Marguerite
Active Member
G'day, folks.
What a day! Cold, rainy, a bit windy and we had to head for the city...
Because we had mother in law coming with us, we had to plan for as little walking as possible. Paths slippery, navigating steps in the wet is much trickier. mother in law kept offering me the use of her umbrella but I know from experience that it is just too awkward. We left the car at the station and caught the train; at the last minute I grabbed a huge black cape from the car, I usually only wear it in winter but it keeps the rain off, mostly. I was so glad of it, though - I was still cold because of the wind and the rain, despite being wrapped in my shawl.
We got to the place in enough time. The place was packed but we got seats together. difficult child 3 did very well, paying attention to the event (a new trait) but by the end of it all he was getting increasingly anxious over every little thing. As we were leaving he was even nagging people about holding the lift doors open, repeatedly reminding people, "It's alarmed." Most of the people he was reminding were teachers from school, who fortunately know him well enough now to be understanding.
difficult child 3's academic awards - he got "Excellence in Science" and 3rd place in Electronics. We were really pleased for him. He did moderately well in a couple of other subjects and scraped through in a couple as well. It justifies our decision, I feel, to do school from here at half pace, taking two years now for each academic year. Hopefully having more time from here on will help him do even better.
Days like this show us the spectrum of students at this school - they range from kids with sudden serious health problems, to kids who are attending performing arts or sports centres (spending half the day performing/training, the other half doing correspondence lessons) to kids with many reasons for not attending a mainstream school. There were a couple of kids with obvious physical deformities, for example, who I can imagine would really suffer in a mainstream setting. There are also kids who attend mainstream but are using the correspondence school for a subject here or there that just isn't available at their school.
One young man there is a great guy we've known in previous years, as a real treasure and gifted artist. He did what difficult child 3 is about to do - spread the workload over more years - and finally finished last year. He won a major art award and endowed a prize in his name, which he personally awarded. This young man also has autism but you wouldn't know it to talk to him (unless you're more sensitive to it, as I have become). I remember last year, teachers and this young man's mother all told me, "the young man used to be just like difficult child 3 - your son is going to be like this, if he keeps going the way he is."
Another week to go of our school year. However, anything we post off now won't get dealt with until next year, so difficult child 3 has already begun to work on next year's work.
Today was miserable and wet, a crazy weather day for summer. We've had a lot of rain in the dams (great!) and tomorrow is forecast to be a scorcher, but with gale-force winds. So if we go to the beach we'll get sand-blasted. Then the next day - cooler, with the winds continuing. We have two Christmas parties with the trains over Saturday and Sunday so we're in for a busy weekend.
mother in law got through today, but we were all glad to get home. I'm a bit worried at how slowly she's walking now, and how much trouble she has getting out of a chair. I think she needs a physical assessment but I know she will fight it hard, if we suggest it.
Enjoy your Friday, everyone.
Marg
What a day! Cold, rainy, a bit windy and we had to head for the city...
Because we had mother in law coming with us, we had to plan for as little walking as possible. Paths slippery, navigating steps in the wet is much trickier. mother in law kept offering me the use of her umbrella but I know from experience that it is just too awkward. We left the car at the station and caught the train; at the last minute I grabbed a huge black cape from the car, I usually only wear it in winter but it keeps the rain off, mostly. I was so glad of it, though - I was still cold because of the wind and the rain, despite being wrapped in my shawl.
We got to the place in enough time. The place was packed but we got seats together. difficult child 3 did very well, paying attention to the event (a new trait) but by the end of it all he was getting increasingly anxious over every little thing. As we were leaving he was even nagging people about holding the lift doors open, repeatedly reminding people, "It's alarmed." Most of the people he was reminding were teachers from school, who fortunately know him well enough now to be understanding.
difficult child 3's academic awards - he got "Excellence in Science" and 3rd place in Electronics. We were really pleased for him. He did moderately well in a couple of other subjects and scraped through in a couple as well. It justifies our decision, I feel, to do school from here at half pace, taking two years now for each academic year. Hopefully having more time from here on will help him do even better.
Days like this show us the spectrum of students at this school - they range from kids with sudden serious health problems, to kids who are attending performing arts or sports centres (spending half the day performing/training, the other half doing correspondence lessons) to kids with many reasons for not attending a mainstream school. There were a couple of kids with obvious physical deformities, for example, who I can imagine would really suffer in a mainstream setting. There are also kids who attend mainstream but are using the correspondence school for a subject here or there that just isn't available at their school.
One young man there is a great guy we've known in previous years, as a real treasure and gifted artist. He did what difficult child 3 is about to do - spread the workload over more years - and finally finished last year. He won a major art award and endowed a prize in his name, which he personally awarded. This young man also has autism but you wouldn't know it to talk to him (unless you're more sensitive to it, as I have become). I remember last year, teachers and this young man's mother all told me, "the young man used to be just like difficult child 3 - your son is going to be like this, if he keeps going the way he is."
Another week to go of our school year. However, anything we post off now won't get dealt with until next year, so difficult child 3 has already begun to work on next year's work.
Today was miserable and wet, a crazy weather day for summer. We've had a lot of rain in the dams (great!) and tomorrow is forecast to be a scorcher, but with gale-force winds. So if we go to the beach we'll get sand-blasted. Then the next day - cooler, with the winds continuing. We have two Christmas parties with the trains over Saturday and Sunday so we're in for a busy weekend.
mother in law got through today, but we were all glad to get home. I'm a bit worried at how slowly she's walking now, and how much trouble she has getting out of a chair. I think she needs a physical assessment but I know she will fight it hard, if we suggest it.
Enjoy your Friday, everyone.
Marg
Good Free Choice Friday Morning Friends!!!!
Keep it warm!
