Never Too Late To Educate...

The sun has set on the Summer and mothers and fathers all over Ireland are breathing a collective sigh of relief that the little monsters, sorry our beloved offspring, have returned to the structure and routine of the school year. Summer holidays, while relieving us of the dreaded school runs, can be a time of stress when you have a bored child bouncing off the walls. Personally I think the holidays are far too long but there is an element of jealousy there when I look at the Gruesome Twosome roll into the kitchen in the afternoon while I've been up since stupid o'clock being subjected to Peppa the Precocious Piggy and other such delights that we're all familiar with. I would gladly buy Dora a sat nav at this stage rather than listen to her singing...



This year is particularly poignant for me as my eldest heads off to spread his wings. As immensely proud of him as I am for nailing the Leaving Certificate and securing his place in Trinity College, its a strange moment to let go after so many years. His bags and belongings have been packed up and I dutifully drove him to Dublin at the weekend to start a new chapter of his life. Thankfully my parents live there so have been able to transition him slowly as he'll go torment them with his bombsite room that smells of cadavers.. why oh why do all teenage boys room smell so bad? Answers on a postcard please and a prize for anyone who can solve this lifelong riddle...

So that leaves two still in the proverbial nest. I'll still be kept busy trying to secure services and resource for the little birdies left in my care. Yani has started the senior cycle now and today we started medication for her ADD. Hopefully it's as successful in helping her concentration as it was with her big brother. She's a very clever and capable girl and its frustrating when her ADD and SPD cause such difficulty for her. She described it quite aptly at her appt with CAPS today as sitting reading the text and willing the words to go in... the information reaches her eyes and seems to bounce back to the page shes reading. Classic problem that many of our children have when it comes to concentrating and taking in the information needed to study. Fingers toes and eyes crossed that the medication filters out the extra stimulus that distract and help with her auditory processing.



Munchkin has had an interesting start to the school year... She's moved up to the number one spot on the waiting list for our local unit but in the meantime she's attending a NT preschool. For the most part its going extremely well and she skips in the door in the mornings with a smile on her face. My heart dropped when called over by the preschool leader last week to say that they were having problems... trying to escape from the playground, stripping, hitting and running around during circle time to name a few. I have a journal in school that they are filling in every behaviour and problem they are encountering with her so that I have a written record to show the SENO when she moves to the unit to make our case for an SNA stronger. Watch this space as they say.

And me? Well I'm heading back to school too as I'm a firm believer that its never too late in life to learn something new. It's only part time but nervously anticipating being a student again. I better go buy myself a lunchbox and get an apple for the teacher while I'm at it :)