This weekend we decided to have a day off from the house, garden and pool. Kings Park run a wildflower spectacular throughout the month of September. They have special theme days eg fairies in the woods. We headed up there yesterday as this long weekend is a Japanese theme with the wildflower street market.

There were kite flyers, native animals to pet, oragami, fans, the children could paint their own windmill for the garden and there were lots of native wildflowers you could buy. It wasn't on a massive scale and best to get there early but we all had a good time and the wildflowers in Kings Park are simply stunning. Next year  I think we'll take the esky and make a full day of it especially if the weather is nice.

The pool is coming along slowly, Paul has now started the tiling and building the water feature but it looks like he'll be working on it every evening too which is a shame. We'll all be glad when it's finished, if only because Paul will then be able to start mending all the broken things around the house and we can do some more days out !

This week Nakita started on the Dore programme. We had my youngest tested 18 months and she was diagnosed with ADD, dyslexia and dyspraxia. Four months ago we arranged for her to go through the Dore programme and paid the deposit.

Last Wednesday we went to Booragoon near Perth to have the initial assessment to see if she is suitable for the programme. They did a series of tests on her beginning with her standing on a machine and her balance was measured, then with her eyes closed, then eyes open and the floor was moving and finally with her eyes closed and the floor moving. These measured her somatosensory (the feelings transmitted through the feel, joints and muscles), vestibular (inner ear) and visual info she gets. It showed that she was 'normal' for somatosensory but failed the other two.

Next was an indepth test of her eye tracking. She completely failed all of these tests, in fact I had to clamp her head to stop it moving just to calibrate the computer !!

I was present at all the above tests but, at the next set of tests, I wasn't. From what Nakita said it was very similar to the dyslexia tests she did in the UK and, whilst they don't do the indepth testing needed for a legally accepted diagnosis, they did rate Nakita's risk of dyslexia as 'normal'. Wierd as she was diagnosed before but also not so wierd. Her reading is well above average and she doesn't struggle with words or letters at all. I know that there are other parts to dyslexia but, from what I have researched, I do believe her major difficulties lie more in the dyspraxia range.

She was also found to be ADHD.

She was then seen by a doctor who confirmed that she was suitable for the programme and advised to cut back on the Eye Q tablets to just 2/3 times a week, after that we were shown some of the exercises and given a bag containing the wobble board, beanbags, gym ball etc and a retest booked for 7 weeks time to check any improvement.

I am sceptical but willing to give anything a try. It is expensive but luckily we had a bit of space on the credit card so now it's maxed out !!

So now we have to do two sets of exercises once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Nakita has been very good so far at doing them (but it has only been 5 days so still a novelty!) and we have set up rewards for each month that she completes the exercises.......the first is a sleepover !! They do only take about 10 minutes so not as bad as I thought it would be but I'm sure they'll get harder over time. If it works it will all be worth it and, if not, at least we'll have given it a shot.

Beans on toast again for tea from now on !