Primary School Visit

So this morning we went and visited a primary school that we thought might be suitable for Sam starting in Sept 2011. It is about a 20 minute drive from here on Walney Island. We'd heard it might be suitable from various people as although it is a mainstream school, they have a huge focus on inclusion of those children with special needs. In fact, much like Sam's nursery has a special designation as an inclusion nursery, this school is the primary school equivalent if that makes sense!

So before we got there this morning I found myself having really high hopes for this place and I was not disappointed! A lovely senior teaching assistant gave us a tour and discussed the special needs side of things with us, answered all our questions and was very lovely towards Sam. It's a small school, under 200 pupils and about 30 of those have special needs of some description. So quite a high proportion really. They said that if we applied Sam would most definitely get in due to his needs. I came away feeling really positive about everything, seems like things are finally coming together!

First Week of Nursery

So Sam started back at nursery on Monday after a 7 week break. The night before I was so nervous that I was feeling a little sick. We were really expecting him to be unsettled there this week, probably clingy and generally upset. He is going 4 mornings a week now instead of 2 afternoons and on two of those mornings he is staying and having his lunch there as well.

Well I dropped him off on Monday morning (after he'd been awake since 3am!!) and he walked into the room like he'd never been away! Had a look round, came back to me as I was updating his support worker but there was no screaming, clinging onto me etc. I left and went home all the while worrying about how he was getting on. When I went back a few hours later to pick him up they said he'd had a brilliant morning! Couldn't quite believe it! The following day was great too and then this morning we took him in with his little packed lunch. I really didn't expect him to eat anything as sometimes at home he doesn't like to eat if we are in the same room, let alone a room full of pre-schoolers! But his support worker managed to get him to eat his sandwich and treat at the table, woohoo!!

I am so pleased and proud of Sam this week. He has a day off tomorrow and then is back in for his last day this week on Friday. I'm hoping for another good one. I think a lot of the change in him is due to the fact he is a morning person and was usually worn out by the time he arrived in the afternoon last term. It's so nice that nursery can see the happy, fun side to him as he is in the morning.

I have signed up William to have one morning a week at the nursery too at the same time as Sam so that I get a bit of a regular break each week to catch up on housework or have a cuppa! They run a private daycare there too, so it made sense to do it and try and save some of my sanity. We took him for a little visit to the babies room today to see what it was like. He seemed to enjoy himself, taking it all in. We got there and sat on the floor with him and before we'd even been in 2 minutes Andy had a crowd of babies bringing him toys and hanging onto him. It was so funny, I wish I'd brought the camera especially when they started bringing hats over to try on his head! Andy seems to have this effect on babies and toddlers wherever we go!

Tomorrow we have made an appointment to look around a mainstream primary school that takes on children with ASD and have several staff members trained in it. Really hope we (and Sam) like it as he may end up going there next year.

Loving this Nursery!!

Sam had an interesting nursery session yesterday. When we went to pick him up we noticed he had a reddish tinge to bits of his skin. At first I thought it he'd scraped himself falling or something like that but then we noticed it was paint. The nursery teachers had wondered what he'd been up to as he had gone very quiet and when they found him by the easel they saw that he had emptied a pot of red paint all down himself!! I've tried cleaning him up as best I can, but he is still pink in places!

We found out yesterday afternoon too that there was an parents open evening at the nursery last night, so we ended up going to that. We got to meet the support worker who will be working with Sam for his 2 afternoons a week from April onwards. She was so nice and explained how they would be helping Sam. Once he has been there a few weeks they will be assessing him with a specialist teacher and/or an educational psychologist so that they can apply to have a statutory assessment done by the local education authority (LEA). Hopefully this will lead to getting him a statement of special educational needs which is wonderful. Goodness knows he's going to need all the support we can get him. This nursery really have been making a wonderful effort with him already and now I'm feeling really positive about Sam's future there.

On another positive note, my diet/excercise programme has been going really well. Since the beginning of the year I've lost 11 pounds! All I've done really is cut out the snacking and gone out walking with the boys everyday.

We had a lovely walk this morning around Tarn Hows. For those friends reading this from abroad, we live near the Lake District. There are so many incredibly scenic places to visit and we love this particular one as the walk around the lake is pushchair friendly and it generally only takes us about an hour (without lots of stops). My legs may be regretting this tomorrow!

Glub Glub Glub

We've got a new fish tank! We thought that Sam might enjoy it as he likes water and bubbles and fish swimming around. At the moment we have some guppies and some tetras that were put in yesterday (unfortunately there was one casualty in the night). Sam seems a bit interested in it, but I think what he'd really like to do is put his hands in instead of watching it!

We are hoping Sam will start one daycare session a week starting next Wednesday until April when he will start proper nursery a few times a week. We have a teacher coming to our house on Monday for an introductory visit. We visited the nursery (Bram Longstaffe) back in September and we were very impressed. They are very experienced in dealing with children with special needs and both Andy and I feel confident that Sam will do well there. Whilst we were looking around, we stepped out of the classroom and left Sam playing for about 10 minutes. When we returned he hadn't noticed we'd gone and was quite happy busying himself at the water table so that was a good sign!

William has his first jabs tomorrow so hopefully that will go well although I'm sure there will be some screaming! Calpol will be at the ready!