Some days...

... are not for schooling of any variety. Yesterday the boys had been up around 15 minutes before it was clear that it simply was not going to be a day for any kind of focused activity. There were lots of tears yesterday, lots of the boys shouting at each other, and generally just lots of stress. It seemed prudent to cancel any notions I had of a day of numbers. Instead we spent time in the garden. The garden is always our saviour at moments like this. There is something quite satisfying about getting wrapped up warm to go play outside during the cold months.
  The boys entertained themselves making patterns in the freshly dug soil, and devised a role play game revolving around their imaginary train station... and of course they did lots of digging, this time they were apparently building ponds. We plan to make a pond for the spring so this is lodged in their heads at the moment!
  One very good thing to come out of yesterday is that I did get to to speak to the paediatrician and all of his chromosomal analysis' have come back clear and I have arranged an appointment for Lamb to go in and have a check up. The biggest concern recently was that Lamb's medication doesn't seem to be having any impact any longer. For the weight he has put on it would seem that his dosage should be doubled, so it's not really surprising that the medication isn't helping Lamb all that much. Once Lamb has his check up in a few weeks, he'll be trialling the new dosage and it will be good to see if it helps him.
  At the time I was training to be a nursery-nurse the whole question over the appropriateness of medicating children was a major issue. It seems to me that these days it is slightly less frowned upon to give a child medication, but it still has a certain stigma attached to it. In the same way that ADHD itself was a contentious subject, it does seem that it is less so these day, but there is still that body of people that believe bad parenting is the cause or even (Still!!) that it doesn't really exist at all; and still that belief lingers out there that medication is the devils work. As a parent this has caused me all sorts of self doubt, but when it comes down to the wire I think Lamb prefers it when he can think straight and interact with people. Who wouldn't, I guess?
  When the medication is working the difference in Lamb is really quite amazing. Our first experience of it made me cry - it was like we were finally able to get to know him, after all those years. The popular assumption of drugs zombifying kids certainly hasn't been our experience. The drugs help Lamb focus enough that he can vocalise his experience of the world, and ask questions about it instead of being 'away with the fairies'. It certainly doesn't dampen down his energy or enthusiasm!
  Little rant over, and I feel much better!