Month: March 2008

but we got lots done yesterday 😀

J and I had a long chat on Saturday about rough and smooth handles (you may need to read the Katy books to know what I mean) and things seem to have been much easier ever since. Yesterday I told him we had a lot of things to do so he decided to get his Maths and English done straight-away, by himself, before breakfast! It was great, because that freed up lots of the day from arguing, nagging, whingeing and all the accompaniments which seem to have become usual for our HE days. K did his after breakfast, while J did some extra Maths on the computer, and then we got some bread dough started so that we could have fresh bread for lunch, the children played with A while I pureed the pumpkin we had roasted on Sunday – and threw a cupful or two into the bread 😉 Once it had risen, we shaped the dough into rolls and a loaf and then made two different kinds of pumpkin oat cookies, one with cinnamon and one with ginger.
All the while this was happening I was also running loads through the machine and hanging them out (J is a dab hand at pegging smalls onto the clippy hangers now 🙂 ) and loading the dishwasher – I’ve not been keeping on top of things at all recently so it feels good to have nearly empty wash baskets; a couple of loads today and they should be clear, apart from the nappies which constantly accumulate 😕 Then there will just be the mountain of clean dry washing waiting to be put away…
K found a pack of make your own Christmas cards which somehow missed the Christmas things box and managed to cut out, colour and put together a 3D star all by himself, then made it into a thank you card for Auntie Hannah 🙂 Baker Ross stuff arrived too, and looks great; the children tried out a couple of things to check they work 😉

After lunch (warm fresh bread rolls – yum!) the children all disappeared into the annexe and did lots of music, then invited A and me in to their concert: J on piano, L on harmonica, K switching between squeezebox and triangle. They were all having a great time, except J, who was frustrated by the others’ inability to play in tune with him as the instruments were all in different keys and only he knew the tune he wanted to base the music around 😆 It kept them busy for much of the afternoon though 😀
I spent some of the time they were practising looking for a chest freezer (and IMing Bob with finds) and we decided on this one only to find that it was out of stock 🙁 Having made the decision to get one we thought we would rather upgrade to a bigger size (and eat beans on toast for a few weeks!) than wait until it is back in stock, so on Wednesday this should be making itself at home in the workshop. What on earth will we put in it?

Wednesday 5th March = World Maths Day
Having just managed to register in time, the boys spent much of the day doing sums on the WMD website 🙂 Unfortunately a fair bit of that time was spent waiting for the website to untwist its knickers and let them move from one game to the next. And it only gave them addition. Still, it was maths – and they both gathered enough points to play some cool games as rewards 🙂
As well as maths there was Drama in the morning, which they both love, and while the boys were doing that L was happily doing activities with E while I got to cuddle baby S, at least until A got too jealous… We stayed there for lunch and I managed to validate my parking ticket this time, which made a big difference to cost! Two more weeks of drama in this block, and the boys are really looking forward to it 😀
Oh, and then there was gymnastics, which they love too, but which means another hour or more of waiting around for L. Usually she doesn’t mind, and sometimes finds a similarly circumstanced girl or two to play with, but this time she was tired and a bit whingy and it was a relief when Bob arrived, quite unexpectedly, having been dropped off at the gym rather than at home and about an hour earlier than we had expected 😀 He and L took the boys to Badgers while I fed A, then we went to Sainsbury’s for petrol and odds and ends and found that early evening midweek is a good time for reduced items 😉

Tuesday – swimming happened, although J would rather it hadn’t 😛
When we got back we were all a bit tired and grumpy so suggesting work was never going to go down well, but J surprised me by stomping off with his English book and then reappearing a little later with a fully completed exercise to show me 😀 Having found a link we registered and then counted practising on the World Maths Day site as maths; J again surprised me by doing a page of maths as well. Actually, it’s a good job I’ve written this, as I’d almost forgotten – I must thank him for being so helpful 🙂 (Btw the first part of the exercise was to make a list, in order of importance, of five things you would like to do. J’s list reads:
1. Be a millionare (sic)
2. drive a car
3. Have a baby brother
4. Have a DS Lite
5. Have a nintendo wii
Then he had to write about why he chose number one and what it would be like if he could do it.
“I chose number one because if I was a millionare (sic) I could buy things for my freinds (sic) and family like slings for Mummy and a DS for Kit, Libby and me.”

Aw bless – sometimes he can be such a sweetie!

Monday – CHEF sports 🙂 We were late, thanks to disorganisation and traffic 🙁
K did the younger children’s one, while L watched and J played with J, then J did the older one while K watched and played; L played with E, watched and generally mooched. We took birthday buns with pink icing to share – icing not as fluffy as it was but not soggy at least. Went to park with Susan and K, then home for lunch. Big Alice came over in the afternoon to bring L’s b’day present – a bubble-blowing sky dancer toy which found instant favour with all the children but was soon stranded on the roof waiting for Daddy and a stepladder…

Not a promising start, as I woke up feeling as though I had been gargling razorblades 🙁
L’s hand absolutely fine though 🙂
We had to go to Friday Club, as I had the key to the building, but if it hadn’t been for that I’d’ve skived, I think. Nobody dawdled exactly, so no shouting and not much grumping, but by the time we were all ready, with lunch, sketchbooks, watercolours, spare nappies, things to take and show people (bilibos this time), things to return to other people, little pieces of card with double-sided sticky tape on them, laminator and pouches it was too late to do the collecting things on the way that we had planned and we had to phone Bob to get him to phone S and say we’d go on the way home instead… Fortunately this meant that we were now on time for Friday Club itself so no stress 😀

We met at the Rec (where we usually go after the session just to play) for our termly nature walk. Somewhat depleted, as three out of six families weren’t there, and rather young-child-heavy, we decided to set out anyway, making the most of glorious sunshine and trying to ignore the rather vicious wind. The sticky-tape cards were a hit and all the children were soon rushing round looking for things to stick on them and needing to be reminded that whatever they chose would have to fit through the laminator (so no, J, that piece of bark is not a good idea!); this handily distracted attention from the fact that none of the mums who were there were ones who normally lead the walks, as we know about as much about it as the children 😕 I really need to get a good nature guide, especially to UK trees and woodland. The worst thing is that I used to know lots, but it all seems to have trickled away… Sometimes I wonder why I bother trying to teach the children when I remember so little of anything I have learned myself 🙁

Once we were all thoroughly chilly, well-laden with bits of greenery and tired of spotting sticky buds, early blossom and furry or dangly catkins and then having to guess which tree they came from and what it might be we went back to the church centre for a cup of tea and snack-time, then did the laminating, which worked fairly well, especially considering the chunkiness of some of the things the children had collected. I’m not sure how well they will last or how good they will be as bookmarks, but in both cases I think the answer is that being laminated gives them a better chance! Then set up watercolour paints and pencils and did some sketching and painting. Incredibly hard to persuade the children, especially K and L, that their Nature Study sketchbooks really are just for that and not for random pictures they feel like doing. I started to feel like horrible pushy/strict mother, but I do think they need to learn that some things are for a specific purpose – they have lots of opportunity (and paper!) for free expression, but only three or four specially planned nature study times a year and only one specially designated book. Perhaps if we did more it would help. All of them can produce really nice work if you can just get them to focus, but it’s very hard to get that focus… I did some sketching and painting myself, as A was pottering happily. I’m not good, but I am starting to enjoy it and I think it is hard to expect the children to do discipline I am not prepared to practise, including modelling making an effort and trying to be pleased with the process even when the results can be less than we would have liked, if that makes sense.

Lunch was late (bilibos went down well and kept them all busy while we got it ready 😉 ) and we were all tired so decided to just finish after lunch, without the usual trip to the park, which meant that even though we had things to collect from S on the way home we were still back by about our usual time.

Both boys did bookwork without complaining (!) and Bob arrived home and took L and A off to do something upstairs so we could finish in peace, then a bit of pootering before tea and bed – not too bad, as days go, except that the computer decided to turn itself off just as K was doing really well on a new game and then said it had overheated and was generally unhappy 🙁 So it’s Bob’s work laptop or nothing until he manages to sort the problem…

I think we may rename toddlers Tots and Nots – atm there are more Nots than Tots!

Good start today – we were early so able to get started on time. Gina and then Chris arrived promptly so I made speedy flashcards and then we did French (Allez! Arret! Tournez a gauche! Tournez a droite! Allez tout droit! and then added in Sautez! and Frappez!) which warmed everyone up 🙂 By the time we’d finished we had our three, Gina’s two, SB, Morag’s two, the other K and little L (who probably still counts as a tot) charging round the hall, more or less following French instructions. Then gave them a ten minute break before Latin and when we gathered again we did a bit of chatting about Hadrian’s Wall, when, why and how it was built (mostly from here) and made a sandal each using cardboard and cord 🙂 I think SB was a little put out that we didn’t do any actual Latin – will try to do better next time 😉 A snuggled up to Chris and eventually fell asleep; a nice hot water bottle for him, as heating didn’t seem to be on 😕
After snack Gina started extracting children to do piano and also put out some little blank paper books for them to make up in honour of World Book Day. K got quite into it and made a guide to fighting off girls 😆 J and J disappeared off to the stairs to do something mysterious with paper and pens – I’ve yet to find out quite what…
Gina also brought lots of books which we put on the carpet with a pile of cushions and just let the children work their way through, which actually seemed to go down rather well 😀

Stopped at Aldi on the way home to get cheap fruit and veg and also picked up a knitting kit for each child, but I obviously chose badly as the boys fought over who was to have which one 🙄 Resolved by deciding to make one be for a present and then let them choose their own wool for their own scarves. Or something. Came home and looked up casting on so I could start to teach them to knit. Easier than I’d feared 🙂 K went first but decided it was too hard and he can’t do it. Made him try for one row, by which time he was starting to get it, then the needle slipped and the whole row fell off, so I got another chance to do casting on and L had a go. She was surprisingly good at it, considering, but again got to the end of the row and then lost the lot… J picked it up very quickly, did a row with me and then a row by himself 😀 and then decided to go and play outside. I think the scarves could be a while in the making 😕

J, K and L played outside for a bit, reprising yesterday’s game of mud pies with some “instant mud” (just add water!) – which is when I went out to see and realised what I had assumed was happening in their own trugs (full of mud just now) was actually happening in a rather deep hole in the middle of the lawn 😯 Cue lots of shouting 😳 and ordering J to fill said hole in again. Mood not helped by L then getting the hose out and spraying it all around the garden, including all over J *sigh* Lots more shouting 😳 and sent L to bed – “too tired to behave!” – while J finished lawn clear-up. I think we’ll retire to bed soon.

Okay – definitely need to retire to bed, but slight hitch in plans…
Everybody tired, cold and grumpy, so suggested to J that he switch on electric blanket in our bed (luxury!) and then asked him to put kettle on (A asleep on my lap and didn’t want to disturb her until last minute) so I could make myself a hot drink to take up. Also suggested he and the others all have a drink of water and maybe bring a bottle upstairs too. A few minutes later he reappeared looking for a mug and asked what I would like, offering to make it for me, but I said not a good idea today, given everyone tired and silly – don’t want anyone to get hurt. Meanwhile I could hear K and L talking in kitchen, something about cups and water, so assumed they were getting drinks too. Then L started screaming and saying K had splashed her. It seemed a bit of an overreaction, so we went to see what was going on… J had got the (cordless) kettle down from the side and left it on L’s chair when he came to get a mug and L and K were getting themselves drinks of *hot* water 😮 when K splashed her! Apparently L had been putting cold water into the kettle (thank goodness!) and K trying to stop her when he ended up pouring it on her hand instead. Plopped A down on floor (where she screamed in outrage) and rushed L upstairs to run her hand under the cold tap…

All quiet now. J has changed A’s nappy 🙂 K kept L amused while she kept her hand under cold water and it seems now to be okay – not even a blister, thank goodness, although we’ll see for sure tomorrow. I’m almost sane again, although still haven’t had that hot drink. I’m going to make it, open a tin of chocs left from Christmas, turn off the electric blanket (not taking any chances!) and snuggle them all into bed with me. We might even read a book, if I have any voice left after all that shouting and drama on a sore throat 😉 Or we might play the Round the World game which arrived while we were out this morning 🙂

Phew!