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

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. 

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 ;-)

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 :-)

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

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

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