Here is the news...

Its been a busy week already.

Yesterday William went up to the hospital very early to have his foot checked out. It has scabbed over nicely at each hole, but they still it will be many weeks yet before the inside has healed. Typical of William though, he came home and announced his foot was better so he was taking his plaster off!

Late morning, Samuel had his second (and, it turns out, his last) speech and language therapy appointment. What was nice was that the SALT said it was obvious that we had been working hard with Samuel as he was very much improved. However, the social conversation "test" was still poor, with him unable to ask questions and in any other way keep BOTH sides of a conversation going. Aspies only do monologues!

What was very interesting was that, having mentioned our feelings about William, and discussed some examples of his "aspie" traits, the SALT agreed with us. So much so that she is referring William to herself for an appointment. She said that a Speech and Language assessment would be sure to show up issues, if he does also have aspergers, and that it would of course then be easier to get him assessed, if she was making the observation.

Whilst they were at the appointment, I went to the mum/baby little group from church, to the news that the seventh lady had now had her baby too!

After lunch, we hosted a film crew from Channel 4!

Basically, they have been looking into the rising numbers of home educators. It appears that they spoke to a number of LAs who all reported a rise in the numbers, within their area.

Now we, of course, know that there are many reasons behind this, not least of all the various new initiatives such as Children Missing Education, ContactPoint etc, that are all increasing the likelihood of a child who was previously not known to their local authority, becoming "known".

Channel 4 News decided to do a feature on this - which is currently scheduled for Wednesday night's programme, I believe.

They filmed Joshua working in his room, on his blog and emails; they filmed Samuel in the kitchen, making shortbread; they filmed William "making stuff" on the living room floor, and they filmed us all going to the Library (much to the bemusement of the staff who asked Roarke "why are YOU so newsworthy?!").

They also filmed a short interview with me, about the detail of home education - and all the usual questions ;0) - with the boys killing each other around the climbing frame in the background! (if they show that bit, watch to see me trying not to wince at the sounds of yelling, crying, and arguing behind me!)

As with all these things, it is a huge risk; not just for us as a family, but also for the portrayal of home education. But again, as with these things, they were going to do it anyway - this way, at least I gave it my best shot.

If it doesn't come out well, please don't shoot me though!

Today it was our turn for the indoor play area that our group goes to, and it was again a very pleasant time sharing, and hearing other people's stories.