Bright Eyes has new computer skills.
He can turn it on, get the internet up, type 'Thomas' into Google and then get himself to the Thomas the Tank Engine website, where he goes to the games section and plays each of them all by himself.
How did he learn it? By watching us, by being interested in spelling and typing, and by watching his sister take him through a variety of kids' computer games over the last few months.
I'm delighted (although I'm limiting the time he plays...)
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Homeopathy
I haven't spoken much yet about the homeopathy that we've been exploring.
I began seeing our homeopath at the beginning of the year when my daughter was still coughing an unexplained bark, a year and a half after she started. We went through the children's hospital system and tried everything we could find to fix it, with no success.
A month of homeopathic treatments, however, and she was pretty much cough-free. I was amazed and asked "Can you do anything for Bright Eyes?"
She said she was still learning about autism but was willing to give it a go, so a few months later, we began a few doses of various potions. Up until two weeks ago, I would have said I wasn't sure any of them were doing anything, but the latest one has had some good effects.
For a start, his bowel movements have become normal. This is amazing for a child who has had squishy, icky, stinky poos for the whole of his four years. This is the effect that is easy to quantify because I can see it in his nappy.
Harder to prove are his improvements in comprehension and processing. He can answer more questions, he is expressing more opinions and he can process logic much more effectively and see connections between things that he missed before. I can see a lot of improvements even in the last two weeks (in between cranky periods) which I think I can put down to the homeopathy, in conjunction with RDI.
The homeopath is also the main encouragement for Bright Eyes to go on the SCD diet. I am currently still trying out recipes. Getting a reasonable substitute for crackers is my big problem, but we'll see how we go.
I began seeing our homeopath at the beginning of the year when my daughter was still coughing an unexplained bark, a year and a half after she started. We went through the children's hospital system and tried everything we could find to fix it, with no success.
A month of homeopathic treatments, however, and she was pretty much cough-free. I was amazed and asked "Can you do anything for Bright Eyes?"
She said she was still learning about autism but was willing to give it a go, so a few months later, we began a few doses of various potions. Up until two weeks ago, I would have said I wasn't sure any of them were doing anything, but the latest one has had some good effects.
For a start, his bowel movements have become normal. This is amazing for a child who has had squishy, icky, stinky poos for the whole of his four years. This is the effect that is easy to quantify because I can see it in his nappy.
Harder to prove are his improvements in comprehension and processing. He can answer more questions, he is expressing more opinions and he can process logic much more effectively and see connections between things that he missed before. I can see a lot of improvements even in the last two weeks (in between cranky periods) which I think I can put down to the homeopathy, in conjunction with RDI.
The homeopath is also the main encouragement for Bright Eyes to go on the SCD diet. I am currently still trying out recipes. Getting a reasonable substitute for crackers is my big problem, but we'll see how we go.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Christmas post mortem
We survived! And in the end, quite happily. Here's how it went down.
Christmas Eve
My big 'clever' idea was to do family presents in the afternoon to save hassles the next morning. Ha. It was a complete and utter disaster.
It began when the two year old brother got the first present - a Thomas the Tank Engine something or other. Bright Eyes went off. He wanted it, and his brother wanted it, and they both screamed and yelled.
From there it did not settle down. Bright Eyes was overwhelmed by everything, jealous of his brother, there was paper and stuff everywhere and he kept yelling "J (his brother), move away! Move away J!"
By the end of it, my husband and I were exhausted, despondent and completely morose. He went off to run two more services. I cleaned up, calmed them all down and took them to church. The day was over. (Oh yes, except for the baby then hitting his face on a drum kit and needing a stitch...)
Christmas Day
With 24 adults and loads of kids at the lunch, we decided we wouldn't take any risks when it came to present time. Daddy took Bright Eyes and his presents into another room upstairs and opened everything quietly with him. It worked beautifully and he had a wonderful afternoon.
On the food front, he ate junk all day... GF/CF junk thankfully... but he did live on chips and crackers. Oh well.
Boxing Day
Yet another family party with presents. This time he coped with opening them in the same room with everyone else, but he started to get overwhelmed once it got noisy and messy, so as soon as I saw the signs, I moved him into the bedroom where he played happily by himself.
Presents
He got so much Thomas stuff that I think we are singlehandedly propping up the franchise. Mind you, I didn't buy any of it except the bicycle helmet. What we bought him was a two wheeler bike with training wheels, which, after the initial traumas, he now likes and is becoming very skilled at riding up and down. He even went down to the bike track with sister and dad the other day!
Christmas Eve
My big 'clever' idea was to do family presents in the afternoon to save hassles the next morning. Ha. It was a complete and utter disaster.
It began when the two year old brother got the first present - a Thomas the Tank Engine something or other. Bright Eyes went off. He wanted it, and his brother wanted it, and they both screamed and yelled.
From there it did not settle down. Bright Eyes was overwhelmed by everything, jealous of his brother, there was paper and stuff everywhere and he kept yelling "J (his brother), move away! Move away J!"
By the end of it, my husband and I were exhausted, despondent and completely morose. He went off to run two more services. I cleaned up, calmed them all down and took them to church. The day was over. (Oh yes, except for the baby then hitting his face on a drum kit and needing a stitch...)
Christmas Day
With 24 adults and loads of kids at the lunch, we decided we wouldn't take any risks when it came to present time. Daddy took Bright Eyes and his presents into another room upstairs and opened everything quietly with him. It worked beautifully and he had a wonderful afternoon.
On the food front, he ate junk all day... GF/CF junk thankfully... but he did live on chips and crackers. Oh well.
Boxing Day
Yet another family party with presents. This time he coped with opening them in the same room with everyone else, but he started to get overwhelmed once it got noisy and messy, so as soon as I saw the signs, I moved him into the bedroom where he played happily by himself.
Presents
He got so much Thomas stuff that I think we are singlehandedly propping up the franchise. Mind you, I didn't buy any of it except the bicycle helmet. What we bought him was a two wheeler bike with training wheels, which, after the initial traumas, he now likes and is becoming very skilled at riding up and down. He even went down to the bike track with sister and dad the other day!
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Christmas - the silly season
Christmas. How is it going to work?
Here are all the factors I'm putting together in my mind to plan it out.
My husband is a minister, so he's busy this time of year. We went to two services today, he has another two on Christmas Eve, and two on Christmas morning. We normally go in the mornings at 9.30, but we have to go to Christmas Eve as well because my daughter is in the kids' band. My husband will have to leave the house by 7.30am on Christmas morning.
We've already been to one big Family Party and Bright Eyes really only just coped. We have another two to go - Christmas lunch and afternoon, and then on Boxing Day. He will need as much down time as possible in order to get through them with minimal disruption to everyone.
He'll be tired in the next few days, so I'm loathe to wake him before his normal waking time of 8.30am. Also, I don't think he will get that he should wake early on Christmas morning.
It would be nice to have a good amount of time to play with presents before we have to leave and go do this and that and see lots of people.
Putting all that together, my plan is to have our Christmas presents early in the afternoon of Christmas Eve, and then go to the 5pm service together.
We won't have any family presents on Christmas morning (except maybe one for the eight year old who will be up with the birds.) I and the kids will stay home from church and have a very quiet morning getting ready and playing with new toys before we leave to drive an hour for the family Christmas lunch.
My husband said, "But that will spoil Christmas Day being special" and I said, "It's only one year. Give him enough time and space to cope, or he will spoil Christmas Day for everyone else." He agreed.
I'm also going to take a walkman and story tape to the family party, plus a DVD or two, just in case of a meltdown.
Happy Christmas to you all. And thanks for reading.
Here are all the factors I'm putting together in my mind to plan it out.
My husband is a minister, so he's busy this time of year. We went to two services today, he has another two on Christmas Eve, and two on Christmas morning. We normally go in the mornings at 9.30, but we have to go to Christmas Eve as well because my daughter is in the kids' band. My husband will have to leave the house by 7.30am on Christmas morning.
We've already been to one big Family Party and Bright Eyes really only just coped. We have another two to go - Christmas lunch and afternoon, and then on Boxing Day. He will need as much down time as possible in order to get through them with minimal disruption to everyone.
He'll be tired in the next few days, so I'm loathe to wake him before his normal waking time of 8.30am. Also, I don't think he will get that he should wake early on Christmas morning.
It would be nice to have a good amount of time to play with presents before we have to leave and go do this and that and see lots of people.
Putting all that together, my plan is to have our Christmas presents early in the afternoon of Christmas Eve, and then go to the 5pm service together.
We won't have any family presents on Christmas morning (except maybe one for the eight year old who will be up with the birds.) I and the kids will stay home from church and have a very quiet morning getting ready and playing with new toys before we leave to drive an hour for the family Christmas lunch.
My husband said, "But that will spoil Christmas Day being special" and I said, "It's only one year. Give him enough time and space to cope, or he will spoil Christmas Day for everyone else." He agreed.
I'm also going to take a walkman and story tape to the family party, plus a DVD or two, just in case of a meltdown.
Happy Christmas to you all. And thanks for reading.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Just us
Bright Eyes had a great day today.
He was happy, calm and fun to be with. We made juice, we played 'mummy and baby tigers', we painted together and we made silly faces at each other for a long time.
What made the difference? A couple of things.
1. We had nowhere to be and nothing to do except hang out.
2. It was just him and me all day because the baby brother was at day care and the big sister was at school.
He seemed a lot more relaxed on his own, and I was more relaxed without having to deal with three little children's needs all day.
When he started to get oppositional or refuse to do something and yell "I won't", I started to yell it back at him in just the same tone, as if I was making fun of him. He looked surprised and then stopped the yelling. I said things like, "You sound like a huge lion when you do that!" or "You sound like an angry hippopotamus." It got a smile and defused the tension.
When both the other children came home, Bright Eyes began to get difficult and tense again, and I found it much harder to keep the calm again with two other children reacting to him as well.
It makes me wonder if I should plan one day with just him at home next year. It might make a big difference in his calm levels.
He was happy, calm and fun to be with. We made juice, we played 'mummy and baby tigers', we painted together and we made silly faces at each other for a long time.
What made the difference? A couple of things.
1. We had nowhere to be and nothing to do except hang out.
2. It was just him and me all day because the baby brother was at day care and the big sister was at school.
He seemed a lot more relaxed on his own, and I was more relaxed without having to deal with three little children's needs all day.
When he started to get oppositional or refuse to do something and yell "I won't", I started to yell it back at him in just the same tone, as if I was making fun of him. He looked surprised and then stopped the yelling. I said things like, "You sound like a huge lion when you do that!" or "You sound like an angry hippopotamus." It got a smile and defused the tension.
When both the other children came home, Bright Eyes began to get difficult and tense again, and I found it much harder to keep the calm again with two other children reacting to him as well.
It makes me wonder if I should plan one day with just him at home next year. It might make a big difference in his calm levels.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
And, shock horror...
... I have actually started to read about homeschooling.
This is a massive departure from my previous thoughts about education.
It has come about because so many other RDI parents seem to be homeschooling their children. The problem with regular schooling seems to be that they get too tired to do any RDI learning, and it doesn't help with learning flexible thinking or co-regulation.
I am currently looking into Enki education. I'd be interested to hear from others who are doing something similar.
This is a massive departure from my previous thoughts about education.
It has come about because so many other RDI parents seem to be homeschooling their children. The problem with regular schooling seems to be that they get too tired to do any RDI learning, and it doesn't help with learning flexible thinking or co-regulation.
I am currently looking into Enki education. I'd be interested to hear from others who are doing something similar.
Cuddle cuddle cuddle
Today, finally, amongst all the end of year Christmas shemozzle, was a day where we didn't have to go anywhere, and we didn't have to do anything much.
I found that Bright Eyes was a lot calmer with the slower pace. In the times when he did start being oppositional, I just said, "You need a cuddle", hauled him on to my lap, and waited with him for a while - about two to three minutes. Then he recovered himself, and went back to do what I had suggested in the first place.
We did lots of 'together' activities. He asked to have a picnic in the lounge room, so we went to get the picnic rug together. Then we chose what we could eat together. After that, he helped me roll up the rug (he picked my pilates mat... not exactly picnicesque, but hey, it was comfortable) and we put it back together.
When eventually we did get in the car to do a few stops at some shops, he started refusing to get out of the car, but again, a cuddle in the back seat and at times, carrying him for a little bit, did the trick.
In general, it was a calm morning, not because he was perfect, but because I was going slow enough to avert the traumas.
This is progress, right?
I found that Bright Eyes was a lot calmer with the slower pace. In the times when he did start being oppositional, I just said, "You need a cuddle", hauled him on to my lap, and waited with him for a while - about two to three minutes. Then he recovered himself, and went back to do what I had suggested in the first place.
We did lots of 'together' activities. He asked to have a picnic in the lounge room, so we went to get the picnic rug together. Then we chose what we could eat together. After that, he helped me roll up the rug (he picked my pilates mat... not exactly picnicesque, but hey, it was comfortable) and we put it back together.
When eventually we did get in the car to do a few stops at some shops, he started refusing to get out of the car, but again, a cuddle in the back seat and at times, carrying him for a little bit, did the trick.
In general, it was a calm morning, not because he was perfect, but because I was going slow enough to avert the traumas.
This is progress, right?
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