The day I hid I had kids with disabilities

It can be difficult to treat yourself when your kids have disabilities.  It's simply difficult to leave our kids with anyone so getting time to go to a spa for a treatment is fairly rare.  Sometimes the hubby and I get time out by ourselves, and on a special occasion,  I may even spend that time with just me.   And that's just what happened when I recently spent my spa voucher I got as a gift.

Huge rise in SEND appeals is not a surprise

The latest statistics revealed this morning (14 December) by the Ministry of Justice show the number of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) appeals registered in the last academic year has risen by a huge 27% or over 1,000 cases to 4,725 appeals.  Sadly, I'm not surprised.

Getting our family out for activities

Whether it's at home or while we are away, getting the kids outside is a must even though it's not always easy.  David, like many kids with autism has virtually no sense of danger, and his older autistic brother is petrified that David might get hurt.  Jane is only four still so can get tired if we are out for too long.  Exploring can be too unpredictable too.

How to start helping my autistic son to understand money

It's not unusual for the kids to be sent money in amongst their Christmas gifts from relatives (if I'm lucky, I still get some too).   But unlike our daughter Jane who thinks about what she may be able to buy, to at least one of my son's a five pound note is little more than a plasticky piece of pretty paper and the other has only just started to get an understanding of it's value.

Autumn-to-Winter Tree motor-skills kids craft activity

This is a lovely activity we've updated that develops motor skills and promotes understanding of what's happening in nature around now.

How our autistic and neurotypical family visited SantasGrotto

Visiting Father Christmas can be a few moments of magic in the chaotic run up to Christmas.  Faces alight, beaming smiles and kids playing on iPhones.  What, playing on iPhones?  OK, so that's one of things that we have when our autistic kids visit a Santa's Grotto, but this year it didn't matter at all.

Five reasons to get baking with the kids this Christmas

Ask anybody what the benefits of baking with the kids are and they’ll tell you that’s obvious, you get to eat lots of delicious cakes at the end of it. True, that is one of the great benefits of baking with your children, but that’s only the end result. There’s so much that they can learn along the way and it’ll actually improve their skills and learning in a lot of different ways that you may not have considered. And Christmas is a great time to start and take advantage of more than just yummy outcomes.

My daughter wants to be a King

When the parent mail pounced on my inbox, I sighed.  'Reception Nativity Costumes' it said. Of course, many reception parents delight in the excitement of the first nativity play.  As a mum of three, I've seen a fair few.  We've also had the chaos of costumes mixed in with two autistic boys.  'At least that won't be the case with Jane' I smiled to myself as I opened up the email.  So true, in fact, Jane's costume chaos cheered me up no end.

SEND and SpectrumSunday #62

Welcome to December.  As the song goes "It's cold outside, but warm bed".  If only I had the chance of getting any sleep recently.  David's been up a lot in the last week or so and I 'm shattered! But, I've managed to pull myself together for our SEND and Spectrum Sunday linky.