June 15th, 2012

15/6/2012

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I'm left with the following query:  Can it be that others, professionals who see my child briefly, professionally, know his or her strengths and weaknesses better than I do?

Sanity answers no, of course not. 

Emotion questions.
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Home notes I am proud to be sharing :)

10/6/2012

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Zack home notes: half term, June 2012


I am so proud of Zack!  We have had a very good half term and Zack has made regular and considerable effort to follow the house rules and join in with family activities.

After a weekend on his own with his grandparents, we spent a family day there before coming home on Tuesday evening.
On Wednesday we took the van to have its MOT and went swimming.  Zack pushed Tom’s wheelchair very kindly and was really considerate in the pool towards both Tom and Kesia.  We stayed in the shallow end due to Tom’s lack of swimming skills and Kesia’s anxiety and at no point did Zack complain or try to go off on his own.  He dealt with the crowds and his siblings’ issues very well and it was lovely to be able to rely on him for a little help.
He did suffer badly with allergies after swimming and found the wait at the garage difficult but actually followed my directions remarkably well.
Thursday was supposed to be a special day for Zack when a carer would have taken him out to the cinema.  Unfortunately this was cancelled at the last minute.  Once again, Zack surprised me with the maturity of his reaction.  After a quiet morning, we braved the rain to go to Tesco (the promise of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream overcame Zack’s reluctance to leave home and laptops!!).  I sent them to shower once we got back and we had a pyjama day.  Zack planned a Wii tournament for the four of us which gave us an afternoon of great fun.  He won all the Mario kart games, but was rather poor at bowling.  I loved how well he took the ribbing I gave him about losing (in a bid to make losing less important for Tom and Kesia)... he was really lovely.
We went out to Epsom on Friday as  I needed to prepare for Kesia’s birthday party.  Zack was not happy about going at all, but despite some defiant “I am not going out”, he actually came along pretty easily.  There were a couple of difficult moments, but he navigated his frustration well and none developed into incidents.  The afternoon saw us finishing the Wii tournament.  Kesia was very difficult to be around, but Zack did not rise to the bait of that frustration and did really well.
Saturday marked a big day for us as a family.  We drove to Alice Holt Forest and went on a family day out cycling.  The loan of a bike trailer allowed Tom to join in, and Zack and Kesia really enjoyed biking.  Zack did a very good impression of a teenager for a good part of the trip - lots of sulking about the hard work of the hills, but it went really well.  There was one minor incident during which he became very angry and rude, but it passed fairly quickly.
Sunday has been a quiet day - preparing for school :)
  • Zack has some new pants and socks... unfortunately I have run out of name tapes so I have used pen in the pants and sewn a distinctive ribbon to all the pants and socks.  He knows to look out for it as his, and I will make sure to order some more tapes.
  • House moves... This has been really difficult for Zack.  We did speak to him about it mostly because we recognised so few names.  He is extremely anxious and upset about sharing a house with a couple of the boys on the list, but one in particular.  This is itself would not have worried us, but it seems that he is simultaneously “losing” his friends and having to manage some relationships that he feels unable to confront.  We feel that Zack has made enormous progress in his social skills this year and we are worried that if he does not feel listened to about this issue, he may well regress.  The fact that he has three distinct and close relationships with his best friends is lovely, but that he has been able to form friendships with others on house and boys from other houses including a year 11 boys speaks very well to his progress socially.  His reaction to the house move has not been explosive, in fact we are very proud of his ability to express his distress and anxiety without losing his temper.  However, he has clearly expressed a feeling that this next half term will be “the last that I enjoy being at school”.  We would really like for his ability to manage his emotions to be recognised in a way that he appreciates, and if at all possible some tweaking of the moves to be made.
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