Today started out a very normal day, we waited for our tesco delivery and once that was unpacked we headed off to the home of nearby friends, also home educators for coffee and playtime.
Sophie and Connor were enjoying playing with their friends when he suddenly felt sick, wound up on the bathroom floor in the foetal position sobbing that he felt rather ill! Whether it was something to do with swinging enthusiastically in O's IKEA chair which hangs from the ceiling or something he ate or maybe a bug is all yet to be determined but he was taken swiftly home for a lie down!
Sophie stayed to play and later recounted the lovely games they had all played. She especially loves being 'the big one' when they play, shes the middle child here and she and Connor are really close in age (22months between them) so having 4 younger friends to play with is a real novelty for her, she said she'd loved teaching them her games.
Sophie was kindly dropped back home later and as I said goodbye there was an almighty screech from the kitchen, followed by much sobbing from Connor who had slipped on the floor and wound up scratching the skin off his side as he fell!Icepack applied he was fine, if a little 'stingy' and when Darren got back Soph and I headed off to work.
Sophie enjoyed joining in with the gym class and I dropped her off at trampolining... returning two hours later I spotted the French rugby team who were training at the university sports facilities (no opportunity for pictures though.. shame Connor was at home!)
I went into the gym and there I found Sophie sat with an icepack on her swollen ankle!
She spent tonight hopping round the house,sore and stroppy. Hopefully she will recover soon!The last thing I need this week is two kids in the wars.. we have too much to do!
She said on the way home that her mates are all intrigued by her being home educated, all but one think its 'cool' and would love the opportunity. Only one has been negative, when asked whether she sits at a desk between 9-3.30 she said "not exactly no" and the little girl replied that she couldn't possibly be having an education, because education is sitting down between 9-3 and doing your lessons... turned out she had gone into her school and recounted the fact her friend was home educated and asked if she could try it! I think her teachers response was probably less than enthusiastic!
She's also able to articulate more of her feelings about school now its further away, she was never what Id have called 'happy' in school( despite the school insisting even my eldest was happy- despite being desperately unhappy!) she couldn't really say what it was which upset her so much and once she got out of school a stream of whinging about its awfulness followed. It was as if she needed us to realise how much it hurt and how terrible it was, just in case we were contemplating returning her to that school!
Now however shes been able to find a bit of emotional distance and space from her school experiences she's recounting things a bit more objectively. The most interesting revelation of late was about the pressure that she felt to conform, even in a school which had a strict uniform code there were 'things you had to have'. I tried my best to resist these things whenever they arose but Sophie yesterday admitted she not only managed to get certain items from us by not telling us they were 'must haves' but that she didn't even like half the things she felt she 'had' to have!!
She's said shes really enjoying the freedom she feels she has now to choose what she likes and being able to express her likes and interests without fear of being judged by her friends.In the Home ed community those same things aren't important, she can be who she wants to be and popular for who she is and she's realising that she is both liked and likable.I think she also likes herself a lot more than she did when she was at school and constantly having her confidence knocked by teachers and other children both academically and socially.
She's also discovering wider interests. Her new favourite programmes being Panorama and Who do you think you are! Which I'm sure wouldn't have been acceptable to her teachers ( she would be too young to know too much I think they would feel she was precocious,especially because they viewed her as not very clever due to her dyslexia) nor her friends who Im sure wouldnt share her interest in current affairs !
She has also asked whether we could have a go at writing some poetry ( this child who struggles with reading, for whom books are a bore and writing even more so!) So I will have to find some poetry related activities for her.
Connor continues to surprise me with the leaps and bounds his skills are coming on in too. His speech is continuing to improve( with minimum help from speech therapy), he couldnt swim before we took him out of school, every swimming teacher he'd had had tried with him and failed, he'd end up crying, sinking, spluttering and everyone was at a loss ( and they were all lovely people who tried to raise his confidence through any means!) we left it in the end but he knew he was missing out not being able to swim like his sisters and decided to try again.
In the 6 months since he came out of school he has gone up three levels in swimming, every ten week term he's gone from the learner pool(3ft deep) into the shallow end of the big pool, through the two clases held in the shallow end and now he's been chosen to go into the deep end of the big pool!
He realises now that he can do things despite his dyspraxia and his ability to do other things is emerging too. He told me this afternoon he got upset at school because he couldnt spell 'green' and that green was a hurty word for him because he's colour blind and he realises he cannot see many deeper shades of green. He said "I think I know how to spell green now G-R-E-E-N... which he taught himself. Not bad for a child who struggles with CVC words!
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