Baking, Brian Cox, puzzles and the 28 day plank challenge, Tonfa training.

Sam starts the day by going through his puzzle book. These are great for him as there are many skills used...reading, comprehension, executive functioning etc etc...not that Sam cares, he just thinks they are a great laugh.

It wasn't that long ago when he could only manage a few pages a day before becoming overwhelmed. 

Today he romps through the whole book and then checks the answers in the back to ensure he did everything correctly.

Owen and I made bread rolls:

He's is carefully shaping them here:

Whilst they were rising we watched this:

Owen looked through a craft book to see if there were any projects he wanted to do.

The finished rolls:

Things were really fraught and I decided not to take the boys to a group activity in the afternoon, which proved to be a wise decision. Both Sam and Owen were struggling, so I suggested we go to the park on our bikes. They were perfectly happy for a while.

Then suddenly Owen started to struggle big time and threw himself to the floor screaming. It's hard to say what actually caused this but his distress was incredibly high..I suspect sensory overload. Sam was also in a state of anxiety, so once I got Owen calm enough we cycled home ...even so it was tricky and I had to manage things carefully, to ensure they were being safe.

As both boys were so hot we played with our water balloons and guns in the garden.

We have some lovely shade from the mature trees so I encouraged them to cool off there.

Once again things started to get just a bit too much. After about 40 mins I noticed that they were finding it harder and harder to listen and were more keyed up...so I suggested a bath to wash the bits of grass off. Now this would normally calm things down..except Owen decided to jump onto Sam in the bath..meanwhile Sam is both filling the bath with more water and spraying the shower hose everywhere....I looked at the light fitting nervously. It was really difficult to get things settled and calm and I found myself feeling frustrated..sometimes it's just hard not to sadly, especially when you are worried they may hurt one another accidentally or flood the bathroom, again. Eventually I managed to get Owen washed, out of the bathroom and things improved dramatically. Once cool, dry and in fresh clothes they were at last calm and the boys reflected on what we could have done better. 

Bedtime was tough work but we got them settled eventually and there were lots of cuddles, Sam in particular wasn't himself so we talked through what was bothering him.

The next day the boys were on much better form mentally. Breakfast went incredibly smoothly and Sam settled well into his coding lessons, working hard and able to focus.

Owen wanted to do some baking and decided on brownies ..this is our favourite recipe, so we made double the dry mix, so we have some for another time.

http://thrivinghomeblog.com/2013/09/easy-homemade-brownie-mix/

Owen even managed to cope with the noise from the mixer.

And for the first time ever, wanted to lick the spoon and do the washing up.

His finished work:

I know things work so much better if the boys have 1:1 time with me everyday as proven this morning. However, convincing Sam and Owen of this, isn't always easy...as proven yesterday when they both felt, unheard and frustrated. That's when demand avoidance kicks in and it's hard to rescue them once they hit a certain level. I will remind them later that this method suits them more and hope that they remember. 

I put on Dick and Dom today, mainly to suss out if it would be any interest to the children. Suddenly both boys were glued to the show and we were all chortling away. There was lots of engineering, science and history involved..along with the usually cheekiness and giggling of D & D....we got 6 episodes in before I had to break off for dinner.

Later the boy went to their jujitsu class and  home tired but happy. Their instructor had let them do the class outside because it was so hot. 

The next morning Owen and I talk about another child in his class, the boy is very young and Owen is finding it hard to understand why he behaves the way he does...ie ..like a normal 5 yr old! We have quite a long discussion about it but he's still finding it hard to see the bigger picture. After his breakfast Owen decides to research Giant millipedes and find out what he would need to do and buy to look after one properly. I help him write out his questions and he searches up the answers.

We also email a local reptile company to see if they could supply one. The idea is to get him kitted out for his birthday. We talk at length about the pros and cons of having a pet and he emails me some more information. Blokey and I are not convinced he's ready to clean out a pet once a week, so we are wrangling to keep his plans to a level I can manage, should I need to take over the pets care. I am concerned that demand avoidance will kick in, even if it's a demand he has placed on himself.

Sam is busily coding in the background, currently he is designing his own mods for the Tynker server. He manages to make about 7 today and pops in and out the kitchen like a demented cuckoo clock each time, to make sure I can see his work. 

He is really getting a lot out of this course, so I have promised I will increase his subscription if he's still keen in August.

After coding Sam and I sit and look at his puzzle book. 

Both of us were completely lost on one riddle and couldn't crack the code at all. Sam faired much better than me in the final part of this section, making deductions well and remembering details from our previous work.

Whilst we are doing this Owen is busy uploading his latest video and working through his coding lesson. He can do the tasks quite quickly now but I get the impression he's not enjoying it as much as Sam. I have a tidy round whilst he's working and he shrieks with excitement at being able to finish this section of work first time. Maybe he just needs more feedback and success ...we shall see. You just never know how projects will go down, so it's always a suck it and see thing here.

We have decided to do the 28 day plank challenge..it's hilarious. Apparently my bum is way to high still after 6 days. We are currently up to 45 seconds.

Owen and I decided to try our hands at origami...*coughs* ..we started with an easy one...*coughs*

After several attempts ( now I know why they put so much paper in the pack) , this was the best I could do and Owen was really frustrated.

So he got his flint and steel out and made a fire.

Owen: Burn origami ...BURN! 

And he danced round the fire.

We need more practice but I suspect I need to improve most, so I can help the boys sort it out.

Next we checked over the garden and he pruned our mint bush back. Then decided to plant some sweetcorn. We checked our wildflower area and were pleased to see, that after the rain yesterday, it was still not too dry.

I sorted out our compost bin...the smell over powered us both but I managed to dig some into the beds to give them a feed.

We did more bee counting and identification for our survey. The chives seem to still be the most popular plant for our local bee population. If you look closely you can see an early bumble bee. We also spotted common carder and some white tails too.

After this Owen decided to do some coding on Tynker and completed three Minecraft lessons and another section of his main coding pack.

Sam bought himself Animal Crossing New Leaf last week. Owen already had it and both boys LOVE the game. I was pleasantly surprised at all the life skills that are involved, saving, mortgages, nature, spelling and seasonal activities. Sam is currently hooked on it.

He didn't feel like coding today so we did some brain training challenges on the Wii against each other.

He thrashed me.....many times!

Afterwards, I showed him how to use the resistance bands our friend Kate had left when she visited us. We did this workout...We both felt the burn....and Sam was amazed I could do more leg lifts than him.

https://youtu.be/QTHif8TGyY8

In the afternoon we went for swimming lessons with the lovely Rob. It is water safety week, so there were some new things to learn today and a certificate to say the children had completed their activity.

Owen was very excited to have 'rescued' Rob.

Their instructor wants them to move into another time slot, in order that they can go into a higher group. I looked at the slots available and it's a case of either changing instructor ( which I know the boys will struggle with) or going at a day that will clash with other activities. So for now I have asked them to let us know when a slot comes up with Rob in the week.

In the morning Blokey and I spent time ringing and places and planning the next weeks activities. We have pretty much booked the week up and the boys are very excited.

Later we did Flip-out the trampolining centre. It was wonderfully quiet and the boys thoroughly enjoyed being coached by the staff. Half way through the manager came across and wowed us all with his skills. He jumped over the boys as they ( bravely) stood still. Then wall walked and did a motorcycle stunt style jump over a the children , whom he'd placed on a raised platform. The children were exhausted , red faced and thoroughly enjoyed their session.

Owen swinging

A very happy but tired Sam .

We also played Top Trumps

And Maths Brainbox and UNO 

The next day we visited Blokeys parents and dropped off Father's Day gifts and the card the boys had made. Sam wants to try some new foods , so we went to the shops afterwards and bought a few things for him to sample.

Later both boys were fractious and tired. Sam hasn't been sleeping well due to the warm weather, so I arranged his bed better. I took the duvet out of the cover , so he can feel secure with something over him, but not as hot. He allowed me to leave his window open a little too. The next day he felt so much better for a good nights sleep.

We took the children to jujitsu today, they have extra classes at weekends sometimes. This is where they have time to be taught additional skills in specific areas and they really enjoy it. This time is was Tonfa training. We dropped the boys off and went for a quiet meal whilst they trained. We also got a fan for Sam's room to help him be more comfortable at night. Owen decided a fan would help him sleep too, so Blokey will pick one up for him next week. 

Both boys came out very enthusiastically about their training experience and got their black books updated and a certificate.