Now, before I start waffling on about half term, I need to stress that I like to accompany what I write with photographs. I’m a visual learner so photos really help and I think they make things more interesting. But. For some unknown reason my laptop is not showing recent photos…..I’ve asked my IT guru for assistance…..she has replied with ‘ok’ so hopefully by next week photos will be available. Anyway…………

So May half term has been really good fun and I have to say, I owe a lot of the success to the £1-£2 activity packs from The Works. We have made a mermaid, painted a bird box and coloured-in. These activity packs are only pence and are great for filling time……at the end of a meal, whilst the rain eases, to focus attention away from a possible trigger. I’ll definitely keep buying these (and I obviously have some great photos of these items to share - shame!).

We access a local leisure centre (Flitwick). It’s been newly refurbished and from arrival through to the pool, the journey flows beautifully. This is great for children and adults with autism as you don’t need to go back on yourself. I love this as this allows independence and an easy step-by-step process to get from the reception desk to the pool. We are soon going to be introducing shower gel to our shower routine. Yep - little steps but all in the right direction.

Obviously a lot of junk food has been consumed as well as various visits to extremely busy parks……I like an empty park. I can’t lie. The emptier the better to be honest. But I think that’s more to do with my anti-social skills rather than anything else! There has also been a trip to the cinema to see ‘Pets 2’. Having not seen Pets 1 I was unsure what it was about but the child I supported clearly enjoyed it. Now. Here is my soap box moment…….Films that are PG or U are great but I find 12A a tricky one. Sometimes I think that what is considered suitable under this category should be a 15. And now I sound really old don’t I? To be fair, I think my challenge is that just because someone is chronologically a certain age does not mean they are emotionally that age or able to cope with topics that are addressed. So, I tend to stay with PG and U films as the children I support all have complex/severe learning disabilities.

Finally I supported a child to access Wycombe Pastures mobile petting farm at The Olde Water Mill in Barton. Now, being totally transparent I need to declare that Farmer Ian (who owns the farm) is my cousin and he is really good and passionate about what he does. The child I supported loved it, especially the chickens that were roaming freely. And the pony was very tolerant of having her mane brushed backwards. And the sheep coped well with the child’s enthusiasm of exploring their woolly coat. And…….the list goes on but all the animals are so well supervised and as a result the child calmed beautifully and had an amazing experience. And carers go in free……bonus!

An excellent half term………and onto the next week and only 7 weeks before the summer holidays…..gulp!