T-Bird Anni Rides Again

Aprilia managed to do her chores, some brainwork and clean her teeth every day for a full week and has thus, for the first time ever, earned her pocket money!

I decided today that we were going to drop the awful Sonlight laern to read books in favour of simple books but with real storylines and phonics be damned!  She’s had a set of books with a CD for a while so the stories were familiar to her.  She sat happily and read one of them to me, and although I’m sure there was an element of recitation involved she turned the pages at the right times, corrected herself when she said a word wrong and asked what the apostrophe was for in "didn’t" and a few other shortened words and why it was different from an apostrophe showing ownership on a different page in the book.  So I’m calling that a success and thinking that I may read out some of her other simple books onto tape so she gets familiar with those and try it that way for a while.  It can’t be any worse than the struggles over what should be simple text but where the storyline (and sense) is sacrifced to the greater god of phonics.

 She’s been talking to me a lot since Wednesday about what being assessed for dyslexia will be like and what it will mean for her.  The testing I could give her a good idea about, I’ve done it (although obviously the IQ test for an 8 year old is going to be different than the one for an adult!) although how she handles "failure" (ie not being comfortable sounding out words which will be a fairly central part of the test) is something we will have to have further talks about as they will stop the test if she gets distressed leaving us without a full picture of her difficulties.  What it will mean for her is really something only she can decide but I could tell her that it will mean she will KNOW that it’s not her "fault" that reading is so damned hard for her and at some point it will mean that if she wants to do an exam then she will be able to have certain concessions.  Not a lot of benefit really but I do think we ar at a point where it’s heading towards being necessary for her peace of mind that we can prove what her problems are.

Which leads me onto my other bit of fretting.  Dyslexia doesn’t make you over sensitive to noise.  Neither does it strike you dumb in front of strangers (not to the degree of Jade by any stretch of the imagination but enough to be difficult)  Hmmm, and thus I get wobbly.  Must get a grip.

Yesterday we met up with several other families at MOSI for the afternoon.  It’s been well blogged elsewhere but I thought I’d just mention it anyway   I had a lovely afternoon catching up with Jax mainly although I also briefly spoke to a few other peeps too.  Would ahve been a lot more socialbe but as Jax mentioned, we were being "child led" and for my offspring that meant running away from larger groups ie more than about 3 or 4, especially if they spoke above a whisper.  I got a bit wobbly about that, sorry Kirsty!  I’m blaming a lack of chocolate.

Obviously, anyone who has ever been to MOSI will know that you cannot do even a fraction of it in the 3 or so hours we had there but then again, it’s not far from us and free entry means its somewhere we can, and should, make return trips to.  And for future ref, the food in the cafe next to Experiment is very good, really, definitely very good!  But I should have thought to take water bottles as we were all parched by the time we got home.

Today Aprilia has watched lots of Dr Who.  I negociated taht for every one she watched she had to do some brain work and thus she did a full non-verbal reasoning paper in less than 10 minutes without a hint of a complaint and various other workbooky bits.  I also read multiple pages of history whilst she assembled a star dome thing we got yesterday.  It’s not fab but it’s not bad for the price.  Still wish I could justify the really expensive mains powered one that changes what is shows depending on the time of year though!  But really, £25 for a glorified night light???

Not long after getting home from aforementioned meeting, Aprilia was delivered home from her day out with Nelly.  They had been to another friend’s house making pizzas and playing in the garden.  Aparently she had "hid behind the sofa" a few times as it all got too much for her but otherwise it was good.  Unfortuneately we then needed to rush about a bit.  I needed to get to Rainbows via Asda to pick up Chinese nibbles.  We made dragons, played Chinese Whispers (and i’m well aware that Chinese whispers is probably not remotely Chinese!) and snacked on spring rolls and prawn crackers.  Aprilia periodically hid in the kitchen, huddled on the floor with a blanket to snuggle and a thumb to suck. 

She made a fantastic job of explaining to me how she was feeling when it was bed time and although she was exhausted she just couldn’t settle.  She said she felt like a pan that was boiling over.  Aparently it had happened during the day so the image was quite clear in her head, even after someone had realised that there was a problem and turned the heat off, it still kept on boiling for a while until it had cooled down and that was just how she felt.  I was really impressed that she had found such a clear way to express how she felt.  But I was sad that she felt like that becuase I knew taht she really needed to not go to Rainbows but she also needed to not be left on her own until Duke got home but he doesn’t get home until after I need to be at Rainbows.  I think this is the first time that I really struggled to balance my own child’s needs against Rainbows.  Not nice.

As it gets more evident that Aprilia is at least as dyslexic as me I’ve started thinking more about assessments and so on.  By chance I "spoke" to someone by e-mail who is involved in advocacy for parents trying to access services in Cheshire and she  put me onto the Parents Partnership.  I hmmmm-ed and harrrr-ed about going to the "forum" (sort of meeting-y type thing meets parent support group) but ended up going just to see what I could find out and meet up with people. Whilst it still looks like I’m on my own as far as funding the whole assessment process goes, it was still a good meeting for lots of reasons. 

the "Elective home education team" were there (on behalf of all of Cheshire’s home edders, hoping to get a bit of straight information about what home edders can and cannot access) and I spent a while talking to the lady who is "looking after" my area now.  She’s nice.  She doesn’t believe in all this nonsense about samples of work etc but she will admit to liking to put faces to names either by visits (or meeting on neutral ground) or by catching up with people at the home education forum meetings taht they run arround the area.  She’s very quick to point out what she is and isn’t allowed to do legally though and to frown on overbearing practices outside her area!  We had a long chat about accessing dyslexia resources and I informed her about free library audio book loans for dyslexics which she didn’t know about.

 I sat on a table with several mums of children with dyslexia (and other problems) non of whom knew about things like coloured overlays being available without waiting several milenia for the school to get off their butts to "test" the child (by test, read "spend 5 minutes trying the 10 different overlays easily available via Crossbow to see what colour seems to help)  It seemed odd to be considered almost "expert" on a condition although it wasn’t nice to ahve to say "I got lots of funding but it’s not available to school age children, you ahve to wait until they get to college, assuming they haven’t already given up on trying to learn by then" 

I spoke to someone who does some work with dyslexia and who may have access to some funding for listening skills for Aprilia (she has "dyslexic ears" - posh title is auditory processing disorder) which would be a damned good start as part of the reason she avoids noisy places is her inability to filter out noise and pick out speech.

And actually, it was just nice to be in a room full of (mainly) mums who know what having a child who struggles is like.  I went thinking that really having a child who "just" has dyslexia would make me seem like a whinger compared to some of the families there where they are coping with complex needs but it just didn’t happen.  It was almost like being in a home ed setting but without the children!

anyone up for a trip into North Wales next Wednesday?  Technoquest are having a home ed afternoon sessionwhich Aprilia would like to go to as part of her birthday treat.  I phoned today to check the details, you don’t need to book but they would prefer you to, just so they know how many to expect. Here’s the details

The event is designed as an afternoon session, taking place from1.30pm. This will ensure the centre is quiet with minimal disruptionfrom other groups, such as schools.
	
The following activities will take place:
	
2.00pm - "Dragons Material Challenge" - KS2 Challenge Workshop coveringmaterials and their properties.3.00pm - "Materials Madness" - KS1 Show Looking at types of materialsand how their properties effect their uses.4.00pm - A repeated version of Dragons material challenge for thosevisitors unable to make the first show.
	
Throughout the event we will be offering our Maths Kit, a hands-onexhibition of 11 Maths based activities exploring number problems,sequencing and logic. Visitors will also have access to our newinteractive DNA based exhibition along with DNA building and colouringkits.
	
As with previous Home Educator Days, we are offering visitors thereduced school visitor price of £3.00 per attendee (regular price £4.95per person). Adults accompanying home educator visitors will beadmitted for free (limited to one free adult place per child).

I’ve finally figured out how to speed up the reformatting of my text books into something I can actually use.  It was very simple once I employed that strange concept of thinking about it properly.  It’s still a faff in as much as when you convert from PDF to text it appers to use some sort of character recognition software rather than just zapping the actual words into a document.  So you get some bizarre things like the occasional m where there should ahve been an r n and words get merged together sometimes etc but nothing a quick inspection with a spell checker couldn’t cure most of the time, although I’ve left a few unaltered as I wasn’t sure what the word was (will need to sit with the text book at some point… nothing’s ever easy is it!)  

Then I thought it would be nice to convert the text to audio for when I’m being really lazy or tired or soggy brained.  And then I remembered how much I hate the voice on my PC’s text to speech software!!!!  Am now wondering if I can coax the "save as Daisy file" command to work so I can get a different bit of kit to do the talking for me but I’m not terribly hopeful as so far it doesn’t seem to want to play nicely.

 Anyway, this morning Aprilia was planting trees with Brownies which she enjoyed and which gave her a good dose of fresh air which she’s been needing.  This afternoon Duke took her to see Grandma whilst I did a bit of studying.  This evening she had the last chapter of "Over Sea Under Stone" which she has really enjoyed once it got going, she found it a bit hard going at first but once Authorian legend started getting mentioned she got more interested and now I suspect she is hooked!

There was much tiredness today both from Aprilia, who had come home at 10pm from Emmie’s with MORE Brownie uniform (Emmie being a Guide now), and from me, who had been up close and personal with the GAviscon bottle several times last night in the vain hope of dulling the heart burn enough to let me nod off, and thus we came straight home after Kung Fu rather than staying for the usual half hour or so playing.  I had also managed to overbalance during training and twist my knee in the process (which serves me right for not doing my physio doesn’t it) so Aprilia was under strict instructions from Sibok (instructor) to pamper me for the rest of the day.  So we snuggled on the sofa and she valiently tried to teach me how to play Mario Bros on the DS.  She gave up after a few hours and we watched lots of episodes of Dr Who series one instead.  She is beginning to learn that it’s not compulsary to know what is going on right away and that sometimes I’m not going to explain the significance of things to her but say "wait and see!"

We had a go at making a "posh desert like in restaurants" at tea time and produced "Pears Helene" (sort of)  she made really neat work of fanning the tinned pears and arranging them on the plates but squirty cream really doens’t cut it and we aren’t that good at "drizzling" the chocolate sauce either but it was still suitably "posh" and she was happy.  And it tasted pretty good too although we both agree that "Peaches Helene" would be even better.

I filled in the latest "consultation" on line and was suitably pointed about the final question which went above and beyond "leading" and landed squarely in "inflamatory"  Mutter mutter.  Would be interested to know what the 60 questions they are asking the "important" people are and how leading they are.  No, actually I wouldn’t, I’ll just get cross won’t I?  And I’m not pretty when I’m cross…. okay, I’m not pretty anyway, but I’m worse when I’m cross!  

So, erm, waht did we do then?  I pitched the tent as the weather was sunny and Aprilia wanted to play in her kid’s pod and agreed to be educated if it was in the tent.  The "fits any Outwell tent with this specification" pod doesn’t fit ours.  Even though it should.  Not even close although, obviously, being a resourceful type it’s nothing that some sturdy elastic, a few plastic rings and a bit of patience won’t cure.  Irritating though.  But once it was up we moved into it for the day anyway and did indeed do some educating!  It’s still up several days later because, naturally, as hte last peg went into the mud, sorry, I mean ground, the heavens opened so it’s been water tested now and found to be excellent.  Apart from where I broke the basic rules of tenting and left a tiny strip of groundsheet poking out from under the fly sheet.  Silly woman!

My OU books arrived this week.  Much easier to read with regard to the writing style but still very close packed text which is hard on the eyes and doesn’t leave you any space to mark the text.  So I’m plodding through all the PDF downloads that they kindly provide on the course website, converting them to text, reformatting them in a much nicer font, in 1.5 line spacing and running them through Read and Write to convert them to audio files to listen to whilst I’m at it.  Duke has already made comments about how much time I spent sorting texts out for this course and is it going to be like this until October.  I took a very deep breath and informed him that i would invest less time on studying than he invests in biking and emergency service related forums but that it would be lovely if he could support me just a little by, perhaps entertaining his daughter every now and then.  Vain hope.

Aprilia made an attempt to sleep over at Nelly’s last night but I had to go and rescue her at 10pm because Nelly wouldn’t shut up.  Good job she only lives a couple of streets away!

Tonight Duke has taken Aprilia to his cousin’s house.  He was somewhat put out that I declined to go too.  This, despite the fact that even he noticed that I was treated like I wasn’t there at Christmas and that he knows exactly what I think of teachers who are arogant enough to think that a teaching diploma gives them the right to teach a subject they ahve no knowlege of and to pass comment on the abilities or otherwise of people suffering from learning disabilities that they have no understanding of.  But anyway, Aprilia will play with Emmie and be blissfully happy, Duke will chat with "cousin in law" and be blissfully happy, I am home, blissfully happy, so that’s okay then!

Oh, and the eating our way round the world thing…. we had "latkes" (Jewish potato things, like Rostis) the other night, they were very nice, I will def be adding them into the recipe book… do you think anyone will mind that I served them with cold gammon 

“Men become builders by building houses, harpers by playing the harp. Similarly, we become just by doing just acts, brave by doing brave acts.”   Aristotle

Is there some area in your life (or that of your children, homeschoolers) in which a focus on theory and study is keeping you in the stage of ‘thinking of’ rather than ‘becoming’?

I’m terribly guilty of this at times!  I spend hours downloading wonderful resources and plowing through systems and books for that perfect gem that will entice and educate Aprilia whilst she sits getting square eyes infront of the TV.  It’s ironic really isn’t it?  It’s not just in home ed though, I spent a few hours the other week scanning in pictures out of a Tai Chi book so taht I can learn how to do it (the book snaps shut when I try to work straight from it, or that was my excuse anyway) but they are still on the PC, doing nothing and I still haven’t started doing something that I do think would do me a lot of good by giving me a peaceful start and end to the day whilst giving me some coordination excercise (which I’m in sore need of, I was threatened with having L and R written on my hands at Kung Fu the other week!)

It’s a sort of fear almost, like I can’t move forward in case I get it wrong.  Which is silly as by not moving I am most certainly not getting it right!

The one area where I am becoming a "doer" though is that I have actually started doing "FlyLady" properly.  I’ve played with it in the past but never done it properly for more than the initial enthusiastic few weeks.  My house isn’t tidy by any means but I can’t remember the last time  I had to wear yesterday’s socks or rinse a mug out in the bathroom because the sink was too full.   It’s a good start.

in my bid to do a bit of something different for a month or two before starting Core 2, we are doing cooking and also some geography and random other bits and bobs.  So I thought I’d do something very novel and dig out some old resouces that I’ve had sat on a shelf for years (you know, the books and things you think will be utterly essential when you first start out and then realise really don’t fit your style) and have a browse.  So this week we are cooking ourself round the major continents, looking at where the recipes come from and if they are special for festivals or every day sorts of foods.  As a byproduct of this gastronomic tour she will complete everything she needs for her advanced cook badge which has got her very excited as she is having a bit of a surge of badge grabbing at the moment and is after a few "instant gratification" badges to remedy the long haul projecty ones that she is plodding through one poster at a time (they have some sort of poster fetish in Guiding!)

She’s been surprising herself today by reading the subtitles on Forbidden Kingdom (some of it is in Chinese) and thus proving that reading is happening even if it’s not at the speed she wants it to!  I’ve suggested taht we use my Daisy Player to play some of the Harry Potter CDs at a slightly slower speed and see if she can follow along for just a few sentences, I know this is a really successful way of getting struggling readers to leap ahead and I think that the likes of HP is going to interest her a lot more than the usual "follow along with the CD" type books you buy what with them usually being for very little people!

I also spent some time downloading a few books from Guttenberg or similar sorts of sites today so we have a few extra books to read and was rather surprised to see that one of her fave books from last year’s SL is old enough to be available.  I think we have read Understood Betsy 4 or 5 times already, I may end up needing to download it as our copy is beginning to look decidedly well read already!

And my next OU offering arrived today and instantly got me cross.  Not only is it close packed text again (they seem to have decided that paper saving is more important than students having white space between lines - which is aparently wehre normal people write notes) but they are expecting us to read 5 full novels in 6 weeks as well as teh course books taht go with them AND there is an anthology of shorter texts that we need for the course that you can only buy from the OU, so why not send the ****** thing with the ******* course then??????  Grrrrrr mumble whinge moan.