Friday Focus 20/03/2026 – Kaleidoscope

This week has been a kaleidoscope of different activities, emotions and things going on. Looking back over the week feels like a constantly shifting picture of things that have been going on. We’ve had some new experiences, revisited old memories, had moments of joy, sad moments, stressful moments, productive moments and lazy moments.

I spent last Friday evening helping out at the theatre chaperoning for a production of Half a Sixpence. It was a new experience for me to chaperone for a show that Sophie wasn’t involved in and with a group that I’ve not been part of, but I did know some of the cast (although not any of the young people) and I enjoyed the experience.

Saturday was a very busy day with the start of rehearsals for this year’s Passion play and then taking part in a scratch Mozart’s Requiem. It’s only the second time ever I’ve done any classical choral singing but it was fun.

Mother’s Day was lovely overall, although it is a very bittersweet day for me and there were lots of tears as well as many moments of joy. Sophie made a lovely bouquet of pink tissue paper flowers and painted a picture of a sunflower and Thomas had drawn some pictures. My favourite gift though was the jar of wooden hearts that Sophie had written on, listing things that she, Jessica and Thomas love about me. Such a beautiful thoughtful gift and one to treasure. We spent some time in the afternoon at Jessica’s forever bed and it was good to have that time with her too.

We’ve been enjoying the spring sunshine this week and trips to the park after school are becoming a regular occurrence. Thomas particularly likes the trampoline and the swings. He’s always gone for the baby swings as he was scared of falling off the big swings, but this week he gave them a try and loved them.

Thomas has had quite a challenging week this week and we’ve had some behaviour reports coming home as he’s been laughing at other children in his class which one of the teachers has flagged as bullying. I don’t think Thomas intends to be unkind – he’s just seen another child react to something and the reaction has made him laugh, but he’s struggled with understanding why it makes the other child upset to be laughed at when we’ve spoken to him about it. The teacher who spoke to me initially about Thomas’s behaviour didn’t seem willing to make any allowances regarding Thomas’s understanding of things and the way that inappropriate laughter can sometimes be a stress response for him, but I’ve since had some encouraging talks with Thomas’s class teacher and with the SENCO who seem to have a more balanced view and agree that while we need to work together to help Thomas with understanding that it’s not okay to laugh at people and make them sad, he’s probably not being intentionally unkind. We’re trying to use social stories to help with this at the moment and hopefully things will improve.

I’ve had a productive week sorting out the living room and dining room and having a sort through the toy boxes which has resulted in some old favourites being rediscovered. Thomas has particularly enjoyed finding various puzzles, including the In the Night Garden jigsaw that was a firm favourite of Jessica’s and brought back a lot of memories. We ended up having some lovely chats about Jessica and the things she loved playing with.

What I’ve been grateful for this week:

Day 72 – I am grateful for some 3D-printed Numberblocks to add to Thomas’s collection.

Day 73 – I am grateful for a lovely afternoon and evening rehearsing and performing Mozart’s Requiem.

Day 74 – I am grateful for my lovely Mother’s Day cards and homemade gifts, especially the gorgeous jar full of wooden hearts with reasons why my children love me written on them.