Sports Day

Today was sports day. The rain managed to hold off just long enough for them to do all the races. i was impressed with Mr B, he know all the Y1&2 childrens names. Kayne ran 3 races and did really well - even in one when he fell over he got up and kept going with a big smile on his face.

Some pictures;

Not many great ones sadly...i have decided i want a Digital SLR like dads which takes fantastic pictures. Also Lani was not happy about having to sit in the pushchair and was also getting very upset about the noise.... particulaly the guy who was yelling as loud as he could right behind us. I had to put my hands over her ears to calm her down as i couldn't get the pushchair out of the throngs of people...

I'm feeling rough

I hate having that feeling when you wake up that things aren't going to go right. I took Kayne to school on Friday, we nearly had a funny because there was a new teacher doing his welcome group and he didn't know her. But i managed to settle him with out him getting upset. Got home and did the normal bits and bobs on the pc and cleaning etc. About 10:30 i suddenly thought 'have i been crying?' which i hadn't but my face had that feeling...then my eyes were itchy and i thought damn maybe my hayfever had come back. No; i woke up this morning with my eye glued shut - i think i have conjunctivitis.

I left the meeting feeling a bit crap. I don't think their plan is going to work and i'm so worried that Kayne is going to bare the brunt of it...i don't want to ever see him depressed again. i have a sneaking suspicion that they don't really know what he can do. I felt like i was being scoped for how much i had 'taught' him. It has removed my confidence that i was gaining in the fact that he is different. I was sure we were going to go to the NAGC weekend but now (again) i'm riddled with doubts over whether he fits the 'gifted' label. I'm annoyed with how secretive all this gifted stuff seems...no one will come out and say X,Y and Z, it's winds me up. They said 'he's at the top of the Early years curriculum in academic subjects', ok but does that mean hes in Yr 1 level or what? I mean i can look it up online but i'm not a trained teacher. I'm also not stupid, i am also pretty good at sensing when people are being evasive or not telling me the whole truth. Which is how i felt about what they were saying. Or at least they were hiding something/thinking something about the situation that they weren't saying (paranoia anyone?).



On the other hand he is ok there as he has 'come alive' again in the past week. He talks about everything non stop right now. He told me today ' if I went to town and Grandma went to town and they we that would be a coincidence.' Which was kind of shocking. And 'if you are going to cross the road you must look around and use your conscience. ' We played 4 games of Quixo and he has won 3 times... and i'm not letting him win. I've been thinking about buying him Rush Hour Jr. because he likes the logic puzzles. I guess i'll have to get Checkers out and play with him again, maybe he'll take a little longer to trounce me with that. He's chosing to pick books up and read them. I've noticed him reading in his head occassionally; i was playing a Wii game and he started talking about something one of the ingame characters said except it was written on the screen and not being spoken, so he must have read it.

Catch up...

Everything is normal now. Mark is back at work and Kayne started nursery (again) yesterday. So far it's good, but then it's only day 2 and everything is fun. I've asked for a meeting after they have done thier assesments of the kids. I just wanna be on top of everything, i do not want a repeat of Winchcombe. It stresses me to think that they have no idea what he can do and he could so easily slip under thier radar.
I have booked his pre-school booster - i'm not looking forward to that! Also an eye-test for him as he almost always refuses to sit on the sofa to watch t.v; prefering to stand right in front of it or sit on the floor closer to it.
We go on a short break on friday til monday and then on the 12th to the 16th. Then it's Kayne's birthday on the Monday! OMG he's gonna be 4.
Mark's foot is de-bandaged and he is allowed to walk on it in a fashion.

School Placement

So we got Kaynes school placement back, we got Robert Sandilands which, whilst it wasn't our first choice, it is still a good placement. It makes a lot of things easier, it's only 2 minutes away and their nursery sessions are longer. They are big on personal wellbeing which is gonna be good for Kayne. I've hopefully got him a place in that nursery after Easter. Which means i have to tell Winchcombe that he is leaving - i hate doing things like this, for some reason i always feel like i've let someone down (though in reality i feel they have let Kayne down).

Lani has another tooth making our total 8.

Walking and Parent-teacher meeting.

Lani is walking really well now, she carries things with her and is generally growing at a rate that shocks me. She now gets her shoes from the front door as she understands that means she can go outside - but has learnt the art of tantrums when we say we aren't going out. She can say about 23 words now - i'm not sure if other people would understand them but they are words!

I've been trying to remember Kayne at this age but i can't. That makes me sad; the thought that when they grow you lose their former selves but i suppose new people grow in thier place and with them grow new challenges and delights.

It's half term, Kayne is alot easier to deal with this week, not so difficult, or so easily 'set-off'. It's horrible to see him when he gets upset. It's not just crying...he looks like he is falling apart at that moment - like someone has taken the foor from underneath him. His face shows sheer disbelief. His fingers go into his mouth -which is his sign of anxiousness- and he emits a awful noise. He just stands stock still and freezes.

We had parents evening the other day. Mrs M didn't say anything really that good about him, which was annoying... maybe she figured that if she said he was doing well in something i'd want to know what they were going to do next?
.....Anyway She said:
She was worried about his -fine motor control- mainly because he refuses to colour in,
That he will not do some of his teacher led activities.... This confuses me..

I always thought of Kayne as someone who conforms, he will 99% of the time obey what we tell him and don't have many problems. I do notice he manages to talk around other people - My parents, Mark's parents other people we have contact with. He is so able linguistly that it's easy to be won over by his reasons and explianations if you aren't one step ahead all the time. It's so easy to switch off to the endless talking and then say yes to something you haven't been paying attention too.

November

So here we are nearly another month on and i haven't been keeping this up. The main reason being is that we are at Marks parents and so it's harder to get on etc. Hoping that our christmas present is a new flat away from the noisy upstairs.

So Kayne is doing great, has become a bit more boy-ish, resists things he doesn't want to do. Has a new friend in nursery so it's now a breeze to get him in in the morning. His reading is coming on massively, He is reading different things now, not just books, things like shop signs, the sky information box. If he doesn't get it right he gives a good estimate. I have just bought him some encyclopiedia type books as he is asking questions like 'Where is space?'

Lani will be 11 months in 2 days time. She has seemingly grown up so much in the past week or so. She obviously understands so much. She also knows her own mind. She signs; Where, all gone, hat, clean, milk, clever girl, waves (hello and goodbye), and squeezes her hand in the air for 'press'. She says (in her own way) hiya, mum (mmummm), dad (dada), grandad (ga dad), ta (ta/da), kayne (brrrbrr), no (nuh), bear (bah). She's started doing some 'peg-puzzles'. She some times makes brumming noises when playing with cars. She also has really poor blood circulation, just like me. We have just had an awful week of teething, but still no more teeth.

On the 2nd of December we are going to Paulton's park to see Father Christmas in his winter wonderland, they will get a present and we can go on the rides. It should be good fun. It's just the getting there early that will be the hard bit.
Christmas is coming and we have shopping to do....For just about everyone. I have got a few books for Kayne, but thats just because its easy to buy a few things in one go, and i wanted to get him one about Space.
Got to get Bart a birthday and SinterKlaas pressie. Mum a birthday present, Lani a birthday present.

Week 2 of the Summer Holidays...

Lani has almost cracked crawling - i mean very nearly. she can move her arms forward and her legs but she doesn't get very far. But it will come with time. She gets very annoyed when things aren't going how she wants or when i leave her view. We have had some da-duh noises and some ai ai oi kinda things going on, so her vocal noises are increasing. She learnt to clap today in about an hour - she is so sweet. She also can play peek-a-boo with a cloth and pull it up and down over her face and she blows bubbles/raspberries sometimes. She gets bored very easily she will play with a toy for a few minutes and thats it for the day - So different to Kayne, who would play with things for 20 odd minutes at the same age.

Kayne is starting to get a bit stir crazy without nursery. We've got him the last of the Jolly Phonics books so we can have a go over the next few weeks. Also we are going to try and continue the 'number pairs' but i need to work out a way of making sure we do them properly/in a sensible way. We believe he can read/recognise 20-30 words now. I'm beginning to wonder whether he has a photographic memory. He doesn't seem interested in trying to use his phonics to sound out words he just wants to know what they say now. Maybe he doesn't know how to use them properly yet and also he doesn't know the doubles which makes it hard. I'm going to try and make him some books to learn to sound out the words. like 'fat cat on a mat' and 'dog on a log' Some thing kinda easy and also with things in it he likes.

Mark is off next week and we are hoping to to some things out and about. Go to the beach and maybe to the Didcot railway museum, just have family time and relax and getting Kayne happy with things of interest, to bolster him and his self confidence and do some 'home education' in the fun way.

She's getting there!

Lani is getting into that crawling position now. She can do it with ease in her baby nest and has done it a couple of times on the floor. She can also maintain it if i put her knees under her. She rocks back and forth, she's so cute. I hope she cracks it soon, she's so desperate to go now, she SCREAMS in frustration and my head is hurting from it!!



I can't wait to see Kayne and Lani chasing each other around the flat. I will be glad when she's mobile so she can follow me and i don't have to move her so she can see me. Although it will mean baracading lots of things as she will be one of those 'pull everything off of the shelf' babies.

Kayne did his first sports day! He did so well and had loads of fun. It did point out to me how much smaller he is compared to the other children but then he is one of the youngest there.

Dumbfounded

I spoke to a nursery team member about getting some stuff to do with Kayne in the afternoons as he gets bored/is just watching the TV.

She said 'talking with Kayne is like talking to a Year 1 pupil'. :O !! a 5 year old! what? is she saying he's mentally 2 years ahead (in so many words)! He knows a few more words ; On Off. I think i need a website to catalouge some of these things.

I'm shocked, she said that they are having to get other things out for him as he just looks at some of the things and is like 'uh no way thats boring'. I am so glad that they are providing him with things more suitable for him. I have my reservations about Wincombe but maybe it will be ok. Will still be checkingout other schools, as it is quite far at the moment (eg until i learn to drive).

'a bright little boy'

Hmm i knew i was going to be bad at keeping this thing up, not to mention the fact that Mark has been hogging the pc every evening now that he has found free online multiplayer games.

Firstly Auntie Jan died on Monday evening.

i thought i was pregnant after waiting 6 weeks to come on - madness and a bit of panic.

Kayne has been at Winchcombe Nursery for a week and a half. He seems to have settled in very quickly. He keeps talking about a girl called Lucy. Every day so far they have said thats 'he's a very clever little boy' or 'bright little boy' and today the lady was telling me that he's nearly learnt all his phonics!! She even asked if i was doing them at home with him?! I said no as i didn't know them and she seemed visably shocked! She kinda of hinted (i think) that if he continues at teh rate he's going that he will be moved up. I also think she said that he's been doing simple addition, I said he's done some at home and that we were unsure as to whether he simple remembers things or understands the concept. e.g. does he just repeat '1+1=2' or does he know that if you have on brick and add another brick you have 2 bricks?School report in a few weeks, end of the term on the 20th. I'm excited by this school report, maybe i want confirmation of what i think he might be capable of, or maybe i will be shown that he isn't that different?

Lani is sitting! no wobbles not much intermediate stage, just bolt upright sitting, playing and self correcting. WE've had a week of intensive teething and no teeth. I felt a lump on her gum and then it was gone an hour later. I worked out that she drinks nearly 40z of milk in 12 hours! She's still not really bothered by food. I really want the BLW to work but so far she hasn't eaten (swallowed) anything; although today i'm sure a 1/3 of a sweet potato stick went missing - i guess i'll find out soon enough!). Got our cloth nappies :) they are quite easy really, but she needs some different wraps as the ME airflow are a bit gappy at the moment. I wore her to nursery every morning last week.

Lani sitting

Giggling Lani