Friday 20 May 2016

Busy time ahead

It has been a few weeks since I last wrote my blog.  Recovering from being in hospital during the Easter holidays has taken longer than I expected.  In the last month I have had two more hospital appointments and I have another one on Monday and surgery is still a possibility.  There is so much coming up in the next month that I haven't got time to worry about what may happen to me.  

June always tends to be the busiest month in our year with both of our children who have ASD celebrating their birthdays.  Our daughter will become a teenager  in just over 2 weeks and our youngest son will turn 8 at the end of June.  Birthdays do not generally present a problem for our daughter as she plans it so much in advance. Her present list has been written since Christmas and she has an itinerary prepared for a day out shopping in Oxford Street the weekend after her birthday. She wants to buy up the contents of Primark and Lush!!  Unfortunately, her actual birthday will not go to plan, as I've just been made aware this week that her next transition visit to upper school will be on her birthday.  Two days before her birthday she will be made aware of this fact by her Head of Year and myself in a meeting at school.  I can already hear her reaction in my head and know it is not going to be a good one!!  It is not wise to tell her sooner, as it will have a negative impact on the half term holiday and she will have longer to come up with excuses as to why she is not attending.  Her Oppositional Defiant Disorder will kick in as soon as she is made aware of the visit, so school are currently coming up with a list of positive reasons of why she should attend and are doing all they can to ensure her favourite member of staff goes with her to soften the blow.  Whether it works, is another thing.  Watch this space!!

Our youngest son does not cope well with birthdays and we have learnt from experience to go with what he wants to do on the day and not to wrap up his presents, as he will not open them.  He would quite happily leave them unopened for a couple of days, as this has happened in the past.  He does not like surprises and likes to be able to see what he is getting.   A dilemma he has this year is whether he wants anyone to know on the day it is his birthday, as it will be the first time it has fallen on a school day.  He has been lucky up until now that his birthday has either been on a school training day or a weekend.  He doesn't like attention on him, so is unsure whether or not he wants his peers to know it is his birthday and will probably not decide until the day.  He has already asked me to work out when he will next have a birthday on a weekend and unfortunately it is not until he is in Year 7.  It seems a lifetime away to him, as he's only in Year 3 now.

In between both of these birthdays, we have the statement review for our youngest son.  The meeting itself is emotionally draining and the preparation beforehand seems never-ending.  I have already spent hours drafting our parental contribution. It is such an important document and meeting to ensure our son gets the support that he needs for the forthcoming year.

In the midst of this I have been helping our eldest son get ready for a camping trip to the Isle of Wight next week with school.  He will have a fabulous time away, but it will have a knock on effect at home, as our youngest son does not like his routine being changed and so won't like his brother not being here and will probably sleep in his room as he will miss him.  At the same time, he won't accept his brother coming back home again next Friday night, as he will have just got used to the routine of him not being here.  From past experience,  it is likely he may not speak to his brother for a couple of days until he adjusts to him being back home again.  It will be fun and games here in a week's time!!