A short story by DS

[coff33pot]

The Journey to Axe Island

the journey to Axe island was so tiring, yet Thom and Elenna Were buzzing with excitement not knowing what was to await them.

Whenever the friends were together they knew with their skills and courage, anything was possible. As they tiptoed to the thick, dark forest the deadly silence filled their ears. As they shivered around the corner the mysterious catbat beast known as scar was ready to pounce. Tom and tummy's were filled with butterflies

Out of the corner of their eyes, a black figure swooped in and out of the trees. Scar! The brave friends stood still with fear. Worried yet excitedly, they crouched. around the beasts neck hung the golden key. It was shining in the moonlight. Elenna used her wicked archery skills to shoot the arrow at scar to free the key. Their hearts were beating like drums. Suddenly, scars beady eye flickered, had scar seen the friends? They would have to go different ways for their devious plan to work.

Thought I would share it because I thought it was brill seeing as this is his first ever real story on paper instead of imagination and reality mix up :)

He still has major issues with writing but this was produced on clicker 6 that I mentioned before. Thanks to that he is now reading every day at school and has gone from spelling nothing to passing his 50 word target to 86 spelling words :)

All in 3 months!

I will bow out again now too much going on in RL so random postings at mo hence silly oclock replies

Hope you are all ok and hugs to those who are not xx

PS I also liked and it made me giggle at the term "wicked" archery skills

What a fab story! Well done your ds :-)

That is amazing!

Wow! how fab... well done coffling,

That's great.

Good to see you here too!

Blimy coff theres some great vocab in there!!

What a great story and what amazing progress, well done minicoff

Blimey! A school would kill for that child on the roll on SATS day

Great use of similes, interesting sentence starters, and some great vocabulary! ('swooped' 'buzzing with excitement' 'eye flickered' 'crouched' 'devious' etc) I would have been delighted with that quality of writing by my lower set Y6s last year. Wow!

How wonderful that Clicker has opened up this talent in your DS. It reminds me of when my DS got his Alphasmart and it felt like I had a window into his mind. Fabulous.

It's lovely to 'see' you, Coff33. I've missed you. I hope real life is going well for you and your family.

Wow that is amazing, well done miniCoff what a little star you are. Coff you must be so proud that is amazing progress in such a short time. xx

Super - what a lovely turn of phrase.

Fantastic!

He has a bright future ahead writing Beast Quest books - he's done Thom and Elenna proud!

Lovely to hear from you with such a positive post. Hope things are ok in rl Coff - you have been missed on here. x

The boys a genius coff :)
Great story and fab imagination.

Loved the story. Excellent pace and lots of lovely crunchy vocab.

Aww thank you all :) Yes I am very very proud of him as its not just the school but the effort he is putting in himself too. He is struggling this week as they have inched a bit more work in his direction and its only 5 mins more but that is like a year I think to DS. He is doing it but the strain is on his face at the end of the day. Tics are worse but still he is holding it together at school.

It needs to be done of course otherwise he will stay stalemate and I am glad they only altered one thing and they have noticed the change as he is asking for extra chill time but they allow it as he is asking and not running but he understands this "little extra" thing is still there to be done. They are doing good :)

I am fine thanks for those who asked. RL is more down than up. DD is on the up and still away and has applied for an extension. I miss her.

Middle dd I am watching like a hawk as its her I am worried about at the moment. She is finding it tough in senior school and although not dx with anything she is on a thin line of either or so to speak. She is querky but outgoing and wanting to fit in but how many girls do you know that find their THERMAL fleece leggings the only thing comfortable. Brain box yes, common sense and organisation awful. Writing detests but does it but forever getting grief for it. I know she is suffering as her squint is back when she is talking to me and she is cracking her fingers more. (these silly things you notice now you know what to look for :) )

Stupid detentions for being last into the classroom are dished out etc and now some homework she had to hand in beginning of term via email which she completed and emailed first week of hols a MONTH ago she suddenly gets a email??? from this teacher saying thanks but not what she had asked for and how disappointed she was with her effort that she may have to give her a homework not done slip..........which means detention. DD explained to me what she had to do and as far as I can see she has done it. It was a map and she had to pen through every continent. So she found a map on net, saved and copied it to Paint and after 3 grilling attempts used paint to draw through every continent. She put a picture of santa to the side of it and I have a feeling the teacher doesnt like her immaturity as obviously santa wasnt needed but it did look like a santa watch type of map! DDs homework does look like a spiral going from centre out so I am assuming the teacher thinks she has just swirled a pen round but I have grilled it with my eyes and it goes through all continents regardless!

Now this teachers email was dated 18th Jan!! she has taught dd since then. They obviously dont TALK to pupils anymore I have had this before with eldest dd and being bullied at this school and I know ds will never survive there but there is nowhere else for DD to go and its early days but I do want to kill the teacher LOL as my little girl.

Also she is complaining of pain in her hips and legs. She is "double jointed" in the hips and fingers etc but PE is causing havoc with pain for some reason now and of course she is getting raked over the coals for being rubbish at it. She is tiny and slim and I think the PE teacher expects more from her because of this.

Doc said she had a lot of play in her hips still but to leave it and come back again as she may have just overdone it. Oh gosh this post is long its like a diary lol.

Anyhow I am meeting myself coming back as the saying goes. It may take awhile but I will be back in full swing when life is a bit more in order xx

sorry

Coff...has she had any OT?

Blimey, coff33, you aren't half being put through the wringer, lately. (((Hugs))) At least they seem to be causing you heartache one at a time. At least you are getting really good at fighting these battles, shame you have to.

Oh Coff, poor dd.

I know you have loads on, but she does sound like my ds2 with her hips and fingers and he now has a dx of joint hypermobility syndrome. We had a similar response from the GP, but I insisted on a referral and the paed said ds has the most flexible joints he'd ever come across, then the physio said he's the bendiest child she's ever met. Can you see a different GP and insist on a referral?

Not a lot happened for ds at first, physio were crap, but suggested school nurse for school issues, who then referred to OT and he's just had an awesome OT assessment resulting in proper seating, a specialist PE teacher going in to 'teach' his teachers how to differentiate for him and lots of other stuff.

Great news about ds and dd. Ds is doing so well holding himself together with the extra work and asking for a break rather than bolting - please tell him how proud we all are of him. He has a huge fan-club here y'know.

As Ellen said, at least your dcs are taking it in turns, although sometimes I think that can be more exhausting than all three at once, because there's never any let up.

((hugs)) hang in there.

Thanks guys x

No she has never had any OT. Eldest DD had "clicky hips" when she was born and had a strange gait but that was back in 1990 and nothing was done. It seemed to rectify itself the older she got but she was a late walker at 2 years.

Middle DD had similar issues and was x rayed and we were told all is fine she is just very flexible and "double jointed" and up to 10 years on she had no problems or complaints of pain. However this last 2 years she has kept falling funny on her ankle and complaining it hurts then last year she complained it hurt in the groin area. She had done sports day at the time and although lithe she was never a sporty person and always got upset for being last although participated. However she is a water baby when it comes to swimming and has no problems in the water?

But now she has further to walk to school and being senior school more walks to classes etc. Said she is useless at PE and the teacher doesnt understand that it hurts her to run, jump etc.

She had flu just before xmas and was off her feet with it due to being weak. First day she was up she was complaining of hip pain again.

It settled but this week she keeps saying she has done something to her leg and then yesterday said in the knee has a "tingly" funny feeling and then she has pain shooting down her leg to her foot? But said sometimes it shoots upwards also.

a) I am wondering if its a tendon issue as in when she had flu not using her legs it kind of ceased things up a bit?

b) there is something more sinister going on.

I am making a GP appointment today and using a bit of Mum Power :)

Hi Coff. Loved Ds's story. He is doing so well to have made such a lot of progress.
Glad older is still moving forward.
Sorry to hear about your other dd. Why are PE staff so insistent on thinking that everyone complaining of pain must be skiving. My dd's joints got considerably worse after a teacher insisted that she at least walked round the cross country course even though they had a letter from me saying, on the consultant's advice, that she be excused PE. And now that she can't do it at all and the physio has spoken to the PE dept, she says that the teacher is always grumpy with her. I hope you get to the bottom of things with your dd. It is hard watching them being in pain with nothing you can do about it.

I had 'clicky hips' as well Coff and an unusal gait. Mum was told she was fussing by the GP back in the 70s, then in the 80s, as a teenager, I was constantly at the hospital for appointments relating to leg/hip pain and even supposed to have an op at one point (got it cancelled as a daft teenager, by telling them I didn't have pain anymore, because I was so scared of the op ). I now fit the criteria for joint hypermobility syndrome/EDS III but haven't bothered pursuing it, as I have enough medical appointments already between me and the dcs!

Hypermobile joints can indeed resolve as people grow older and not all people with hypermobile joints have pain, so wouldn't need or get a dx of joint hypermobility syndrome. BUT hypermobility can be exacerbated by puberty in many girls, due to the effect of hormones, so it's perfectly possible/understandable that your dd could have got worse recently. Growth spurts are another problem time and ds2 really struggles when he is shooting up.

All the extra walking, with books in tow, plus PE etc could well be putting too much strain on her joints. Moving in water is beneficial for many people with JHS, although for some super-lax people like ds2, swimming itself can be problematic (his hips, knees, ankles, shoulder and neck sub-lux as he tries to swim and he's in a lot of pain afterwards, but if he just messes about and moves around in the water he's fine).

Non-weight bearing, low impact exercise is great for strengthening the joints, so ds does pilates and moving in water every week. Running around, jumping, kicking a ball etc are not advised because they cause the joint to open and close too much.

Good luck at the GP appointment and pop into the EDS/Hypermobility thread if you need any advice or info as I am still very new to it all (and feeling really guilty that we never realised how bad things were for ds2 ) and the lovely people over there are really knowledgeable and helpful.