Worry worry..... · Monday October 1, 2007 by Lily
For the first time, R’s train was cancelled but it is to be anticipated from time to time as some of them come as 1 or 2 units from Cardiff. Fortunately it wasn’t cancelled until he arrived at Crewe so he was able to jump on the next one, a slow, all stations train.
His piano teacher is back from her holiday and she can fortunately fit him in on his one morning off, a Wednesday. He’s been having lessons for so many years and progress is slow but he enjoys them and has never wanted to stop. Somehow we get into these accepted routines with R that we didn’t really with our other none SEN children, and he doesn’t question them.
A routine he is getting into and is worrying us is coming home and spending most of the evening alternately talking on MSN and doing bus spreadsheets, flipping over from one to the other, and watching specific TV programmes that he records on the Sky + Box….a wonderful thing that was offered free to us.
Now, he is only doing a limited timetable of 4/5 subjects and he is working quite hard and doing a lot of his homework in free study periods, but is he making the best use of his time? We know with R he has to see his time laid out and organised before him and this is the pattern that is evolving and there isn’t much flexibility built in, as ever. If we try to come down hard on asking him to work more in the evening we risk upsetting the apple-cart. At the moment we are trying to plant the seeds of suggestion. He does need this built in MSN time, but I wonder whether we could limit it.
Music practice was suggested and taken up. When he starts back at piano lessons next week there will be an acceleration, I hope. Violin he finds easier anyway.
The weekend after next is going to be a headache. On the Saturday he is going to the NEC to rehearse for the Live 07 Scout performance at the O2 Dome and on the Sunday he’s playing in a Chamber Music Day. He’s never done the latter before as it’s for adults over 16. It’s for all levels beginner to advanced and his teacher will be there as well as the professional tutors. It only happens once or twice a year and is really very good but I know he’s not going to be very happy with all adults, but it is good experience. If I’d had opportunity to practice my cello and if I was well, I’d go but I can’t.
Time management is always a delicate balancing act. R works through what he must do and the leisure activities that he also “must” do in his own head and won’t deviate from his inner plan without huge disagreements and upset. If he hasn’t heard about something or conciously taken it on board there can be huge problems getting it shunted into his inner plan that at times seems to be set in stone.
Rightly or wrongly, we’ve invested a lot financially in this year and it would be good to see it flower as he has a good brain and for it not to succeed would be selling himself short.
