Insects, gardening,Tynkering, bike rides, coding and Castles.

Owens PC has been playing up for a while, recently Blokey replaced a burnt out power supply cable but it had broken down again. On further inspection it appears the graphics card was drawing too much power and had been the cause of the initial problems. He managed to locate a new one and spent the morning installing it. Owen was so relieved and hopped from foot to foot waiting for the repair to be completed. 

The children and I were discussing coding again, we have tried various subscriptions in the past but none have really appealed to them for any length of time. I saw a new set of sessions that focus on Minecraft coding and when I pointed them out, they were very keen. I am more skeptical, ( I have been here many times) so signed them up for a quarterly subscription initially to see how they get on. We have tried Tynker before but I must admit, the sessions offered are now more comprehensive and look a lot more appealing...we shall see. Owen has already completed two sections on skin designs...hmmm *runs chins*.

Sam watched me do some weeding. He decided to eat his breakfast outside in the sunshine.

He spotted a butterfly and spent time watching it..he suspected it had just emerged from the cocoon and was drying it wings in the sun.

He found a cocoon under the bay window:

And a branded snail on the tree:

We checked which seedlings were successful ..the beetroot is starting to sprout :

Our strawberry plants we looking healthy:

The lettuce plants are still doing well:

Both boys played 'Simon' whilst I talked to them about what they wanted to do today with me.

Sam wanted to go back outside and do more gardening. I still had some plants that my mum had given me, so we worked out where we wanted them. I showed Sam where Owen and I had sowed wild flower seeds, we spotted a few already pushing through the soil.

He loved digging the holes with his trowel, Sam puts so much effort in he managed to fall over three times.

We planted night stock, cornflowers and lobelia. After that he spotted some weeds in the borders and helped me dig those up. He worked really hard and we headed back indoors just as the rain started.

Meanwhile Owen was continuing to work on his coding.

We looked at market forces and talked about responsible consumerism.

And got excited by a whoosh bottle:

Owens skins designs.

And a bit of coding.

Sam started the Turings Towers programming section. I sat with him as he was a little nervous to start. When he realised it was like a platform game he soon was racing ahead and giggling.

He made some skins too:

I don't know where the day went! Jujitsu later, so best do some food. On coming home Owen got really upset. He seemed tired but had had a good session ..sometimes he doesn't know why himself. 

The only way he could articulate it was that it was something to do with a glass of water and not wanting it...???....we got him settled but it was quite late. We are supposed to be seeing people tomorrow but Owen is saying he doesn't want to go. Again he cannot express why and questioning him makes him more upset. I explain to our friends that we may make it, but it will most likely be a last minute thing.

The sun is shining and Sam wanted ( quite rightly), to be outside . Owen is still not quite himself and I sit and watch him do his coding lessons. He brightens up considerably during this session but the minute I leave the room he becomes distracted and upset. I make sure Sam is busy and happy and Owen and I continue to work through his projects.

It's one of those days where I feel pulled in all directions. I would like to be outside too and Sam wants me to work with him , so I negotiated a trade off where Owen gets the attention for now and I promise to spend time with Sam afterwards. I get many cuddles off Owen all the time we sit together with his project. Owen is very camera shy at the moment, so I am contemplating using a stunt double in future blogs.

Afterwards it's time to head outside with Sam ..we start, at his request, with the weeding. 

We did quite a bit yesterday so there weren't too many more to deal with. We moved on to mowing the lawn.

I have to hold the wire for him but he loves pushing it round and it's good sensory therapy for him.

Next we plant some courgettes and more beetroots. Sam enjoys watering the tubs and the very inquisitive dog, who loves to drink from the hose pipe.

Sam now wanted to do some exercise..so he hula hooped.

And ran laps round the garden.

All the time he talked and waved at anyone going past. We chatted about plants and birds the whole time we were outside.

Sam was up early and came outside with me to inspect the garden and play with Shadow. Afterwards he showed me what he's been doing on the Minecraft server we host. I was quite surprised at how much it's changed. There has been lots of designing and building. He demonstrated his new skin design , as he'd worked out how to take it from Tynker and use it directly in the game. There was also a rollercoaster , numerous buildings and demonstration of him using command blocks inventively with his knowledge of circuitry being put to good use.

We then went back to Tynker to do some more coding. I hope he continues to get more out of it because I can see he wants to do his own coding and mods in Minecraft.

Sam is really enjoying this and despite getting stuck at one point he insisted on working through alone until he solved the problem. The look on his face when he did it was priceless.

I left Sam designing a new skin in the Tynker app as he was really pleased that someone commented on how cool it was.

Owen and I went upstairs to rearrange his bedroom. Where his desk currently was, made working a bit cramped, so we switched things round and had a general tidy. He was pleased with what we had done. Sam popped in and out to monitor our progress and showed Owen how to upload his skin design from Tynker to Mojang. 

As Owen hasn't wanted his photo taken lately, I asked him if he would like my Ugly Doll to be used as a stunt double. He thought this was a cracking idea..and even went on to allow me to take a few pics of himself at work too.

He logged into his Tynker project and made really good headway. He reads it too fast for me to follow already. Good job he knows what he's doing because I haven't got a clue.

After lunch we went to swimming lessons and the boys tried really hard and got on with breaststroke well. Both even managed to overcome their shower and changing room anxiety today, I was so proud of them. 

It was such a lovely sunny day and we needed to go and vote, so we asked the boys if they fancied a walk. Surprisingly they said yes, so off we went. We walked through the the wooded path up into the old part of the village. Sam ran most of the way, he reminds me of a Jack Russell. We looked at the plants and trees and the boys asked if we could come again tomorrow with my book of Wild plants because there were some I wasn't sure about. As I am always eager to get them outside as much as possible, I readily agreed. 

On the way back we stopped at the park and the children had a kick about with a couple of other boys before we headed home. Owen was very tired on the last part so Blokey and I helped him along with jokes and  a bit of piggy backing. We all agreed it was a very enjoyable jaunt and I hope the children remember tomorrow, so we can start to get Owen outside a bit more.

After all the swimming and walking yesterday, I was informed that the boys 'were very tired!'.

'We don't want to do any learning today Mum..we are FAR too tired to do anything' . I nod sympathetically ..'OK' ...

Sam: yes no learning today I just want to chill out and watch that film about Tesla.

Owen: Yes I just want to watch that too..

I laugh in the face of their 'not learning ' and we watch the documentary ..we have to pause it whilst I answer numerous questions about Tesla ..they also decide that he probably was Autistic too.

It was a lovely sunny day again, so we headed out for a bike ride. Spring is definitely here.

We played at the park.

Surrounded a beetle

And cycled home to light the BBQ for the first time. Just as we were preparing to cook, the heavens opened and we had a huge thunderstorm. It was our wettest BBQ on record here..the food still tasted great!

We woke to a beautiful day, after swimming we headed over to an event day at Stafford Castle.

We looked at the stalls and fed the goats:

Owen tried to persuade me to buy some chickens and ducks.

Then he wanted a rabbit.

We loved the Shire horse and her foal.

The boys enjoyed the exhibits relating to the castle:

Owen checked out the explainations about how chain mail worked.

We all enjoyed the birds of prey display, the man was very interesting and told us many facts about each bird.

Met the bats.

Put Owen in the Stocks:

We climbed up to the castle and explored:

On such a clear day, there were amazing panoramic views across Staffordshire and all the way to the hills at Welshpool and towards the Welsh borders.

Sam and Owen ran back down the slope.

Then back home for tea and to try and cool down and chill out.

Art, life, swimming, the library, jujitsu and visitors.

Art featured heavily today at the children's request.

Learning how to draw Voldemort was hilarious.

We all agreed that Owens picture on the right really captured his essence. Sam looked at both pictures ( mine is the left  I think I managed to make Voldemort look unintentionally cheerful) .

Sam asked 'what's yours in Owen?' ..meaning which page was his.

Owen: Drugs I think.

Which caused them both to snort all over the table.

Next Owen and I had a try at Angry Birds:

Owen insisted we sign them 'like proper artists'.

We then played roll a Lego person..Owen found it hard to place the features on the page so we could make a body round them. I remembered I had a template somewhere and printed them off. He found this more useful for the game.

Using the templates made it more enjoyable for Owen . He signed his work again.

Sam was very resistant about making a decision this morning and brought many things through to me which he then rejected.

I showed him some activities on Pinterest and the aboriginal dreaming art caught his attention, so we investigated further.

He liked these.

We looked into the meanings behind the symbols:

Then we chose motifs he liked and incorporated them into his picture:

We have to do new things as a collaboration but this needed little input from me and I was very surprised that he wanted to use paints too. 

Next we used the Lego figure template to make a person, again we played the dice game I showed Owen.

Once more I was delighted to see Sam initiating colouring the figure in..he wouldn't normally attempt this. It's nice to see him gaining in confidence and taking his ideas further.

His is the one on the right and he was incredibly pleased with it. Both children are beginning to enjoy using the sketchbooks now. They always look back through their work before we start anything new.

After this we spent a long time working through the levels on 2Dots strategy/planning game.

So today we planned on going to the library. On getting all the library books sorted and getting the children ( herding cats) into the car, it then failed to start! Very disappointed boys and long faces followed. Thankfully I spent yesterday afternoon looking up some documentaries and adding them to my constant inventory list. The morning was saved by a very interesting one about the Spinosaurus on Netflix.

I kept everything crossed we ( read Blokey) could easily fix the car before tonight so the boys can attend jujitsu. As luck would have it, Blokey found the car just had a flat battery, so it was easily remedied. We will gloss over Blokey leaving the lights on and hence the battery getting drained..*tee hee* ..he looked suitably abashed.

So off to jujitsu for the laddos and another successful session.

We decided to attempt the Library again today, I checked the car would start before the boys got up and loaded the bag of books ready. We did life skills first thing. After breakfast Owen made bread and we sorted and took out the recycling boxes. 

He's checking the rise on his dough here. 

The shopping arrives just as Sam comes downstairs and he helps me put it away. On seeing a new box of cereal Owen decided to have '2nd breakfast, like Hobbits do'. They both chat and eat two bowls full whilst I put Owens bread dough on for its second rise.

After this I show Sam how to clean the bathroom. He enjoys cleaning the bath and shower areas but looks slightly nervous at the thought of doing the toilet. Even so he manages to do a great job and I am pleased at how hard he rubs everything clean because the sensory OT explained this sort of activity helps with his coordination,  motor skills, as well as being a calming strategy. 

When all the surfaces are wiped down, I show him how to mop the floor. As we are putting everything back, he tells me he quite enjoyed it but doesn't understand how it's 'learning'. So I explain how it's helping him be more independent , so he knows how to take care of his own house when he's older. I ask if he feels better now the bathroom is all tidy again and he smiles and says he likes it better when it's been cleaned. 

I think it's been a better experience because I have bought unscented cleaners recently and having not to cope with strong smells has meant Sam was more comfortable.

Owens finished bread:

When the bread was baked we headed off to the library. The boys got quite a haul again:

They were beside themselves when the staff said they could date stamp their own books.

Afterwards we popped into the charity shop down the street. My handbag had broken , so Sam helped me choose a new one. £3 was a steal and I was spoilt for choice , I preferred the charity shop one to the one that had broken.

Owen was browsing the racks and decided to buy a retro jacket with his pocket money...he loves it so much he's wearing in the house!

I think he looks SO cool!

First thing Owen did this morning was put his jacket on..I turned the heating off. After breakfast we talked about David Attenborough because he is 90 today and started watching the BBC's series 'Life'.

The boys then had free play and I did some chores. Owen and I talked about strategies to help him over his anxieties in the changing rooms at swimming. He has decided he will wait and have a shower after the smaller children in another group have finished. Last week was really tough for us all, so I am delighted he's thought it through..having a plan of his own always helps. I keep everything crossed for a smoother changing room experience.

Swimming lessons were awesome both boys did really well and Rob spoke to me after about how he is pleased with their progress. Neither managed a shower this week but had one when we got home instead. Main thing is there were no meltdowns, so a good experience for us all and Owens confidence is restored. *punches air* .

In the evening Blokey and I were off dog training , so Blokeys oldies came over to look after the boys for a few hours. The children decided to indoctrinate them into Mythbusters and were happily tucked up in bed by the time we got home. 

As I was waving them off a friend of a friend pulled up and delivered a get well soon box of Krispy Creme doughnuts ...Blokeys eyes nearly fell out of his head and the box was spirited away quickly .

I am have a rare hair appointment, so Blokey is dropping me off and taking the boys into town for a mooch and some lunch. 

There's is a lot of talk about the Government changes to school and the fact that they may become academies. This worries me greatly , especially as they are self governing and there are issues with current academy status school that concern me. As we have already found out to our children's cost, provision in the current school set up quite often leave SEND children unsupported and at a disadvantage. It's no coincidence that the numbers of families with SEND children choosing to Home educate is on the increase..some through choice, others have been forced to take this route due to constant exclusions when the child didn't have the correct support. 

I wrote to our MP about my concerns and was sent a transcript of the Secretary of States speech on the changes to be implemented. There was nothing at all I could find to ease my concerns and all though the word 'inclusion' was batted about frequently , there was no strategy laid out as to how this would be implemented or where SEND children fitted into the picture. I wrote back to my MP and asked where SEND families would be included and what support would be provided to ensure they wouldn't lose out further in our education system.

I now have a response saying he read my comments with interest and will be raising them with the Sec. Of State and he will reply further when he can address my points fully. It's a start. 

It's Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK and we have a friend to stay. I took her to town and we had a look in all the charity shops, we got quite a haul and had some giggles along the way. She has the same neurological condition as me, so I encouraged her to try my demand valve on my oxygen tank. She was impressed with how much better it works compared to the standard set up.

The boys mainly did their own thing, making videos and playing . They enjoyed chatting with our visitor and we had a takeaway Saturdya night and I cooked a roast dinner in Sunday for everyone. There were lots of extra cuddles for the dogs too.