My brilliant 3 - small steps amazing achievements

A long overdue link up with #smallstepsamazingachievements. All 3 of my children have made me incredibly proud recently.

Let's start with the eldest. J aged 11. A few years ago no-one could have predicted what the future would hold for him. Educationally things were looking bleak after two unsuccessful attempts at two different schools. In all fairness to J those schools turned out to be clueless when it came to ASD so it wasn't his fault that things turned out the way they did but it battered his self-esteem and confidence. 

Whilst home-schooling, I daily questioned myself about whether we were doing the right thing (we were). We knew J was bright and we wanted to enable him to fulfil his potential - something that both his previous schools had failed to do. 

After 3 years at home, he returned to school. This time equipped with a SEN statement and a school that really knew what they were doing. He just thrived. You can read my poem about his rather different journey through primary school here. 

Then it was time for secondary school which he started in September. A notorious time for ASD kids to struggle - such a big change to routines and the familiarity they were used to. 

Although he missed his old school a lot, J loves his new school. We had warned him that he may well have been one of the brightest kids academically at his old school but here all the children have had to get the top grades in their 11plus exams to be here so he wouldn't be such a high flyer here.

Well we have had to eat our words. He has been getting top marks in tricky subjects like mandarin and maths and comments in his contact book about how the other kids are struggling with some of the homework but J had no problem at all. 

When his CATs test results came home we cried. We were just blown away. He's in the top few percent in the entire country!!! (Top 1% for verbal reasoning, top 3% for quantitative and top 4% for non-verbal reasoning test).

Then we got an email to say J is one of the top 14 who have been chosen to take part in a science day doing GSCE level experiments! Wow!

The really incredible thing is not necessarily these results. Yes they are amazing. But more amazing is the fact that J is at a school, happy, comfortable, supported, encouraged and doing well. All of these things are enabling him to fulfil his potential. 

For someone with his academic ability it seems the work is straightforward but the ability to attend school and be in the right frame of mind for school work was the challenge for him in his early school years. So we recognise just how much he has had to overcome to get to where he is now and that makes us even more proud of him than the test results themselves. 

Now onto Mr Middle - 9 year old D. Sometimes we joke about poor D having 'middle child syndrome' - exacerbated by being sandwiched between J with all his demands with his aspergers (he may be thriving at school but things are far from perfect at home at times), and little Miss T with her medical condition of JIA and all the appointments, injections and worry that goes along with that. D is just expected to get on with things, which by and large he does. 

We have noticed traits that he has like difficulty with change, sensitivity to clothes and so the new academic year for him has been a struggle. Unlike his big bro, the academic side of things doesn't come so easily to him and yet when he works hard, he does get there in the end. 

D thing is more about hands on practical stuff. He's brilliant with his art and comic drawings and of course his cooking and baking. After this happened last year, and then this, we honestly didn't think anything would top that (I mean what could be more incredible than getting to have afternoon tea with Mary Berry - I still think it was just a dream). But he has gone onto having a couple more amazing baking successes this year. 

I will say no more at this stage as I'm hoping he will want to blog about them himself when he finds the  time. 

But one of the things I am most proud of is that he volunteered (or perhaps was volunteered for it) to run in an inter-schools cross-country. Now he has never shown an interest in running, nor does it come easily to him so he was really out of his comfort zone. But he ran. 

The fact he did something so out of his comfort zone and was the only one from his year group representing his school makes us incredibly proud. 

And last but certainly not least is little Miss T who has astounded us with her bravery again and again. I'd be pretty fed up by now with weekly injections that are likely to continue for a further two years at least, along with the many blood tests and x-rays and eye-checks she has to have (she had uveitis earlier in the year which can be common amongst children with JIA). But she continues to take it all in her stride. 

She's adjusted to using a wheelchair at times and is learning to recognise when she does and doesn't need the wheelchair depending on pain levels and how much inflammation she has. 

She started a little drama class recently and has taken to it like a duck to water. 

She's just an amazing kid and smiles through it all! 

Linking up with:

And also Loud n Proud: