A retrospective exploration into our learning journey: September 2020-August 2021

How do you get someone's attention when  they're just three years old? How do you reach them when they're autistic and living in their own little world? How do you excite a love of reading when they're so young?  You observe.  Kira has hyperlexia. She could read any word without being taught and knew what many of them meant. She did not like to snuggle down and listen to traditional stories. She did not tune into life unless her sister was nearby, until she was introduced to educational YouTube channels. She became alive, spun around and rocked her toddler days away singing educational content. She learnt a song and the meaning of the contents within a few times of hearing it and could talk to you about it. So back to reading. She could perform the technical skill to an incredible degree, reading level of a seven year old months after starting to read. She was not emotionally connecting with content however, no matter which story books I was presenting to her.  I bro...

Experience through me, a typical reading session with a toddler with adhd and hyperlexia.  Give yourself forty-five minutes for the session.  Wait for ten minutes for her to stop performing flips and tricks, bearing in mind she will have asked for this activity. Another five minutes for her to get snuggly in your lap, and have a giggle because she is purposely holding the book upside down. She will then flawlessly read a page of a Peter and Jane book.  Then point out that the next page is pretty much the same as the one before so why does she have to read it?  You refocus her.  She reads the next page flawlessly.  'Oh look I have a bellybutton', poking at it and giggling.  Refocus.  Next page read flawlessly.  'Mummy, I'm Kira Morris, what's your name?' (saying her name frequently is part of her torrettes).  Refocus.  Next page read flawlessly.  A screaming fit, 'Sophia's looking at me!' then launching straight into another fla...

Why on earth would they do this? What were they thinking?  The girls were looking at disgust at a spare McDonald's paper straw from their dad's order. They sat down and had a serious meeting over the ridiculous decision to use paper for the purposes of transporting liquid.  I think McDonald's could have benefited from having a panel of three and five year olds in the room the day that particular decision was made, before they rolled out their first version of paper straws to the public.  It was really amusing to watch. They chatted away about how stupid it was. How it would fall to pieces after being in the drink for too long, get soggy with the liquid travelling up it, and finally would break off in your mouth. They were testing this theory watching the straw sat in water.  They were oblivious to the fact dad was on the other side of the kitchen struggling with all those issues as he was trying to drink his pepsi max.  As they established the reasoning behind t...

Are you aware of the amazing potential of your recycling items!  They all have at least one more purpose before they meet their end in the recycling bin, and as a parent to young children I'll let you into a little secret....sometimes they never make it into the bin! They are transformed into a new toy destined to join the toy room. It's not rubbish, it's crafting treasures and seriously saves money from exhaubrant prices from craft shops.  When you have young children, it matters not if they're home educated or not, there are universal fun projects to be found in the recycling bin, great for cold rainy winter weekends and holidays.  If you are studying at home, arts and crafts can play a vital part in any topic or project. Go grab these free materials now!  Yes you can buy almost anything these days, but it's not as fun as making it yourself, you lose imagination the more you rely on store brought templates and constructs. When you buy everything, there's an el...