Been lacking blog juice lately as my brain ponders a whole heap of stuff. Thomas has gone with his dad and grandmother to Oxford for a few days. They'll all be home tomorrow. He is having a good time, enjoyed the Star Trek film last night. (I want to go see it myself some day too.)
I popped into see the GP yesterday, had a mole on my arm I wanted checked out. I didn't think it looked too scary but thought it best to be overcautious. Duncan and Lady came with me. Duncan pranced around the doctor's room looking for the Thomas trains, for surely, every doctor has some stashed in a box somewhere? Sadly, they weren't to be found so he hopped onto the examination bed, grabbed the pillow and telling us all about his discoveries, lay down for a few seconds. All the while I was talking with the doctor. To distract him (Duncan I mean) I asked him to look at the eye test letter chart and to read the letters. Instead of naming each letter, he made words of each line, "zee not, dosap..."
The doc laughed, and remarked on what a clever boy he is.
And my mole is entirely benign, I'm just to photo it so as to track possible changes.
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
8 May 2009
9 Jan 2008
Neither therapy nor treatment required
Not for autism anyway.
A few weeks ago I got a comment on a post I wrote about a year and a half ago. The post called Novel Treatment for Autism, was about how Duncan's natural maturation coupled with parenting appropriate to his learning and living styles, was responsible for his development, as opposed to any 'treatment' or 'therapy'. The comment writer, Lynne, had a major problem with my attitude towards my son. She wrote (referring to my post);
I doubt that Lynne, having been so scared and cracked up by what I had to say, will be back to see any reply I might make. It's odd how she makes the leap from what I wrote to calling me a lazy mum who makes no effort. She seems to have real issues with my son's use of TV as one of his learning tools.
It's like this Lynne, and anyone who might think she's right. Duncan is a highly visual learner. TV and DVDs are great tools that optimise his individual learning style. The worst thing for Duncan would be for me (or a series of strangers) to sit across a small table from him, armed with a bag of sweets, training him to respond to a series of discrete trials in exchange for a reward. For Duncan, the rewards are intrinsic to the task. He wants to find films about cuckoo clocks, so he has to spell the words properly on YouTube, rewarding him with a fun film about the manufacture of clocks in the Black Forest of Germany, or whatever he digs that day.
Duncan plays and ponders much. I came across him sitting on the floor of my bedroom this afternoon, dressed only in a pair of pants (he was playing at being Tarzan) and staring into space in a daydream with a pile of Lego spread out in front of him. Who knows what he was thinking about just then. I left him alone to his thoughts, and turned quietly away. He was standing beside me soon after helping me cook a fried egg.
In the past few years Duncan has continued to develop and I stand by everything I wrote in that post. I no longer have to lock any internal doors. I can trust him not to stuff food or toys in the DVD player or to throw something at the expensive speakers. I have moved all the boys' toys into their own room so he can access whatever he wants. He no longer throws every single toy on the floor when he's playing. He can help me put them away at the end of the day too, though he doesn't like doing this!
He now enjoys books and will frequently approach me with a book to read to him. His computer activities, including looking up his topics and characters of interest on YouTube and Google, his CD Roms and online games, together with a few short teaching sessions with myself have all helped him learn to read and write. Yesterday, he read a Hansel and Gretel story for me. It was entirely new to him, and he was able to decipher and understand almost all the words himself.
His speech has come on so well. Repeating scripts from films and games has helped him make sense of different words and sounds. He used to try to say the lines, in a garbled, mixed up way. Once I figured out what lines he was on about, I would say them for him, slowly and clearly, giving him time to hear the components of the words and learn how to say them for himself. That, combined with lots of time spent together, playing and getting on with life, have given him many chances to hear words, for me to listen to him and to interpret and if needed show him how to pronounce things. I'm now finding that his writing, much of which is still using 'invented spelling' ie, phonetic spelling, is showing me what words he has heard wrong. When I show him correct spellings, he gets a better idea of how to say these words. His reading, writing and speech are all helping each other and are going to make communication much easier and more successful for him.
He plays more complex games, enjoys being with his siblings and extended family as well as a few close friends. He has developed an individual and amazing ability for computer produced art, creating a few lovely pictures every day.
All in, he is a great boy, loving and mischievous, clever and committed, with a love of learning about so many divergent topics. He makes me smile, laugh, worry, rant and proud, sort of like how all children affect their mums.
This process is called parenting and education. There's no need for therapy.
A few weeks ago I got a comment on a post I wrote about a year and a half ago. The post called Novel Treatment for Autism, was about how Duncan's natural maturation coupled with parenting appropriate to his learning and living styles, was responsible for his development, as opposed to any 'treatment' or 'therapy'. The comment writer, Lynne, had a major problem with my attitude towards my son. She wrote (referring to my post);
This article cracks me up. The author ostensibly wants to give her child time to "just play or ponder." Then cites how her child uses a TV/DVD player which he watches a lot.
It's scary this mom is rationalizing letting her kid watch TV endlessly and then do video talk as an educational process. Wow. Yeah, I bet that is a lot more effective than those crazy moms who are trying to keep their child engaged.
Be sure to forward this article to all the lazy moms so they can feel better about not taxing themselves or their child. No need to spend your time trying to teach your child, do like her and lock those internal doors to avoid unnecessary battles. Apparently no effort is the key to expanding a child's reading ability, vocabulary and even, diet.
I doubt that Lynne, having been so scared and cracked up by what I had to say, will be back to see any reply I might make. It's odd how she makes the leap from what I wrote to calling me a lazy mum who makes no effort. She seems to have real issues with my son's use of TV as one of his learning tools.
It's like this Lynne, and anyone who might think she's right. Duncan is a highly visual learner. TV and DVDs are great tools that optimise his individual learning style. The worst thing for Duncan would be for me (or a series of strangers) to sit across a small table from him, armed with a bag of sweets, training him to respond to a series of discrete trials in exchange for a reward. For Duncan, the rewards are intrinsic to the task. He wants to find films about cuckoo clocks, so he has to spell the words properly on YouTube, rewarding him with a fun film about the manufacture of clocks in the Black Forest of Germany, or whatever he digs that day.
Duncan plays and ponders much. I came across him sitting on the floor of my bedroom this afternoon, dressed only in a pair of pants (he was playing at being Tarzan) and staring into space in a daydream with a pile of Lego spread out in front of him. Who knows what he was thinking about just then. I left him alone to his thoughts, and turned quietly away. He was standing beside me soon after helping me cook a fried egg.
In the past few years Duncan has continued to develop and I stand by everything I wrote in that post. I no longer have to lock any internal doors. I can trust him not to stuff food or toys in the DVD player or to throw something at the expensive speakers. I have moved all the boys' toys into their own room so he can access whatever he wants. He no longer throws every single toy on the floor when he's playing. He can help me put them away at the end of the day too, though he doesn't like doing this!
He now enjoys books and will frequently approach me with a book to read to him. His computer activities, including looking up his topics and characters of interest on YouTube and Google, his CD Roms and online games, together with a few short teaching sessions with myself have all helped him learn to read and write. Yesterday, he read a Hansel and Gretel story for me. It was entirely new to him, and he was able to decipher and understand almost all the words himself.
His speech has come on so well. Repeating scripts from films and games has helped him make sense of different words and sounds. He used to try to say the lines, in a garbled, mixed up way. Once I figured out what lines he was on about, I would say them for him, slowly and clearly, giving him time to hear the components of the words and learn how to say them for himself. That, combined with lots of time spent together, playing and getting on with life, have given him many chances to hear words, for me to listen to him and to interpret and if needed show him how to pronounce things. I'm now finding that his writing, much of which is still using 'invented spelling' ie, phonetic spelling, is showing me what words he has heard wrong. When I show him correct spellings, he gets a better idea of how to say these words. His reading, writing and speech are all helping each other and are going to make communication much easier and more successful for him.
He plays more complex games, enjoys being with his siblings and extended family as well as a few close friends. He has developed an individual and amazing ability for computer produced art, creating a few lovely pictures every day.
All in, he is a great boy, loving and mischievous, clever and committed, with a love of learning about so many divergent topics. He makes me smile, laugh, worry, rant and proud, sort of like how all children affect their mums.
This process is called parenting and education. There's no need for therapy.
14 Nov 2007
Read It! (and a Reader Request)
'Read it.' 'Belfast.'
'Read it.' 'Wellington Mews.'
'Read it.' 'Texaco.'
That's what I hear over and over these days. It may be when we're driving and I look in the mirror to see a little hand pointing out the window to a road sign or a poster in a estate agent's window or the name of a petrol station. It may be when we're looking at a book together or when he's using the computer or he may be looking at a packet of crisps, ('Tayto Onion Rings').
In his own way, and with zero stress, Duncan is learning to read.
He's also learning to type. Here are some of his recent 'invented' spellings;
The Gerrar (Bagheera, from the Jungle Book)
Mogley (Mowgli, as above)
Pinck mad mouse (I love the use of 'ck' at the end)
sasagtas (sausages...I'm not sure why he has a 't' in there)
However, I have only to show him once how to type a word correctly and he remembers it. Most of what he types in Google, Youtube or to name his pictures is spelt properly.
We had loads of fun playing a demo version of 'Roller Coaster Tycoon', a game in which you design your own fair. I'll have to get the full CDRom as the demo cuts out after about 15 minutes of play. That's one idea for Christmas.
Duncan is still enjoying playing with his Dogz 4 game. He now has learned to take a screen shot, paste it into the Paint program, cut out the part he wants and paste that to a new file where he expands the image then paints and adapts it to suit him.
This is one of his pictures. The toy with blue hair was in a Kinder Egg. Unfortunately he lost the toy, but we managed to find a picture of it on the Magic Kinder website.
The boy is an edited image from the excellent Starfall learn to read site. It's on the Who Am I? section.
The toy is sitting in a car from the Mad Mouse roller coaster. This is another edited screen shot. I helped him a bit to draw the mouse, but he did the rest by himself.
I love his vision!
Here's a request to anyone who reads this.
If you happen to buy a Kinder Egg and find the toy shown above, I would be ever so grateful if you would be willing to send it to me. Duncan was very upset to have lost it and we have bought about 20 Kinder Eggs since then, but have not found it again. Lady says it's like looking for the Wonka golden ticket. But this is valuable only to us!
'Read it.' 'Wellington Mews.'
'Read it.' 'Texaco.'
That's what I hear over and over these days. It may be when we're driving and I look in the mirror to see a little hand pointing out the window to a road sign or a poster in a estate agent's window or the name of a petrol station. It may be when we're looking at a book together or when he's using the computer or he may be looking at a packet of crisps, ('Tayto Onion Rings').
In his own way, and with zero stress, Duncan is learning to read.
He's also learning to type. Here are some of his recent 'invented' spellings;
The Gerrar (Bagheera, from the Jungle Book)
Mogley (Mowgli, as above)
Pinck mad mouse (I love the use of 'ck' at the end)
sasagtas (sausages...I'm not sure why he has a 't' in there)
However, I have only to show him once how to type a word correctly and he remembers it. Most of what he types in Google, Youtube or to name his pictures is spelt properly.
We had loads of fun playing a demo version of 'Roller Coaster Tycoon', a game in which you design your own fair. I'll have to get the full CDRom as the demo cuts out after about 15 minutes of play. That's one idea for Christmas.
Duncan is still enjoying playing with his Dogz 4 game. He now has learned to take a screen shot, paste it into the Paint program, cut out the part he wants and paste that to a new file where he expands the image then paints and adapts it to suit him.
This is one of his pictures. The toy with blue hair was in a Kinder Egg. Unfortunately he lost the toy, but we managed to find a picture of it on the Magic Kinder website.The boy is an edited image from the excellent Starfall learn to read site. It's on the Who Am I? section.
The toy is sitting in a car from the Mad Mouse roller coaster. This is another edited screen shot. I helped him a bit to draw the mouse, but he did the rest by himself.
I love his vision!
Here's a request to anyone who reads this.
If you happen to buy a Kinder Egg and find the toy shown above, I would be ever so grateful if you would be willing to send it to me. Duncan was very upset to have lost it and we have bought about 20 Kinder Eggs since then, but have not found it again. Lady says it's like looking for the Wonka golden ticket. But this is valuable only to us!
22 Jun 2007
Stuff from the week
Last Friday, I went to my cousin's wedding. Gordon wasn't able to go with me; work commitments. Instead I travelled across to the west with my dad and step-mum. Gordon's mum came to our house to mind the children for a few hours, and then M. (our NAS befriender friend) came over to stay until Gordon got home. Both baby sitters said the children were no trouble at all. Phew!
I had a lovely day. My little cousin was looking utterly beautiful, as all brides must! It rained all day, but she never stopped grinning, and was a like a wee ray of sunshine all day. In between the service and the reception, we went to a cafe for a snack; my belly had been rumbling throughout the service, bloody embarrassing! Then we visited my 95 year old granny, whom I haven't seen for far too long. She was on great form too.
The reception was terrific. We shared a table with one of my aunties and a few cousins and their spouses. One cousin had just had a baby so I enjoyed a few cuddles. Actually, whenever we all get together, it seems that someone has always just had a baby or is about to get married. I suppose it goes with having a large family. As always at these things, I enjoyed the crack, chatting and catching up and reminiscing about good times and also the hard times we've shared. The bride's father, my uncle, had died when she was only 8, in a work place accident, leaving her mother to raise 4 young children alone. Her eldest brother walked her up the aisle, and later gave a short, moving speech, though he was obviously nervous.
And then we danced! Nothing beats the dancing at a wedding!
Sunday was Father's day and Lady had made a cool card. She drew a picture of her dad with a big head and a tiny body topped by a light bulb in a thought cloud. On the back she drew another version of Gordon, with a speech bubble and the words "BAX...BAT...apoptosis...mitochondria" (words he uses often at work) which went down very well!
Since then, it's just been same as usual round here. Lady has been reading about the Greek Myths, and started to write and illustrate a few of her own short stories such as;
The Magic Eye
One day the king Eurystheus saw that he was getting old. He wanted to see his grandchildren but he couldn't see them if he was dead. The king had a daughter called Aneena. She was beautiful, but she didn't want to give birth. She liked the palace and she did not want to get married. This made the king cross. So one day the king put Aneena in a box and sent her away.
THE END
I asked her if she thought she'd get married, she said she might but not 'till she's much older. She wanted to travel around the world and go diving and go to the Great Wall of China, like her aunt C!
Thomas and I were talking about letters and their sounds. I asked him if he could think of any words starting with the letter 'P' and he said 'pee, like you do in the toilet' so I agreed, that was one such word. Then he thought on and said, 'pee, like what goes under your bed'. I didn't understand this one, so he pointed to the mattress (we were in my room). I said 'that's called a mattress.' He said, ' I mean the thing that goes under it, and the loads of mattresses go on top, and then the princess has to climb up the ladder to go to bed'. Ah, pea...how was I missing what should have been so obvious!
We also had a very interesting talk about evolution, when he asked me about dinosaurs being the scariest animals and I told him that people were never on the earth at the same time as dinosaurs. He asked me who made the first people. He liked the ape story!
Thomas has worn his dad's stripy tie every day this week. He now ties it himself, wrapping it round many times so it resembles a cravat. Lady was worn a red silk scarf on her hair, topped with a pick woolly hat. She likes the way it makes her look like she has long red hair. No uniforms here!
Duncan is going through a major Thomas the Tank phase again. I investigated the lead paint on engines toy recall, but none of those we have are affected, thank goodness. He and Thomas have spent hours each day setting up the 3 different types of track and telling stories.
Duncan also lost his 2 bottom front teeth, and was pleased to receive money from the tooth fairy, which was exchanged for, well guess what, a 'Shiny Sir Handel' train.
I had a lovely day. My little cousin was looking utterly beautiful, as all brides must! It rained all day, but she never stopped grinning, and was a like a wee ray of sunshine all day. In between the service and the reception, we went to a cafe for a snack; my belly had been rumbling throughout the service, bloody embarrassing! Then we visited my 95 year old granny, whom I haven't seen for far too long. She was on great form too.
The reception was terrific. We shared a table with one of my aunties and a few cousins and their spouses. One cousin had just had a baby so I enjoyed a few cuddles. Actually, whenever we all get together, it seems that someone has always just had a baby or is about to get married. I suppose it goes with having a large family. As always at these things, I enjoyed the crack, chatting and catching up and reminiscing about good times and also the hard times we've shared. The bride's father, my uncle, had died when she was only 8, in a work place accident, leaving her mother to raise 4 young children alone. Her eldest brother walked her up the aisle, and later gave a short, moving speech, though he was obviously nervous.
And then we danced! Nothing beats the dancing at a wedding!
Sunday was Father's day and Lady had made a cool card. She drew a picture of her dad with a big head and a tiny body topped by a light bulb in a thought cloud. On the back she drew another version of Gordon, with a speech bubble and the words "BAX...BAT...apoptosis...mitochondria" (words he uses often at work) which went down very well!
Since then, it's just been same as usual round here. Lady has been reading about the Greek Myths, and started to write and illustrate a few of her own short stories such as;
The Magic Eye
One day the king Eurystheus saw that he was getting old. He wanted to see his grandchildren but he couldn't see them if he was dead. The king had a daughter called Aneena. She was beautiful, but she didn't want to give birth. She liked the palace and she did not want to get married. This made the king cross. So one day the king put Aneena in a box and sent her away.
THE END
I asked her if she thought she'd get married, she said she might but not 'till she's much older. She wanted to travel around the world and go diving and go to the Great Wall of China, like her aunt C!
Thomas and I were talking about letters and their sounds. I asked him if he could think of any words starting with the letter 'P' and he said 'pee, like you do in the toilet' so I agreed, that was one such word. Then he thought on and said, 'pee, like what goes under your bed'. I didn't understand this one, so he pointed to the mattress (we were in my room). I said 'that's called a mattress.' He said, ' I mean the thing that goes under it, and the loads of mattresses go on top, and then the princess has to climb up the ladder to go to bed'. Ah, pea...how was I missing what should have been so obvious!
We also had a very interesting talk about evolution, when he asked me about dinosaurs being the scariest animals and I told him that people were never on the earth at the same time as dinosaurs. He asked me who made the first people. He liked the ape story!
Thomas has worn his dad's stripy tie every day this week. He now ties it himself, wrapping it round many times so it resembles a cravat. Lady was worn a red silk scarf on her hair, topped with a pick woolly hat. She likes the way it makes her look like she has long red hair. No uniforms here!
Duncan is going through a major Thomas the Tank phase again. I investigated the lead paint on engines toy recall, but none of those we have are affected, thank goodness. He and Thomas have spent hours each day setting up the 3 different types of track and telling stories.
Duncan also lost his 2 bottom front teeth, and was pleased to receive money from the tooth fairy, which was exchanged for, well guess what, a 'Shiny Sir Handel' train.
2 May 2007
Fantastic at Phonics
We easing back into normal days again...well, normal for us anyway! The boys are watching 'Come Outside' on Cbeebies. They both love this show. Lady is writing a letter (long overdue) to her best friend in London, and I've just spent some time with both boys in turn, doing a little phonics practice. I'd printed out the 'disks' from this free phonics resource years ago when Lady was learning to read. Duncan has not sat down to do phonics before, but he got the hang of it right away, and just flew through the words! He did 7 pages, before I saw he was getting a bit bored. He was able to decipher all the words, though I had to listen hard as he insisted on whispering them. I was very impressed. Then I repeated the exercise with Thomas. He only did 3 pages, he was much less interested! Anyway, I'm not too worried. We will just do a few minutes each day, and avoid potential tantrums, from all 3 of us!
Lady goes to Brownies tonight and I go to salsa class. I arranged today to take Thomas to a gymnastics and trampolining class on Friday afternoon. I'm going to let Duncan try the class out too, even though it's for 5 year olds. It might be better for him to do something with younger children. The woman I spoke to sounded supportive, so we'll just have to see how it goes.
The other thing is, Duncan has decided that he now wants to go to Disneyland Paris! We went out to a nearby playground on Sunday evening, and he was convinced we were all going on the aeroplane! Oh boy, just a few weeks too late! Anyway, we were only in the park 10 minutes when a pair of men came to close and lock it up. They were so grumpy, giving the children real cross looks- Duncan in particular! Duncan was protesting, he didn't want to leave when we'd just arrived, but I wasn't aware it closed as early as 7pm! These fellas were like characters from the Beano!
Anyway, I reckon I will just have to go back to Disneyland with Duncan, leaving the other 2 with Gordon. I've already told my sister that she has to come with us ;-)
Lady goes to Brownies tonight and I go to salsa class. I arranged today to take Thomas to a gymnastics and trampolining class on Friday afternoon. I'm going to let Duncan try the class out too, even though it's for 5 year olds. It might be better for him to do something with younger children. The woman I spoke to sounded supportive, so we'll just have to see how it goes.
The other thing is, Duncan has decided that he now wants to go to Disneyland Paris! We went out to a nearby playground on Sunday evening, and he was convinced we were all going on the aeroplane! Oh boy, just a few weeks too late! Anyway, we were only in the park 10 minutes when a pair of men came to close and lock it up. They were so grumpy, giving the children real cross looks- Duncan in particular! Duncan was protesting, he didn't want to leave when we'd just arrived, but I wasn't aware it closed as early as 7pm! These fellas were like characters from the Beano!
Anyway, I reckon I will just have to go back to Disneyland with Duncan, leaving the other 2 with Gordon. I've already told my sister that she has to come with us ;-)
1 Mar 2007
A few wows
I'm snuggled on the sofa, Duncan's just fallen asleep beside me, all wrapped in the red blanket and clutching a collection of Magic Roundabout toys. Gordon's away for the night in Belgium (looking forward to some good chocolate!) and I've just had a dose of silly Thursday night TV (Hotel Babylon- fluffy, ridiculous and entertaining).
We've had a good day. I wasn't too grumpy, and the children weren't too irritating. Lady and Thomas only argued about 3 times, and Duncan was in excellent spirits. Wow!
At one stage, we were all gathered around the kitchen table, Gordon was working on his talk for tomorrow, Lady was drawing an elephant and a koala bear from her Draw Write Now book and reading about them in an animal encyclopedia, I was drawing a Soldier Sam (from the Magic Roundabout film) for Duncan and Thomas was playing Starfall on the computer. After a while I tried to interest Thomas in doing some activities in one of the many learn-to-write workbooks we have lying around. He was totally uninterested, and insisted that playing Harry Potter PC games was his work. So I left him to it, but then Duncan started filling in the workbook. There were several pages, with all the letters of the alphabet written out in rows, with 4 letters for the child to trace over, and then a picture and word of something starting with that letter. Duncan picked out a light red marker pen and carefully traced the 1st 'a', then chose a blue marker for the 2nd 'a', then the 3rd he traced in green, then for the 4th he used yellow. Next he asked me to colour in the apple, and he started on the letter 'b', again using red, blue, green then yellow. He did the same for all the letters up to k, when he tired of this activity, and decided to write 'big thunder mountain' along the bottom of the page.
He named all the pictures but didn't recognise the word or picture of an igloo. I said 'it's an igloo; Pingu lives in an igloo', he told me, 'Duncan lives in an igloo, Duncan eats fish.' So he knew what I was on about.
And that reminds me; the other big thing is that he has discovered a love of fish. We had salmon for dinner last night and he gobbled it up, with loads of potatoes and peas. He wanted more fish today and since we had no more fresh, wild salmon (delicious but dear) I offered him some sardines from a tin, and he liked them. Again, wow! I don't know whether this sudden and welcome addition to his diet will last, but for now, I'm happy about it.
Duncan has also been doing more drawing for himself. First he drew a copy of the front of his Zurg toy's costume and stuck it onto his pyjamas with sticky tape, the next day he drew a great copy of the old Ragdoll logo (as in the production company behind Teletubbies and Brum). This was his first ever solo and unasked for attempt at drawing a face, and it's good. Today he made his own 3-D copy of the Thunder Mountain train, with only minimal input from me. I'm so glad to see him gain the confidence or whatever it is to do these things for himself; not least because I'm lazy enough to hope that perhaps he won't be asking me to draw quite so often.
We've had a good day. I wasn't too grumpy, and the children weren't too irritating. Lady and Thomas only argued about 3 times, and Duncan was in excellent spirits. Wow!
At one stage, we were all gathered around the kitchen table, Gordon was working on his talk for tomorrow, Lady was drawing an elephant and a koala bear from her Draw Write Now book and reading about them in an animal encyclopedia, I was drawing a Soldier Sam (from the Magic Roundabout film) for Duncan and Thomas was playing Starfall on the computer. After a while I tried to interest Thomas in doing some activities in one of the many learn-to-write workbooks we have lying around. He was totally uninterested, and insisted that playing Harry Potter PC games was his work. So I left him to it, but then Duncan started filling in the workbook. There were several pages, with all the letters of the alphabet written out in rows, with 4 letters for the child to trace over, and then a picture and word of something starting with that letter. Duncan picked out a light red marker pen and carefully traced the 1st 'a', then chose a blue marker for the 2nd 'a', then the 3rd he traced in green, then for the 4th he used yellow. Next he asked me to colour in the apple, and he started on the letter 'b', again using red, blue, green then yellow. He did the same for all the letters up to k, when he tired of this activity, and decided to write 'big thunder mountain' along the bottom of the page.
He named all the pictures but didn't recognise the word or picture of an igloo. I said 'it's an igloo; Pingu lives in an igloo', he told me, 'Duncan lives in an igloo, Duncan eats fish.' So he knew what I was on about.
And that reminds me; the other big thing is that he has discovered a love of fish. We had salmon for dinner last night and he gobbled it up, with loads of potatoes and peas. He wanted more fish today and since we had no more fresh, wild salmon (delicious but dear) I offered him some sardines from a tin, and he liked them. Again, wow! I don't know whether this sudden and welcome addition to his diet will last, but for now, I'm happy about it.
Duncan has also been doing more drawing for himself. First he drew a copy of the front of his Zurg toy's costume and stuck it onto his pyjamas with sticky tape, the next day he drew a great copy of the old Ragdoll logo (as in the production company behind Teletubbies and Brum). This was his first ever solo and unasked for attempt at drawing a face, and it's good. Today he made his own 3-D copy of the Thunder Mountain train, with only minimal input from me. I'm so glad to see him gain the confidence or whatever it is to do these things for himself; not least because I'm lazy enough to hope that perhaps he won't be asking me to draw quite so often.
14 Feb 2007
Big Thunder Mountain Learning
So we've got a nice, shiny, clean, new (nearly) car, and the first thing we do is to go and get fish and chips. Mind you, these weren't ordinary fish and chips, these were award winning (Millars in Newtownards) and were well worth the price of stinking up the car a bit.
On Monday, M. (NAS befriender) came round bringing a few big cardboard boxes with her. Right away, Duncan was instructing her on how to make a Big Thunder Mountain train, which I was able to finish off later, to his delight. This is his Big Interest of the minute, and he spends ages looking at pictures and videos of it on the web, then asking me make lots of little paper trains. He has also busied himself with writing the words out on paper and yesterday I came across him making a really nice picture of the mountain and tracks using the Paint program. He's also singing, 'She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes' very frequently, complete with dancing and clapping. He liked my version, 'He'll be coming round big thunder mountain...' though he usually asks me to stop singing if he hears me.
Today though he found this poster, and wanted me to draw it. Well, fine, it wouldn't look as good as the original, but I was willing to have a go. I carefully wrote out the words and was colouring them in when a little insistent voice starting telling me to 'fix it, need a Huh, put in Huh' and I saw that I'd written 'TUNDER', but my smart and observant boy wasn't going to let that go by uncorrected. The poster (with THUNDER spelt correctly) is now hanging on his bedroom wall.
What is that thing about following their interests again?
It's such a pity that he won't come with us to Disneyland Paris. I think he'd just love to see this first hand, but he knows best what he is and isn't ready for, and for now, flying is just too big an aversive.
Both boys have been making progress in their reading ability. I can see how reading is already helping Duncan to figure out the words that he hears but can't quite make out. It's also clear that he is using phonics to decode unknown words. I was surprised by that, but it's so interesting to see.
And Happy Valentines Day to all you romantic types!
autism, northern Ireland, autistic, learning
On Monday, M. (NAS befriender) came round bringing a few big cardboard boxes with her. Right away, Duncan was instructing her on how to make a Big Thunder Mountain train, which I was able to finish off later, to his delight. This is his Big Interest of the minute, and he spends ages looking at pictures and videos of it on the web, then asking me make lots of little paper trains. He has also busied himself with writing the words out on paper and yesterday I came across him making a really nice picture of the mountain and tracks using the Paint program. He's also singing, 'She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes' very frequently, complete with dancing and clapping. He liked my version, 'He'll be coming round big thunder mountain...' though he usually asks me to stop singing if he hears me.
Today though he found this poster, and wanted me to draw it. Well, fine, it wouldn't look as good as the original, but I was willing to have a go. I carefully wrote out the words and was colouring them in when a little insistent voice starting telling me to 'fix it, need a Huh, put in Huh' and I saw that I'd written 'TUNDER', but my smart and observant boy wasn't going to let that go by uncorrected. The poster (with THUNDER spelt correctly) is now hanging on his bedroom wall.What is that thing about following their interests again?
It's such a pity that he won't come with us to Disneyland Paris. I think he'd just love to see this first hand, but he knows best what he is and isn't ready for, and for now, flying is just too big an aversive.
Both boys have been making progress in their reading ability. I can see how reading is already helping Duncan to figure out the words that he hears but can't quite make out. It's also clear that he is using phonics to decode unknown words. I was surprised by that, but it's so interesting to see.
And Happy Valentines Day to all you romantic types!
autism, northern Ireland, autistic, learning
8 Jan 2007
The Implicit Learning of an Autistic Boy
Now I've got that (previous post) off my chest, I can get back to normal.
I'm still drawing loads of tiny, detailed pictures as requested by Duncan. He did however, ask me to stick 2 A4 pages together to draw a really big rocket, which he told me to roll up round a cardboard tube. I then had to tape the rocket to the back of his shirt, and he pretended to blast off and whiz around. I knew then that he'd had the final product in his mind all along, he just fed me little bits of information as needed.
I had been wondering for a while how to persuade Duncan to draw for himself. He has always become upset when I've tried before, he wanted the finished products to look exactly like what's in his mind, and he reckons I'm more likely to achieve that than he is. But I just had this great idea; I could encourage him to draw, whilst I'm making whatever it is he wants. It worked right away. As I was drawing a picture of some 'fire bursts' (like those emanating from Buzz Lightyear's laser weapon), he drew a few pictures of our faces, then he drew round his hands and feet, then he copied some writing, then he spontaneously drew his own laser fire-bursts which he was so happy with, that I was asked to seal it with sticky tape, cut it out, and stick it onto his sleeve. His writing is so precise. I was amazed, I mean, he hasn't picked up a pen to do anything since he left school.
On Sunday I overheard him running water in the kitchen sink and muttering to himself that he would 'clean it'. I went in and watched him rinse a cloth and use it to wipe our (newly painted) wall, where he'd written, most beautifully, 'Big Antz.' (He's been watching a trailer for the film Antz quite a lot recently.) I had to turn away to hide the huge, proud smile on my face, and get the disapproving look in place.
Well, we had a discussion and he's said he will not write on walls, just on paper. We'll see. I'll have to buy water soluble marker pens again, I think.
He absorbs information from many sources, but the main way right now, is the PC. He likes to watch Youtube films; recently he's enjoyed films people have uploaded of their pets, especially their dogs. He plays lots of CD Roms and uses children's websites. He was listening to a story on Cbeebies yesterday; Don't Wake the Baby. He thinks this is hilarious and always follows the words with his finger as they are read. He did a quick Google Image search just after, typing in the word baby. He can type loads of words; Toy Story (and all the character names), 101 Dalmatians (he copied it from a book the 1st few times, but it's off by heart now), Pinocchio, (ditto), Ace Monkey, Adiboo, Magic Roundabout, and of course, all the Thomas the Tank Engine names.
We have so many little games we play together. He instigates most of them and tells me what character I'm playing. Quite often I'm Auntie Mable and he's Pippin the dog, or I'm the evil emperor Zurg and he's Buzz Lightyear. (Him - You killed my father. Me - No Buzz, I am your father. Him (pretending to fall down the stairs) - Aaaaaagh!
We still make lots of little home-made books; he, dictating the story and I, illustrating it according to his instructions, He then learns how to read them.
On Saturday, we walked to the postbox together. He put my letter in his little backpack and we went off, hand-in-hand along the road. We chatted as we went, and an old man greeted us, saying 'hello'. I said hello back, and Duncan instantly helloed him too!
He is progressing so well, and in a way that works fantastically for all of us. I was wondering whether Lady and Thomas should go back into school, so I could have more time to focus on Duncan. He is calmer and much easier to look after when it's just the 2 of us. Gordon often suggests that we might all benefit if Duncan was home-educated alone.
A friend of Lady's came over to play with her on Friday. When her mum was picking her up, she was talking about how much homework her children get, especially her 10 year old son. (He's doing the 11+ next year, that most unfair judge of children's abilities and future expectations, that is still so much in favour in Northern Ireland.) That isn't what I want for them. I don't see the point in a system that has the children in school for almost all of the day, then sets homework to eat into what little time the family has together. I'd reckon that many children who do well at school, do so because their parents put so much time and effort into helping with the homework.
Anyway, I just believe that to continue as we are is best for everyone. I'm happy that all 3 children are growing up together every day. They are such good friends, and I don't want to separate Duncan from his siblings. It's good for him having them around and vice versa. Today, they were having a great time playing 'Toy Story'. Duncan was just one of the gang. I also still think that the children will all get a better education at home.
I'm still drawing loads of tiny, detailed pictures as requested by Duncan. He did however, ask me to stick 2 A4 pages together to draw a really big rocket, which he told me to roll up round a cardboard tube. I then had to tape the rocket to the back of his shirt, and he pretended to blast off and whiz around. I knew then that he'd had the final product in his mind all along, he just fed me little bits of information as needed.
I had been wondering for a while how to persuade Duncan to draw for himself. He has always become upset when I've tried before, he wanted the finished products to look exactly like what's in his mind, and he reckons I'm more likely to achieve that than he is. But I just had this great idea; I could encourage him to draw, whilst I'm making whatever it is he wants. It worked right away. As I was drawing a picture of some 'fire bursts' (like those emanating from Buzz Lightyear's laser weapon), he drew a few pictures of our faces, then he drew round his hands and feet, then he copied some writing, then he spontaneously drew his own laser fire-bursts which he was so happy with, that I was asked to seal it with sticky tape, cut it out, and stick it onto his sleeve. His writing is so precise. I was amazed, I mean, he hasn't picked up a pen to do anything since he left school.
On Sunday I overheard him running water in the kitchen sink and muttering to himself that he would 'clean it'. I went in and watched him rinse a cloth and use it to wipe our (newly painted) wall, where he'd written, most beautifully, 'Big Antz.' (He's been watching a trailer for the film Antz quite a lot recently.) I had to turn away to hide the huge, proud smile on my face, and get the disapproving look in place.
Well, we had a discussion and he's said he will not write on walls, just on paper. We'll see. I'll have to buy water soluble marker pens again, I think.
He absorbs information from many sources, but the main way right now, is the PC. He likes to watch Youtube films; recently he's enjoyed films people have uploaded of their pets, especially their dogs. He plays lots of CD Roms and uses children's websites. He was listening to a story on Cbeebies yesterday; Don't Wake the Baby. He thinks this is hilarious and always follows the words with his finger as they are read. He did a quick Google Image search just after, typing in the word baby. He can type loads of words; Toy Story (and all the character names), 101 Dalmatians (he copied it from a book the 1st few times, but it's off by heart now), Pinocchio, (ditto), Ace Monkey, Adiboo, Magic Roundabout, and of course, all the Thomas the Tank Engine names.
We have so many little games we play together. He instigates most of them and tells me what character I'm playing. Quite often I'm Auntie Mable and he's Pippin the dog, or I'm the evil emperor Zurg and he's Buzz Lightyear. (Him - You killed my father. Me - No Buzz, I am your father. Him (pretending to fall down the stairs) - Aaaaaagh!
We still make lots of little home-made books; he, dictating the story and I, illustrating it according to his instructions, He then learns how to read them.
On Saturday, we walked to the postbox together. He put my letter in his little backpack and we went off, hand-in-hand along the road. We chatted as we went, and an old man greeted us, saying 'hello'. I said hello back, and Duncan instantly helloed him too!
He is progressing so well, and in a way that works fantastically for all of us. I was wondering whether Lady and Thomas should go back into school, so I could have more time to focus on Duncan. He is calmer and much easier to look after when it's just the 2 of us. Gordon often suggests that we might all benefit if Duncan was home-educated alone.
A friend of Lady's came over to play with her on Friday. When her mum was picking her up, she was talking about how much homework her children get, especially her 10 year old son. (He's doing the 11+ next year, that most unfair judge of children's abilities and future expectations, that is still so much in favour in Northern Ireland.) That isn't what I want for them. I don't see the point in a system that has the children in school for almost all of the day, then sets homework to eat into what little time the family has together. I'd reckon that many children who do well at school, do so because their parents put so much time and effort into helping with the homework.
Anyway, I just believe that to continue as we are is best for everyone. I'm happy that all 3 children are growing up together every day. They are such good friends, and I don't want to separate Duncan from his siblings. It's good for him having them around and vice versa. Today, they were having a great time playing 'Toy Story'. Duncan was just one of the gang. I also still think that the children will all get a better education at home.
28 Nov 2006
Lady swims, Duncan reads, Thomas multiplies
After all the drama and mood swing of the past few days, yesterday was delightfully calm and productive in comparison. Lady got stuck into her maths book, and worked really hard. Thomas mostly played PC games, especially The Polar Express and Timez Attack, a free downloadable game. He's played it so often now that he can answer many of the multiplication questions himself. He also read for me; Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? We're going to make our own version of that book today. He might even decide to draw something other than a rainbow (the only thing he currently will draw) to illustrate it!
While the others were busy, Duncan and I remade his 'Trevor' book on the computer. We Googled images and he chose which ones to use. He also picked photos of me and himself, then instructed me on where to place everything on the page and what size to make them. We're very proud of our efforts, so I'm sticking it on here!
In the evening, I took Lady swimming. She went in and I watched from the side. I have never seen her swim before, she swam the width of the pool, and has never had a lesson, but splashed about lots with her friends at her summer scheme. I'll go in with her when my hands heal again (my intermittent eczema problem) and help her develop a better style. It was lovely going out alone with her though. She is such a great girl, so happy and positive. The town was lit up for Christmas, and she declared everything to be gorgeous! Then in the pool, she kept catching my eye and giving a little wave, before diving under the water!
And now, our book!
Duncan wants a new train. Duncan wants a Daniel’s Trevor train.
Mummy buys a Trevor train on Ebay.
The man in the train shop puts Trevor into the parcel.
Then the man brings the parcel to the Post Office.
The postman puts Duncan's parcel into his bag. He brings it to Duncan’s house.
Duncan opens the parcel.
Duncan takes out the new Daniel’s Trevor train.
Duncan is very happy!
While the others were busy, Duncan and I remade his 'Trevor' book on the computer. We Googled images and he chose which ones to use. He also picked photos of me and himself, then instructed me on where to place everything on the page and what size to make them. We're very proud of our efforts, so I'm sticking it on here!
In the evening, I took Lady swimming. She went in and I watched from the side. I have never seen her swim before, she swam the width of the pool, and has never had a lesson, but splashed about lots with her friends at her summer scheme. I'll go in with her when my hands heal again (my intermittent eczema problem) and help her develop a better style. It was lovely going out alone with her though. She is such a great girl, so happy and positive. The town was lit up for Christmas, and she declared everything to be gorgeous! Then in the pool, she kept catching my eye and giving a little wave, before diving under the water!
And now, our book!
Duncan wants a new train. Duncan wants a Daniel’s Trevor train.
Mummy buys a Trevor train on Ebay.
The man in the train shop puts Trevor into the parcel.
Then the man brings the parcel to the Post Office.
The postman puts Duncan's parcel into his bag. He brings it to Duncan’s house.
Duncan opens the parcel.
Duncan takes out the new Daniel’s Trevor train.
Duncan is very happy!
27 Nov 2006
Good and bad
Over the past few days, I've listened to a lot of wailing, at high volume, produced by a small boy right next to my head. It's been awful at times. He has been upset about so many things. I have not coped at all well with this. I've been horrible sometimes, and have gotten so wound up by all the noise and aggravation, that its all escalated until we've ended up clinging to each other, both in tears. I need to buy some ear plugs. He hates to see me cry or be sad; he wipes my eyes and says 'no Mummy sad, Mummy just happy' which always does help me smile again.
But, even through all this, there have been some wonderful developments and experiences for all 3 children. Duncan has been reading a little booklet I made him, complete with pictures, showing how I'd bought him a train on Ebay, and describing how the man in the train shop would parcel and post it, then the postal worker would deliver it. He loves it! He keeps carrying it round with him and reading it over and over. I have to improve the little pictures a bit every so often too; he'll stare at one for a while, then ask me to, for example, draw in a wooden floor, complete with knots in the wood, or the bricks in the wall of the house picture, alternating bricks in brown and orange. It's so important to him to get it right, and he works so hard finding the words to communicate what's in his head.
His ability to read has taken a huge leap forward over the past few days too. I remember someone telling me that it seemed her child became more difficult to deal with when he had a surge in ability with some other skill; perhaps that's what is happening here. Anyway, he has been pointing to each word, reading it clearly, skipping the few words he doesn't know yet, and carrying on with the story. I have never seen him do this before, he never seemed to recognise that they were all individual words before. Gordon watched him with me on Friday, and was so proud of him (and a bit misty eyed too!)
The big news for Thomas, is he now wears glasses. He is slightly short sighted and really only needs to wear his new glasses for stuff like watching TV. Thomas is so proud of then though, that he wears them all the time. In fact, he's decided to start sleeping on the bottom of their bunk beds, so he can get into bed, pull his duvet over himself, and then finally, he removes the glasses, puts them carefully into their case and places it on his chest of drawers.
He walked around on Friday and Saturday, with a zig-zag scar drawn on his forehead, so he looks more like his hero, Harry Potter.
On Friday night, he and Lady both spent the night at their friends house. It was a sleep over for his 12th birthday, and there were, oh, about 20 or so children sleeping there. Thomas was so excited when I'd told him he would be staying, and immediately went to pack his bag. He had a great time, hanging out with his best little buddy, and apparently, he's a dab hand with these DS electronic games now too!
Lady loved it too. They watched a bunch of exciting movies, and she slept with the 2 big girls also staying over. The best bit, she told me, was when she and another girl, were on an exercise bike belonging to D (the very brave Mum hosting this whole gang). They both raved about chocolate birthday cake, pizza and pop, and were all fast asleep by 7.30 the following night. Thanks D!
(Update, the new 'Daniel's Trevor engine' has just arrived in the post, exactly as described in our story! Hurrah!)
But, even through all this, there have been some wonderful developments and experiences for all 3 children. Duncan has been reading a little booklet I made him, complete with pictures, showing how I'd bought him a train on Ebay, and describing how the man in the train shop would parcel and post it, then the postal worker would deliver it. He loves it! He keeps carrying it round with him and reading it over and over. I have to improve the little pictures a bit every so often too; he'll stare at one for a while, then ask me to, for example, draw in a wooden floor, complete with knots in the wood, or the bricks in the wall of the house picture, alternating bricks in brown and orange. It's so important to him to get it right, and he works so hard finding the words to communicate what's in his head.
His ability to read has taken a huge leap forward over the past few days too. I remember someone telling me that it seemed her child became more difficult to deal with when he had a surge in ability with some other skill; perhaps that's what is happening here. Anyway, he has been pointing to each word, reading it clearly, skipping the few words he doesn't know yet, and carrying on with the story. I have never seen him do this before, he never seemed to recognise that they were all individual words before. Gordon watched him with me on Friday, and was so proud of him (and a bit misty eyed too!)
The big news for Thomas, is he now wears glasses. He is slightly short sighted and really only needs to wear his new glasses for stuff like watching TV. Thomas is so proud of then though, that he wears them all the time. In fact, he's decided to start sleeping on the bottom of their bunk beds, so he can get into bed, pull his duvet over himself, and then finally, he removes the glasses, puts them carefully into their case and places it on his chest of drawers.
He walked around on Friday and Saturday, with a zig-zag scar drawn on his forehead, so he looks more like his hero, Harry Potter.
On Friday night, he and Lady both spent the night at their friends house. It was a sleep over for his 12th birthday, and there were, oh, about 20 or so children sleeping there. Thomas was so excited when I'd told him he would be staying, and immediately went to pack his bag. He had a great time, hanging out with his best little buddy, and apparently, he's a dab hand with these DS electronic games now too!
Lady loved it too. They watched a bunch of exciting movies, and she slept with the 2 big girls also staying over. The best bit, she told me, was when she and another girl, were on an exercise bike belonging to D (the very brave Mum hosting this whole gang). They both raved about chocolate birthday cake, pizza and pop, and were all fast asleep by 7.30 the following night. Thanks D!
(Update, the new 'Daniel's Trevor engine' has just arrived in the post, exactly as described in our story! Hurrah!)
17 Aug 2006
Summer ends
Summer time is drawing to a close. This is Lady's last day at summer scheme and the evenings are fast getting shorter. Like many others, I've been thinking about our learning plans for the next few months for each of the children. There's room here for a lot more organisation and optimisation.
I was a bit low for a few days there, which can be difficult as Duncan is so sensitive to my moods and he was consequently more demanding and clingy. But, spending time with these little people lifts me so I can't stay down for long. They can be hard work, but they are so funny too.
Today, Duncan and me have been composing comic-strip type stories. I wrote out a few sentences and illustrated them with stick figures. Duncan helped to improve the story with a few well placed details, and he came up with the last sentence himself, so we ended up with;
Duncan has a train.
Duncan has a noisy small Thomas train.
Duncan is playing.
Duncan is happy.
Mummy can draw a small Brio Thomas.
He can now read all that. So for now, home-made reading books are the way for him to improve his reading ability.
Earlier though, I was sitting on the floor in my bedroom reading some blogs (so time well spent then ;-) ) while Duncan played on my bed with, well I thought it was, a toy train. He came over to me saying 'fix it' and dropped something into my hand. I expected it to be a train with a loose wheel or something, not a snail with half its shell pulled off. Oh yuk! I chucked it out the window and lead Duncan to the bathroom to wash our hands, while trying to calmly tell him that he must not hurt snails. I had to wash my duvet cover too, there was some horrid looking yellow goo on it. I blame Abfh though, if her last post wasn't so funny and sharp, I might have been paying more attention to what my child was doing!
Also today I cleaned lots and baked raisin and oatmeal cookies with Thomas. He always wears a little stripped blue and white apron when we cook so he really looks the part.
I hope Lady enjoys her last day. She has loved hanging out with other children and may well miss that interaction. Hopefully she'll be able to meet up with some of the children after summer scheme as well.
I was a bit low for a few days there, which can be difficult as Duncan is so sensitive to my moods and he was consequently more demanding and clingy. But, spending time with these little people lifts me so I can't stay down for long. They can be hard work, but they are so funny too.
Today, Duncan and me have been composing comic-strip type stories. I wrote out a few sentences and illustrated them with stick figures. Duncan helped to improve the story with a few well placed details, and he came up with the last sentence himself, so we ended up with;
Duncan has a train.
Duncan has a noisy small Thomas train.
Duncan is playing.
Duncan is happy.
Mummy can draw a small Brio Thomas.
He can now read all that. So for now, home-made reading books are the way for him to improve his reading ability.
Earlier though, I was sitting on the floor in my bedroom reading some blogs (so time well spent then ;-) ) while Duncan played on my bed with, well I thought it was, a toy train. He came over to me saying 'fix it' and dropped something into my hand. I expected it to be a train with a loose wheel or something, not a snail with half its shell pulled off. Oh yuk! I chucked it out the window and lead Duncan to the bathroom to wash our hands, while trying to calmly tell him that he must not hurt snails. I had to wash my duvet cover too, there was some horrid looking yellow goo on it. I blame Abfh though, if her last post wasn't so funny and sharp, I might have been paying more attention to what my child was doing!
Also today I cleaned lots and baked raisin and oatmeal cookies with Thomas. He always wears a little stripped blue and white apron when we cook so he really looks the part.
I hope Lady enjoys her last day. She has loved hanging out with other children and may well miss that interaction. Hopefully she'll be able to meet up with some of the children after summer scheme as well.
3 Jul 2006
Ups and downs
I went to Dublin with Gordon on Friday while my Dad looked after the 3 children. We took the train from Belfast and stayed in a really nice hotel on St Stephen's Green right in the heart of the city. It was a wonderful trip. The sun was shining both days, we walked round the park and ate ice-creams, we enjoyed several wonderful meals, we dandered up Grafton Street and Gordon bought a stack of Cd's while I found a 'grey spring' for Duncan (a metal slinky- so he can hold it on his bottom and bounce around pretending to be 'Zeebad') another slinky for Thomas and a tacky leprechaun-topped, shamrock-plastered pencil for Lady. She also got the newest Harry Potter DVD so she's happy. We jogged round the park on Saturday morning, though we had stayed out late the night before enjoying a few drinks and the buzz in Temple Bar.
It had been a brilliant break. Even the train journey back was nice; watching the gorgeous scenery or reading the papers in comfort and quiet. And it was great to see the children again and to hear how much fun they'd had with their Granda.
It all went wrong on Sunday though, another downturn on the roller coaster as a broken promise meant I was forced to let a friend and the children down. I went to my home town with Thomas and Lady and my Dad. My aunt had organised a memorial mass and meal at her house as it would have been my Mum's 60th birthday on July 2nd. It was a good chance to see aunts, uncles, siblings and cousins and all their offspring.
Today, the children, guinea pigs and I are enjoying another warm day and ploughing through a big box of books from The Book People. Thomas was reading some Oxford Reading Tree books and Duncan loves the Little Red Train Adventure Playset, with maps, postcards and tickets and a clock all stuffed into paper satchels in the book.
I'm living in interesting times.
It had been a brilliant break. Even the train journey back was nice; watching the gorgeous scenery or reading the papers in comfort and quiet. And it was great to see the children again and to hear how much fun they'd had with their Granda.
It all went wrong on Sunday though, another downturn on the roller coaster as a broken promise meant I was forced to let a friend and the children down. I went to my home town with Thomas and Lady and my Dad. My aunt had organised a memorial mass and meal at her house as it would have been my Mum's 60th birthday on July 2nd. It was a good chance to see aunts, uncles, siblings and cousins and all their offspring.
Today, the children, guinea pigs and I are enjoying another warm day and ploughing through a big box of books from The Book People. Thomas was reading some Oxford Reading Tree books and Duncan loves the Little Red Train Adventure Playset, with maps, postcards and tickets and a clock all stuffed into paper satchels in the book.
I'm living in interesting times.
16 Jun 2006
Pigs, pants and now...peas!
I was reading to the boys yesterday, some Apple Tree Farm stories. They love these. Duncan was holding a new pig shaped eraser I had bought; it was his object of choice yesterday. He started telling me different words starting with the sound 'p', pig, pirate, puppy, Pippen, Percy and pants! He was very pleased with himself. Then his little voice was echoing every sentence as I read. Thomas was working out a few words for himself and labeled himself a great reader altogether! It's really nice that we can all enjoy books together now.
Something amazing has been happening here recently; Duncan has started to expand the range of food he will eat. He has always been a very fussy eater. When he was less than a year old, I took him to the paediatrician who diagnosed 'failure to thrive' as he was so low on the weight charts they use to monitor babies. (Those charts have since been scrapped for use with breast-fed children). But he was well skinny and I was always trying to maximise his intake of calories, especially fat and protein. For years he has eaten stuff like spaghetti with butter, cheese and tomato ketchup (and don't you dare try to blend something more nutritious into the ketchup!) and cereals with milk. Oh, and as much chocolate, cake and sweets as he could get hold of.
Now a few weeks ago he decided he wanted to try some fish fingers, having seen them on Charlie and Lola and he liked them. Then he saw Lady and me eating corn on the cob and reached out to try mine. I told him, 'It's corn, like on Pocahontas!' He said 'Home on the Range corn!' then he started to eat, loved it and now eats it every day. Wow, he's actually eating some vegetables! He has also started to eat peas and onions, having first tried them from my plate as he sat on my lap as I ate dinner. It's a bit like the way the other children tried food from my plate when they were weaning!
Now I need to go and help find 'Lego man,' that is, a 2cm high bit of red and yellow plastic. I reckon I spend about 2 hours each week looking all around the house for various very small plastic objects that Duncan has lost and desperately wants. I have regularly thought that if I could really perform just one spell from the Harry Potter books, it would be 'Accio', the 'summoning charm'!
Something amazing has been happening here recently; Duncan has started to expand the range of food he will eat. He has always been a very fussy eater. When he was less than a year old, I took him to the paediatrician who diagnosed 'failure to thrive' as he was so low on the weight charts they use to monitor babies. (Those charts have since been scrapped for use with breast-fed children). But he was well skinny and I was always trying to maximise his intake of calories, especially fat and protein. For years he has eaten stuff like spaghetti with butter, cheese and tomato ketchup (and don't you dare try to blend something more nutritious into the ketchup!) and cereals with milk. Oh, and as much chocolate, cake and sweets as he could get hold of.
Now a few weeks ago he decided he wanted to try some fish fingers, having seen them on Charlie and Lola and he liked them. Then he saw Lady and me eating corn on the cob and reached out to try mine. I told him, 'It's corn, like on Pocahontas!' He said 'Home on the Range corn!' then he started to eat, loved it and now eats it every day. Wow, he's actually eating some vegetables! He has also started to eat peas and onions, having first tried them from my plate as he sat on my lap as I ate dinner. It's a bit like the way the other children tried food from my plate when they were weaning!
Now I need to go and help find 'Lego man,' that is, a 2cm high bit of red and yellow plastic. I reckon I spend about 2 hours each week looking all around the house for various very small plastic objects that Duncan has lost and desperately wants. I have regularly thought that if I could really perform just one spell from the Harry Potter books, it would be 'Accio', the 'summoning charm'!
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