Parks and Battles

Yesterday was a lovely day, at Swanley Park. We managed to get a lovely shady spot by the paddling pool, and spent an amazing 3 1/2 hours there! The kids played in the water, the sand, the playground - and Joshua spent a lovely half hour out in a canoe on his own! I think he found the solitude therapautic. Unfortunately, he had a meltdown whilst we were out. Some bigger kids (off school due to polling) were chucking buckets of water and sand around. My two lads - having a strong sense of justice - tried to stop them. Samuel protected the little kids, and Joshua challenged them. Sadly, that led to them all concentrating on him. In frustration he retailiated - and got caught by the park staff, who told HIM off whilst the others disappeared. The poor lad stormed off over to us, and lost it totally. He was so angry at the injustice, and said "bullies will always win, and I'll always be a victim". That one episode undid so much of the positive experiences of the past year and I think we'll be working it through for some time :-(

This weekend sees the 90th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. I've just updated our website with some resources, should you wish to study it.