We are an adoptive family with Mumma Ariella being the blogger, Daddy Bruce with our adoptive son Logan and daughter Caitlin.
Ariella is a music and book loving, full time Mum and therapeutic carer for Logan and Caitlin.
Bruce is a game and art loving kind of guy, who works very hard to keep us financed by and well-travelled (we do – normally – love a good adventure).
Logan is a book loving construction mad boy, who loves nothing more than a good messy play outdoors.
Caitlin is also a book worm, who loves nothing more than bringing stories to life through dress up and role play, well… perhaps the only exception being a good old splash in the deepest, muddiest, splashiest puddle she can find.
We became a family in 2015 and have struggled our way through what is right for our children education-wise ever since. We’ve tried mainstream school and it really didn’t work for us. Without going into specifics, it caused Logan to really feel isolated, trigger a lot of emotional behaviour and really flare up the issues he has.
So we home schooled whilst we waited to get them into an alternative school with a different approach (more like the Scandinavian approach often reported in the British news) where development stages are the focus, not targets and box ticking. This was better, but still, both children have emotional issues that caused them to be isolated at times, or even disengaged from the activities their peers were involved in.
So here we embarked on our home education journey, and the many adventures that went alongside it. And started posting here. However, due to the relentless pressure, expectation and need that goes hand in hand with adopted traumatised children with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities), it was an arduous and exhausting journey that left Ariella burning out; neither child were able to cope separated from her (not even really with Bruce at home) and as such there was little respite in a time of high demand.
And then… Ariella found a school with a therapeutic approach, inspected it and knew right away it’s what the children needed. And so their journey in a school and on to independence begun… But another surprise was around the corner in the form of a pandemic. AND in 2021, the family grew with the arrival of a baby boy called Milo.
NB. A regular extra on our days out is Ariella’s half brother, who for the sake of this blog, will be named Peter.
*In the interests of privacy and protection… imaginary names, but real people.
A Pleasant Chaos 