Sunday 31 January 2016

Well it may have been a wet and miserable start to the day, but we got ourselves RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch



After preparing some suitable food, we loaded up the bird table and set up camp in the dining room to watch.  The idea was to do one hour, and record which common garden birds you saw from a pack they sent you (or that you downloaded).  DD was in charge of keeping a tally, and both DS and DD used their binoculars to spot and identify some of the smaller birds.



We didn't have to wait long :-)  Our first visitors were a pair of Magpies (two for joy!), but it wasn't long after that a pair of Collared Doves joined them.  Then a female, then male blackbird.  By the time we were done we had seen 8 House Sparrows, 3 Blue Tits, 2 Coal Tits, a sweet little Long Tailed Tit, 3 Robins and a female Chaffinch!  And of course our resident pair of Wood Pigeons that live in the apple tree sat and surveyed the whole scene with their usual majesty :-)



I was amazed both DD & DS (with a little persuasion ;-) ) managed a full 50 minutes before they started to get restless, so Daddy & I finished off the last 10 minutes.

Did anyone else take part?  What did you see? xx

Saturday 30 January 2016

It's been a very busy week for us this week. Sorry I haven't had time to write!

Thursday we were at gymnastics, a special Home Ed class we go to.  Then we decided to have lunch out and head to the library. We don't always just go to our local library, we like to go around to different ones. The one we went to on Thursday was a particular favourite that has multiple storeys (as in floors/ levels - obviously it also has multiple stories too, along with reams of non-fiction too ;-) ).  It's a bit further to go than usual but worth the effort.  We spent two hours just reading and choosing books, and then treated ourselves to afternoon tea before heading back for Badgers (St John Ambulance group) where the kids made lanterns for Chinese New Year and learnt how to correctly put each other in the recovery position.

On Friday we were out on a group trip, again with a lovely bunch of Home Ed people - having lots of farm and outdoor fun, to tie in with DD's Farming project this month.  She was particularly thrilled she got picked to feed a Shetland Pony. My personal favourite was the leopard tortoise we met! I tried to get a picture of him but my phone packed up :-(

And on to today. Today was a difficult day to get off the ground.  We were all tired from a group trip out yesterday, plus DS is ordinarily allowed to play computer games on the weekend - so he usually starts his Saturday with Minecraft or some time on the family tablet.  However, last weeked and the one before he had some extremely severe meltdowns playing a new computer game we had allowed him to get.  We're not big on computers in our house, and I've mentioned before we limit computer/ tablet time to weekends only (not campaigning - just our preference :-) ) But the obsession and meltdowns over this particular game have been so extreme and all encompassing that we have had to say no computers for a while.  He is finding this hard but we're supporting him through it.

So, despite a bumpy start, we did nonetheless get our day off the ground.  Darling Husband (DH) took DS to a new gaming/ Warhammer/ Dungeons & Dragons shop that has opened locally.  It's a real 'collecting for the love of it' rather than commercial place, and the lady that runs it has a 'bits' basket, with figures and dice for only 50p. So DS was thrilled to spend his pocket money on some new figures, and came home excited to paint :-)  He even bought a stallion for his sister, who also enjoys painting and playing games with them.

It was still hard for DS throughout the day to maintain focus on anything for any sustained period of time, he kept wanting to revert back to playing computer games, but we persevered. To lift his spirits in the afternoon, we dug out the molds and made chocolates together :-)




Afterwards, a very dear friend came over for a visit, bringing school supplies for the kids - new pencils, sketch pads and scratch & sniff notebooks! They were very excited by these :-)  She has planned a special project for us, as she is doing a charity trek in Patagonia starting next week - so she has prepared a project for the kids that tracks her route so they can learn about the places she will will be passing through. She is also planning some special surprises for when she gets back!   

I feel so lucky and blessed to have friends who are interested to help and be involved in this wonderful journey.  She is so passionate about what she does, her enthusiasm is infectious.  DD is already planning future adventures she wants to go on :-) 

I'm grateful, despite all the challenges, that the world is open to my children again, in all it's wonder, majesty and glorious technicolour, in a way that it never was in school. 



Wednesday 27 January 2016

I am a massive fan of The Book People  www.thebookpeople.co.uk.  They always have great offers, and currently have a 48 hour Flash Sale which means there are some fab bargains up for grabs, including Carol Vorderman KS1 & KS2 satchel sets of 10 workbooks (predominantly maths, science & English but also including French for KS2) for only £8.00 per set!!  Free postage as well for orders over £25.00.  
Just my personal opinion but I highly recommend a look. DD is very into Rainbow Fairies (they have sets of 15 books for just £8.00!) and Enid Blyton's St Claire's and Malory Towers - again, they have box sets of both for under £10.00 each.  Even the newest David Walliams book is on offer today! 
So, all in all, that's my Home Ed budget for the month blown lol :-)

Apart from that today we have been out in the wild wind and rain for most of the day with one of our fab Home Ed groups, running around, getting muddy and soaked and happy. 30 kids in waterproof trousers running around doing what kids do best :-)

And DD finally lost one of her 4 wobbly teeth - so there is much excitement in the house tonight! I hope the Tooth Fairy remembers to come and doesn't just fall asleep on the sofa like she did last time..... lol ;-)

Monday 25 January 2016

So, today we had a go at Hexbug drawing (as mentioned in one of my previous posts) and yes, it does work!  It's a bit fiddly, for little fingers, to get the pens 'tied' together (stretching the elastic bands tight enough) but once you've got them in a tripod formation they are relatively stable. 



Flushed with success, DS was then inspired to give Remote Control Car drawing a go!  It really captured his interest and he made a large grid of paper on the dining room floor, attached a pen to the side of his remote control car with simple sellotape and off he went.  


He enjoyed changing the colours and even had a go of doing it with double pens - one each side.  


He's decided he is going to use the finished piece in his Arts Award that I've now registered him for.


After that, we decided to go for a walk as the sun was shining for a bit.  We had a couple of errands to run anyway, so it was nice to get out and have some fresh air for a bit.  DD went on her roller skates and DS picked me some flowers and spent the whole time singing "four little flowers" :-)  


Sadly, his mood plummeted dramatically after lunch - tired I think, so he rested for most of the afternoon while DD worked on making her own Rainbow Fairies book.  She's done very well - cover, contents page, map & rhyme plus the first two chapters.  I'll post some photos another time if I can sneak some (she gets very shy sometimes about her creations, she's such a perfectionist! :-) )  

Here's hoping they both get a good night's sleep now as I've got a private swimming lesson booked early tomorrow morning, with a new teacher who specializes in Special Needs - so I have high hopes :-)

Sunday 24 January 2016

Would love to say today has been a better day, but it really hasn't.  Another long and disturbed night for poor DS and a very oppositional day followed, due to his overwhelming need to be in control at the moment :-(

But, there were no actual full-on meltdowns today - hurrah!


The highlights salvaged from an otherwise pretty abysmal weekend were:-


A brilliant guitar & music lesson, which despite how things have been, DS managed to participate in fully and enjoy - and DD has been practicing ever since!



A lovely couple of hours outdoors, including making and sailing leaf boats, and discovering all sorts of fab secret paths and places to climb and paddle :-)


And this fabulous joke, made up by DS -

"What do you get if you put a Christmas cake and a Halloween cake together?  A Fr-oooooooooooooooooo -t cake!"  Maybe just me, but that really made me laugh.  


Gotta take the rough with the smooth right? :-) xx

Saturday 23 January 2016

Not gonna lie, today has been a hard, hard day.  

Three epic meltdowns from DS that have been very draining to manage, and not much peace in between, all rounded off with a very confrontational, challenging bedtime. 

I'll admit, I have sat here this evening and had a little weep.  Sometimes it's all you can do.

Tomorrow's another day :-) xx

Friday 22 January 2016

Another somewhat difficult day.  It was very grey and rainy, and I find the pressure in the atmosphere when the weather is like this has a MASSIVE affect on both DD & DS's mood and behaviour.

Then, no sooner had we finished breakfast and resolved one fall out, when we happened to see a rat in the garden! Eeek - bold as brass he was.  We've never had this before, but I suspect a combination of the fact that DS had (2 days previously) decided to empty the bird table and spread the food out all across the lawn for the Wood Pigeons and ground feeding birds (bless his good intentions!) and the fact that the neighbours dogs were not out today, meant he ventured in to our garden for a change, from whence-ever he ordinarily resides...

This was a "New Thing" - so the day was basically written off before it began as this 'new thing' 'interrupted' DS and it took him virtually the entire day to re-set himself.  Everything else went out of sync from that moment onwards.  He had a screaming melt down when he heard me (foolishly) mention the word exterminators (ooops!) - so we had to have lots of cuddles and reassurance and explain that the rat couldn't stay in our garden because he would not be able to be a pet, and may need to be moved somewhere more suitable.  DS's argument to this was "what if I were a rat? He jus' bein' a rat! We would do-a same thing if we were a rat!"   Darling boy :-)  

It took a while to calm down from this, then he flitted from one thing to another.  Very up and down.  It's as though you can actually see his jammed circuitry when he is like this. Something 'new' or 'different' or 'unexpected' has interrupted the order of his day and all his circuitry becomes jammed and needs re-setting.  

He decided himself he would have an early lunch, as I think he just wanted to move on with the day and re-establish a 'known' routine.  So around 11am I made him a  vegetarian bacon sandwich (he absolutely will not eat meat - gets extremely upset at people eating animals) and a strawberry milkshake (his favourites) and he ate those happily enough.  He kept asking for my Kindle (to play computer games) but I didn't want to give in to that as I felt he was coping enough, so we sat and played Lord of the Rings Stratego (which he loves, and takes aaaages to play!) but that was ok.  He was even happy to concede a draw :-)  

After this, curiosity was getting the better of him so we went to spend some time in the garden - but, much to his disappointment (and my relief!) no reappearance of the rat! 

When we came back inside, he looked so exhausted from the effort of processing it all that I relinquished the During-The-Day TV Rule and he watched a Tom & Jerry movie (also reserved for special occasions as they tend to over-stimulate him, but I think he needed it today).  He basically just zonked the rest of the evening. He wanted to play Lego with Daddy when he came home from work (we'd even sent Daddy a text at work just letting him know we needed him to come home as soon as he was able today, as DS needed everyone to be home in order to re-set) but when it came to it, all he could manage to do was just get his Lego box out and then he was exhausted again, came back down and flopped in front of the telly with me & DD until bed!  He even went compliantly to bed at bedtime - obviously worn out from all the brain effort today, bless him.

DD on the otherhand did the complete opposite - most of the day, post-rat, was spent darting around the house like a wild rabbit and being seemingly deliberately irritating by basically just doing the opposite of whatever was asked, needed or appropriate at any given time!  But we've managed this successfully with lots of physical interaction and feedback - tickles wherever possible, hugs, picking her up, clapping hands together - any sort of physical interaction seems to ground her, as when there is something 'new' or 'unknown' for DD she feels as though she is falling and becomes extremely hyper.  I guess it is just another method of trying to re-set herself, but can sometimes be harder to deal with due to the irritation factor.  I constantly have to remind myself that it's the same underlying need, it just manifests in a different way in her! :-)

And on that exhausting note, I'll say a well-earned Good Night all xx



Thursday 21 January 2016

Today has been something of a difficult day.  Yes, we do have them - often by the bucket load!  And today was one of them.

Both kids feeling a bit under the weather I think.  DD has been very oppositional all day, over every possible thing and hugely emotional when called out on it (which was necessary at times).  DS was very tired after a bad night last night - he woke me up in the middle of the night after a bad dream and wouldn't go back to bed.  So it was a long night for both of us.  

Nonetheless, we managed to make it out to their Home Ed gymnastics class, had lunch while we were out and then a trip to the supermarket.  An hour or so at home to de-junk then it was off again to Badgers (St John Ambulance group for 5-11 year olds).  This was our first time attending, so it was very hard for DS doing a 'new thing' on what was not a 'good day'.  But he managed really well.  He played at first, then had a bit of a meltdown when they were called to do a sitting down activity.  He became very angry and confused, and left the hall in a rage but the organiser was very good with him.  He agreed to come back to the table, I sat one side, she sat the other, and just chatted calmly 'at' him - not requiring any response, or demanding anything of him.  It helped calm him and he agreed to stay in the room, and let me stay sitting beside him.  He didn't want to join in the craft activity but that was fine. No-one questioned or judged him, he was allowed to just sit and play with a ball of wool (one of his favourite things) and just wound it round and around on his lap until the craft activity was over.  He then did a great job helping tidy away - he loves to help tidy (unless it's his bedroom!) as things have places and order and routine, and he can be helpful :-)    Then they played a few team games.  This was difficult for DS as he struggles to cope in games where he could be 'out'.  However, he coped with this really well by ensuring he was 'out' straight away - thus taking control of the situation and then sitting happily on the sidelines calling encouragement to the others.  

When we left to come home he said he 'would try it again' and that he 'liked that teacher' - which was a vast improvement to the 'this is horrendous, I want to go home!' that we experienced for the first half an hour!!  :-)   DD, on the other hand, had a great time and can't wait to go again (although that may have just been her last attempt at being oppositional for the day lol).

Time now for a deep breath, an early night and a fresh start tomorrow me thinks :-) xx

Wednesday 20 January 2016

I got lots of work done this afternoon while my little cherubs played outside together.  You can see all of our garden from the kitchen and dining room in our house, so I sat at the dining room table with the lap top and got lots of things done, including sorting a private swimming lesson for the kids next week that I can assist in (they can both swim but mainstream swimming lessons were becoming a real headache with teachers who don't understand special needs and would complain about their 'lack of concentration' and 'fidgety behaviour'. Probably my fault for having them in mainstream lessons but pre-diagnosis I didn't know there was any other option). 

Anyway, I digress.... 

I popped out to the garden to see them and found they had built this fabulous den - 


I love that we have a 'rough area' in the garden - where they can dig, build and create. So many happy hours are spent out there.  They probably spend much more time there than they do in any of the 'pretty' parts of the garden!

After all that building there was just enough time to bake some home made cookies before dinner - we were a bit short of ingredients so we just made up our own recipe! DS added Smarties to his half of the batch and DD (who is allergic to the colourings in Smarties - they make her super-hyper and quite nasty) added chopped up dark chocolate to her half.   


If you fancy making some we mixed 

4oz butter with 4oz brown sugar, 
added a generous tablespoon of honey, 
then mixed in 3oz of self raising flour.  
We then split the mixture in to 2 bowls,
added 1 tube of Smarties and another 3oz of self raising flour to one bowl
and a good handful of chocolate chunks/chips and 3oz self raising flour to the other.  
The kids then used their hands to form a ball of dough, which they then split in to 6-7 balls (I suspect there was quite alot of 'mixture eating' being done by DD as she seems to have produced 6 small cookies to DS's 7 large ones!)

Anyway, back to the recipe - 

place the balls on to a greased baking tray - don't flatten them, leave as balls.  
Into the oven at 180 C for 15 mins or until the look cooked basically :-)

Cool a little, eat and enjoy :-)  See you tomorrow xx


Time to come in for a nice, warming lunch -



of toasted sandwiches with baked beans, and hot cocoa :-)  


Toasted sandwiches are always a favourite in our house for 3 reasons :-   

1) It means white bread (lol - this is considered something of a 'treat' in itself, because Mummy prefers the multiseed bread :-) )   

2) The bread is nice and crispy, even the crusts taste nice (we don't do 'soggy' haha)   

And 3) The beans are nice and 'tidy' inside the bread (did I mention we don't do 'soggy'?)  

Lol!  #minifoodcritics
We're out in the garden today :-)

It's very cold and frosty - so lots of frozen wonders to discover!

We've put food and water out for our feathered friends -



We're been watching from inside and so far we've had wood pigeons, sparrows and a starling visit us :-)

Back outside, DS discovered this egg that something has buried itself for the winter (I suspect from the neighbours chickens) - 


And now we are watching science in action, as the sun gradually melts the frozen lawn :-)


Sorry I didn't get around to posting anything yesterday.  I'll be honest, I sat down with every good intention, even uploaded some photos from our day, then ordered a Thai take away and opened a bottle of Kir Royale left over from Christmas!!!!  Lol - a great combination at the time, but makes for a terrible night's sleep I warn you! :-)

We had a pretty full day yesterday.  We started with 'table work' around 9am.  We had intended to start with Maths but DS was finding it very difficult to focus, so instead he chose to get down and have some Golden Time first which gave me and opportunity for some 1-2-1 time with DD.   As we had her maths book out (Leap Ahead), I decided we would go back over some of the exercises she had skipped or struggled with.  

DD has a very low attention span, in the sense she does not like to be taught.  If she does not instantly 'get' something, it will be hands in the air, tantrum/ rage and giving up.  We strongly suspect she has PDA but that's another whole battle to get diagnosed (and definitely another Post!).  So, sometimes, from a purely practical point of view, we have to skip over things and come back to them another time.  This was a perfect time to go back through these things. 

Naturally, she was hugely reluctant and there was plenty of huffing, eye rolling and fidgeting - which you just learn to ignore with a benign smile :-)  So, pretending that no-one was 'ever so slightly' kicking me under the table and speaking to me like a teenager that's been caught at 2am, we pressed on - and whaddayaknow, we got through Fractions (which she HATES), double figures multiplication and a number of other exercises she had found tricky.  And how pleased was she when she started to 'get' them?  And worked through the answers, correctly, on her own.  Score Big Win to Mummy & DD :-)

DS came back to join us, and DD decided to have a well-earned break.  So, perfect opportunity for some 1-2-1 time with DS.  He did some reading, and finished a book he was finding quite tricky.  Reading is difficult with DS as he becomes very distracted and frustrated with the pictures!  If the artist has now drawn something 'correctly' - eg. a person with 3 fingers instead of 5, a vase not quite sitting on the table, marks to indicate movement - this bothers him terribly and he becomes quite angry.  Sometimes we have to cover the pictures up completely, other times he can tolerate it.  Largely depends on whether it is a Good or Bad day.  Although, to be honest, if it's a Bad day we certainly wouldn't be doing any reading lol! 

After reading he decided he was in the mood for some spellings - so I decided to test him on some of his basic High Frequency Words.  He got 10/10 and wanted to carry on.  We eventually got to 33 before he decided he'd had enough :-)  

Then he settled down to do some maths.  It was tricky, he was really struggling to focus and was becoming frustrated with himself as he knew the answers and just kept losing focus.  It was a 'swimming through soup' kind of mood, so we decided to leave it after a couple of pages and have an early lunch instead.  Pasta, grated cheese and pine nuts for him.  One of his absolute faves!  He has the pasta plain, Penne is his favourite as he likes to stuff the tubes with pine nuts! Tactile, sensory and food = happy DS! :-) 

After lunch the kids got themselves ready and we headed on out to take DD to her Creative Writing lesson (she has started a 12 week block of lessons, taught by another HE Mum).  She was so excited to be learning with a number of her friends :-)  While she was doing that, DS and I went for a walk in the very cold, but beautiful, sunshine :- 



We found a bank that led to a stream that was frozen over and DS had wonderful fun breaking the ice with various sticks etc.




Then it was time to go and pick up DD.  As we wandered back, DS noticed the moon was "up past his bedtime" :-) :-) :-)  So we took a picture to show you -




We had a few errands in town to run afterwards, including posting DD's matchbox swap (we do a monthly swap scheme, run by a fellow HE Mum) and letter to her penfriend (she has a local penfriend - a girl her age also Home Educated) but we stopped for a well earned hot chocolate first - and my first ever Chai Latte! I am officially a fan :-)


Monday 18 January 2016

Today's been a good day :-)  DS declared he wanted his 'best' glasses down (he often refuses to wear his glasses, it can take alot of coaxing to get him to comply) - but today he asked for them, proudly declaring "For it is a GOOD day" :-) :-)

The kids worked through 4 more of their Fact a Day worksheets (from http://www.twinkl.co.uk/), we did some work on farm animals, their different characteristics and also looked in to the nutritional values of various meats and whether that would influence farmers to farm a particular type of animal or whether environmental factors were more prevalent.  

After all that focusing the grey matter, we did a couple of more light hearted challenges - including designing their own island and then an indoor treasure hunt around the house (inspired by the Red Alert! Fact a Day worksheets) to find as many items as possible of a particular colour.  The idea being they got 2 points for any item that could ONLY be that colour, 1 point for any item that could POSSIBLY be that colour and a bonus of 50 extra points if they got over 50 answers!  That bought me enough time to catch up on all my admin and make half a dozen phone calls :-)  This is what they came up with :-



This is DS's writing.  It is overwhelming to me that he has, voluntarily, participated and written so much.  All the letters are well formed and fairly uniform, within the boxes and such a remarkable improvement. He did this all by himself - he is 7, with autistic spectrum disorder.  My personal favourites are no. 11 (which translates - Darth Vaders Light Saber) and no. 25 (translated - Leaves in Autumn) :-) 

DS then decided he needed to move around a bit, so he went to play with the rabbit.  This usually involves setting up assault courses for him, which he loves, with tunnels and whatever else he can fashion out of cardboard from the recycling.  It also often involves playing the guitar to the rabbit (yes, really!) which is always hysterically wonderful to listen to through the door :-)   

While this was going on DD worked on a story board for her Arts Award. 

After all that work, it was time for some fresh air.  The kids played out in the garden - they are playing so nicely together at the moment. At one point DS was sitting up his apple tree (one of his favourite places to be) and DD was circling underneath on her scooter and they were just chatting like that, for about 20 minutes! Gorgeous :-)  

They also grabbed the giant chalks from the playhouse and made roads for each other to ride on their skates and scooters :-



Unfortunately, from the angle I've taken the picture, it looks rather unsavoury!! I can assure you, it is meant to be a car park, ring road and roundabout - NOT whatever else you are imagining! ;-) 

After lunch, and a little walk to the shops, we settled back down at the table for some reading time and some work on their Leap Ahead English books. DD finished hers completely and DS managed another 4 pages, then it was back out to the garden until dinner time :-)
Yippee!  So DH appears to have added a function whereby you can now "Join this Site" :-)  Don't worry, you won't be bombarded with messages or anything, it just means you can Follow us on Google +  and I will (if it works) know if anyone is interested or if I am just typing away to myself lol :-) xx

Sunday 17 January 2016

Snow!!!  We had snow! Just enough to make possibly the world's smallest snowman :-)

  

Time to try some of these before it all melts...

10 Science Experiments to do in Snow

Frozen Fun - Cold Weather Experiments

Easy Snow & Ice Experiments

Have fun xx

Saturday 16 January 2016

Gosh it's cold today! Brrrr!  Don't much fancy going out, luckily the rest of the family feels the same.

DS is having his computer time (& associated strops that go with it when it doesn't 'go right'!), while DD has made herself a pair of shoes! She is extremely proud of them and wanted me to share them with you all -



Apparently she's making some for me next, and a dress for me as well!! Not so sure I will be sharing that lol xx

Friday 15 January 2016

Ooops, I almost forgot - flicking through Facebook with my coffee this afternoon, I came across these:-


Beautiful drawings of women, finished with natural materials.

I showed DD and she was immediately inspired to have a go herself.  She came up with this - 


I think it's really great :-)
Very busy couple of days.  We've been out four out of five days this week, so we were all very pleased to have an 'at home' day today. 

We started the day with 'table work'. Both the kids did reading and updated their Reading Diaries. We did DD's weekly spelling test (over due from Monday! Ooops! ). We haven't set spellings for DS yet this year, he has been working super hard on his writing and is producing some great sentences with much neater letter and word formation and uniformity.  Because of this I don't want to overwhelm him or dampen his spirits when he is so enthusiastic, so we are taking a break from spellings for a bit.

We then managed to work through some of our great Fact a Day January Worksheets from http://www.twinkl.co.uk.  We had fun researching some of the answers to the questions on line - DS even continued on the back of his worksheet he was so enjoying himself! We managed to get through 4 worksheets, so we have caught up a bit this week :-)  

We had a little break for a shake down - DS & I did star jumps and other exercises in the lounge (great sneaky way of working in his physio!).

DS then decided he would like to do some Maths while DD was working on her farming project.  We did some basic fractions - 1/2's and 1/4's - and he worked through a few pages in his "Leap Ahead" maths book.  Meanwhile, DD worked on her Farming project for her Matchbox Swap this month (she'll swap with another Home Educated child the matchbox she fills this month).  It's a great way of getting kids to research a theme and work independently, and they look forward to receiving their box in the post.  Sometimes DS participates as well but this month just DD.  Here's what she produced today (really proud of her :-) )  :- 



After lunch and helping with a few simple chores (yes, I believe in the kids helping with chores :-) ) the kids decided to go and play outside for a while.  The temperature has dropped here the last couple of days and we had our first proper frost this morning.  DS had great fun finding some ice sculptures in the garden, including the top of a bucket that had frozen over - 


and, most excitingly of all, a frozen footprint - we think probably of a fox (given the size). DS was so excited about this find we've had to re-freeze it in the freezer so he can show anyone that asks!! :-) 


We will probably have a look through our books next week to see if we can match it to a particular animal track. Anyone have any ideas? xx

Wednesday 13 January 2016


Fabulous day today in the glorious winter sunshine, horse riding.  

It was our first proper horse riding lesson. Both kids have been on pony rides before, but this was stable management and an actual horse riding lesson with a wonderful instructor.  Both DD & DS had a very special, incredibly peaceful time.  Amazing the effect these incredible creatures can have on those with special needs or sensory difficulties, if you are with the right horses and the right instructor.  

If you had met my children today you would never have known either of them have any sensory difficulties at all! Wonderful therapy :-)




And we've been busy looking up information since we came home, to answer our Homework Quiz :-)


National Geographic - Animals A-Z Horses

Pet Education Resources - Horses

Blue Cross - Horse Welfare & Care

The British Horse Society - Free leaflets

Science Kids - Horses





Tuesday 12 January 2016

 DD is working on her farming project at the moment.  We have found some great FREE online resources :-)  

Compassion in World Farming

Farming & Countryside Education

Food a Fact of Life

My Farm Food

Grow Your Own Potatoes - FREE Potato Growing kit

Tesco Eat Happy Project

I'll add them all to our Home Education Resources Page too, for future use x

Monday 4 January 2016

Feeling super positive today :-)   We started our day brain storming about "Art" in preparation for dd's Arts Award see Arts Award website .  This led to dd being inspired to go around the house taking photographs of different types of 'art' in our home.  She did well!  Her subjects ranged from traditional art in the form of pictures on the walls, to the tiles in our kitchen, various pottery items, holiday souvenirs, a vase of flowers and a selection of her jewelry.  She plans now to print a montage of the photos and make a frame for it to go in.  Great start :-)

We also watched a couple of cute and interesting short films online    The Survival of the Sea Turtle    and   The Secret Lives of Baby Fish .   Great for inquisitive minds (with short attention spans :-) ) 


Firmed up the details of our Pizza Express trip next week.  Did you know they do free educational visits, UK wide?  Bookable on-line at  Pizza Express School Visits .  I've booked ours at a local venue for myself, dd, ds and 21 other fellow Home Edders.  

DS (7) is particularly excited to be going on a trip 'we' have organised, bless him :-) 

The other thing I'm really excited about today is a little find on Twinkl (yes, spelt correctly without the 'e' :-) ).  If you're not familiar I highly recommend a look  http://www.twinkl.co.uk/  They have a number of free resources but it is SO worth subscribing (in my opinion!). We have the Gold membership (if memory serves correctly..) and that works out at under £4 per month.  For that we can download pretty much everything and it is our real mainstay for all things like spellings, projects/ themed work, SPaG (Spelling Punctuation and Grammar), maths, science and they have some wonderful paper crafts and much, much more.  It is all curriculum approved, and they have a brilliant SEN section and Home Ed section.  It was in the Home Education section that I stumbled across their brilliant   Amazing Fact a Day January Activity Pack .  I downloaded it last night and it is so varied and interesting, I know the kids are going to have great fun completing the various challenges related to each daily fact.  There's lots of scope for exploration and discovery, probably enough to fill the rest of our days this month to be honest.  So, in one simple click, that's January sorted :-)  Thanks Twinkl! 


So, what with all that, and a three hour trip to the park for cycling, scootering, playground and hot chocolates, that's our day about done! Night all x

Sunday 3 January 2016

After watching a great documentary on the Great Barrier Reef this morning, dd (8) has produced this lovely water colour :-) 


Friday 1 January 2016

So I decided to set up this blog to record and share useful information on (but not limited to! :-) ) sensory integration issues, autistic spectrum disorder, Home Education, educational links and anything else in between :-)  
This is also a place for me to record and make posts about our unique journey, which you are welcome to follow :-)