on the basis that it’s easier to do things a day or two at a time, A permitting 😉
So, it was a Latin Wednesday, but Bean-free, no Sarah and Z, no Anne and A – just Gina and hers, Susan with her K and our lot 🙂 We let them play first, while I finished making little picture cards I hadn’t been able to do the evening before, then we looked at the Latin alphabet and they all had a go at writing their name in Latin (E and L had to think about “y” alternatives; probably a good thing Z wasn’t here as no “z” in Latin) and made little ID cards which I think got incorporated into another game later. After that we learned some adjectives by acting them out (benigna/us, magna/us, maxima/us, improba/us, minima/us, strenua/us – there were to be a few more, but having such young children in the class I have to watch closely to see when they’re saturated) and then the bigger ones (J and J) matched up animal pictures with appropriate adjectives (ending and meaning). Talking to my J afterwards I think this activity together and then extension for a few is something we will do more often, as he liked having a bit more of a challenge.
No etc really, as they were happy just to play and none of us had had a chance to plan anything much. Susan made yummy soup and we attempted dippy dippy eggs, but I took too long making egg cups (from the egg box) and just overcooked them enough that the yolks were not really dippy but more sludgy 😕 Had to ladle it onto the soldiers with a teaspoon 😆
Susan had clay to haul so we kept K and took him to gymnastics with us when we went. In fact, I hardly saw him all afternoon, as I was busy making pizzas and trying to placate screaming A while he and our K were upstairs playing. Made J help me with A and the pizzas, as he had volunteered to take the things. While we were chatting about Badgers and the upcoming evening he casually mentioned that K had volunteered to bring sandwiches 😯 Nobody had told me! We had about 5 slices of bread left over from lunch and about 20 minutes before we had to leave for gymnastics, A was screaming, the last pizza was half-made – hoping we could get it in the oven for long enough before we went to be able to turn it off and leave it to cook while we were out. Then J disappeared off upstairs while the others got ready. Everybody else in car, safely strapped in, no sign of J 😡 Found him upstairs, not at all ready, swanning around as if he had all the time in the world 👿 Screamed a bit 😳 stood over him while he got ready, frogmarched him downstairs, threw wellies at him when he started to hunt for shoes, dragged him to the car when he protested 😳 and just made it to gymnastics more or less in time to send the boys in while I got the girls out of the car. Arrived indoors to find K (not ours) in tears because he had expected his mum to be there, sent L upstairs to save a seat (you have to hustle for one at times 😉 ) assured K that his mum would be there very soon and would watch from upstairs as she always does, sent him in happy, went upstairs, found L looking for Susan rather than for a seat (she’s usually already there when we get there) and so had to hunt around a bit to get one for me and one to save (I think it may have been already claimed really but I sat L on it looking too cute to turn off and then moved her to my lap when Susan arrived 😉 ). Phew! Meanwhile Bob bought bread, made sandwiches and gathered uniform so that as soon as gymnastics was finished we could dash home, get the boys into uniform (they don’t wear it for normal meetings, but this was a presentation evening), grab the pizzas and sandwiches and head out again.
The presentations were enrolments and badges being given out, so lots of clapping, which A joined in with very enthusiastically, but didn’t quite get when to stop cheering so carried on through the speeches 😳 😆 Then we all had food (Badgers having been asked to stay back and let the parents and important people have a go first!) and a chance to look at the work they’d been doing recently. A made lots of fans and had lots of cuddles, then suddenly decided she’d had enough so I snuggled her into a wrap and we worked our way to the door. Brought home a plate of sandwiches and a fair bit of pizza (perhaps I panicked and over-catered a little!) so that with the soup Susan left was Bob’s lunch and everyone’s tea sorted 😉
Late night meant late start this morning, so K, L and I decided it might be best to just get ready as quickly as we could, get to toddlers early and have breakfast there. We thought we’d communicated this to J, but apparently not, as he decided to stay in bed and read 🙄 When everybody else was dressed and he still hadn’t moved I took away the book and told him we needed to leave in 5 minutes and he said he’d be down straightaway. Hmmm. 25 minutes later we gave up waiting for him and I put the other three into the car. Went upstairs to find him on the landing doing a good impression of rushing round looking for clothes. It might have impressed me if I hadn’t heard the thud of his feet jumping out of bed as I started up the stairs. Or if I hadn’t asked him to hurry 25 minutes beforehand. Or even if his clothes hadn’t been in a pile on the landing already, waiting for him to put them on. So much for yesterday’s protestations and promises! Told him he’d have to come in his pyjamas and when he argued grabbed his clothes, put them in a bag and took them to the car. He said he’d freeze so I handed him a jumper and gave him 5 seconds to get his shoes on, walk to the car barefoot or be left behind. Amazingly, he was in the car by the time I got to 5 😉 Then he had a brush with death when I told him how angry I was that he had kept us all waiting for so long and he smartly replied “You could have had breakfast at home after all!” :slap: :wall: :rifle: :tomcat:
For once the A14 was on our side and we got to church only 2 minutes later than we should have opened up 🙂 Gina arrived at about the same time so I sent J off to get dressed and then we sat J and J down with some (fun) work to do together while K had a piano lesson and E and L did some painting (in theory tartan patterns in honour of Burns; in practice random patterns with lots of pink 😆 ). After his lesson K did loads of painting (at least 10 pictures!), J and J both did some too and the girls helped me to make porridge (again in honour of Burns, but also because we had had no breakfast!). Susan and K arrived, as did a couple of other families. Recorder happened. Lots of playing happened. Lots of chat and cuddling babies 🙂 We finished with some French: flashcards with (slightly dodgy – wish I could draw!) pictures of animals on them which I used to introduce vocab (again planned to do more than we did, thanks to saturated littlies, but that’s how it goes) of animal names and noises, then we put the cards on the floor and they had to run to the one I said. Simple but effective – except that I need to laminate the flashcards, which means I need to draw some worth laminating 😆
Tidied up and drove away past the front of the church – which is when I realised lots of ride-ons had been left out :slap: Turned round, went back, parked on double yellows, unlocked and went through to put them away, then could not get the key to turn to relock the front door. Visions of children in car being harassed, booked, ticketed… while I wrestled with church door! Fortunately I managed to do it eventually and the children were all fine, as was the car, but it did mean we were rather later back even than usual.
J did some English orally – couldn’t face trying to make him write while I was feeding tired grumpy A – then let them watch crud on tv while A dozed on my lap. Forgot to get K to read 😳 Must do that tomorrow! L insisted on doing some (Maths) work before she would allow herself to watch tv – bless!
Early night for them – and me too, I think, but first I need to prepare some text-based work for a group of up to 10 3-6 year olds for tomorrow. It could be a long night!