It's been a good week. A bit too wintery for my liking, given that spring is here, but we still made it out to Collers Beach. It was absolutely beautiful there, and I'm really surprised that Carmie didn't strip down and go swimming. We had a find the best fossil competition - Carmie won, for the second time in a row. Her prize was for us all to get ice cream, so we all won :)
In an effort to be more independent, Carmie has decided she is going to try cooking for us on Saturday nights. This past Saturday she made nachos (her fave) with the left over chilli. She is definitely taking on more around the house, and has learnt to do laundry. I wish I could say that her bedroom isn't a disaster on a daily basis, but I can't! It's definitely a disaster. I have almost given up on her. It seems her organisational skills need some improvement, and being so organised myself, it kind of boggles my mind!
Carmie had another speech assessment yesterday, with a speech pathologist from Sydney. We are doing it all online. The speech pathologist confirmed the diagnosis of cluttering, which is a rare nueromotor speech disorder. She has a few more fluency and articulation problems we have to deal with that go along with the cluttering. This is all hurting her social life, as it is making her quite shy around other kids. It is definitely disheartening when both of your kids are nuerodiverse - it gets really exhausting. Carmie is starting weekly speech therapy on Tuesday, and none of it is covered by medicare. We also can't get her on NDIS for ADHD, as here in Australia ADHD is supposed to be dealt with in schools. I'm not sure what us homeschoolers are supposed to do. I guess we just push forward and pay out of pocket until we dry up! The speech pathologist yesterday told me that Carmie is lucky she is not in school, as she would probably shut down. Clutterers can have a very difficult time with writing, which has always been a huge problem for Carmie, despite her very vivid imagination. I wish life were a little easier for my guys. Their giftedness comes with some huge ups and downs, and it is exhausting.
As for Arley, he has had a fairly good week. He has had his ups and downs, but for the most part, I think he is calmer? This morning after horse riding, he tripped and fell on the stairs. Normally he would have exploded in anger, but he totally held it together, which doesn't happen often. And yesterday he decided to go to after school care on his own, which is a bloomin' miracle! The kids didn't spend Tuesday night and Wednesday at Lolo and Dida's, so Arley decided it was a day for Peak, and insisted I take him. I absolutely 100% did not believe he would stay there without Carmie, but he just waved goodbye to me and off he went! This would never ever have happened before!
At Peak on Friday last week, poor Carmie got hurt. A girl kicked her shoe off and it hit Carmie right in the mouth. I had to go pick them up early, and Carmie was sitting there crying with a fat bloody lip. She was so shocked and upset, as the girl didn't even apologise to her :(
This afternoon I took the kids to the park to play with their friends after school. It was actually a great success. I had prepped the kids on the way there, and they had both taken activities to do in case they felt like they needed alone time. But that didn't happen, and they played with their three friends like old times, which was great to see. Arley hurt himself pretty badly falling out of a tree, and then lashed out at Carmie, but other than that, it was a success.
Today is Bella's 10th birthday. She's an old lady now, but she still has tons of energy, when she is not sleeping. We've still got a few good years of her yet :)
Carmie making her favourite dinner for the family :)
Out for ice cream as Carmie's prize for winning the fossil competition
Happy birthday to Bellsie
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