Spats and sports

Just enjoying a nice leisurely start to the day when I suddenly realised it was CHEF sports today! Called to children to get ready, leapt out of bed and went into headless chicken mode to get everybody breakfasted and ready to go… K got himself ready and then helped L, A was sunny and sat in her high chair smiling while we dashed around her, J stayed in bed reading 😡 and then took his sweet time over washing and dressing 👿 and ended up having to eat his breakfast in the car as we were already 20 minutes later leaving than we needed to be. The traffic was relatively kind to us, so K was only 15 minutes late for his class and I gave J work to do instead of letting him play with his friends during K’s class (he was allowed to play once it was done – I’m not totally heartless 😆 ) – the teacher let K join in with J’s class too, so he actually ended up doing two sessions for the price of one anyway 🙂
L did some work on shapes and colours with me and then some numbers and finding things with her friend E while the boys were wearing themselves out, so it was a useful session all round really 🙂 Plus I got to cuddle baby S for a bit 😀

After sports we went to the park with Susan and K and huddled in the drizzle eating Susan’s food while the children played regardless (and also ate Susan’s food 😳 ); when we could stand it no longer we grown-ups baled out and dragged the children away! Came home and made birthday cards for cousin E so Bob could post them when he got home. J very touchy, though, and ended up spending quite a lot of time in the porch calming down and learning not to hit people 🙁 I wish I had better tools than exclusion and counting but they’re all that seems to work just now. We’ve tried positive things, but he doesn’t seem to get the idea, so it usually comes down to warning, counting and then taking things away (computer time first – he’s banned until Thurs – and then threaten books – but so far haven’t had to do that one; you can tell where his priorities are 😆 ). Reward charts are a waste of time as he doesn’t care 😕 If anything they seem to make him worse in a “might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb” kind of way 🙁