It's June!
Wow it's so busy and the time is flying past so quickly. I have neglected my musings and I suspect this will a regular event as being with the boys is always the priority. It's Sunday today and they are playing nicely together at the side of me.
We have been on many outings with the HE groups I am a member of and this month is no exception. So far we have done a First Aid course. Ice skating a few times, park outings, A Civil War Encampment and on Friday we are all enjoying a group trip to Alton Towers!
We also have some new friends that home educate and go to their houses too.
This week Owen and Sam really enjoyed our trip to Boscobel House and the Civil War day...there was so much to take in and the people taking part very informative. Owen also enjoyed a paper making class this week and it is something I think we may look into doing more of , as his resulting work was very impressive.
Reading and Maths are progressing well and we still enjoy getting or new supply of books from Market Drayton Library...luckily they have an extensive reading selection and who ever does the ordering makes sure the choice is excellent.
We had a trip down to Brighton to see 'The Prof' and although the situation isn't perfect with the boys condition, it is more manageable now. Owen struggles with the journey there and back so there is always a 7 day window either side of any trip where we have to try and keep things as stress free as possible. Even so we had a few meltdowns..but no where near as bad or frequent as when he was in school.
We are still working on Education City, RM Maths and Reading Eggs regularly but everything else is completely child led. Owen is starting to show a great interest in creative art and Sam surprises himself constantly with how much his reading is coming alone. He's really enjoying it now and doesn't stubble over the words or spell them out. He enjoys the fluency of the written word so much more than a few months ago.
The boys constantly amaze me with their progression and how much they absorb from our many conversations about the world. The other day we did a study unit on magnets and they answered everything easily..all because we had bought them a set of magnets a few weeks ago and they were asking lots of questions about how they worked. Days ensued of them testing various surfaces to find if they were magnetic or not. Also they enjoyed pushing the magnets along the floors by using the repelling elements.
Sam loves trajectory games and seems to have a real interest in physics generally, he's getting good at seeing angles and looking at weighting objects etc. and can get absorbed in this for long periods. He skips happily to do his reading and maths, usually asking if he can do it without any prompting. We really enjoy this time and have a lot of smiles and laughs. Owen is more reluctant but usually cannot resist from joining in the fun after 10 mins or so...then elbows us out of the way to do 'his learning'.
Buying the children Marble run has caught their interest and many happy hours have passed building different routes.
I feel we are doing really well, falling into a rhythm more and the whole house is less stressed. Owen's behaviour will always have challenging elements to it but he is still progressing on many levels, both in academics and socially. We are still awaiting the start of his ASD assessment...but it's taking Soooo long.
Had a real breakthrough with getting the boys interested in writing. The book by Peggy Kaye - Games For Writing is just brilliant and the children were very happily playing and writing using some of the suggestions.... In fact they have asked for more of the same...I am so pleased and would happily recommend the book to anyone who's children were experiencing a 'fear of writing'.
I have posted new photos so show some (as it's by no means everything) of the activities we have done recently.
