Month: October 2010

Then to gather nuts is pleasant.

Hmm, I can see why that verse didn’t stick in my head 😆

October may not have brought us pheasants, but we did gather lots of (horse chest)nuts, which ended up being painted with poppies for our RAH Celebrating Remembrance art.

The boys had a sleepover with S and W at the beginning of the month, from which I picked them up on Monday in time to get to my BF peer support class, then we had the usual round of Monday afternoon rushing, with L’s gym, French with Deborah and boys and then back home for quick dinner and judo. Unfortunately the children’s latest night of the week is followed by the earliest morning, dashing across the county for K’s strings group and orchestra, which happen in the before-school slot on the wrong side of the wrong borough – ho hum! It does gain us a morning with Gina and co, when timings work, at least, as they did this time, which means J can have a piano lesson while the others tick a few boxes in English/Maths/French/whatever seems most useful at the time. Then L had violin (while the boys popped to the park with Sarah and Z, which is where most of the conker collecting happened), a brief play in the park for all of us and then back home for Rainbows and the boys’ gym session.

Wednesday was that rare thing, a free morning! We celebrated by doing a few normals and some music practice 😉 K had cello in the afternoon and both boys Cubs in the afternoon. Thursday was Tots, as ever, and on Friday Gina and co came over so we could spend some time on RAH artwork – we talked about conkers and the war effort, then did lots of painting (and also playing) conkers, but also apple printing (some beautiful poppies produced that way) and J and J spent a while fiddling with photos using the Camedia editing programme to see if we could get an effect of age; they settled on sepia in the end and chose a picture where E and L were playing conkers and both looked as if they could conceivably be in period costume. Printed onto sticky-backed photo paper and stuck onto canvas board this formed the centre of our art piece, with a wreath of poppy conkers round it. So far so good…

On Saturday we had hoped to be at the Battle of Hastings reenactment, but again it didn’t happen (maybe next year!). Instead the children had music school and then Bob took the girls to ballet while the boys and I got cooking and tidying, making room for two more children in their bedroom and a couple of Rainedrops adults in the annexe 🙂 Barbara and Chris, with impeccable timing, arrived just after Bob and the girls had got back and much chatting ensued 🙂 We were joined by Michelle and Marcus and spent a lovely evening catching up – it’s definitely been too long since we had a good chat like that (as evidenced by the fact that we stayed up far too late…) – thank you all for coming, and please come again soon!

Sunday started too late for church, realistically, so we had a leisurely morning instead, with a trip to the park for all those of us who didn’t have A Level maths to mark 😉 When Barbara and Chris left they took K with them, to go to an activity camp with B, and left us R. She fitted in beautifully, even to the extent of sleeping curled up in the big bed with J, L and A 😆 (Barbara – we did offer her a bed of her own, honest!) and clearly expected to be given work to do, so on Monday morning the girls played around with letters while J reluctantly did slightly more age-appropriate work and wound up his mother. I had been debating missing BF on Monday afternoon, but in the end decided it would be easier to go than to have work to catch up as well as homework to do. Fortunately the ladies in the creche didn’t seem to mind having R instead of K (although they were a little surprised that he seemed to have changed gender!) so I left the children with a small pile of work to do and went off to find out about problems with breastfeeding and the support available. And then we dashed about as usual, including taking R to judo, where she found the games good and the breakfall practice a little too scary, but had to be dissuaded from joining in the sparring 😆 with the added complication of having to leave Bob to it all because I had a continuing local preachers’ development session which I couldn’t miss because in a rash moment some months ago I offered to lead it. Since I had now almost completely lost my voice I had to change my plan rather quickly and find material written down somewhere so that others could read it out for discussion rather than me raising it initially. This page came to the rescue with enough material that I could just whisper the extra points I wanted raised and then leave it to others to discuss – it is the nature of local preacher meetings that there is rarely a shortage of people willing to discuss things 😉 It went well – in fact a little too well, as I’ve now been asked to do something similar at the general local preachers’ meeting in March…

Since we didn’t have K we didn’t have to get up early on Tuesday, and L was not feeling quite herself, so we laid abed until rather later than usual and then ambled over to Gina’s for J’s piano, French for all the girls, a bit of playtime in the garden and a bit of a whinge from me about J’s attitude recently 😳 Violin was good (yay for Christina may become my motto 😆 ) and then the girls had a snuggle on the settee with a video while J and I mended some fences and did a bit of work at last. It should have been Rainbows for L (her promise making session too) but we had decided earlier on to cancel as she was not feeling quite well and I think that was the right decision. If nothing else, it gives us another week to sort out uniform and find out what the promise is that she’s supposed to learn… Rainbows leader popped by in the evening with a catalogue for uniform and said she’d give us a copy of the promise (it’s now Sunday and no sign of it – ho hum), plus a goody bag and a very special events badge for L because she had been at Kentwell when lots of Rainbows visited 🙂 J had gym, which he always seems to enjoy more once he’s there than in the anticipation. He’s thinking that he might keep going until the end of term and then stop, which we have said is fine as long as he will do something else to keep fit in its place. If he and K were to both give up I think I would look at putting HE group swimming back in, as Tuesdays wouldn’t feel quite so tight again and the cost for three of them would be about the same as gym for two. Just J giving up would make little difference though, other than financially, I guess, as we’d still have to get K there and back.

Wednesday 13th was Latinetc, with dangerous chemicals 😯 courtesy of HH. Even the younger group looked at the effect of hydrochloric acid on different metals, with some spectacularly smelly and smoky results! We also galloped through chapter 4 of Minimus and Zoe did some pastel Hallowe’en pictures with anyone at a loose end, which was great. I think we need to plan again, though, to make sure everybody gets at least three sessions of something and makes the most of the morning. (A still misses Michelle’s story reading – she was overjoyed to see her on Saturday and kept bringing books and a hopeful smile…) No cello for K, since he was still busy doing exciting activity stuff, so although Gina still had to go Helen and Zoe were able to stay and chat for longer, and good-enough weather meant lots of playing in the field for the children 🙂

Wednesday evening was a bit of a finely crafted piece of timing, as J was at Cubs and Bob at home with R, L and A while I went out to collect J, E and S from E’s ballet. We got back just in time to swing by and pick up our J from Cubs, where they had been looking at fair trade, including sampling some tasty products 😉 and then brought everyone back home to finish off teas half-eaten before activities. Eventually all seven children were tucked up in the front room watching Madagascar, which was great until the closing titles woke everybody up enough to start dancing rather than dozing, at which point we sent everybody off to bed, leaving Gina’s three in sleeping bags in the front room ready for collection later. Gina arrived some time after 11 and had barely driven away when Barbara arrived, with K and B asleep in her car, so we were able to transfer them pretty much directly into pre-warmed, recently vacated sleeping bags in the front room and put the kettle on 🙂 Unfortunately for my sleep debt, Barbara had been hoping to catch news of the rescued miners and before we knew it we were hooked and watching the last few come up, which meant we just had to stay until the end… and then we got chatting… It wasn’t the earliest of nights, anyway!

Thursday was Tots, but also a rehearsal for the music school concert with the Britten Sinfonia, which meant that J, K and L had to be in one place at about the same time as I needed to be in another. Barbara saved the day by taking them for me and then going on to visit the Beans, while I just had to worry about getting A and myself to Tots, which turned out to be a Book Club session I had forgotten about, so there were a few slightly disappointed people waiting for the Js to join them and read The Importance of Being Earnest – ah well. Our original plan had been for Barbara to stay until Friday, so that the Beans could join us all for tea (and optimistically on both Barbara and J’s parts, boardgames) on Thursday, but in the event, despite the fact that we are neither mice nor men, she had to go back earlier than planned so the Beans had some morning and we had some afternoon, then Barbara, B and R left. A was rather upset at not having people here any more (she’s a hospitable little soul 🙂 ) so it was good that Chris and SB and then Helen and BB and finally all four of them at once were able to join us. Having met with success in making everybody work for their sushi supper on Saturday we decided that DIY pizza was the way to go this time, followed by some yummy desserts courtesy of Chris and Waitrose – thank you for another lovely evening; we really need to do this having people round thing more often!

Having decided at the last minute that a film on Friday was the way forward we were happy to get tickets for the NSFW showing of Ice Age 3, which was loud and a little on the scary side for A, but much enjoyed by all the children overall. Gina and co were there too, and we had tea and a chat with them afterwards then came home so that overtired crabby children could rest before the afternoon’s rehearsal and evening’s concert. Heavy traffic changed our later plans slightly, as there was clearly no point trying to get home in any of the gaps but luckily the room set aside for instruments, food etc was large and available so A and I stayed in there until Bob was able to join us in time for the parents’ performance of In C by Terry Riley. I have to admit, it was better than I had expected (especially having heard a rather scary version on youtube, which sounded awfully much like car alarms!) but it still isn’t something I would ever actively choose to listen of of my own accord! The children assure me that it was even better in the evening, with a few extra players and a bit more confidence 😉 The rest of the concert planned for the evening looked rather more promising to me, including several choral pieces and a performance by Dame Evelyn Glennie but it was by invitation only, and we weren’t invited 🙁 Still, the children got to hear most of it, as their performance was right at the end of the programme, and they were suitably impressed 🙂

Despite a late night, it was still music school again on Saturday morning. Bob did the drop off, and Baby Music with Anna, and then I picked them up and took them all to ballet, with work for the boys while the girls had their classes, so that Bob could get some jobs jobbed.

Today K threw things into disarray somewhat by managing to leave his fingers in the jamb while A closed the door, but we still made it to church more or less on time and they seemed to plump up again… He did a piano practice in the afternoon anyway, so they must have been better 😕 Bob sorted lunch, which gave me a chance to do some BF course work (still a bit more to do though) and then the afternoon had country dancing, which was fun (and I got to Strip the Willow, thanks to someone who didn’t want to dance with anybody she didn’t know, but did know me 🙂 ) and then a trip to the park which went on rather longer than planned, sucked in by sunshine and good company. By the time we got home Bob had dinner on the table and it was pretty much bedtime for children. And now I’m done it’s pretty much bedtime for me too 😉

So, Fri 3rd September was Ypres, which still deserves a post of its own, and might even get one eventually…

The weekend was spent recovering – fortunately no music school yet.

On Monday the boys spent an unexpectedly free morning (A’s ballet not having yet started) canoeing, which they absolutely loved, and then we dashed back so that I could get to the first session of a breastfeeding peer support course I am taking this term. A is in the creche and the others too old for it, but allowed to sit quietly in the same room and get on with work or reading 🙂 It looks like being a good course (equivalent to GCSE, apparently, so with a fair bit of work to do at home) – at least I hope so because it’s taking a big chunk out of the day! We got back home with just enough time for L to get ready for Gym and J and I to prepare some ideas for French activities to do with a family of small boys while she was at gym. Bob picked L up, arriving home a little before the rest of us, quick tea and then everybody out to judo, which J and L were trying to see if it’s something they want to do as well as K. They loved it, so I guess judo is now a fixture in our week 🙂 I should have been at a local preachers’ meeting that evening, but I forgot until almost too late and then couldn’t get hold of Bob to ask him to take A (he was at judo) and so didn’t make it. Or send apologies. Oops 🙁

Tuesday would have been K’s strings group, if it had been on, but it hadn’t yet started for the term so we ambled across to Gina’s anyway, but later, to make a few plans for the term. Violin was on, and L and A were absolutely overjoyed to have Christina back 😀 Back home only for L to go out to Rainbows, and then the boys to gym – our week is definitely shaping up to be Mon/Tues/Wed hectic.

Having said that, Wednesday 8th was a day of many plans and rather less reality. The morning was free, as no Latinetc or Historyetc, so cello was our first commitment. Then we dashed back to hand K over to a friend who had offered to take him to Reading Club with her son and to get L to ballet. As it turned out, ballet wasn’t on, and nor was the monthly reading Club – that had apparently happened the previous week… Cubs was a collage making session, using materials brought back from holiday – bit of a nothing tbh, especially as we hadn’t been on holiday so the boys had little to take.

Thursday was Tots, with a couple of new families 🙂 and Friday a meet-up with friends, then Saturday brought the return of Music School, with the exciting news that they are to work with the Britten Sinfonia this term – slightly less exciting to find that the piece selected is “In C” by Terry Riley, a minimalist piece which they are all finding challenging more from boredom than from technical difficulty. J says it is mentally hard to play, but not physically. It will be interesting to see if it comes together and is more fun when they get to play with the actual Britten Sinfonia later 😉 The choir part of the music school is fab this term though; they’re doing Britten’s “This little babe” and also working on a possible production of Joseph 🙂 A’s baby music has moved to music school too, which makes life much easier. Oh, and J now has trombone lessons there – double bonus!

After Music School we went to Stourbridge Fair and met up with lots of friends, Tudor and otherwise, listened to a few stories from the local storytelling group, found out about the history of the fair, met some beekeepers and joined in with some lovely medieval dancing (with a bit of interesting sling and toddler juggling on my part) 😀 I had a lovely quiet evening babysitting too – excellent day!

On Sunday we went to an open day (afternoon) at Buckden Towers – a place we’ve been past many times without knowing what it was – it was really interesting to find out more about a place which seems to be a
little gem, stuffed full of history and interest but tucked away and barely known.

Monday was another whirl, with A ballet, BF course, L gym, French, judo… And then Tuesday found us on our way to London for a follow-up INSET to the Ypres trip, leaving A with Gina so that we could do some fancy child-shuffling and get to both workshops on offer. We spent the morning having a tour of the Royal Chelsea Hospital with a charismatic in-pensioner called Ken, then a quick lunch outside the National Army Museum before going in for the workshops. The first one was a NAM schools one on Propaganda, which involved thinking about how we use historical sources, then looking at posters and deciding what they were about and at whom they were aimed, leading on to designing our own posters and describing those in the same way. Then we were given information and ideas about the artwork we need to produce for the Celebrating Remembrance exhibition (argh – have to get going!) and split into HE families and teachers (cunningly I handed my children over to Dave so that they could do the HE workshop while I pretended to be a teacher and got some more ideas 😉 ) with the HE families doing another NAM workshop, this time looking at realia and stories from soldiers, while the remaining adults worked with an art teacher to start thinking of how to present the concepts to a class and start to turn them into an art piece. The most helpful part was making an ideas board, or mood board, with lots of scraps and pictures on it, linked with ideas and ways they could fit together or be presented – rather like a topic web, which it would have occurred to me to do for a written piece, but mostly visual. It was good to be made to do it, as it’s not something I’d have thought of, or indeed done even if I had thought of it, otherwise; I don’t think in pictures but in words! We all came together again after that (and Dave dashed off home with E and J, who had a busy evening to get to) for a talk from a Commonwealth War Graves Commission rep – very interesting but not as helpful for art ideas 😉
L had to miss Rainbows and K and J gym, but I think it was worth it – I wish we could get to London a bit more quickly/cheaply/easily, as every time we go I come back enthused with ideas for places I’d like to take the children…

Wednesday was Latinetc, which was at Helen’s this time, and very gentle with lots of rabbit adoration 😉 L had been absolutely abominable that morning, so we were late and I was horrible and made her write lines instead of adoring bunnies. She did write them beautifully though, and with so little fuss I think she realised she had gone too far. Science involved making some beautiful (but disturbingly cocktail-like) layered sugar-water rainbows and a rather cool oil water salt lava lamp 🙂 Latin was a dash through Minimus chapter 3 for most, and a bit more of chapter 3 Galore Park for J and J. SB and K did some Galore Park French too, joined by E and L for some of the time. Gina did some music with various people at various times, A and S made some lovely leaf prints using sun reactive paper, and all in all it was a nice chilled session, despite an unpromising start! I dashed across with K, E and L for cello and work in the car, then Gina joined us later with S, J, J and A so they could have a little longer at Helen’s. L ballet somehow didn’t happen (and in fact we decided not to bother any more this term as the timing is just too awkward; looking into Sat ballet instead) and the boys’ Cubs, which was to have been a visit from some Australian shepherd dogs, was less exciting than it might have been since the dogs had kennel cough 🙁 I was looking at the Community Choir at the same place as Music School, but trying to fit that in on a wed eve as well might just be one thing too much, I fear.

Thurs was Tots, as usual, and on Friday we went to a localish HE group session on making paper bag albums, which was fun (and I ended up buying lots of bags from her so we can do it at Tots or on a Wed sometime) but we again didn’t make it back in time to get to the free sports session we’ve yet to try – 4:30pm on a Friday in the next town is just too hard to manage, it seems, even for something we know would be good if only we could get to it!

Saturday Music School was followed by the other K’s birthday party, at a local swimming pool. J, K and L all very much enjoyed the swimming, but A was utterly miserable, as the water was cold enough to encourage proper swimming and the shallow end too deep for L to stand up in, leave alone A. After a brief dip she asked to go to the loo and we never quiet made it back in, instead sitting on the edge (air temperature was very warm; water very cold) and throwing toys in for others to fetch, then having a long hot shower ten minutes before everyone else got out. Lots of balloons and tasty food in a big hall was a recipe for success, with a chance to chat with a few people we’d not seen for a while – lovely, thank you Susan and Dave 🙂

On Sunday we had intended to go to the Honey Show in nearby park, but a combination of poor weather and overtired/not entirely well children meant we decided against that, especially knowing that Monday was to be a normal busy day. I did get my three pieces of work done for my course though. Tuesday started early, with K’s strings and orchestra from 8:15 – 9:10. Violin was great, as ever (L would like to have a lesson every day) and the boys went to the park with a friend while L and A were busy. Rainbows and gym as usual. Wednesday was the first ever Historyetc, at Helen’s, with bonus Jax and family – K was very happy to see Small again 🙂 It went well, I think, plus the weather was very kind to us and we didn’t have to dash off so I was able to leave all but K there and take E and K to cello then come back afterwards for a bit of extra time. Cubs was go-karting, which the boys loved – J is making the most of being a Cub for an extra half-term, since he should have gone up to Scouts already, but I begged a delay so that he could acclimatise again 😉

Thursday was Tots, as ever, and then could have been CHEF sports, but we had already arranged to do an art session on Picasso so dashed across to that instead – and it was well worth it! We looked at some of Picasso’s art and talked about what he was trying to show, particularly since we know that he could draw really well and realistically – his art teacher at 8 said he had nothing left to teach him – so why are so many of his pictures so very unrealistic? The children each brought with them an object which made them feel a strong emotion and talked about how that felt, then sat down with sketch pads, acrylics and canvases to see if they could produce a picture which was about emotions rather than about accurate depiction. L was soon in tears because she could not see how to do what she wanted and Melanie, who was running the session, did a fantastic job of talking her through that, such that L set to work on something else entirely and ended up with a picture she is very pleased with, which shows her feelings about the world 🙂 K did a piece on war which he hopes to use as part of the RAH work, while J played around a bit with a few ideas and then completed a picture about the environment. A played with colours and has a couple of lovely abstract pieces, which I love.

On Friday we picked up S and W so that their mum could have a few hours free for work, and took them with us to a Letterland workshop organised by a local HE parent who also runs a toyshop. There were lots of games for those too old for Letterland to play with, which has increased the children’s Christmas wish-list somewhat, and a park outside which would have been great had the weather been just a little better; as it was I stood and watched them all playing in the rain until I could bear it no longer and then we went in and warmed up before heading for home.

Saturday was more than triple booked so we had to prioritise and even then divide ourselves up. K, L and A went to music school with Bob, while J and I went to look at a school he rather likes the sound of – and indeed it does look fab, but is a good 45 minutes drive away and heavily oversubscribed. Although it is a state comprehensive school they have 12 places each year which are allocated on linguistic and/or musical aptitude so J would be hoping for one of those places (along with about 250 other children). We figure it’s worth trying the tests at least and then if he gets offered a place we can still opt not to take it up. If he doesn’t get in, or we decide it’s too hard logistically then HE is the next preferred option. It’s all a bit scary really! The plan had been to get ready for Kentwell and go along to set up tents on Saturday evening, but the weather was not promising so we decided to leave it and take the tent with us on Sunday instead, to see if it might be better then. It wasn’t, and the tent stayed un-put-up, but we had a good day nonetheless, with Bob on the gate and the children all with me in the Cotte. We came back for the usual busy Monday, then the children and I set off at sparrowfart on Tuesday in hopes of getting the tent up early, got stuck in traffic and ended up having to do it after flagdown instead – just before the rain started, at least. On Wednesday the boys both ended up being pedlars, which they loved, while L and A stayed with me in the cotte, where L learned to card and spin 🙂 The rain looked set to stay on Wednesday so I took the tent down first thing, soggy as it was, before it got any worse, then after flagdown we cleared up and had tea before setting off for home. Meanwhile Bob had spent the day at home while solar panels were fitted to the workshop roof – exciting stuff!

Fortunately Thursday was bright and sunny so we were able to get at least some of our things dry, although it would have been better if I had hung them out before Tots and CHEF sports 🙄 Friday was miserable again, so lots of stuff had to be hung inside, and Bob again worked from home, with the boys too, so that I could dash off to see a friend, using the small car (which doesn’t fit all the children) while the big one (which does) had its MOT. We got back really late, but still managed to get the children to music school and then L and A to ballet, trying out a new Saturday class so that Mondays will be less manic. Phew! It’s been quite a week!