Today's Log

Just to log today;
First thing - Bible study (skipped handwritng today), body project ('The Heart') , play, make chocolate brownies (only half as many as I'd hoped but Paul had eaten half the chocolate!!), lunch - including yummy brownies!! Jolly Phonics for Boo and Comprehension for Joel (Phoebe did the JP colouring too). Phoeb's on ed-city, Elly driving me nuts!! Maths with Joel - measuring bendy lines with bits of string. Maths with Boo - count and write (numbers 1-4 - easy!!). Boo dictated a story and drew a picture for it. Not done from the timetable - Joel's reading but we can do that at bedtime. Wow -we almost did it all!! And we were done by 4pm with good breaks taken throughout the day. I also did my washing AND the washing up from breakfast and the cookery session! My new 'fun-focused' timetable seems to working really quite well. I have been as generous as poss' with my time-slots and tried to keep it low-pressure, but still cover everything in stimulating a way as poss. We have three or four slots in the week for project work & that keeps the motivation high. Monday is a high-concentration day (after the weekend rest), but the rest of the week I tried to make evenly spaced between pencil-work and non-pencil work. There are even 'play games' slots and 'you choose' time. Everyone seems to be happy here at the moment and I must confess I wish Jake was here to share it a little, but in the same breath I know that things would not be the same if he were :(

I met Jake's teacher on Friday - she was nice enough and seemed to have the handle on him! Easily distracted, too busy watching the world go by, distracts others too often, can't keep quiet when he's supposed to (i.e. when she is talking he constantly wants to contribute out of turn). I was frank with her and said that this was exactly how he was at home too, and that was partly why he is now at school! I couldn't be constantly sitting on his shoulder and didn't want to damage out relationship any more by having to be constantly 'on' to him. She seemed to understand that - gladly, but at the same time I think she thought I was a bit cheeky to send him in for that reason, to let her deal with it!! Generally, she thought him a very bright boy who could achieve so much more if he applied himself (well I knew that), and a very pleasent child if he could learn to tame his tongue a little (that I knew too!), so she seemed to have him just about sussed!

The handwriting issue was less of an issue than Jake was making it. She is very happy with his writing! She thinks it is beautiful and not too slopey at all. Reading wise she wants him to read more widely at home, but his school books are 'comprehension level' based, so I'll grant them that his comprehension is not too good.

I need to send them in a copy of the speach therapy report becaseu she said she hadn't seen one. But I told her it's finding and gave her a couple of pointers for dealing with his auditory-memory deficit (i.e. he can't remember what he hears, but works better with visual/written prompts). She was fine about that too.

So all is well really. Life is ticking along smoothly and the PC should be home this week (hopefully tomorrow) - that will be nice!