So Tuesday was a late start. But Mummy had in mind that we would go to the local lake for a nature walk and by George we were going to do it! Lol. The kids were reluctant but the promise of a bag of chips to eat on the way was enough to persuade them into their wellies and out the door.
It wasn't Mummy's finest plan because eating a bag of chips while walking along requires a neurotypical amount of coordination!! So by the time we arrived, things were fraught to say the least and a particularly 'keen' swan eyeing our bread (well cereal actually as you're not meant to give bread, are you?) was enough to push DD over the edge into a chaotic, frenzied, silent tantrum. She doesn't have meltdowns as such (like DS does) because she has ZERO emotional language - at all. Infact, she doesn't recognize emotion or feelings, pretty much AT ALL. So if she feels - anything - she will pretty much spiral quite alarmingly quickly into a frenzy. She cannot distinguish feelings in herself, identify or name them. So she reacts as a pre or non-verbal child would - with her body, and her reactions. So this is what she did.... It was, sadly, the worst thing she could've done in the situation IF indeed it was the swan she was scared of - as she ended up covering herself in a scattering of cereal in her frenzy which only served to make her even more of an attractive prospect to both swan AND seagulls!!!
But we cleaned her off, moved her out of harms way and carried on with our walk - because, well, what else can you do?
I gave her my camera, to occupy her hands (and mind) for a while and she managed to get some nice pictures of the birds -
Then, on our walk back home we were rewarded for our perseverance with a Kingfisher! We all love birds, so we were beyond excited about this (Mummy especially as she has always wanted to see one!) It was truly majestic and he generously dove for us 3 times before disappearing off to his hole. I was clearly not the only one moved by this, as DD drew me this when we got home -
She continued to have rather a chaotic day - lots of crawling and antagonistic behavior but all sort of low level disruption. Lots of silent 'look at me' behavior - general abated by a bit of tickling, a roll around or some sensory intervention. Thank Heavens for this wall DH built over the summer holidays -
Yes, it is effectively a climbing wall up our stairs. We originally installed it with DS in mind, as he struggles (due to Hypermobility) get up and downstairs - to the extent he had managed to pull the embedded handrail OUT of the Wall due to over exertion! We went to the Help Shop etc but all the solutions were so 'disabled' :-( And he felt very sad and self conscious. So we thought of hand holds, so he could pull himself along but not feel embarrassed - as it made it more like 'play'. This evolved in to the climbing wall - and thank goodness it did as DD must go up and down that thing 10-20 times a day! It has HUGELY improved her behavior, her chaotic-ness and given her valuably sensory stimulus she desperately needs.
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And today is a different kettle of fish. DD is more settled, despite another Bad Night, but DS has a VERY Busy Brain today - so everything feels quite exhausting. Lots and lots of repeating single task instructions (over and over and over 😉) and not able to settle at anything for long (read that to mean AT ALL lol!)
So despite our visual prompt aids, and Mummy being constantly on hand to manage everything, it has still taken until 11am for him to have his breakfast today!! In the meantime, we did manage to classify some of his rock collection (using an Usbourne set of cards he got for Christmas) -
But don't be fooled - this activity took over an hour and involved an unquantifiable amount of getting up and down from the chair/ table, rolling around the floor, throwing himself in to the door frame, clucking, yelping and jumping up and down. Because, y'know, that's how we roll - literally 😆😆
Meanwhile, DS was working on things for our Italian project. So she was trying her hand at speaking some Italian and getting various phrases translated on Google. She made a little crib sheet of words, the actual translation and a pronunciation guide. And we all (DS included!) had a go at speaking some Italian!
DD suggested we do something on the ancient Roman Gods as part of the project - so we dug out some of the resources we had left from when we studied Romans last year. Luckily we still had some fab stuff from Twinkl (http://www.twinkl.co.uk/) so she did this fun Roman Numerals Colour by Numbers. I made her a list of the Roman Numerals (as, annoyingly, it didn't come with one!) and she enjoyed figuring out the key.
Throughout these, I tried repeatedly to either engage DS in contributing to our Italy project, or suggesting he go and play if he was finding it too difficult. He obviously is as he has asked me repeatedly for his DS today, or to watch TV, neither of which I allow (as a general rule) during 'school' hours. He has settled now to playing Lego on my bed as I type this 😀😀
Anyway, he couldn't decide what he wanted to do with regards to Italy. Myself and DD made numerous suggestions but they were all not quite right....... The only thing he want to think about, learn about, talk about was Carnivorous Plants (this is his current obsession!) But, whaddaya know, we managed to find some species, indigenous to Italy!! Hurrah -
Whoop whoop!! So we will be adding that to our finished project 💞
We read a few chapters of our Goosebumps book after lunch, and DS read me some of his Beanos! He LOVES his Beanos - we bought him a subscription as this boy WILL NOT read Anything (except Minecraft books!) but turns out he LOVES a Beano - and the artistry is so brilliant and vivid that he 'gets' a lot of the jokes - which is just, sigh, amazing!
And now it's 'break' time (after lunch Mummy normally has some time that is hers and they are free to pursue their own - non-electronic! - interests 😊). DD is, of course, Harry Potter colouring - whilst simultaneously trying to dress as a cross between Luna Lovegood and Viktor Krum! And DS is at my feet playing Lego and tick, tick, ticking away peacefully. Love them 💘💘
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