Wonder 4-in-1. So much has happened!

29-5-2015 - Treating people with honour - pg 88-95

Today we heard a description of Auggie’s face for the first time. Auggie has come so far and can now keep his tongue in his mouth ‘we consider those things miracles’

We talked about this statement: ‘When he looks in the mirror does he see the Auggie mum and dad sees, or does he see the Auggie everyone else sees’

some thoughts on how mum and dad see him:

- simply their son

- his cuteness

- his personality

some thoughts on how others see him:

- his problems

- they judge him based on his looks

- Via says ‘they see the catastrophe of his face

does mum and dad see him as he truly is or are they influenced by his special needs too?

‘We’ve spent so much time trying to make Auggie think he is normal, that he actually does think he is normal. The problem is he is not’ - A very thought-provoking comment from Via.

We looked at how much of a struggle it is for Via to have her friends look at her and connect her as the sister of Auggie sometimes instead of simply ‘Via’.

05/06/2015 - pg. 95-100

“Incredible how easy it is for a lie to slip through your lips.” - Via

Via showing interest in August to try and change the subject - she doesn’t want to talk to mum about what has happened with her friends.

Schooching - shuffling someone over.

Via noticed that August had cut off his Padawan braid.

Why did August cut off his Padawan braid?

• When Julian found out that August liked Star Wars he was asking if Darth Sidious was his favourite character.
• August maybe didn’t want other people to associate him with that Star Wars character.

Why do we think that Via is so upset about it?

• Maybe she was involved in making the braid.
• She was upset that August didn’t tell Christopher (his best friend who moved away). Could this be linked to her being upset with Miranda?

Sometimes if we are really upset about something it can feel too big to talk about or hurt too much to tell anyone.

• When we do talk about it we might only tell them part of what happened.
• Sometimes we just need some time and then we can tell the whole story.

“Dad could always make us laugh and sometimes that’s all you need to feel better.” - Via

12/06/2015 - page 100-106

We heard heaps about Auggies genetic make up from a medical point of view. It was a little bit complicated. But we heard some big medical names and also about genes that could be passed on to next generations. We found out that it is most likely that when Auggie grows up and has a family, then his children could have a similar condition as he has.

Via said ‘I like how words you don’t understand, explain things you can’t understand’. Interesting? Confusing?

We had some amazing discussions around this question:

Is it better for August to think that he is normal or know that he is different?

We mostly thought that it was better for to know that he is different so that he can be confident in himself and he can be more aware that others will treat him differently.

19/6/15 - page 107-118

We talked with one another about the sentence: ‘Via’s mum who had come out for a little while, was put away’

The day was going to be finally Via and mum time, but August came home with needs, so it was now August’s mum again! When August is around if feels to Via that she simply doesn’t get to have her mum.

‘Are you really going to let a couple of stupid kids stop you from going back to school? … ‘Don’t let them have that sort of power over you’

‘August was surprising me more and more’ We talked about how this was happening.

• he is now wanting to quit things
• he is acting different to his normal personality
• normally he is kind to people, but now he is a bit grumpy