Monday 13th August – anxieties aplenty

So…the Olympics ended last night, I stayed up way too late watching the closing ceremony. Eric Idle was brilliantly bonkers, great British humour. Ice skating nuns and all.

T is looking forward to the Paralympics starting. He’s disappointed that there won’t be the same level of coverage as the Olympics but at least the first week is still in the school holidays. He’s hoping to do a little daily insert in the blog on his views. We’ll get the Olympigs involved in some way too.

🐹🇬🇧🐹🇬🇧🐹🇬🇧🐹🇬🇧🐹🇬🇧🐹🇬🇧🐹

Poor D hasn’t had a brilliant day. She was very very teary this morning, I think it’s an offshoot from yesterday and our trip to town. Very cuddly too, not wanting to be too far away from me.

A brief period of respite when the postman delivered her latest “My Animal Farm” books and toys and she was happily playing with them in the back garden until..

Someone strange came through our back gate (the gate has a latch at the very top so that T & D are unable to open it themselves) and a delivery man just opened in and came in, without knocking or going around to the front or anything. D was completely shocked and he mumbled something at her, put down the parcel and left before I caught up with him. Poor D, she couldn’t refer to him as “a man”, just “it”. It really spooked her. She does have a really severe stranger anxiety. Then the supermarket delivery man did the same, despite instructions saying go to the front. So now, that gate is padlocked all the time. She even got upset when Hubbie came home, via the front door as back now very secure.

It just makes me realise that when things happen – which are unexpected
or take her by surprise – then she is not able to communicate that effectively for a while. A worry now and for the future and whereas I’d just think “stupid blooming Tesco’s” and then get on with my day, it stays with D and still effects her hours later.

She hasn’t done any drawing or colouring today which is always a “I’m too anxious” sign.

So, hopefully a restful night for D (but I doubt it), she does tend to relive stranger anxieties specifically, despite Melatonin.

I hope everyone’s had a good day, thanks for reading, comments/RTs as ever welcomed Jx 😘

See.Touch.Learn app by Brain Parade review

I was recently sent a code for the See.Touch.Learn App by @BrainParade and was asked that D and I take a look at the App, below are our views.

The App is available in the App Store, its cost is £13.99/$19.99, which you might think at first is quite pricey but I would have bought this, had we not been sent a code. I found it a very beneficial App.

These are the first few screens:

Click onto “libraries” and you have the option of downloading a lot more content. For example, D loves her fruit & vegetables (both to eat and as play food) so those were a welcome addition. Another one we will find very useful is “signs and safety”. They are very easy to download and you have a chance to preview their content before you start to download. Updates are free once you have purchased the original App.

Once you have downloaded your content, you can make a start on the Lessons. There is the option of Basic. Medium or Advanced or customing the lessons.

The options shown below are “Advanced: Action Words” and “Advanced: ProNouns”. I choose Advanced as I wanted to see if D could a) read the questions by herself and b) understand them (she’s 8), she did very well and the possible answers proved a good talking point.

Here is an example of a question and its answer:

The photos really do illustrate the emotion and she did find them funny. Each lesson takes about two minutes so it’s not too long that interest is lost.

Should you click on the wrong answer, the picture shakes and you can then choose again. A little sound (a bit like a parp noise!) will sound if the answer is wrong and the picture shakes, a correct answer gets a “ding”. These sounds can be turned off/modified in “Lesson Play Controls”.

Once the lesson is finished, a screen shows the score, accompanied by a “hooray” sound:

In summary, we are going to find this App very useful and the library and custom options mean that each lesson has the potential to be different and therefore interesting and challenging. Especially useful if your child has an almost photography memory like my D.
For those children who are not yet reading, the benefits in terms of potential discussion around the topics are very useful. The touch screen element will make it very appealing to children of all ages. Definitely recommended.

Disclaimer: I received a code to redeem and download the App for free.

Thanks for reading, comments/RTs as ever welcomed Jx 😘