Home Educating the Puddle Girls…

Scruff the Destroyer

So - if you pay £3 for a daft photo booth pretend drawn picture of your children and it takes 3 pics, one of which is stupid and 2 of which are lovely… what will happen? Oh yes, while you ponder which of the 2 nice ones to pick, your insanely destructive daughter will hit the large yellow button and ask it to print out the one where they are all looking everywhere BUT the camera.

Alison, she’s in a jiffy bag on her way to you…. :~)

All Swimmed out!!!!

We are back!!!! Had a lovely few days at Centerparcs - as a holiday it really worked well for us and we all feel nice and relaxed. All the girls had a lovely time and it seemed to suit Moo particularly well - its a fairly sensory experience really and i think the walking about really grounded her too. We adored the Sub Tropical Paradise and all the girls got quite confident - it was Scruff’s first time swimming as her eczema has been too bad up till now and she held out well and enjoyed it. They all loved the slides (even me!) and the baby area and the waves and the outdoor pools and the … etc etc… all the water current areas went down very well. We sent them to a few of the “thinly veiled childcare” sessions and they had a nice time - even Scruff wnet to one- first time she has ever been left and not a tear or a wobble in sight!!!! She stayed 2 hours and behaved like a childcare pro apparently!!! (is that actually a compliment???) Max and i spent that time swimming together nad going on the grown-up swimming bits like the white water rapids and hot tubs and then the next day he looked after Scruff while the girls were being Native Americans and i got to be pampered at the spa and have a facial - twas truly lovely!!!! It made me realize how little time i have for just “thinking” these days!

We also all indulged in haircuts while we were there (Moo’s first ever in a shop and she was very brave), went bowling, hired bikes, went for one of those portrait booth experience things (see later for comedy portrait!) and generally had fun - twas lovely to be virtually free but i think we will be saving to go again!

Easy does it….

I do love a lie in till 11.30! Although i was up working (moreorless!) till nearly 2 so i didn’;t get that much extra - and when i did get to bed Moo was in a panic and clung on to me whimpering for ages. Its amazing how noisy thumb sucking is!

Today she and i went into town and got her a new cossie ready for our attempted assault on a local fitness centre next week! We did a fair bit of window shopping in a craft shop, hunted for dungarees as for some reason she is desperate for some (?) and chatted to a friend i used to work with (twice in fact) who accidentally got pregnant when her second babe was 6 weeks old - so she has 3, and 2 are barely a year apart. *brain swims at maths and at thought of it!*

We also found some M&S dino top trumps marked down and a set of cards of people and flags from round the world - fabulous. Came home, ate cookies, played cards, tidied, played, read library books, did marble runs, played more etc etc etc.

Won’t be blogging next week as we have visitors and it would be rude - they are not netty people!!!!

All good things.. blah blah…

Well, didn’t blog for a few days - sorry bout that. Thursday pm we had a psychologist assess Moo and come round for a chat. To my intense relief, she felt that Moo was displaying classic signs of a bright child dealing with the problems of Aspergers/high functioning autism. It sounds ridiculous but the last thing i needed was for her to not see the problems. She couldn’t believe the way Moo went through her tests/games - said she had never seen a child of that age be so methodical and persistant and so visually aware. All good things of course. She said that the problem her brightness brought was it gave her the ability to apparently “cope” and then collapse in private, which is of course why we get the flack after apparently nice days out etc. Anyway, she had sat with the very clued up nursery person and had observed several things that she found very telling, rigid behaiours, routines etc and the nursery assistant could say about a lot more. Couple with what i could tell her she thought it was very likely that she would be dx’d with Aspergers.

It may sound strange, but its an enormous relief. At least with a dx she will get some support and we can gain some understandings about her. I know i “haven’t” been imagining it all, but i have sometimes wondered if i have willed it/caused it/blah blah - now i can start to relax and ignore everything but getting it right for her. There is just nothing worse than having to justify her or explain constantly that its not just spoiling her to treat her needs differently but actually essential for all our sanity. Its such an invisible problem in someways, except to us; its not like she is unable to cope, its that coping is so hard for her. Its like me trying to understand how being colourblind changes life - i can’t comprehend it and i know its hard to comprehend her for the same reason.

Anyway. Thursday Fran and i installed the new printer/scanner/copier and watched the Making of the Wizard of Oz. (IT and drama!!!!)

Friday the kids were completely vile to one another for pretty much the whole day. We did have Aunty Kate over and we also went to our HE group. One of the big girls has started doing a drama session in it and Fran had good fun with that, doing hat improvisation. Moo and Scruff played with lego - the smallest size we don’t use yet - clearly we are READY to use it! Must get out in the garage…. Came home and discussed sun moon and stars, gravity, seasons, the universe and i answered a million questions (hedged a bit on did the moon have gravity, why do people on the bootom of the world not get headaches and why does the moon spin so we only see one side) *argh*

When we got back my bead order arrived so i let her help me unpack it and count off all the stock. Its all packed in 10’s, so we did a good bit of if i have 3 packs of 10, how many are there? (she got it all right too!) and counted the pots in 5’s; she also piled similar looking things up according to code numbers which i figured counts as practise in attention to detail.

Today we all lazed this morning, never got to ice skating cos we played all morning. Then we did a bit of this and that and me and the big girls walked to the library where we procured several pooh bear ladybird books, a sun and moon book, a killer whale book and sundry others. A good trip (even if libraries are still scary!) Finshed off with a bit of elc spinning wheel painting and lots of stories.

A Poem from my Childhood

My nana used to tell me this - no idea of the author though.

My dear little fifty four

I studied my tables over and over
and backwards and forwards too
but I couldn’t remember six times nine
and I didn’t know what to do.

My sister said not to bother my head
and to play with my doll instead
“Just call her fifty four for a while….
you’ll soon get it right”, she said.

So I called her “my dear little fifty four”
a hundred times till I knew
the answer to six times nine, as well as
the answer to two times two.

Next day, Elizabeth Wigglesworth,
who always acts so proud,
said “six times nine is fifty two…”
I nearly laughed aloud.

But I wished I hadn’t when teacher said,
“Now Dorothy, try if you can”
So I thought of my doll and oh dear me!
I answered, “Mary Ann”!

5*2 is 10!!!!!!!!

The above having been todays remarkable fact! We spotted between us that we could use “5 fingers * 2 hands is 10 fingers” as a handy place to count on or back from in the 2 times table - smart cookies we are you know! (ROFL!)

Anyway, as is probably obvious, we did tables. I find it a tiny bit bizarre she has a better grip of this than addition, but i’m not dwelling on it. Maths is maths is maths. We used the SATS Tuition game again (i REALLY recommend this) and skipped to level 5 to do multiplication. With very little help she completed the 2’s and 10’s activities (it only includes 5’s as well - are we really saying that kids in KS1 only learn those 3 tables? Surely not?) and then spent a bit of time using the EDUSS levels to do the same. On that she used the “Year 2″ level and worked at visual representations of anything up to an answer of 16. I like both those bits of software - very well thought out. The SATS one is certainly aimed to catch hold of people with very little understanding (or rather i would say probably a child getting very little support in a classroom or at home) because it does ALL the explaining and showing - but its not the worse for that and you can shift it on if required.

This morning i had printed out colouring sheets of The Wizard of Oz and the girls used them - or rather Fran and Scruff did - Moo hurled hers on the floor and lay in a ball by the window. (1,2,3,….. count with me to 100) I made Fran a “scrap book” out of folder sugar paper and a bit of ribbon and she coloured pictures, cut them out and stuck them in. Then she copied “The Wizard of Oz by Frances” on to the front and it was legible (to me anyway!) She was SO proud - i think i may have hit on a way to get her writing without stress - wondering about starting a “species” one tomorrow with her? We also found some bonus material on the Oz DVD and watched the highly amusing cut Scarecrow scene and i also dicovered that “Jitterbug” which is in the stage version, was cut out too. That clears up a bafflement of 15 years! lol!

After that she and I read out e-book of “The Night of the Moonjellies” - cute story, liked it. Beautifully drawn too. Then she created some bizarre elaborate imaginary game with small plastic sea creatures and i had to have a duplicate set and mimic her story. Very weird! With Moo out at nursery she got out Moo’s Knex and made a complete hash of following any pattern at all, completely frustrating herself into the bargain. First she tried to make a tower (as she always does, i blame THAT on playgroup!) and then she just couldn’t see the patterns - she wouldn’t actually, i would say. So weird - Moo gets it perfectly right each time but Fran is more of the bulldoze in, see if it works, don’t read the instructions or look closely at anything type. Rather like myself actually - Max is DEFINTELY flatpack assembler here! lol! Anyway, we eventually produced a bug between us that she flew round the house for a bit.

Where am i up to on words Scruff can say? Well currently in high usage are “bub-bub-bles” “I’m sduck (stuck)” “help me” “more” “crsps” “ananana” “milky-milky” “”brekfist” and of course “noooooooooo….” - i suspect “gerroff the computer and notice me” might be in there soon.

Supposed to meet the psychologist tomorrow but still no car *rolls eyes*

Feeling a bit low on inspiration for tomorrow - might take a break and use the “learning is Fun” editions we have stacked up.

The Portico at the Puddle

What a lovely day we had! The Portico came up for a play day and a whale of a time was had. We hardly saw the kids, apart from Scruff who developed a MAJOR attachment and hardly left A’s arms all day!

A good deal of dressing up went on, pom pom animals, drawing, kaleidoscoping, rabbit cuddling, leap padding (mainly the mummies!) - they all played beautifully together and it felt like a really good time had been had!

Only time i saw everyone sitting down… all doing pom poms…

Fairyboots baby - she’s so cute!

Tea for 10 from a kitchen the size of a mousehole - well done daddy max!!!!!

Few pictures

These are some of our first efforts with the kaleidoscope thing - and we have got better at it since!

These are the fish collages - Fran’s is the top one and Scruff and i did the bottom one together.

I’ve also slightly improved the nemo frieze below.

Must say …. Fran did me a dance today, really short just out of nowhere and asked me what she was copying - and i KNEW it was a take off of Carly Simon at the end of Piglets Big Movie - she did it really well! rofl!

Blast-off!!!!!

Today we had one of those really amazing HE moments that just come out of the blue and make you think “yep - this works!” Fran came downstairs this morning and counted to 100 in 10’s - apparently she had been practising! Then i did some gamey type questions - like can you tell me what 4*10 is then? and she got every one right. So then Moo came in and counted backwards from 10 to 1 followed by “blast off!!!” and i asked Fran if she could do the same - which she did - at “blast off” i asked if she could think of a number to put there instead and she said “nothing” (well impressed! Moo i know says zero but i am not sure she has a concept of it so i thought nothing was perfectly okay) and we finished off with a variety of “1 more than or less than ” questions which she also got right. A big load of breakthroughs in one moment - incredible. None of these are things we have stressed or stretched over and i am so pleased that as the moment came it all slotted into place and just worked. *broad grin* She was so thrilled- it must be a major achievement to make that all happen for yourself rather than have it drummed in.

This afternoon we made a mobile of coral reef fish and read the accompanying book - very interesting it was. Fran spent a bit of time working out how to draw a killer whale from a “How to Draw” book and we updated the scrap book with her most recent drawings - she did me a lovely row of flowers in a garden this week. Then we drew and cut out shapes of angel fish and covered them with a felt mosaic made with offcuts from the scrapstore - that place is a godsend! Two bags of edges that things have been stamped out of - perfect for crafty type stuff - and when its scrap and free i don’t feel precious about it! rofl! Scruff woke up during this and we gave her her own fish she did a stonking job of the gluing and i helped her stick - she was SO proud!

When Moo got back we all parcelled up against the cold and walked to the Post Office (terrifying - walking TWICE in a week!) and on the way back we joined the library - i have a bit of a library phobia so i was quite proud!

Once we got home i loaded a Kaleidodraw cd rom dad got them for xmas from the Science Museum - its FABULOUS - hours of fun so we are printing them out to make a mobile atm. Its very engrossing and Moo loves it.Had a chat to the SENCO today about Moo as i am concerned that this assessment will go by without the full picture getting put across.. .sigh… sigh… sigh…Moo only wet three different beds last night *growl* Its a terrible thing to say but the worst thing i can forsee is her NOT getting a dx officially - cos then we will get no help for her. Trouble is she is very different when she knows she needs to “perform a role” like at nursery or out - then we get the flack.

Still going strong

30 still appears to be okay - although i may have a new wrinkle…. and my skin is definitely drier… still, its to be expected now…. *sighs heavily*
OMG - if i have another baby, i’ll be an elderly pregnant person :~O

Anyway, its been a quiet and lovely weekend - girls have pootered, played imaginary games, read books, watched films, adored the various grandparents and uncles that came round and spoilt me rotten. They have sat down both nights to watch “Bonjour mes amis” and have picked up quite a bit! So funny! Today fran asked me to teach her the ABC rhyme so she got it exactly right.

I made biscuits with them both and we used the digital scales which they like, particularly the “tare” button . We stuck sticker on paper to make collages of fish and butterflies, did beads and had party teas.

Today my mum took me out to do some shopping as we have no car - i had to pop to ToysrUs for an emergency stock up of something and spotted a set of slides for £4 - so i got them and we used our telescopic viewer to look at some of them. Perfick!

Moo still being a stressed out control freak… sighs again… not sure whats going to happen to change it really.

Scruff is being.. cheeky - Alison, you thought she needed a new name? Well, aside from “atom bomb” how about “scoop, muck and rolly” on account of a certain nappy related activity she has taken to indulging in if she isn’t keen on having been put to bed…

Blech!!!!

Fran suddenly “got” how to make “B” come out today- it was amazing - all these years of a major speech problem and suddenly its fixing - the thrill is fabulous! Good old Gramps for playing the game with her that triggered it!