Month: September 2009

Saturday morning was my first session in charge of the shop where I occasionally do sling sessions. I have no key as yet so they owner still had to come and let me in, which meant he was able to quickly go over useful things like how to turn the burglar alarm off, but then I was on my own. It was a fairly busy morning, with several ladies coming in for maternity wear, lots of clothes being tried on, small children playing happily while their parents browsed… all quite chilled really 🙂 I managed to do some sling tweaking for a couple of mums who had already bought ring slings but were struggling to get them as comfy as they’d hoped and talk another lady through cloth nappy options. Only problem was working out how much of each ticket number was the code for the till only the first 2 numbers in most cases, but sometimes it seemed to be 3 and most tickets had 6 but only 2 or 3 would work – hope I didn’t mess anything up by doing 2 when it should have been 3!

Meanwhile Bob took the children to Stourbridge Fair, although they got there far too early and ended up spending over an hour at a playground the stewards pointed them towards. I’ll let him blog that 😉

Afternoon was mostly pootling, with occasional music practice and then we made spring rolls which was fun, if a little messy (it took a while to convince the children that less filling was better and that the edges had to be tucked in, so we had a few exploded rolls in the pan to start with!

A day of normals and not much more.
Peter Pan was watched on and off throughout the day – I guess I shouldn’t feel guilty about that for M, as it counts as English really 😉

We did a bit of bike riding in the field at the back of the house; J has finally decided he actually wants to learn (mostly because Cubs are doing a safe cycling course next week) so I’m trying to take advantage of that now. K is almost there, J still terrified and therefore going so slowly he falls off anyway, squawking at the slightest wobble and stropping at every bit of advice 🙁 M whizzing round the field like a maniac (another reason for J to learn soon), L bemoaning lack of a bike her size and A stomping alng behind wailing. Not an unqualified success then 😕

Singapore Maths is still in revision mode, but brought up some interesting things about how hard division is for M, so I think we’ll revisit that in a week or two. His times tables knowledge is fab, so that’s a good start.

L, K and M each made lots of crocodile sentences, which L and K copied out as English/handwriting and M read to me for pronunciation practice.
M and L also did a reception level worksheet on seasons, which we extended for M by adding in months of the year and which ones fit into which seasons, then working hard on how to say them (notable July, not Julie).
J finally got back to doing some Galore Park English – still finishing Book Two when I have a feeling we should have started Book Three, especially if he’s to have a 6 month break from English next year. Ah well – the books are meant to be a help, not a straightjacket 😉
Latin for the day was Cogito ergo sum, along with a bit more on nauta sum, agricola sum and so forth.

Violin happened, although with some stroppiness from J and L (they seem to either get on incredibly well or clash like anything); still amazing enthusiasm from M though. K’s cello also happened, and piano from all (M still waiting for his music to arrive, but doing his best with sight-reading the harder pieces from K and J’s books). We didn’t get as far as recorders though, so that should probably be a priority for the weekend.

I had my first lesson with Mr B, a new student who is rather a departure from the norm for me as he’s retired and wanting some holiday French to top up what he learned at school 40 years ago. We’re starting with basic hotel/shop/train type vocab, but mostly concentrating on understanding what he hears, as he’s quite good at making himself understood anyway, but his ultimate goal is to be able to understand conversations in bars and cafes. He’s doing it on a budget, so we’re going for reduced rate, fortnightly lessons and lending him books for the in-between weeks. Not much money in it for me, then, but I think I may end up developing some new materials which might give a start point for future classes.

Curry for tea – korma which all the children liked, a slightly spicier tofu curry made with generic Indian curry base, which they all struggled with a little, especially M who found it pointy in his mouth 😆 poppadums (success), mango chutney (not sure) and then kulfi (roaring success – big sigh and “that’s better!”). I’ve promised lassi and naan bread next time 🙂

Thursday was Tots as usual, but with the added excitement of a Victorian Day for the Nots 🙂
We arrived at 9 and managed to get a few normals out of the way whilst setting up (Maths for K, finishing off an old workbook for L, word crocodiles for L, M and K which we will come back to, I think, music theory for J – just a little look at a Grade 4 paper, piano for all but M, who is still waiting for his music but doing practice from other books in the meantime) and then the older 4 (it still feels odd saying that!) disappeared upstairs to make hats and be shouted at by a very strict Victorian teacher. Apparently they make hats first so that when they are wearing their hats she can shout at them and they know it’s all in role 😉
It was very quiet with only the Tots, but nice to have several of the mums of older children in one place and free to chat. I can feel some kind of Gathering coming back into shape again, which would be really good if we can make it work – we just need another couple of sessions like that to get some informal planning done…
Mid-way through the morning the whole class (16 children from rising 6 to just turned 12) appeared in the hall for drill, which we all very much enjoyed watching 🙂 They appeared to be having a whale of a time – M was grinning away, while L and E were taking it very seriously but enjoying themselves too. Then they went back upstairs for dictation of school rules – the Js managed to keep up, M did an impressive effort in beautiful handwriting (as ever!), K opted for noting down the first letter of each word (ingenious!) while L and E just gave a good impression of listening hard and writing everything down so they wouldn’t get shouted at – a useful life skill 😉 All the children sat beautifully and listened to lots of interesting Victorian facts too, although of course the main ones they have retained are things like how many women burned to death because of their big floaty dresses 🙄
For lunch I’d made some vaguely Victorian stew and dumplings and pease pudding (with yellow split peas as we’d run out of green and no shop in our town sells any, I discovered on Wed night) which we ate with nice cheesy bread courtesy of the Coop late-night reductions. The afternoon was dedicated to craft so by the end of the day we had children sporting paper masks, shooting marbles through paper arches and demonstrating how to put the bird into the cage (or the dog into the kennel) – all good stuff!
Gina and I had had vague hopes of getting some recorders and French done after the others had left, but in the event what was needed was lots of play and then a quiet afternoon, as they had pretty much reached capacity on doing “stuff”, I think. We came home to find a Victor Borge video on the doorstep, so watched that with a snack, then learned the Latin word for the day (agricola – agricola sum) and watched SmArt. Oh and M did lots of violin practice – I think he’s addicted! He gets tired and I suggest he stops, but he shakes out his arms, grins broadly and says “I like violin!” then carries on…
Bob got home in time to get J and L to do some violin too, while I cooked tea and admired K’s cello playing (would have said supervised, but he did it all with no help from me really; all he needed was some admiration :lol:).
Over tea Bob talked us all through a page on how to distinguish different types of triangles using a flow chart, which K really got into, and then after tea we found the books on Victorians which we had been meaning to read before today and read one of them together, with lots of looking at the pictures and talking around them rather than following the text. Many requests to do another today, so will try – when M has finished his violin practice…

and it’s been alright – but I’m soooo tired!

We started with breakfast at a fairly sensible time, then I told the children we’d start at 9 with some work 😉 J and M got going first with some Draw Write Now – M very painstakingly drew a beautiful truck, then carefully copied out the sentence underneath and added some colour with the watercolour pencils. It was only then that I realised he had missed the point of the exercise which was to draw raindrops (Truck in the Rain) hence a sentence which was not about a truck but about rainclouds and rain drops. Ah well! J, meanwhile, opted for a picture of the Statue of Liberty and a sentence about America being the land of the free, which he rather neatly (but also rudely) adapted before remembering that he had intended to send that picture in to the Draw Write Now authors to show what a good job he’d done. At least he realised that wasn’t a good idea now 😉 L joined us, did a bit of reading and then did her customary “but I can’t read – I don’t know all the letters yet!” strop *sigh* so I sent her to get dressed and change her attitude while she was at it – and then followed her upstairs, where she had a sob and a cuddle and then we both felt better 🙂 K decided he was happy in pyjamas, so did piano and then got started on a Turtle picture while J and M finished theirs, then I showed J and M the Isotiles and we worked through the first couple of pages of the online workbook with limited success – J complained his brain was aching “but look – I can make a house!” while M dutifully repeated the names of the angles and then made patterns with the triangles. K, on the other hand, worked through the same pages with great enthusiasm and no brain ache, then spent twice as long making patterns – whether because of attitude or aptitude I’m not sure! L just had fun tessellating 🙂
After that I sent them outside for a bit, with snack (cucumber, orange pieces, apple slices, pepper, cupcakes and chocolate milkshake) and then regretted it as a huge waterfight broke out all around the freshly hung-out washing! L and A were first to come in, dripping wet, while M had the greatest staying power and was still out there squirting the windows long after the others had come in and dried off. Eventually I called him in to do piano, before he could get too frustrated waiting for victims to come out and get soaked! Meanwhile L had done 100 Easy Lessons, J had done piano and K a fair bit of Lego vehicle building. We introduced M to Tutpup and then made sushi (lots!) and then J and K did some recorder playing while L and M did more 100 Easy Lessons together and A had Mummy milk. Looking back at the day I’m struggling to remember what A actually did all day – I think we were lucky and it was one of those days when she was happy to just potter about and join in with whatever looked interesting 🙂 I think there was more game playing then, and then J and I did a little music theory together (revision – his choice; he’s determined to teach me now that he’s ahead of where I got to!) while K and M did some Bitesize literacy on the computer. Realising that we have violin again tomorrow L got hers out, but J somehow never quite got that far, and then it was time to dash across town and take L to Gymnastics. When we got back we went out to the field to find sycamore “helicopters”, did a bit of urban foraging (elderberries – must look that up in French! – and plums from the hedge round the field) and then the boys made paper helicopters while I made spiced elderberry cordial and got some tea made ready for the mad rush between collecting L and taking K to Beavers. Oh and Jacques phoned to ask if everything is okay. I think it is 🙂
It was to have been J and M in the bath tonight, but somehow L and A got in there first, then M and finally J while Bob collected K and then read stories. And now they’re all in bed, A is asleep on my lap, and I need to be packing lunches for an incredibly busy tomorrow, but I think I’ll go to bed instead…

M and his parents arrived by train just after 4 on Saturday. There was a church barbecue planned for a local park, which happens to be very near the station, from 5, so Bob dropped K, L, A and me off there and then he and J went to collect M and his Maman and Papa and bring them along to the barbecue. Both Papa and I had checked weather forecasts and thoguht them promising enough to make a barbecue seem a reasonable proposition but in fact it was incredibly cold and windy and although M had a warm coat with him Maman had worn a very chic but rather thin twinset which left her shivering and blue lipped but resolutely determined to laugh about it and compare it to their holiday home in Normandy where the weather is very similar. Maman has very little English, so I spoke French for her benefit, while Bob stuck to English and Papa switched happily between French and English. I told M that I could speak French just for the first 24 hours and then my knowledge of French would mysteriously disappear. He seemed to find this funny 🙂 The children had a whale of a time playing together, despite the cold weather, while Maman interrogated me about all manner of things from diet to educational philosophy. I’m assuming I passed, as they left on Sunday without M…

I don’t think I’d say our families are very alike on the surface, but I get the feeling our hearts are in the same place, somehow, so I guess Jacques did a good job on the matchings. M seemed to fit in very well straightaway not only with J but also with K and L, while A has already started to look for him if he is not in the room and to ask him to do things for her. I’ve been so busy thinking how hard she will find it without J when he goes to France that a strong degree of attachment to M and the problems that might cause when he goes again hadn’t occurred to me; we’ll have to deal with that one when it happens 😕

On Sunday the children were all up and chatting well before the adults. I presided over a busy breakfast (and found that M knows and loves porridge 🙂 ) with J, K, L and M (A still asleep) and had time to clear away before Papa appeared, followed a while after by Maman and only then by Bob, who claimed to have been almost pushed out of bed by A as she expanded her (sleeping) territory 😆 After breakfast we somehow ended up playing in the field and before we knew it it was too late to bother trying to get to church so we opted for a walk instead, set some potatoes to bake and headed off to the playground, loch and riverside walk. The children all played together on the climbing frames while Maman and Papa went for longer walk, I think partly to leave M to settle in by himself a bit, then J and I came back to the house to put lunch together, followed by the others a while later. Again time seemed to pass very quickly and lunch was barely over, cups of tea drunk and stories read (A adopted Maman as her own personal story reader, particularly of the lovely French picture book M gave her as a present) before it was time to bid farewell. Bob took parents to the station, a tear or ten in Maman’s eye which she managed to hide very well, but M apparently quite happy.

After they had gone we made and played with a big batch of playdough, which appeared to be a new thing for M, then the boys went outside to play, which led to tears from K as M was a little rougher than he had expected. I reminded K that M is used to being one of the youngest rather than the oldest and that makes a difference, and also that his perception of rough is affected by how tired he is, but by now J was also getting a bit silly and rough so we decided a change of pace was in order and suggested a few minutes on the piano, which seemed to help settle things down a bit. Then J, M, K and L played a couple of easy games (honey pot – no language needed) and K did a jigsaw which so engrossed him that when the girls went for a bath he missed his slot at bathtime and then missed Scrapheap Challenge too – an almost unheard-of occurrence! Tea, bedtime stories and an early night, no tears, no problems… wondering if it’s all being a little too easy!

In on Sunday, pottering.

Out on Monday, leaving Bob to work from home in peace while the children and I went to the Fenland Country Fair where we met up with Gina and co to watch dog agility (the fun classes, which means the dogs may or may not perform, depending on how they feel 😉 ), fly casting by a champion (J’s choice, but we didn’t watch for long, I’m afraid), falconry displays (K’s choice), vintage vehicles (S was transfixed) and more. The children’s favourite bit was the funfair section, though, where they all bounced on inflatables, L rode on the carousel, J and J and then E and K went on the “cooperative swings” and A rode a motorbike round and round in small circles with great aplomb 🙂 Actually, I’m not certain that was entirely the favourite bit for E, L and K. They all chose to go into the arena to meet the foxhounds and were incredibly hard to get out again…

In on Tuesday, as far as I remember, pottering. Although we could have been doing almost anything. I have a memory like a sieve just now :frog: Oh yes, in the afternoon we popped out to collect a Freecycled Cub uniform for M, then came home via Sainsbury’s and Bad News from Bob which put the kibosh (temporarily at least) on the projected trip to Ikea en route to London on Wednesday 🙁

Out on Wednesday, meeting imaginary friends at the British Museum. We all had lunch together and a little impromptu wrapping session, as well as baby cuddling, DS-ing, running around, playing, chatting and general niceness. Then we wandered around the Egyptian galleries together before heading off our separate ways – in our case back into the museum to look at Indian silk paintings, community art elephants and Indian rooms and a money-free mosey round the shop. We found a burger bar near Holborn where a grinning assistant did us an excellent falafel burger and the most enormous portion of chips I’ve ever seen for well under £5 and then caught the train home 🙂

That means Thursday should have been in, when in fact we were at Tots, but that is so much a second home now that it almost feels like being in! It was very much a Tots session this week, with several new babies/toddlers and very few older children (in fact, I think the only children over 4 were mine!) but knowing that next week will be busy and mostly Nots-oriented that was probably not a bad thing. Gina phoned to ask if we wanted to join them on an Expotition, but we had already arranged with Susan to do things at home (she very kindly offered to help after seeing my determinedly not worrying post on Facebook) so we came home via another freecycle pick-up (CD/cassette player so I can do more French teaching more easily) and a car hiccup which left us sitting waiting for the car to decide to work again at the time we should have been at home waiting for Susan to arrive. Fortunately Gina then texted to say their expotition had ended in failure so we were able to phone her and ask a) if she could let Susan know we were delayed and b) if they wanted to come to ours instead 🙂 So the afternoon was very definitely in, with help blitzing the hall (Susan) and hoovering the stairs (Gina) while I got cracking on the kitchen and the children amused themselves (Gina’s plus Susan’s plus mine makes for nice even pairings 😉 ). I think the working parties we occasionally talk about organising are a seriously good idea – it’s so much less of a big deal when you’re not tackling it alone! Actually, I don’t think I’d have managed it at all without help, particularly this week, thanks to some fairly hefty blood loss which left me sitting down suddenly at random intervals (Floradix is my friend!) so huge thanks to both of you 🙂 I’m assuming I can come and repay the favour some time 😉

On Friday Susan, obviously a glutton for punishment, came back and proved that our kitchen does actually have work surfaces 😀 Not many, admittedly, but what it has she found 😉 And I collapsed and watched her work and did as I was told when handed papers to sort. Better that week than this, I guess. Hoping it’s a one-off though, and that I can get enough energy back for a busy week/month/term.

And so it was Saturday. En Famille day – and I spent the morning doing sling demos while Bob and the children finished things off at home…