w/c 27th October 2014 Highlights

This was the week I felt like social activities for M in our new home and locale are finally falling into place. Our regular activities are now as follows:-

Monday Evening -  Social club at Families for the Disabled. (Council activity for SN kids with any diagnosis).
Wednesday Evening - Puppy Training class
Friday Evening - Youth Club at the Trehafod Gospel Hall
Sundays - Sunday School at the Trehafod Gospel Hall.

Monthly - Porthcawl Home Ed Group (date will vary as some activities are more suitable than others).

In addition we have learning related Home Education Trips planned with other home educators at various points during the year. I'm particularly looking forward to the Tudor House trip to Tenby. Unfortunately M's current diagnosis means that he is ineligible for Trehafod organised autism outreach activities and I have to admit this has confirmed to me that a mainstream school in Swansea would have been wholly unsuitable for his needs. Previous bitter experience has taught us both that behavioral support must be given through an autism lens or it is always doomed to failure. It is a shame we are cut off from that form of support but not a surprise, given our experiences to date. Thank goodness our informal network is proving to be a great form of support for both of us.

I now feel that M has several regular outlets for socialization that can meet his need to make friends and that will help him settle into our new community; both with schooled children and those who may live a little further afield but share the home education experience. The routine social meets meet his need for regularity and structure but are not so onerous that we can't find time for impromptu playdates and outings.

Academically I am still chuckling at M's reading attempts. He is quietly reading an article from the newspaper daily alone with his mid-morning snack. He is gaining confidence about asking questions about what he has read. He now asks the neighbours as well as myself so is gaining ground. He is however still liable to shut down when asked to read out loud directly. I feel like we are at a delicate stage now, where gentle encouragement and provision of regular access to titles on the High Interest/low ability book list provided by Swansea LA is important.

I do worry that he will be put off once more if any outsiders question him too deeply, as he is still very anxious about reading. It is lovely to see his fledgling research skills emerge ably encouraged by his Briteschool teachers and he is gaining confidence in looking up text articles for himself on various topics. Our Monday morning global breakfast encourages this activity as he is keen to find out more about the nation whose cuisine he has just sampled each week.

The new exercises that the OT recommended at our last appointment are becoming entrenched into our routine and I am seeing M reaping the benefits, and improving his own ability to recognise when he is becoming over stimulated & take appropriate mitigating action. This is incredibly useful as his sensory issues do seem to flaring up at present.

On a practical level M is still adjusting to his mattress being moved to the floor. He was breaking his bed slats on a regular basis. The adjustment means that he is having trouble sleeping and being awake from midnight till 4 am is affecting him a little during day time hours. This is something we are just going to have to work through as he needs to be safe at night. Last week's inadvertent school reminder has also had an impact and is still troubling him at night a little.

w/c 20th October 2014

This week was a week of highs and lows on the socialisation front for M. On the one hand our first trip to the Monday social club was declared a roaring success. The children present were such a lovely range of ages and abilities, and the staff so welcoming that M immediately absorbed the non-judgmental atmosphere and soaked up the feeling of acceptance with gusto. I also appreciated being able to take 5 minutes to take a phone call about a recently hospitalised relative who is causing great concern. It was also nice to hear the Mums present swap stories about behavioral issues. No issues with M having me around in the background "just in case", at this event! The consensus from both of us was that this needs to become part of our regular schedule.

The success of Monday meant that the contrast with Friday's expedition was made all the more stark. M has been before, knows the children and some of the parents from last year's Rhos group. In addition we traveled there with his friend and her Mum. It was a disaster. At first I thought his extreme reaction, (a melt down followed by half an hour sobbing his heart out in the toilets) was due to his sensory issues, which really seem to be playing up at the moment. However once he'd finally calmed down enough to spend forty five minutes outside away from everyone on the scooter and collect his thoughts; he was finally able to share the source of his distress. It turns out that the perfectly calm and pleasant activity the children were doing had reminded him of school! The sight of the pencils, children sitting as a group round a table drawing, writing and creating graphs was just too much for him. It has confirmed that he still needs a considerable amount of time to recover from his traumatising school experiences before we even broach attempting that kind of activity again.

Sunday was another high as we ventured out to try the Treboath Gospel Hall Sunday School. Anxious though he was, both children and group leaders were so warm and welcoming that M couldn't avoid being charmed by them. He has agreed to try the Friday evening youth club at the same venue. I am hoping that both activities can become a regular part of his weekly schedule. As it is on our doorstep it's a really nice opportunity for M to meet those local children we haven't yet encountered on our dog walks.

I did reach out via the Welsh facebook board to see if any other Home Edders within walking distance might fancy meeting up to walk the dogs together in daylight hours now the nights are drawing in for winter. However I was informed that the SHED group, run by a committee based in Port Talbot objected rather strongly to this idea.  I'm not a member of the said SHED group, (our one and only introductory excursion to meet them was rather marred by the organisers unpleasantness towards myself). I cannot verify what has been said and do rather hate listening to second hand information. Upon reflection it all seemed rather too politically charged for a simple dog walk and so I decided to withdraw the offer and stick with the lovely local pensioners instead. The local area is so beautiful that there are no shortage of nice companions to grab a flask and accompany us as we walk the dogs and socialise the new pup.

On the reading front M is currently presenting a bit of a conundrum. If he spontaneously searches for information it appears that his reading skills have improved dramatically. However if he consciously tries to read, all fluency is lost. It's as if we have to wait for him to consciously catch up to the idea that reading is not only possible but actually not that hard once you forget to fret about it. I'm doing all I can to create gentle prompts in the day that encourage him to read without thinking about it at the moment. The newspaper left lying prominently in the living room where he can find it seems to be the most useful tool for this at the moment.

w/c 11th October Highlights

This seems to have been a week where M has demonstrated his mastery of skills learned and his increasing confidence in his own abilities. Lots of consolidation has taken place.

M has enjoyed using the skills learnt on his futurelearn science course to plot a graph showing the weight of his bantam eggs over time. It has been nice to see him easily generalising a skill independently without adult prompting as historically this has been a real area of difficulty for him. It was also useful revision of an important maths topic.

He enjoyed visiting a Church craft fete at the weekend with friends and is getting quite confident about money, change and the social skills needed for a purchase. So confident in fact that, he intends to do the shopping for the roast dinner he plans to cook unassisted for myself and his Gran. This is a new target he has set himself to accomplish and demonstrates his improvement in his motor skills. This week he learned how to make the roast potatoes and the yorkshire puddings towards his self-directed goal.

On Monday we had the second of three planned NHS OT appointments with our new PCT. It was great to see him enthusiastically engaging with the therapist and chatting away as they assessed him. I was excited too, on learning that they have ordered him a new weighted blanket as his recent growth spurt means the one a friend helped me make a couple of years ago has been outgrown. We agreed the safest thing to do is to put his mattress on the floor for the time being as he has been breaking his bed slats on a regular basis in his sleep and I had been getting concerned about the potential safety implications. he enjoyed showing off his improved fine motor skills through drawing & colouring tasks for the therapist. We also discussed how to desensitise him so that I can take him to the GP to get a stubborn verruca on his foot looked at in a month or so. (Time is needed to work through the desensitisation programme so that the doctor can examine his feet without it causing a major melt down). It was a very productive appointment and I came away feeling confident that we have the tools needed to help him continue to make good progress as he grows.

He is enjoying his Flat Stanley audio books and discussing the story lines at present and they are an ideal way to spend time when it is too wet and rainy to go out. We got a new gym mat this week to use instead of a rug in the living room so that we can bring some of his therapy activities indoors for the winter as the grass outside is too sodden for effective floor work. It will be time to pull out the wii balance board soon for the same purpose. When the weather is fine I am keen for him to get out in the fresh air of the field with his dogs and continue to learn to ride his bike. However he has broken one of the stabilisers on his bike. His weight means sessions are shorter now as I can only support him for so long. I need to source some sturdier stabilsers as soon as I can so we do not lose momentum.

w/c 6th October Highlights

The weather this week was very changeable. We had a lovely afternoon, and a morning looking at the free RNLI KS2 resources on beach safety.



We've also spent lots of time on social stories, to try and help M cope when he realises that older children are teasing him at social events and activities. It sends him into a panic and can upset him to the point of meltdown so really needs addressing before our next community farm visit in particular as some of the teens there honed in upon his vulnerability to torment him when we last visited. To do this we've used our "Lego Story Starter" trial pack and done lots of role play. Luckily our 15 year old neighbour is on the spectrum, and understand's M's fears - enough to role play the solutions after school M has decided upon with my help during the day.



Hopefully M will now be willing to try some new organised social activities in the weeks ahead, instead of just relying on play dates and dog walks with neighborhood children for his social life. It is a shame that he cannot use the local children's centre's  after school club, but I do not have the requisite DBS check that they demand,  in order for him to be able to successfully attempt an Introductory Session. It does make you wonder how many other children are excluded from activities at the children's centre simply because they need additional adult support in order to use their service. In addition unlike in many areas around the country Home Ed children cannot join in their local schools after hours activities. This closes off many social avenues for Home Ed kids to get to know the children in their locales.



M seems to have had a developmental leap recently regarding his drawing skills, so we have ditched the easygraph coloured pencils in favour of some erasable ordinary-shaped coloured pencils. I have let him spend lots of time this week drawing to his hearts content. Strike while the iron is hot, I say! He has a superb sense of colour and keen observational skills, so this will open up a whole new artistic avenue for him. Previously he was only ever confident working in 3 dimensions, his favourite medium being clay, for the sensory experience. I am also hoping that his new found confidence will extend eventually to his handwriting, and that we will reap the rewards of his hard work in this area too.

The Flat Stanley audio book series is perfect for quiet times after a mad race round the fields with the dogs. M is listening again to the book he insisted on hearing from beginning to end last week. He often does this with his Briteschool literacy lessons too, as he finds he often catches some of the language nuances he missed first go round due to his audio processing issues. After his second  time of listening I know to expect lots of questions as he digs into the details of the language used. He'll then listen a third time, in order to solidify his new knowledge, It's a method that seems to have accelerated his receptive language skill acquisition in the year we've been home educating, so I let him run with it. It means he can appreciate far more sophisticated texts (and conversations from his Briteschool lessons) than would otherwise be the case too.

The homework load from Briteschool was fairly time consuming this week, so it was a bit of a squeeze getting all our jobs done around the house on Saturday morning so that we could attend a local Cancer research coffee morning and have time for his cousins to visit on Sunday afternoon too.
On Saturday we headed out with the neighbours for a McMillan coffee morning, and Sprog chose a book on DNA from the reduced section of the Usbourne stall. It's great to see his growing confidence in talking to people and handling money and change. It's also good seeing him become more comfortable with an increasing range of new social situations and people. I never complain when he spends his pocket money on books either!

M needed to hear his science KS3 lesson recording again before he fully understood what was required of him for homework. However it's good to see that he is taking the time to fully understand the key concepts instead of just letting things float over his head in order to fit in, as he did when he was at school. Deep learning in preference to surface curriculum skimming with no real understanding or retention of the knowledge gained is a concept I wholeheartedly approve of. I think I like the newest trendy educational meme from Canada, "Slow Learning", as it seems to incorporate the actual development rate of the whole child in a holistic sense, rather than mere curriculum tick box targets.

On Sunday I was over the flu and the sprog was feeling brave, so we ventured out to the nearest Sunday School within walking distance at the Treboath Gospel Hall.  Another minor success as we have now been able to add another regular, local social activity to our week. (I've mentioned in previous weeks that appropriate Home Ed groups this year are all at some distance). I see this as yet another slot in the puzzle of M becoming part of the local community in which he resides. This is important to me, as in London we had local children in and out of our home daily, and were involved in several community activities. M has always enjoyed socialising despite the limitations of his sensory issues, and always had several close friends when he was at school.

Taking sole responsibility for my son's education is at times a little daunting, so this article about home education in another part of the country helped me hold my nerve, in this a week when I had flu. Article here

w/c 29th September 2014 Highlights.

We went for a lovely walk on Thursday in the sunshine with the dogs to look for flowers, so that M could study the flower structures from his Briteschool homework task of the previous week. We also had great fun searching for wild plants that can reproduce via runners in our surrounding neighbourhood.




The pace of the Briteschool KS3 science curriculum is quite a brisk one, so we can't always find the time for this sort of thing. It takes M so much longer then the norm to produce any written work, even the models he's been producing in recent weeks instead of reports are time consuming to produce. The British weather may not be on our side for much longer either, as it's hard to make scientific observations in the driving rain.

I'm really pleased with the diagrams that M has managed to produce so far this term as it's a tangible sign that his fine motor skills are improving. His drawings are so much neater than when we began our homeschool journey, making it feel like all our fine motor skills work is beginning to pay off. If he can only pick up some speed then I can see an iGCSE  in Biology perhaps being a tangible reality for his future in the coming years. Handwriting as a means of recording information is at last becoming a meaningful concept in its' own right for him after years of pain. He can see the purpose of recording the results of his experiments so is keen to improve his handwriting where he had previously almost given up seeing no purpose beyond making himself feel stupid in comparison to his peers. I believe intrinsic motivation to be a key component for learning in children with social communication disorders like my son, so am thrilled at this new development.


We also stumbled upon an amazing literacy resource to help M with creative writing this week in the form of a free trial Lego story starter pack. Like many children with a social communication disorder M has real struggles with creative language work. The curriculum guide that accompanies the pack is really helpful and well structured. M spent a happy hour with the neighbor working on a story plot for his Briteschool homework.

We also feel that the software would be great for helping M produce his own social stories in conjunction with resources like the "Talk About" series.  The only issue for purchasing a full curriculum pack for M is the cost at £100 for the software licence and another £108 for the lego and teachers resource this isn't a cheap solution.

On the social front M's second puppy training class went well, and it is lovely to see him starting to form tentative friendships with some of the other children who attend with their parents. Once again the challenge of right from left had him confused - this time as he attempted to weave in and out of a circle of dogs with his pup. The instructors are lovely and very clear in their instructions to him, and it is nice to see him forming a trusting relationship with them, and beginning to ask for help when needed. It was commented on that his body language seemed far more relaxed this week.

The class is quite busy and a little noisy at times, as pups yap. This means it's a very challenging sensory environment for M. He uses his Nintendo DS  to "zone out" the noise when it gets too much. At an hour's duration I think the class is at about the edge of his tolerance limit. He is keen to continue, so we will look at strategies for him to manage his sensory issues in a calm way for future classes, He'll be working on the Kennel Club's "Good Citizen" puppy foundation scheme this year, giving him a tangible goal to work towards, and hopefully a sense of achievement at the end.

Our Flat Stanley - "Around the World Adventures" audio books arrived this week. Although we've read the original "Flat Stanley" book together in the past we've only recently come across the accompanying UK home school group. The scheme involves sending out a Flat Stanley laminated model and an adventure story to another child, and in return receiving theirs. As it's a global project it seems a wonderful way of encouraging & motivating literacy & geography skills while having a bit of creative fun. We'll listen to some of the books in the series that is new to us before joining the postal scheme in a couple of months, when M is feeling confident about what he'd like to produce and contribute. In the mean time, it helps bring the World map on the living room wall to life for M, and compliments our Monday global breakfasts inspired by Grain Chain. By starting our postal adventure in the UK this year we'll build up confidence perhaps to try some of the global destinations in future.

w/c 22nd September 2014 Highlights

Monday began with a global breakfast - this week we tried Japanese cuisine. This led to a couple of hours looking at how miso is produced on youtube and exploring all the different processing methods for the humble soya bean. It was especially interesting for M as his dairy free diet means that Soya is often offered as the alternative.

We also began this MOOC https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/science-experiments and thoroughly enjoyed the first experiment. Marking his points on a graph for his experiment has sparked Marc's interest in a maths topic he found rather tricky last year with Briteschool. We'll use some of our non-time tabled hours over the coming weeks to continue this line of study I think. Strike while the iron is hot!

On Monday evening M took his new puppy to his first training class. M is acting as the puppy's handler. Valuable social interaction is a key reason for attending these classes. M can work on improving his ability to follow complex instructions, and the very unpredictability of puppies means that the class is a way of helping him to extend his flexibility of thinking in a fun, yet challenging way. It's also far easier for M to make friends at groups based on common shared interests.

I have to praise the staff at Swansea Dog Training Club. They were so patient with Marc as he struggled with his left and right, & a pup that had been very travel sick in the taxi enroute to the venue. The class is very, very busy - I counted about 35 dogs. As these are all pups and most handlers have either kids or partners with them, this can be considered the most challenging environment Marc has coped with for a long time. It was great to see M coming out of his shell and chatting to other children while awaiting his own turn. It was also fantastic to see him applying all the active listening skills he's learnt over the last year with the help of Briteschool to a busy, unpredictable, real world situation. We caught the bus home, and M stayed far calmer than usual.

Briteschool geography homework involved taking photographs of the clouds at dawn, so on Tuesday M was up and dressed by 5 am, ready to go out into the field behind our house to take his photographs. Sadly, it was a misty morning so we didn't see interesting cloud formations. However we did get to appreciate living in such a beautiful location before the usual morning routine of walking the whippet, and seeing to the cat and chickens.

On Saturday we got our first ever egg laid by one of the bantam cuckoo marans we hatched from an incubator at Easter. M ran around the garden squealing in excitement and it was truly one of those parenting moments that I'll remember into my dotage. He was over the moon, and considered his first egg to be  a just reward for the months of care he has put into looking after his 3 little bantams. The first egg laid was tiny, so for fun M is going to plot the weight of his eggs on a graph against time. This will allow him to reuse the scientific method he learnt this week on his future learn science course, and embed the knowledge. He considers it maths revision, and fun combined.

The bantam egg is held next to a supermarket egg so you can see just how tiny it is.

We took advantage of the sunny weather to visit the Swansea Boot fairs on Saturday and Sunday morning. This gave M the opportunity of practicing his mental maths and social skills as he searched for bargains to purchase with his saved pocket money. We found a set of digital binoculars which should enable us to add some images of the amazing views in the Swansea are to this blog. M really enjoyed his time with his 15 year old friend & our neighbour instead of just M to compare and discuss items with.

The first vegetable patch was created in the garden, ready for enrichment with the compost Marc has been creating all summer with the aid of his chickens. Creating a reasonably sized growing area is going be a major task, as the garden hasn't been cultivated in anyway for at least 16 years prior to our arrival. However the heavy work involved is excellent OT style therapy for M, as it helps him to regulate his sensory responses a little better. 

w/c 15 September 2014 Highlights.

Briteschool homework was fun this week : )
Instead of writing a report on cell structure M chose to make 3D models of animal and plant cells. This week we started work on the animal cell.

It is so nice that Home Ed allows M the time to explore new concepts and find alternative methods of recording his knowledge. He finds physical handwriting so challenging, yet is not short of ideas or lacking knowledge. This also helps build his motivation and self confidence as time goes on.

M utilised the site http://www.neok12.com to watch several age appropriate videos on cells and took the accompanying quizzes for fun. I read the questions and M gave me the verbal answers - this means I am confident M has mastered this topic.

We also had several interesting conversations about the lessons fairy tales try to teach us, which involved several trips to the bookshelf, before M finally came to his conclusions and wrote up his homework report on Monday. He is struggling a little with creating his own Fairy tale as this is a task that directly challenges his ASD style thinking, requiring as it does quite a lot of imaginative creative thought. Tasks like this require a couple of hours a day, spread over the week to complete.


We also signed up for a 5 week Reading eggs trial just to mix up reading practice a bit.
Our Skills sharpener for Grade 1 Reading from Evan Moor publishers arrived and looks suitable for daily practice. We are using Evan Moor daily for Literacy and Maths. The workbooks are clear and nicely structured which suits Marcus. It will be interesting to see how quickly he moves through the grade levels this year.

Friday was an interesting trip to collect our new puppy, an hour's train ride from Swansea North into rural Carmarthenshire. M was fascinated by the scents and smells (sheep and cow farming country) enroute in the car to the breeder. He also engaged really well and asked lots of very sensible questions when selecting and then being taught to care for his new puppy. Since coming home he's followed those instructions to the letter. We've chosen a miniature poodle so M can to do obedience and agility classes, as the pup grows. All going well Marcus and his new pup, Coal, will be attending a weekly puppy class and building their skills together. I've sourced a lovely a dog training club that accepts children as handlers and am hoping that this will open up a new friendship group and broaden M's social horizons over the coming years.

Black curly hair means we match!

w/c 8th September 2014 Highlights

A short update only this week.

We are once more enrolled in the Upper Primary Timetable (KS2), and the Junior Science (KS3) with Briteschool. This is a live, online primary school that enables M to enjoy a normal school experience and interaction with other pupils without the sensory overload that so hindered his progress in mainstream. M was keen to start back, but I can tell it'll take him a week or two, to get back into his homework routine. We also started our Daily Literacy and Maths Skills Practice. Next week I will add handwriting to our daily tasks.

Due to set lesson times with Briteschool we are restricted to only being able to attend Home Ed groups on Mondays and Fridays during term times. We attended the Porthcawl Home Ed group for the first time this week. It seems a very nice group, but perhaps not quite as inclusive as the now defunct Rhos group we attended last year. Due to the journey time & cost, we won't be able to attend every week, but will instead aim for once a month for the time being. It keeps M in touch with some of the friends he made last year, and myself in touch with local goings on in the Home Ed Scene.

The Friday Porthcawl group is attached to the Wednesday tutorial group in Brigend which offers Arts Award (GSCE equiv) and some GCSE courses for older children. For the time being it is the social aspect we need to supplement our home programme. It was a lovely end to a hard working week for Marc as the weather was lovely. It runs in the afternoon and as it's located next to the beach I can see us making a day trip of it whenever the schedule coincides with fine weather.