Alphabetical Trampoline · Wednesday May 23, 2007 by Abbie
We didn’t spend too long reading in bed this morning because we knew that the photographer was supposed to be coming to take some photos to go along with the newspaper article.
Ram was in a funny mood all morning, not wanting to do much. He would sit and want me to read to him, but he didn’t do his usual Lego while I read. Then he would go out and bounce on the trampoline for a moment, then come in saying it was too hot but wouldn’t take off his long sleeve hoodie!
I asked if he was worried about the photographer coming and he didn’t think so, but then said that maybe he was.
After the appointed time had come and gone, I realised that he wouldn’t be arriving, so I told Ram that he could relax. But he still wasn’t right.
After lunch we went to the regular swimming session. There were two other home educated families there, that he knows well and gets on with. Well, he gets on better with the older boys and tolerates the younger ones.
It took him about 45 minutes before he started to interact with the other boys. He kept telling me he wanted to play a game but then swam off before I could suggest that he ask the other boys!
Then after about an hour he suddenly burst into tears! He said that the pool was too full and he just wanted to go to the disabled sessions in future! Poor thing! I had had no warning that he was at his limit! While we were in the shower he started to cry again because there are no shops in in town that sell Lego! There used to be one but it closed down about two years ago! All the people there were just way too much for him.
He did manage to calm down when we got out of the swimming pool building and he had a little play with the other boys for a bit while the other mum and I discussed what the craft was going to be for the next home ed meeting. We are all going to bring flowers and things from our gardens and make a big picture with it all and then take photos of it for the website.
Ram cheered up a bit when we got his buggy out of the car and went over to the shopping area. He was really pleased when we spotted a Dr Who magazine that had some games pieces that came with it.
When we got home it was quite late so only time to unload the shopping and watch Blue Peter, then a bit of bouncing on the trampoline together and then supper supper while listening to ‘the funny thing’ on Radio 4. it is called Heresy. We were thinking of writing into them and suggesting they do education as a topic. After all there is a deeply held received opinion that school is compulsory!
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After supper we did a whole load of bouncing. We did the alphabet game where I throw the ball to Ram saying each letter of the alphabet and he has to through it back with a word for that letter, all while bouncing. I am not sure that he knows alphabetical order so I thought it would be a good way to get him to practice without him thinking that it was educational. We went through the alphabet that way, then I reversed it so he would have to say the letter and I would say a word. He didn’t want to, I think because he knew that he would have to know the order, but I convinced him it would be good to watch me struggle to think of the words, so he went for it! It took 20 minutes of solid bouncing! And he is actually pretty good at knowing the order. He is slow, but he only made a couple of mistakes. And his vocabulary is about as good as mine is. We kept trying to outdo each other with bigger and bigger words.
We watched some TV then went out again in the dark with a throwing disk we got from the Horrible Science magazine which has LEDs on it. It was lovely as it was cool and calm, but unfortunately we didn’t see any bats tonight. It always seems that when we are looking for them they don’t come round, but when we least expect them they fly right into us!
