Have you ever played poker? Maybe you’ve played recreationally, as I have, perhaps using tokens, matchsticks, or chocolates for the ‘stake’? Maybe you’re a more serious poker player, with higher level stakes? Or maybe you’ve never played the game at all… this blog post isn’t about the rights or wrongs of playing cards… but whatever … Continue reading Why Additional Needs Parenting Is Like A Poker Game
By stretching out our hand in welcome, in love, to everyone, we are doing what Jesus would have us do; and in following his teaching our own lives are healed, and our churches become places of belonging for all.
Oh my days, that’s quite a blog post title isn’t it? All sorts of controversial topics wrapped up in there too… but it represents a compact summary of a bunch of things that have collided in the news, and in my mind, over the past few days. Things that have in turn outraged, angered and … Continue reading Children With Additional Needs, Autism Cures, And Abortion Advice
That moment… that moment as a children’s or youth worker when you realise during the ‘talk time’ that you’ve just lost some of your group. They were able to focus for the first three or four minutes, but now, five minutes in, you see them starting to get distracted, starting to fidget. You’ve lost contact … Continue reading Additional Needs Children’s Work: Using What They Enjoy To Help Them Learn
The Bible is full of stories about children and young people; some of these stories are among the most well-known of all (Mary, Joseph, David, Samuel, Esther…), some are lesser known, more obscure, but none the less important stories (the widows son and Elijah, the slave girl of Naaman, Jairus’ daughter…). In thinking about some … Continue reading Children Of The Bible And My Autistic Son
Devoted… an important word, one which we often hear, and a word that we all probably think we fully understand; but do we? How truly deep a word is it? And what might it mean in the context of caring for a child or young person with additional needs; whether as parent, carer, other family … Continue reading Be Devoted To One Another In Love
James has an infectious laugh; it is one of those laughs that can start as a chuckle, a little giggle, and then builds and builds into a raucous belly laugh that barely gives him opportunity to take breath. All sorts of things can set him off; maybe something he’s watching on his iPad, once he … Continue reading How The Sound Of Our Autistic Son’s Laughter Helps Us Dance!
James has a new obsession… It started at Christmas and has continued into the New Year… It was probably triggered by all of the bright shining lights that he so enjoyed seeing on the Christmas tree, around the fireplace, on the outside of the house, on the large bush we have outside our front door… … Continue reading Why All The Lights Are On In Our House
Perhaps never before has humanity lived in such a self-centred, self-obsessed, self-serving, narcissistic, selfish society as we do now. Advertising and marketing media is filled with slogans such as ‘Because you’re worth it!’, ‘It’s all about you!’, and recently that dreadful advert from TUI (formerly Thomson Holidays), where an entourage of lackeys serve the every … Continue reading Because He’s Worth It!
Christmas has come and gone, with all of its celebration, joys, and maybe some trials and tribulations thrown in for good measure… Racing up next we say goodbye to the old year and cheer in the new; but how that makes you feel might well depend on the kind of year you’ve had, and any … Continue reading … And A Happy New Year?
Delightful Handmade Dog Products and Gifts
An additional needs Dad and Son baking adventure...
Special Education Teaching Resources, Sensory Stories and SEND Information
The Additional Needs Blogfather 