HE in Action · Wednesday October 17, 2007 by Rose
Today we went with fourteen other families to Godstone Farm. It was a great day, despite the cold wind!
The children enjoyed playing in the huge outdoor play area, touring the animals, and spending some time in the indoor play area (we managed to convince the kids that they were cold, though actually it was us adults that were turning blue!).
It was such a nice atmosphere, and there were several classic “home ed” moments.
A new home educator had turned up, a Dad, and he commented on how well the children all seemed to get on, without any of the “usual” bickering, arguing or bullying that he expected from a bunch of kids.
We all agreed that one of the differences HE makes is that if there are problems, you are there on hand as a parent. With a school, they tell you “we’ll handle it” but you don’t know that they will, nor that they will handle how you want it handled.
We had a prime example. In the course of playing in the indoor area, SJ was crawling through a very small section, when someone sat on his feet to trap him. Just done in the spirit of a game, but of course for him, especially with the Aspergers, it was awful. He got incredibly distressed, and I had to go and make sure he was released.
He took an age to calm down, but I suggested he went and spoke to the mum of the girl, which he did. She then spoke quietly with her daughter.
In the meantime, I explained to SJ that, just as when he had earlier grabbed JJ by the throat and hurt him – but said he “hadn’t meant to”, so this girl had – yes intentionally – sat on his feet, but she hadn’t meant to distress him. It was just the game.
However, the girl came over and very genuinely, very contritely, apologised to SJ. He said “that’s ok”, and then offered her a polo. When she said thanks, he said “well, that’s what best friends are for”.
The new dad was quite amazed, both at how well and how maturely they both handled it, but also how quickly they then moved on.
To us, it was HE in action!
Again, watching the kids run off ahead of us to see the animals, often out of sight of us, was another moment. If it had been a school group, the kids would have had to have been kept on a tight reign, walking together. Totally understandable.
But for us, the kids were relaxed, with their friends, older ones looking after younger ones, plenty of parents on hand, and everyone enjoyed themselves.
