into that long tunnel, not to be seeing daylight again until the light at the end of June! Well, I am once again empathising with that view again as we start another term. I have to admit that the feeling did consume me last Monday as the prospect of another term lay ahead and what I could have been doing had S been at school flashed through my mind... But, more positively here was another term to learn new things together, to settle even more into routines and to working together and is full of so much promise with so many different things going on. I am so encouraged. This term has started so much more positively than I ever could have predicted. My aim for this term is to build on the maths and english that we are now in a good routine with. This term though we need to spread our wings a wee bit in a curricular sense and learn about other things. To start with we are going to look at the human body. Years ago David and I stupidly signed up to one of these "Build your own skeleton" magazine deals. Several hundred pounds later and a ridiculous number of magazines and muscles later we cancelled our subscription as we realised we'd been well and truly sucked into this deal. We have kept all the issues and the bones etc and I have decided that rather than hide it away in the cupboard in disgrace "Jimmy" (as S has named him!) should be built and studied and put to some good use!! So, the term has started and already after just 2 weeks we have established science on a Tuesday afternoon. As I type the ribs, heart, lungs and spine are lying behind me! S took no time at all to settle back into the term and amazingly has worked independantly for much of the time. I was in no way anticipating him to be working like this yet! I was hoping to begin to encourage this for next year and to start setting little projects but a few times over the last fortnight I have laid the work out on the desk and found him working his way through it! He has even started looking at my planner and working out what he is to do! It is so good!! The workbooks we began in March are great and still working a treat. They seem to be on just the right level for him and are taking us in a very logical way through the topics we need to look at. Other positives are in English. His story writing is definitely beginning to take shape and there is evidence that the time spent on punctuation, sentence structure, adjectives and verbs etc is beginning to pay off which is lovely. Today, we read through some poems. I used to HATE poetry at school. I found it dull and on the whole pointless (apart from war poetry that I found fascinating). Today I wanted to introduce some work on it and simply read 5 or 6 poems to him. It was so good to see his face light up as he worked out what was really happening in the poem or as he simply enjoyed the humour. That is one of those times that I just love teaching and what better pupil to have than your own child!! The weekend was a great time for us. Our church play host to an American School every couple of years and all the students are spread out across the families in the area. We had 2 boys. We spent time with these boys and a lot of their friends and it quickly became evident that many of them had been home schooled for their primary school days. This was so good for S and I to chat about and not feel like the odd ones out. These young folks were lovely and so confident in their faith and themselves that it was such an encouragement. All of them spoke positively about their home schooling experience and in fact many of them spoke about how they would like to do it themselves when they start families. In the back of my mind I always remember that we are experiencing both types of schooling with my other 3 at school and we are still sure that that is the best place for them to be but for S it was really good to see that these "home schooled" kids were normal, fun and intelligent and that S could do just as well as them! So, that's quite a ramble for my first post back! I'm so glad it's Friday as I type. We've only been back 2 weeks but I am tired and looking forward to a couple of days off! That light at the end of the tunnel is nearly there...