Tip for new school worries!

A great tip for you out there if your child is at all worried about their new school or if they have aspergers is to ask the new school for you to take photos of the school, class, coat-room, teacher and any thing else that helps your child. Put it together in a small photo album to get out and chat about over that long summer holiday. Time travels differently for children. Also useful is to help your child by meeting up with mums and children that will be in their new school/ class over the holiday. That way it will not be all new when they get there. I also found it helpful to walk the new route in the holiday with out the cars and children of the new term.
My son needed photos of the school toilets as well! I have to say it helped a great deal with his worries over the new school.

Aspergers help in 10 minutes!

Well my son is a little off color today and that means he's not his normal inventing self! While it gives me a break I find I miss the inventions!
A big help with my son has to be the "10 minutes" a day idea. This is where in that 10 Min's you do not offer advise, or help but allow him/her to play/ say what ever is going on in that time (that means no judging!) They call the shoots and you have to fit into what they want to do. This little bit of time allows there self esteem to grow and it builds in you knowledge and skills of your child. This is great as each child is unique! that can get forgotten when you have to deal with schools, home life! other children. The time builds up daily and at first the 10 minutes can feel long but once you both settle to the rules you see growth in both of you.The rules need to be kept as well so no going over the time that you set! How many of us have to spend all our time "fighting" for the child and forgetting to enjoy that same child.

Autism help

One thing I have been asked for is tips on things that help you child with autism to be able know where there things are. This sound really odd but it has helped so much I'm passing the tip on!

Use electrical tape to mark off a square on the floor to help your child to know where their shoes are. This helps a lot as the shoes are always there and they learn to expect them there and the soon learn to put them there. Great in the morning when you have to be quick!

I have found this tip works really well for placing toys as well. We found that with my son he would tip all his toys over the floor, not being able to think of this as a mess or of sharing "play space" with others. The up shot was rows so we used this tip (making it a larger square as needed) to our wonder it worked! in fact he then had to keep his toys in the box even when playing!

I have also know this tip to work in the school for sitting on the floor in the hall and reading corner. The child then understands with the physical prompt what is expected of them Also great for children with ADHD as the lose mat can just slide around with the child!

We hello out there!
It's been a while but the steady flow of visitors has got to a level that I can now think of other thing. While it's been great to see people from England you get to a point that you want to just have your house and time for yourself. I think I have done enough sight seeing of the same things for this year! Whats new to your visitor is not new to you! I had got to the point where if I had one more day trip I think I could do the guides job better than her. Now don't get me wrong I love what Turkey has to offer and the meals out have been of great quality but I started to miss the cooking on a budget. My sons home ed. had started to look like a joke and I just wasn't keeping up. Roll on August as he can then join an on line school. I think that now we have visitors in June / July/ August!! so I think I have to be recharged by then.
I said I would keep you all posted on my son and the changes in him with his aspergers and living here.WOW! he has improved so much more than I thought possible. He's not so stressed, the pace of live here is slower. He's not at all violent, even when on our medical they took blood, they tried to take his blood form his arm and it didn't work!!!!! So he allowed them to take it from his hand! WOW that hurt. We have a Turkish lady that has two days a week with him so he can pick up Turkish and we have time with out him, this is not too bad and at the moment he is coping with her. He is slightly allowing change to his menu and he loves eating out! At one restaurant we us a lot they see him coming down the road and get his bowl of rice ready for when hes there, which is a great laugh and he feels well love and important! People are just kinder and he fits in.

Difrent family values!

Well life in Turkey is beginning to come together. I have now a helper for my son two days a week. My partner's boys have been to stay for two weeks, now all important family have been over to see us!
I have to say that the dimensions of family are strangely highlighted here due to the fact that we see them in a "block" of time rather than bits of time. This is good in some ways but has been hard in others. By the time you get it all settled they are off back to the UK, leaving me some what tired. You see you cannot change history, so your partner treats his children the way he has and will always, there is such a difference in how we do parent I am glad that we haven't tried together! I am "soft" and properly a left over hippie, where as my partner is firm, non bending but fair. There are thoughts on both sides of these extreme parenting skills that are good and valued but there are also the thought that the other side is wrong! How we get on must be a miracle!! but we do and with great love. I have no problem with my child being sexually active where as my partner has no wish to know of his children's levels of activity! I have to say I am just there if they want to talk and it is not a taboo subject! I love people for who they are (warts and all!) My partner sets a standard and feels disappointment if they are unable to reach it. So we have had a few weeks of very different thinking in the house!
Well in one week we have my daughter and her boyfriend over,WOW wonder what that will bring us! Its a great thing we talk so well.

Nursery link to poor behaviour!

Well here is some news I think a lot of people thought was true but it has been backed up with a report done by the Government. Children who spend more than three days a week in nurseries are more likely to become anti-social worried and upset. They have shown that children were more likely to behave poorly the longer they spent in care. Though the report also says that 30 hours in care increased the child's confidence.
The report also shows that the amount of months a child attended the nursery had an impact on that child's behavior. So children who had attended for 18 months or more where rated with more anti-social behavior.
The report was carried out on 800 children in disadvantaged areas.
The moral for me is to check out your Nurseries, and ask what behavior policies are there and how they work. Check the qualification levels of the staff. Always look for more than the required amount! What child/ staff ratio is there. Again you are looking for the best not just the required level. What level of feed back will you expect to get from the Nursery. And the big thing do you feel happy with them!
Some times we shy away from asking difficult questions but when you are looking at the whole development of that very special child you have to ask, if not for you but the future of your child.

Clooney news

Well if you needed to know that that sexy man has a heart as well, he was seen at a childrens lemonade stand near the GE Movie set!
The lovely man not only bought lemonade from the children , paying $20 for a glass of their lemonade but chatted to the children and posed for photos as well.
He was offered the drink for free but big hearted him paid more than 25 cents that they asked for. The kids desided to cash in on the fact that they had a star at their stand put up a new poster saying " George Clooney was here!" What a great start to the childrens Easter holiday!