We used to home educate our son and daughter, but it turns out that m'boy is on the autistic spectrum and has had BIG mental health difficulties, he has been been hospitalised for nearly a year twice for this
Now he is a lot happier but so very very anxious, clinically so, and cannot face school. Oh, home education didn't work once we had the summer of street bullying and my father's death and the death of a few loved animals that tipped him over the edge.
Tbh, he needs contact with other people and I need a break from being responsible for him. We have an outreach tutor once a day for an hour. But he doesn't always manage to see the tutor or finish an hour's lesson. The offer is always there for more if he can do it, at home and he could go to the outreach place they work from, or even a mainstream school ... oh, you have got me on a subject I could type about for hours. We pushed for a SEN statement, but in the end all it said was local mainstream school with support. We thought a residential specialist school would be best and would have fought for that but as m'boy dug his heals in and wouldn't consider the idea we didn't want to waste energy there. A shame though, he responded so well to the peer group and structure in hospital. but then, do we want to bring up a totally institutionised adult?
But if you were to meet him ever it would be on a good day, otherwise you wouldn't meet him, and you wouldn't see any problem with him. An intelligent aware young man who would respond to you like any other young person. Last time I was on a camp with him the man in the tent next to us was surprised to hear he was on the spectrum and this was a person who had professional involvement with many young people, NT and ASD.
This is a lad who rarely manages to see his tutors, or manage to get to medical appts, no way would we have been able to get him to a school he didn't want to go to. He is a big strong 15 year old. this garden scheme is for him to earn extra money and my thoughts behind it - apart from clearing a neglected garden - was that the exercise and fresh air would do him a world of good.
Ah, food. This was my non angsty diary LOL I've not bothered yet and have suddenly worried that actually I'm sinking into the fasting part of my cycle. I will make a point of eating properly today as I think long term having healthy eating patterns will be better for me than doing an almost fruit fast for a couple of days in the interests of losing enough to get into the 16s.
Scrambled tofu and mushrooms would be good.