Baking Bug

I seem to have caught another bug - a baking bug!

For some reason I'm finding myself wanting - even needing - to bake every day.

Partly this is down to following the inspirational gluten free journey of Shauna and Danny. Whilst I may scour the internet for ideas and recipes for the family, I had gotten out of the habit of creating my own. Reading her blog, and getting ideas from Danny, sent me back to my own recipes that I used to cook before gluten became an issue.

I've been tweaking, experimenting, and generally enjoying myself!

This week I've made (all gluten free) chocolate biscuits, "rocky road", sun dried tomato & rosemary bread, lemon drizzle cake, tea cakes, banana bread and flapjacks!

Most of those recipes are in our online family cookbook but some need a bit more work before I'm ready to share.

Talking of food, Jonathan is eating better now which is great. In fact, he doesn't seem to stop eating with "Mummy, I'm still hungry" being a regular refrain around the house (makes a change from the teenager saying it...)

Talking of the teenager, Josh has the script for the first project SAVVY are working on this term, which is A Midsummer Night's Dream, where he is playing Theseus, Duke of Athens. I'm wondering if this will give us the chance to look at some Shakespeare (she says, in a guilty, meant to be autonomous-and-not-push-them kind of way).

And talking of autonomous, this is typical: William, my seven and a half year old lad with ASD, cannot yet read or write. Partly this is down to his refusal to learn and partly down to the aforementioned autonomous home education approach. Yesterday evening however he came downstairs to ask if he could set up a Runescape account. Leaving aside any other considerations as to whether or not I think that is going to happen, I reminded him that we had made clear to him that we would not subscribe him to, or open any new accounts on any new online games until such time as he could read. Whilst it never ceases to amaze me how he can wander around the internet playing games without being able to read (obviously he recognises the important - to him - stuff like which button he clicks to start, open, run, close etc!), taking part in things even as basic as Club Penguin means constant requests to read something to him, tell him what he should be doing or what he has just done wrong.

I also worry about his laptop as he can't read any warning messages that pop up...

So, anyway, we reminded him and immediately he said "ok, I'll learn to read then!".

Being ASD, actually what he meant was "I'll learn to read now" and I had to explain that it wasn't quite as simple as that, and he couldn't just learn in a few minutes. I could tell that he didn't believe me!

The upshot of that conversation was that I set him up on Starfall and then on the SuperWhy website. After about half an hour he came over to us to ask for a pencil and some paper, and proceeded to show us that he had learnt the upper and lower case for J, T, A, B, Z, Z and O!

Why those letters, I have no idea. But what was interesting was seeing further evidence that suggests to us that he may be dyslexic and/or have some other visual processing disorder.

On the subject of that, we are toying with the idea of taking him to see Ian Jordan, as the option offered by Bromley Local Authority of an assessment of SEN is not what we want and will lead to a level of interference and intrusion that will in no way be equalled by a benefit.

Despite my baking, Roarke is still changing shape and losing weight, and in consultation with his GP working on progressing his training for the London Triatholon which is he going to do in order to raise funds for the Hope Foundation. Mind you, he hasn't had the Rocky Road yet...

On a sad note, this week I finally got around to finishing another page on the family website, for the new "health" section. The page is about Coeliac Disease. It was very hard to write, but I feel glad to have done it. Dad's story needs telling. This weekend would have been Mum & Dad's 45th wedding anniversary..