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SN children

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Original poster

School Holiday Club!

15 replies

Eulalia · 10/07/2004 12:35

Thought I'd kick this off as a place to share ideas for things to do, or just somewhere to scream when things get tough!

First day of the school hols and at least it has stopped raining. ds has decided he wants to be a dog and is going round on all fours. He did this a few weeks ago at the school disco. Going out now to the park for 'walkies'....

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Fio2 · 10/07/2004 13:18

first day today of the school hols? Lucky you

still a week left for us

suedonim · 10/07/2004 14:21

First day of the holidays here, as well. It's clouding over now - maybe it's going to rain again!! Not much planned for today as I'm having my friend's dd's while she goes to dentist and then packs for her holiday. Tomorrow I'll be waiting in for dd's new furniture to arrive. Poor child is eight and this is the first time she's had anything of her own rather than cast-offs. Wednesday, we're going to a funeral in Perth, Thursday is ds's graduation, then it's Friday and almost the weekend again!

suedonim · 10/07/2004 14:28

Uh-oh - it's raining, grrrrr.

Original poster

Eulalia · 10/07/2004 19:57

Fio2 - hols start earlier in Scotland.

Got to the park for a mere half hour... ds jumped into a paddling pool type thing fully dressed and then it started to pour with rain so went to the supermarket which we can just about do now without putting ds into the trolley. hooray. still on tenderhooks most of the time as he now tends to run at full speed round the aisles.

suedonim - what is your ds graduating in?

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coppertop · 10/07/2004 22:33

The summer term here finishes on 16th July and I'm already dreading it. We're extremely lucky that ds1 has been given a place at the local playscheme for 2 mornings a week for the first 2 weeks of the holidays. I'm hoping that visual timetables will help this year. I think the real problems will start when ds1 realises that he won't be going back to pre-school.

Thanks to Jimjams on the Home Ed thread, I've found the perfect site for activities to do with ds1 which will hopefully keep him occupied. As ds1 will only be doing half-days at school for at least a month after starting, I'm hoping to carry on with these in September if they work well in the holidays.

I get the feeling though that I may be spending a lot of time on this thread doing some serious holiday ranting!

suedonim · 11/07/2004 01:42

Psychology, Eulalia. Wasn't the weather cr*p again today?? I truly hope it isn't going to be like this for the next six weeks, esp as we don't have a holiday booked.

Original poster

Eulalia · 11/07/2004 16:35

Suedonim - Ooh was that at Aberdeen Uni (seem to rem you live in this area) - I used to work there.

Yup it is crap but I think its the same everywhere. We had our hols in May so nothing doing over the summer except ds's birthday coming up ...

Will check out that site coppertop, thanks/

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Original poster

Eulalia · 11/07/2004 16:37

The Psychology dept I mean.

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suedonim · 11/07/2004 17:00

Yes, Aberdeen - or Scaberdeen as dd1 calls it! Istr you mentioning you'd worked at the uni there. Isn't your dh a lecturer somewhere locally?

PS We've got to almost 2pm today before it rained!!

Original poster

Eulalia · 12/07/2004 16:26

lol Suedonim. No he's not a lecturer but is about to change jobs for something similar. Keep fingers crossed.

No rain so far today ... Hope the graduation goes well.

ds is still continuing the dog theme and for the last two nights has gone to bed with a large bean bag (the dog's bed). This is all because of the latest video - Clifford the Big Red Dog.

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Original poster

Eulalia · 16/07/2004 09:47

Don't want to start a moaning thread but.... well everything has been going really well so far. ds has been a bit manic and destructive but I have been coping and then it got worse.

2 days ago I got a call from the boyfriend (well ex actually) of dh's daughter asking "if she got here OK". First we knew she was even coming. Anyway she was missing for 2 days somewhere between London and Aberdeen. Turned up yesterday in Aberdeen naked and disorientated. We think she's had a relapse from herpes simplex encephalitis contracted 2 years ago. She'd been to Glastonbury, got a bit run down, smoking dope and possibly other drugs.... Anyway her and boyfriend have split (after 10 years), she's also packed in her job and just got on a bus "to come and see her Dad".

ARGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

Like I really need this. At the moment she is in hospital but what happens next. I've told dh that I can't look after her. Last time she took months to recouperate and was very depressed - she was with her boyfriend then, but now she is up here and is effectively homeless. I wouldn't mind but she is 28 and we had her living with us for 18 months 10 years ago to 'sort herself out' and it almost drove me away from dh. Since then she's just gone in and out of things, jobs, education etc...

Do you think it is wrong of me not to be more supportive? I mean she is an adult now and a lot of the problems are self generated. She was told last time she shouldn't smoke dope at all but of course carried on....

Sorry for the long moan. Also ds's birthday party tomorrow and I don't want any of this to spoil it.

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Original poster

Eulalia · 16/07/2004 09:49

Oh yes and to complicate things dh is right in between jobs, finishes this one next Fri and starts the new one on the Monday and they are REALLY busy, so he can't take any time off.

And we don't even have a spare bedroom as dh is still not finished the new bedroom, which is supposed to be for ds anyway.

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coppertop · 16/07/2004 18:33

Eulalia. I've just posted on the other thread.

Ds1's pre-school started their summer holidays earlier this week (the schools finish today). After only a couple of days I'm exhausted. I've been trying to let ds1 spend as much time outside as possible but it just seems to be raining all the time. We had a very soggy morning in the park today.

We're supposed to be starting toilet-training with the help of Social Stories but ds1 has a meltdown every time we mention the subject so that's been put temporarily on hold. His new obsession is cutting up pieces of paper. Nothing is safe and there are tiny bits of paper everywhere. I think he's probably making up for lost time as he has only recently learned to tolerate holding scissors, so I feel a bit guilty for complaining.

The local playscheme starts next week so hopefully that will make it a bit easier for everyone.

On the bright side, at least while he's cutting paper he's not having meltdowns! Only 7 weeks to go.......

coppertop · 18/07/2004 19:14

We started ds1's toilet-training today as we tend to stay at home on Sundays. Ds1 wasn't keen on the idea of not having a nappy on but after 2 accidents he seems to have got the hang of it. He was too scared to use the toilet so he's been sitting on his potty-chair instead. He's been dry for the past 10 hours and even managed a poo. (Sorry if anyone's reading this while eating ).

It's obviously a bit too early to say he's fully trained but so far so good. Another success for Social Stories.

Original poster

Eulalia · 18/07/2004 20:22

That's great coppertop . I was quite lucky with ds - he took to the potty quickly when he was 3.5. It did take till he was nearly 4 before he was completely OK outside the house. Then there would be months of the odd accidents. He actaully had a small one the other day but it had been months since the previous one. And today he fell asleep in the car and wet himself and he is 5 tomorrow.

At least you know you are on the road, a long one but you are getting there!

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