Guitar practice - both acoustic and electric. I am wanting to devise a guitar practice reward scheme. Often when she and M do practice together they have a really good session and can be playing for an hour. However, she does not like practicing on her own so much and really she does need to Mon-Fri when M is working. I think incentives may be the way forward. Am pondering financial reward linked to number of repetitions accumulated over a week. This will be very much in her control and I will point out that she will be perfectly able to cheat herself and tell me that she's done more than she has but all she will be doing is cheating herself. She may be financially better off but the goal is to improve the guitar playing through regular practice, not "earn" money, which quite frankly she gets for nothing anyway through M emptying his pockets of change every night. Any ideas welcomed as rewarding this way doesn't sit brilliantly with me but am trying to find a way to make the solitary practices more appealing.
Chloe planted her potatoes for schools spuds. The bags provided are much bigger this year. I have subsequently recycled the potato weather chart as the day was both rainy and sunny and so not easily categorised into one place. Then we (this was just M and I having this discussion!)decided we just couldn't be bothered.
Chloe and Marcus played French shopping game several times, M did work (employer work not DIY work!), they both played a sports day game, M set up another blog for me (we are moving the blog to our own site for password enabling reasons) and I scrubbed several blackened pans and tins.
C had a bath!!!! Whilst in there she read another Heartlands book and I then washed, conditioned and french plaited her hair.
We all went out for a family dinner (sans Shereen - wish she would be included in with the "children" more generally) at Dad's. Home at 11pm. C fell asleep in the car. Always makes bedtime a little trickier.
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Saturday, 27 March 2010
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
Chocks Away and Chocs Away!
"Chocks Away!" by flying planes says her t-shirt today (gift from Dad at the RAF Museum yesterday).
She finished reading her book, Mare in the Meadow, pulp children's reading but she enjoyed it. Raced through it though so not exactly a challenging read.
She then wanted me to play a game with her but I wanted her to do something useful such as guitar or some maths, so she stropped off and tidied her room for a bit. She's done quite a bit of tidying in her room - even tidying the shelving and sorting out a few things.
She then came down and did some Nezert sums, then finished off another workbook as the bag was getting rather full and weighed down with books. We then had lunch - I grossed her out by making a fish, chips, peas and tomato ketchup sandwich out of my food. I like it!
We then headed out to the chocolate tasting session. It was very good, going over the history of chocolate, harvesting and production, what is chocolate, how it is made, difference between dark, milk and white chocolate. We all had a hot chocolate to drink too. It was very good but she was disappointed as originally it was going ot be making chocolate but the lady concerned felt that under tens wouldn't be able to so didn't include chocolate making. It was good and I think maybe another chocolate making session could be organised in the future.
Some samples were more bitter than others :-)
It was very local being just 5 minutes from home. Fab having things so close :-).
We then came home and did some gardening tidying as C wanted to check on her tomatoes (harvesting 3 that were surprisingly delicious) then gathered lots of leaves up to try and minimise the risk of disease. In a small garden you need to be extra careful about tidying up fallen leaves.
C then did some Italian, working through some puzzles in an Italian magazine Deb had brought back with her. This was difficult to translate so we've left a few gaps.
She then wanted to do some Bond papers - non verbal reasoning and one of the maths papers, talked about the Primary Maths Challenge paper which is due to arrive any day now and how I'm not expecting her to perform anything other than her best as she is young to take it really.
After that she watched some television whilst I cleaned the standard lamp and put the new energy saving bulbs in. We had been unable to source the bulbs we used to have so have had to change. Not bought more than the 5 we needed for the lamp as they are so expensive. You wouldn't believe the size of box and the amount of packaging was deemed necessary to deliver 5 lightbulbs for us! The light generated is cooler than the other bulbs. We'll get used to it I guess. The ceiling pendants will also have to have new bulbs eventually but we need to change the switch as currently it is a dimmer one. Nothing is ever straightforward.
We were then discussing our day tomorrow and C decided to make a Tudor tabard (as was suggested in the Teacher notes), designing her own shield with tapir, pig, bat and flying lemur. Looks good. There are some songs we seem to not have learnt. Ah well.
Chicken Tikka Biryani in peppers with spinach rice and bombay potatoes, topped off with leftover sauce from the dinner two nights ago. Nan to mop up the sauce.
She finished reading her book, Mare in the Meadow, pulp children's reading but she enjoyed it. Raced through it though so not exactly a challenging read.
She then wanted me to play a game with her but I wanted her to do something useful such as guitar or some maths, so she stropped off and tidied her room for a bit. She's done quite a bit of tidying in her room - even tidying the shelving and sorting out a few things.
She then came down and did some Nezert sums, then finished off another workbook as the bag was getting rather full and weighed down with books. We then had lunch - I grossed her out by making a fish, chips, peas and tomato ketchup sandwich out of my food. I like it!
We then headed out to the chocolate tasting session. It was very good, going over the history of chocolate, harvesting and production, what is chocolate, how it is made, difference between dark, milk and white chocolate. We all had a hot chocolate to drink too. It was very good but she was disappointed as originally it was going ot be making chocolate but the lady concerned felt that under tens wouldn't be able to so didn't include chocolate making. It was good and I think maybe another chocolate making session could be organised in the future.
Some samples were more bitter than others :-)
It was very local being just 5 minutes from home. Fab having things so close :-).
We then came home and did some gardening tidying as C wanted to check on her tomatoes (harvesting 3 that were surprisingly delicious) then gathered lots of leaves up to try and minimise the risk of disease. In a small garden you need to be extra careful about tidying up fallen leaves.
C then did some Italian, working through some puzzles in an Italian magazine Deb had brought back with her. This was difficult to translate so we've left a few gaps.
She then wanted to do some Bond papers - non verbal reasoning and one of the maths papers, talked about the Primary Maths Challenge paper which is due to arrive any day now and how I'm not expecting her to perform anything other than her best as she is young to take it really.
After that she watched some television whilst I cleaned the standard lamp and put the new energy saving bulbs in. We had been unable to source the bulbs we used to have so have had to change. Not bought more than the 5 we needed for the lamp as they are so expensive. You wouldn't believe the size of box and the amount of packaging was deemed necessary to deliver 5 lightbulbs for us! The light generated is cooler than the other bulbs. We'll get used to it I guess. The ceiling pendants will also have to have new bulbs eventually but we need to change the switch as currently it is a dimmer one. Nothing is ever straightforward.
We were then discussing our day tomorrow and C decided to make a Tudor tabard (as was suggested in the Teacher notes), designing her own shield with tapir, pig, bat and flying lemur. Looks good. There are some songs we seem to not have learnt. Ah well.
Chicken Tikka Biryani in peppers with spinach rice and bombay potatoes, topped off with leftover sauce from the dinner two nights ago. Nan to mop up the sauce.
Thursday, 17 September 2009
Thursday's Child
Strums a tune or two . . .
"Here Comes Your Man"
"Lola"
Badgers are having a talent show. She wanted to compose her own song rather than play something written by somebody else. This is "If you want to learn to sing".
Decision made to stay home. I'd cancelled Italian last night and promised C I'd try and rearrange our original plans. This was just a museum trip for the two of us so in theory should be easy enough to rearrange. Looking at my diary however tells a different story. May have to consider (shock! horror!) a weekend trip.
She watched Victorian Farm, Richard Hammond's Blast Lab and Dragon's Den What Happened Next (fascinating - I do love business success stories) amongst other things.
Lunch (fridge pasta leftovers with added salami) and she then did a verbal reasoning paper.
I realised how dependent I am on BK to communicate with people. Needing snail mail addys I have found most trawling through phone/emails/address book but needed to communicate with two people and couldn't find easily their contact numbers. Also, I have obtained people's postal addresses via BK PM so with Brightkite down for most of the day that has been aggravating.
C then spent the rest of the afternoon listening to many, many different songs and selecting the ones for her birthday CD, writing a list for M. I had pruned the laurel out front until there was no more room in the wheelie bin. Looks a bit odd, all lopsided.
C did mini Hama beads before dinner. A heart design. Painstaking work.
"Here Comes Your Man"
"Lola"
Badgers are having a talent show. She wanted to compose her own song rather than play something written by somebody else. This is "If you want to learn to sing".
Decision made to stay home. I'd cancelled Italian last night and promised C I'd try and rearrange our original plans. This was just a museum trip for the two of us so in theory should be easy enough to rearrange. Looking at my diary however tells a different story. May have to consider (shock! horror!) a weekend trip.
She watched Victorian Farm, Richard Hammond's Blast Lab and Dragon's Den What Happened Next (fascinating - I do love business success stories) amongst other things.
Lunch (fridge pasta leftovers with added salami) and she then did a verbal reasoning paper.
I realised how dependent I am on BK to communicate with people. Needing snail mail addys I have found most trawling through phone/emails/address book but needed to communicate with two people and couldn't find easily their contact numbers. Also, I have obtained people's postal addresses via BK PM so with Brightkite down for most of the day that has been aggravating.
C then spent the rest of the afternoon listening to many, many different songs and selecting the ones for her birthday CD, writing a list for M. I had pruned the laurel out front until there was no more room in the wheelie bin. Looks a bit odd, all lopsided.
C did mini Hama beads before dinner. A heart design. Painstaking work.
Friday, 31 July 2009
Ruby Birthday Party
Ruby's birthday party held up at the farm so that was most of the day taken. C was delighted to have roast chicken birthday tea (Ruby's choice ably cooked by her Granny).
Prior to birthday partying and three stints in their outdoor pool, she did a verbal reasoning paper, two timed multiplication cards, a page out of her division book and read more of "Before Green Gables".
After she had been dropped off home she harvested her potatoes, we have found the rocket variety gave a greater yield than the emerald variety. She has loved the potato project - and loves harvesting the potatoes. It's a bit like digging for treasure and the potatoes are the treasure. Must tell the potato council else they might not include us next year.
She then managed to put away burgers, chips and peas, leaving very little leftovers. Amazing since the roast chicken had been served at 5:30pm and she had apparently eaten a huge plateful of that - being delighted to get a chicken leg.
She and M then did a bit of bike servicing / maintenance. She's doing Bikeability this week and I don't want any issues about the bike. It is still slightly oversized for her so we debated putting the saddle up to allow a better and more comfortable cycling rotation or leaving it where it is such that the balls of her feet touch the floor. M decided on the latter. Have just realised writing this that she didn't have trainers on when assessing. Doh! M will have to reassess.
She was tired and asked to be put to bed. A rarity indeed!
Prior to birthday partying and three stints in their outdoor pool, she did a verbal reasoning paper, two timed multiplication cards, a page out of her division book and read more of "Before Green Gables".
After she had been dropped off home she harvested her potatoes, we have found the rocket variety gave a greater yield than the emerald variety. She has loved the potato project - and loves harvesting the potatoes. It's a bit like digging for treasure and the potatoes are the treasure. Must tell the potato council else they might not include us next year.
She then managed to put away burgers, chips and peas, leaving very little leftovers. Amazing since the roast chicken had been served at 5:30pm and she had apparently eaten a huge plateful of that - being delighted to get a chicken leg.
She and M then did a bit of bike servicing / maintenance. She's doing Bikeability this week and I don't want any issues about the bike. It is still slightly oversized for her so we debated putting the saddle up to allow a better and more comfortable cycling rotation or leaving it where it is such that the balls of her feet touch the floor. M decided on the latter. Have just realised writing this that she didn't have trainers on when assessing. Doh! M will have to reassess.
She was tired and asked to be put to bed. A rarity indeed!
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Traipsing through Tuesday
Went to shop for milk and fruit.
C made a card thanking a neighbour for the watering she did whilst we were away. Assembled a basket of fruit/veg to go with card and left on doorstep.
She read bits out of "30 days has September. Cool ways to Remember stuff". Mostly the spelling acrostics that I said I always found it easier to remember or "see" the correct spelling than remember the acrostic that was supposed to help. Talked about different mnemonics as included in the book.
Stile Math 3 pages
Played "Touring England" again. She won.
Sticker division maths workbook by DK. Much faster and more confident today.
Played the Viking BBC game again, changing her options and failed her mission. She found this interesting as I think she suspected she would always succeed even though I told her I'd failed it in one variation of choices.
Lunch. Pasta and pesto obviously.
Yahtzee. Made her do the adding up to prove I won.
Gardening - Chloe planted out her tomato plants in the garden. I then realised the amount of growth that needed pruning back. Whilst I pruned, she read a book called The Kitchenmaid by Angela Bull, set in 1870.
She then made a sequin festooned birthday card for her friend.
Fimo-d whilst listening to "The Aardvark who wasn't sure" by Jill Tomlinson on CD and "The Gorilla who didn't want to grow up". The second story about the Gorilla twice. I pruned the box hedge tops and cleared prunings away into brown wheelie bin (this means carting all through the house as no back gate. This makes it even harder work!).
M cycled home and is now cooking dinner, sausage pasta, after which they will do guitar practice and catch up on more TdF stages. It will be another late night. Fortunately the only thing we need to do tomorrow is the afternoon school run.
C made a card thanking a neighbour for the watering she did whilst we were away. Assembled a basket of fruit/veg to go with card and left on doorstep.
She read bits out of "30 days has September. Cool ways to Remember stuff". Mostly the spelling acrostics that I said I always found it easier to remember or "see" the correct spelling than remember the acrostic that was supposed to help. Talked about different mnemonics as included in the book.
Stile Math 3 pages
Played "Touring England" again. She won.
Sticker division maths workbook by DK. Much faster and more confident today.
Played the Viking BBC game again, changing her options and failed her mission. She found this interesting as I think she suspected she would always succeed even though I told her I'd failed it in one variation of choices.
Lunch. Pasta and pesto obviously.
Yahtzee. Made her do the adding up to prove I won.
Gardening - Chloe planted out her tomato plants in the garden. I then realised the amount of growth that needed pruning back. Whilst I pruned, she read a book called The Kitchenmaid by Angela Bull, set in 1870.
She then made a sequin festooned birthday card for her friend.
Fimo-d whilst listening to "The Aardvark who wasn't sure" by Jill Tomlinson on CD and "The Gorilla who didn't want to grow up". The second story about the Gorilla twice. I pruned the box hedge tops and cleared prunings away into brown wheelie bin (this means carting all through the house as no back gate. This makes it even harder work!).
M cycled home and is now cooking dinner, sausage pasta, after which they will do guitar practice and catch up on more TdF stages. It will be another late night. Fortunately the only thing we need to do tomorrow is the afternoon school run.
Sunday, 5 April 2009
A Special Easter Lunch
Pre-Easter impromptu lunch (lamb obviously) including Easter Egg Hunt with Barts and MonsterTeenies:
Was most enjoyable.
They all returned to their respective homes and Clo got on with more sowing:
I then read to Chloe:
She has been asking for a while and finally asked when it was a good opportunity for me to say yes. It was good.
Was most enjoyable.
They all returned to their respective homes and Clo got on with more sowing:
I then read to Chloe:
She has been asking for a while and finally asked when it was a good opportunity for me to say yes. It was good.
Saturday, 15 November 2008
Busy Doing Nothing Much
Lie in (aah!) and was woken up at 10:30am with a mug of tea (even more aah!). Clo had been a bit grumpy as we were having an at home day. She helped me in the garden a little, clearing up leaves and general tidy before winter then came in and did some Bamzooki on the pc as seen on television that morning. Marcus did a bit of work on Chloe's windowsill.
Steve came by with the boys so C was overjoyed and M and I weren't sorry to have a coffee break, good catch up before resuming efforts outside.
I finished and went to Waitrose (no sign of credit crunch there either. I think the media overplays it rather.), bumping into 3 separate friends so did catching up with them too. Marcus had asked Chloe if she was going to come to the supermarket with me. When she'd answered "yes", he'd responded "That'll be a help." I had wondered who the help would be for as usually I find it easier shopping without her! In fact she was a big help and a pleasure to be with. I still have flashbacks to when I refused to go into supermarkets with her as her behaviour was so awful. Marcus could take her in and she'd be fine, but with me it was an awful stressful experience. So it was nice to enjoy having her with me whilst shopping.
She's very into doing things herself without me being anywhere in sight. She took the bread to the counter for slicing and she chose and requested the ham from the deli. I think she's a bit taller now and maybe more able to exert a presence as she didn't report any difficulties with getting served. She used to get overlooked a lot.
Home and C is reading a book Elizabeth sent her for her birthday and asked what Purim is. So a bit of googling and looking up in our Festivals and Celebrations book, we now know :-)
Steve came by with the boys so C was overjoyed and M and I weren't sorry to have a coffee break, good catch up before resuming efforts outside.
I finished and went to Waitrose (no sign of credit crunch there either. I think the media overplays it rather.), bumping into 3 separate friends so did catching up with them too. Marcus had asked Chloe if she was going to come to the supermarket with me. When she'd answered "yes", he'd responded "That'll be a help." I had wondered who the help would be for as usually I find it easier shopping without her! In fact she was a big help and a pleasure to be with. I still have flashbacks to when I refused to go into supermarkets with her as her behaviour was so awful. Marcus could take her in and she'd be fine, but with me it was an awful stressful experience. So it was nice to enjoy having her with me whilst shopping.
She's very into doing things herself without me being anywhere in sight. She took the bread to the counter for slicing and she chose and requested the ham from the deli. I think she's a bit taller now and maybe more able to exert a presence as she didn't report any difficulties with getting served. She used to get overlooked a lot.
Home and C is reading a book Elizabeth sent her for her birthday and asked what Purim is. So a bit of googling and looking up in our Festivals and Celebrations book, we now know :-)
Sunday, 21 September 2008
Not that many jobs done really when looking back from Sunday night!
lol. Get more comments when I post an empty blog post. Even if they're empty comments they're still comments ;-).
I'll try again with some content this time!
Saturday
Marcus finally got around to sawing off the front of Chloe's bedroom sill that was rotten. Need to go to timber yard to get new one made.
I pruned back a lot of plant growth in the garden. For such a tiny space it requires quite a bit of pruning every once in a while. The brown wheelie bin is now full with a heap of more prunings on the gravel and a bag and a bucket full in the porch.
Chloe helped prune back lower level things with her little pair of secateurs. She had no trouble and I'm pleased I bought them even though the lady in the shop said she wouldn't give them to her 7 year old daughter. Irresponsible of me? I don't think so. I think she is safer with sharp secateurs that fit her hand better than struggling with my larger old blunter ones. She then decided to use the prunings to make a sweeper to good effect.
We went to the camping shop as a reward for our labours and bought the Montana front extension. It will hopefully make a big difference to camping in wet weather as we can then have the front door open when cooking in the front and have less condensation. Am also secretly hoping that having made this investment, it will guarantee dry camping for ever more.
On the way from the camping shop we went into a farm shop I've been curious about for a while. Had tea and cake first and then ah ed and oohed at the fab fish, meat, cheese, veg, fruit, chocs, beer, and delicacies stacked every which way you looked. Chloe found a Gloucestershire old spot pig door support that she bought and has named Piggy 17 (we think - need a roll call). However, Piggy 17 is not holding a door open but has been moved up to the bed with all the others. They do pick your own strawberries at the farm (still fruiting!) that would appear to be elevated off the ground for easier picking. May try doing that next time as only noticed them being elevated as we drove out.
Dropped the Percy the Park Keeper broom and rake for Kiera (they had arrived in the morning) before going back to our home. The gardening had made my back ache a lot so I wasn't in the most sociable of moods. This upset C as she desperately wanted to be invited in and kept beckoning me whilst I waited in the car.
Had food issues with Clo again today. She was offered a choice and then couldn't decide and then finally decided on baked beans and sausages on toast (no butter) but only ate the beans and sausages as she doesn't like bean sauce going into the toast. Neither parent was in the mood to be sympathetic and I crossly cleaned the tin slicing my finger so she kept out of my way for a while.
Sunday
Geocaching walk with Dad and Josie. Chloe successfully found both of them so she was happy. A lovely walk with a bit of everything, hills to walk down,
hills to climb up,
river,
pretty houses, watercress beds with heron (in the tree),
woods abundant with fungi
and apple orchard (where Josie and Chloe went scrumping as the apples were all rotting and then we guiltily put 70p in the secure honesty box which is meant to be for people buying plants).
Almost at the pub:
After a rather splendid roast lunch at the pub afterwards (where Chloe spurned the free bouncy castle to climb trees) we rolled over to Classics on the Green with Carters Steam Fair.
The Classics on the Green covered more than just classic cars as vintage cars, super cars, kit cars, bikes and large commercials were also all present.
We all loved the steam fair. It's a traditional fair with vehicles and rides dating from the 1800s.
I particularly loved the steam boats.
It's not just the rides but the paintings and all powered by steam. Fantastic.
Parted company with Dad and Josie and Marcus carried C to the car upside down ("like Father Christmas' sack!") then Chloe felt very sick all the way home which was because Daddy carried her like a sack and nothing at all to do with the two rides on the swings, the very long swing boat ride and the helterskelter.
I'll try again with some content this time!
Saturday
Marcus finally got around to sawing off the front of Chloe's bedroom sill that was rotten. Need to go to timber yard to get new one made.
I pruned back a lot of plant growth in the garden. For such a tiny space it requires quite a bit of pruning every once in a while. The brown wheelie bin is now full with a heap of more prunings on the gravel and a bag and a bucket full in the porch.
Chloe helped prune back lower level things with her little pair of secateurs. She had no trouble and I'm pleased I bought them even though the lady in the shop said she wouldn't give them to her 7 year old daughter. Irresponsible of me? I don't think so. I think she is safer with sharp secateurs that fit her hand better than struggling with my larger old blunter ones. She then decided to use the prunings to make a sweeper to good effect.
We went to the camping shop as a reward for our labours and bought the Montana front extension. It will hopefully make a big difference to camping in wet weather as we can then have the front door open when cooking in the front and have less condensation. Am also secretly hoping that having made this investment, it will guarantee dry camping for ever more.
On the way from the camping shop we went into a farm shop I've been curious about for a while. Had tea and cake first and then ah ed and oohed at the fab fish, meat, cheese, veg, fruit, chocs, beer, and delicacies stacked every which way you looked. Chloe found a Gloucestershire old spot pig door support that she bought and has named Piggy 17 (we think - need a roll call). However, Piggy 17 is not holding a door open but has been moved up to the bed with all the others. They do pick your own strawberries at the farm (still fruiting!) that would appear to be elevated off the ground for easier picking. May try doing that next time as only noticed them being elevated as we drove out.
Dropped the Percy the Park Keeper broom and rake for Kiera (they had arrived in the morning) before going back to our home. The gardening had made my back ache a lot so I wasn't in the most sociable of moods. This upset C as she desperately wanted to be invited in and kept beckoning me whilst I waited in the car.
Had food issues with Clo again today. She was offered a choice and then couldn't decide and then finally decided on baked beans and sausages on toast (no butter) but only ate the beans and sausages as she doesn't like bean sauce going into the toast. Neither parent was in the mood to be sympathetic and I crossly cleaned the tin slicing my finger so she kept out of my way for a while.
Sunday
Geocaching walk with Dad and Josie. Chloe successfully found both of them so she was happy. A lovely walk with a bit of everything, hills to walk down,
hills to climb up,
river,
pretty houses, watercress beds with heron (in the tree),
woods abundant with fungi
and apple orchard (where Josie and Chloe went scrumping as the apples were all rotting and then we guiltily put 70p in the secure honesty box which is meant to be for people buying plants).
Almost at the pub:
After a rather splendid roast lunch at the pub afterwards (where Chloe spurned the free bouncy castle to climb trees) we rolled over to Classics on the Green with Carters Steam Fair.
The Classics on the Green covered more than just classic cars as vintage cars, super cars, kit cars, bikes and large commercials were also all present.
We all loved the steam fair. It's a traditional fair with vehicles and rides dating from the 1800s.
I particularly loved the steam boats.
It's not just the rides but the paintings and all powered by steam. Fantastic.
Parted company with Dad and Josie and Marcus carried C to the car upside down ("like Father Christmas' sack!") then Chloe felt very sick all the way home which was because Daddy carried her like a sack and nothing at all to do with the two rides on the swings, the very long swing boat ride and the helterskelter.
Thursday, 18 September 2008
Repairing a Panda Tracheotomy
Early start as a Gatwick day. We are three exhausted people here as he has been working away from home every day this week so far. The working from home days mean the alarm doesn't have to go off before 8:30am :-).
On the upside this meant she did half her guitar practice and watched a little tv, got dressed and did teeth, then watched a little more tv whilst eating a chocolate muffin and a beaker of milk she hadn't eaten the other day (the muffin not the milk). And we got to Italian 5 mins early :-).
An excellent Italian lesson. C was very happy and Deb had bought a preschool workbook for C to do - in Italian it isn't quite so easy to read the instructions!
I "helped" Matilda do her drawing with felt tip pens. She is a bundle of fun that one.
Then got Clo to "Stitch and Sew" for Bear Hospital. She took my old Panda as none of her toys needed repairing and he has a big hole in his neck. I also quite liked the idea of my daughter repairing my bear! She reassured me she would take very good care of him. Once she akined Panda to her Piggy she realised the responsibility of taking my panda out of the house. She took out the top bunk on the dolly bunk bed to make a hospital trolley bed:
Rubes had gone to town with drip and oxygen mouth mask and medic notes. Think Beccy had enjoyed this preparation work!
Panda seems to be recovering well. Ruby had made little cakes for the "surgeons" and teeny tiny ones for the patients. I noted the paper case for Panda's cake was empty so his throat must be feeling much better :-).
Clo said Mandy's idea was for herself to do the bear repairs whilst the girls sewed hospital blankets but the children objected and insisted they were to do the medical interventions!
We then came home. It was so sunny we ate lunch in the garden and Clo finally harvested our potatoes. She brought one in saying it hadn't grown anything and I said that was one of the new ones and thus motivated she went back and found the 3 husks of the original tubers and 23 potatoes that still seem perfectly ok to eat. She has taken 3 supermarket spuds and placed them back in the bag in the hope to get potatoes for Christmas (she googled and said she could. I was and am still dubious.). So she really enjoyed that. I hoicked up a flopping over plant that has been annoying M for years. Bet he won't notice for a few days. Well, he will now I've blogged it, but ordinarily he wouldn't have noticed until he next mowed the grass. The cleaned patch on the terrace where M scrubbed the blood stains away looks a bit odd. (I can't remember if I blogged that we came home to a massacre in the back garden. If I see the cat concerned it won't see a nice side of me). And I found two more blood stains so maybe an all over scrub is needed.
We then had swimming to get to where her performance was far better than either she or I expected. Went back to A-L's house afterwards where she happily ate their beans on toast (Heinz) whereas yesterday she refused to eat Bina's beans on toast (Branston).
Home and she did the other 7 minutes of guitar practice for the day. She did some birthday card writing and a bit of flopping about as basically she is really tired. She then got on with some Hama beading. Collected Marcus and we had deliver to us curry for dinner. We knew it would be a long wait as the phone line had been engaged before we got through to place our order. I had left the Word programme open after writing a letter and she went on and typed a letter to the curry house saying she really likes their food, printed it off and drew a picture (and labelled) of the food she always has on her plate from them; pillau rice, chicken tikka pieces, poppadom. The owner delivered our food and he was really touched when she gave it to him. I guess children don't often show their appreciation and say how delicious they find his food.
On the upside this meant she did half her guitar practice and watched a little tv, got dressed and did teeth, then watched a little more tv whilst eating a chocolate muffin and a beaker of milk she hadn't eaten the other day (the muffin not the milk). And we got to Italian 5 mins early :-).
An excellent Italian lesson. C was very happy and Deb had bought a preschool workbook for C to do - in Italian it isn't quite so easy to read the instructions!
I "helped" Matilda do her drawing with felt tip pens. She is a bundle of fun that one.
Then got Clo to "Stitch and Sew" for Bear Hospital. She took my old Panda as none of her toys needed repairing and he has a big hole in his neck. I also quite liked the idea of my daughter repairing my bear! She reassured me she would take very good care of him. Once she akined Panda to her Piggy she realised the responsibility of taking my panda out of the house. She took out the top bunk on the dolly bunk bed to make a hospital trolley bed:
Rubes had gone to town with drip and oxygen mouth mask and medic notes. Think Beccy had enjoyed this preparation work!
Panda seems to be recovering well. Ruby had made little cakes for the "surgeons" and teeny tiny ones for the patients. I noted the paper case for Panda's cake was empty so his throat must be feeling much better :-).
Clo said Mandy's idea was for herself to do the bear repairs whilst the girls sewed hospital blankets but the children objected and insisted they were to do the medical interventions!
We then came home. It was so sunny we ate lunch in the garden and Clo finally harvested our potatoes. She brought one in saying it hadn't grown anything and I said that was one of the new ones and thus motivated she went back and found the 3 husks of the original tubers and 23 potatoes that still seem perfectly ok to eat. She has taken 3 supermarket spuds and placed them back in the bag in the hope to get potatoes for Christmas (she googled and said she could. I was and am still dubious.). So she really enjoyed that. I hoicked up a flopping over plant that has been annoying M for years. Bet he won't notice for a few days. Well, he will now I've blogged it, but ordinarily he wouldn't have noticed until he next mowed the grass. The cleaned patch on the terrace where M scrubbed the blood stains away looks a bit odd. (I can't remember if I blogged that we came home to a massacre in the back garden. If I see the cat concerned it won't see a nice side of me). And I found two more blood stains so maybe an all over scrub is needed.
We then had swimming to get to where her performance was far better than either she or I expected. Went back to A-L's house afterwards where she happily ate their beans on toast (Heinz) whereas yesterday she refused to eat Bina's beans on toast (Branston).
Home and she did the other 7 minutes of guitar practice for the day. She did some birthday card writing and a bit of flopping about as basically she is really tired. She then got on with some Hama beading. Collected Marcus and we had deliver to us curry for dinner. We knew it would be a long wait as the phone line had been engaged before we got through to place our order. I had left the Word programme open after writing a letter and she went on and typed a letter to the curry house saying she really likes their food, printed it off and drew a picture (and labelled) of the food she always has on her plate from them; pillau rice, chicken tikka pieces, poppadom. The owner delivered our food and he was really touched when she gave it to him. I guess children don't often show their appreciation and say how delicious they find his food.
Thursday, 12 June 2008
Another Tent!
Tuesday
We had Ruby once she'd finished at Drama. HE Drama is really cutting into my swap day as it doesn't finish until 11am and the swap cannot start until afterwards.
Ruby left at school kick out time as Paula was giving them a lift home (Paula lives on the same road as Beccy and her daughter goes to our village school) so the girls didn't manage to finish watching "Annie" - Rubes has never seen it before and as Chloe keeps singing the songs she wanted to know where the songs came from.
Chloe then wanted to go in the paddling pool and I read more "What Katy Did" whilst she proceeded to make the hot tiles fizz by putting water on them. I burned my thumb badly on the steam from the kettle when making a cup of tea - hazardous business teamaking!) so read whilst having my thumb wrapped in a teatowel in icy water.
When she had become too cold and I had had enough of reading aloud, I decided to go out into the sunshine and prune the laurel hedge in the front garden. Clo helped me by standing on the offcuts in the compost bin to squidge it all down. Funny child liked it:
Wednesday
First thing she decided to do when she woke up was make an eco-friendly aeroplane. We were given a comprehensive presentation on the features of the plane but the key points is that it is powered by air and has a vegetable plot on one wing and a flower garden on the other:
We needed to make a gas mask box in preparation for Friday. The instructions were not great and we don't have large enough sheets of card. So wondered if I could find a box of the right dimensions in the utility room - an lo and behold we did. It's only very slightly the wrong size.
This led to getting books out to look at photographs of children with their gas mask boxes - and realised the instructions produce a box the wrong way round. Anyway, it will do the job. Read the WW2 pages in the Britain History Encyclopedia book she has (gift from Jen and Steve - thank you) which included a box about the swastika being the reversal of the mark of good fortune as used by Hindus and Buddhists. She then spent a while drawing it in both directions. Not as easy for a 7 year old as you might think.
After lunch we popped round to Bina's to play on their new trampoline and admire the new tent palace. It's a very nice tent, a Vango Zambezi 500DLX Tent. Marcus nearly suffered from chronic tent envy when I showed him the pics but after perusing tent websites for nearly an hour declared that although it is an excellent tent, our Outwell suits us better. Phew! We particularly like the large skylight (has a blind too) and the brows over the doors and windows.
Toilet tent tucked behind the tree. Being used as an outside privy at the moment until the downstairs loo is installed in the house. Which can't happen until the kitchen window is turned in French doors:
You can just about see the size of the skylight in the tent if you peer past all the children:
In amongst all the house refurbishment and remodelling, Bina's girls have done some good mapping and weather projects and I also liked their history scrolls. They are each made their own scroll and are adding pictures and key words to each period in history as they find out about things.
Then we had to leave as she had Drama and Singing. After which Chloe took the hour before Springwatch to finish writing up her science experiment with the potato clock:
The message is clear even if phonetically spelt :-)
After she'd written a note for Beccy and Ruby saying we had popped out to take Marcus to the "stachon", I got her to read the note back and she picked up that "station" was mis-spelt but couldn't remember how she should spell it. So in typical Michelle fashion I gave her the spelling and one of another word that follows the same principles and then one that looks as though it should but doesn't. So, on the wall we now have written "station", "nation" and "ration". It's a tricky old language isn't it?
Thursday
Up late which gave no time for anything other than ask Marcus to point out Northumberland and The Netherlands to her on the maps on the landing whilst I brushed my teeth. There has been a misunderstanding about where we are going on holiday . . .
Italian - a free lesson which is very nice of Deb. She feels we've been shortchanged as the last few lessons have not been the full half hour. Which is true but I still think we're getting value out of it. Very nice to get a free lesson though :-).
Then on to Stitch and Sew. The girls made bean bags this week. Not the large ones you can sit on (which really upset Clo the other week when she realised!), but little ones. They are excellent. Clo's is obviously the one on the far right:
Dashed back to have lunch with Marcus before he was due to go on an audio call. Then played Castle Keep many, many times until I begged to stop. She won more than I did - it's a good game. Then we played a Pirates of the Caribbean game from her National Geographic magazine (old copy) until I had had enough and she did some cross stitch before we had to leave to go swimming.
Got slightly held up by bumping into the dad of one of Chloe's peers that I've known since they were babies. He is still very down as his wife left him and the kids after Christmas and although he greatly wants her to, she shows no indication of returning home (and is continually affirming the opposite). It's terribly sad all round and I was wanting to be as supportive as possible whilst still not being late for swimming. I think he feels that he is surrounded by lots of happily-marrieds and it's all fallen apart for him. Did point out that couples are not always "happily married" all the time but think he needs professional counselling really rather than a roadside chat with me.
Anyway, ran down the lane to the pool, Kirsty (on the reception desk) shooed us straight through to get Clo to the poolside in time. I wasn't swimming today as the burn I sustained to my hand has a very fragile skin covering on it, that is off in a few places where it has got knocked. I am keen to keep the skin layer on as it will hurt a lot more if it all comes off. Clo had been upset over lunch when I said I didn't think it would be a good idea for me to go in as she says she can't stay in by herself. She is a law abiding little soul and if the signs say under 8's must be accompanied at all times in the water, then she feels obliged to do as the sign says. Marcus and I both feel this is a ridiculous rule and she is safer than a 10 year non swimmer so reassured her that she would be fine and that we didn't think anyone would tell her off if she stayed in the baby pool after her lesson waiting for A-L to arrive in the water with Deb.
Whilst she was in the lesson I popped upstairs to pay and then Clo's instructor had bought her new goggles so paid her separately for them. Her lesson over, her instructor said she could play in the baby pool so she played with the torpedo toy waiting for A-L. I then needed the loo so told her I was just popping off and she was quite happy to be left.
On my way halfway down the stairs bringing me back to the poolside all the alarms started sounding and staff ran out full pelt of the offices either side to the poolside. My first thought was a kick to the stomach - "the first time I leave her on her own in the water and she drowns" thought. So with that sick heavy feeling in the stomach I went through the doors and saw a young man half in, half out of the water - he looked completely lifeless to me - looked over to the baby pool and Clo standing transfixed, staring at him. Wanted her out as quick as possible and took me 3 goes of saying her name before she unfroze and looked at me. I told her to get out now and she did, bustled her into changing rooms, then realised I'd left all our bags at poolside. Left her in the company of a couple of older ladies who were about to go for a swim as she started crying (more out of being scared as she was confused about what was happening), ran in got bags and ran out again. Staff were then stopping people leaving the changing room and everyone was asked to leave the pool area and return to the changing rooms. It was just horrible. One of the young man's friends was banging the walls and doors and crying loudly as he was led towards the male changing rooms which scared Clo all the more, and even A-L who hadn't seen any of it as they had only just got into their costumes and were showering before entering the pool, was upset. I got very upset (daft woman not being able to keep it together!) and the lovely lady who looked after Clo for me when I went on the bag dash was very comforting. Got Clo dressed (sans knickers - they'd accidentally got left behind!) and we had to wait for quite a while until the ambulance had taken him away. A-L's instructor is very young and was very shaken up by it - it's her first experience like that and she was in the water near him when it happened. He is one of a special needs group and possibly has asthma and heart problems - and had swum a length. Clo of course had been on her own - had been happily watching her instructor teaching the group after her lesson and then heard shouting and looking over the man was on the side - she says "his friend was hitting his willy". I said this was an odd thing to do but she said she thought he was doing it to see if he was joking or not (Clo went through a pretending to be dead in the swimming pool stage which wound Sheila up big time) as if your willy is being bashed you can't pretend to be dead but she didn't think he was dead as his arm was moving slightly.
Anyway, truly ghastly experience. I feel so guilty for being so glad when I realised it wasn't Clo that the alarms were ringing for. Deb wouldn't let me drive so we walked to hers and had tea there. Clo mostly ok with coming over for cuddles every now and again. Then at home Marcus was crap and not supportive and managed to upset her rather than cuddle and reassure - just because he'd had a difficult and busy day. Though as Clo pointed out he didn't have someone nearly die in front of him and his response was that no but a number are possibly considering suicide. Really, really crap. (though I think now writing this he may be coming down with something). She needed a bath as hadn't showered at the pool and so I did that with her and then she did some cross stitch with Springwatch. I went to bed with her and she wanted me to stay and cuddle her - which I did but of course fell asleep myself. Hoping she'll sleep through the night.
I do feel that it's just typical that the first time I leave her alone in the pool something really dramatic happens. Bet she won't let me leave her next week.
[edited on 19/6/08 to add: the lad was transfered to a London hospital and has largely recovered - though is awaiting a pacemaker to be fitted. If the poolside staff had not reacted as quickly as they did and got the defibrillator to him it would have had a very different outcome. He had gone and they brought him back.]
Other bits:
This week she's really got into crafting. With needlework and knitting being picked up again. The scarf may even be finished for this winter :-)
Possibly my favourite piece she's produced recently is "Doodlerun". He/she started as a random doodle that took on life and was then coloured in. The eyes are surprisingly good. I suggested developing a cartoon out of it but when we talked through how an animation is made she felt it was too much like hard work and declined. She remembered watching the Paul McCartney Special Feature on "The Making of "Tropic Island Hum" and "Tuesday"" and said it would involve a lot of drawing. I still think Doodlerun could have had some mileage ;-)
We had Ruby once she'd finished at Drama. HE Drama is really cutting into my swap day as it doesn't finish until 11am and the swap cannot start until afterwards.
Ruby left at school kick out time as Paula was giving them a lift home (Paula lives on the same road as Beccy and her daughter goes to our village school) so the girls didn't manage to finish watching "Annie" - Rubes has never seen it before and as Chloe keeps singing the songs she wanted to know where the songs came from.
Chloe then wanted to go in the paddling pool and I read more "What Katy Did" whilst she proceeded to make the hot tiles fizz by putting water on them. I burned my thumb badly on the steam from the kettle when making a cup of tea - hazardous business teamaking!) so read whilst having my thumb wrapped in a teatowel in icy water.
When she had become too cold and I had had enough of reading aloud, I decided to go out into the sunshine and prune the laurel hedge in the front garden. Clo helped me by standing on the offcuts in the compost bin to squidge it all down. Funny child liked it:
Wednesday
First thing she decided to do when she woke up was make an eco-friendly aeroplane. We were given a comprehensive presentation on the features of the plane but the key points is that it is powered by air and has a vegetable plot on one wing and a flower garden on the other:
We needed to make a gas mask box in preparation for Friday. The instructions were not great and we don't have large enough sheets of card. So wondered if I could find a box of the right dimensions in the utility room - an lo and behold we did. It's only very slightly the wrong size.
This led to getting books out to look at photographs of children with their gas mask boxes - and realised the instructions produce a box the wrong way round. Anyway, it will do the job. Read the WW2 pages in the Britain History Encyclopedia book she has (gift from Jen and Steve - thank you) which included a box about the swastika being the reversal of the mark of good fortune as used by Hindus and Buddhists. She then spent a while drawing it in both directions. Not as easy for a 7 year old as you might think.
After lunch we popped round to Bina's to play on their new trampoline and admire the new tent palace. It's a very nice tent, a Vango Zambezi 500DLX Tent. Marcus nearly suffered from chronic tent envy when I showed him the pics but after perusing tent websites for nearly an hour declared that although it is an excellent tent, our Outwell suits us better. Phew! We particularly like the large skylight (has a blind too) and the brows over the doors and windows.
Toilet tent tucked behind the tree. Being used as an outside privy at the moment until the downstairs loo is installed in the house. Which can't happen until the kitchen window is turned in French doors:
You can just about see the size of the skylight in the tent if you peer past all the children:
In amongst all the house refurbishment and remodelling, Bina's girls have done some good mapping and weather projects and I also liked their history scrolls. They are each made their own scroll and are adding pictures and key words to each period in history as they find out about things.
Then we had to leave as she had Drama and Singing. After which Chloe took the hour before Springwatch to finish writing up her science experiment with the potato clock:
The message is clear even if phonetically spelt :-)
After she'd written a note for Beccy and Ruby saying we had popped out to take Marcus to the "stachon", I got her to read the note back and she picked up that "station" was mis-spelt but couldn't remember how she should spell it. So in typical Michelle fashion I gave her the spelling and one of another word that follows the same principles and then one that looks as though it should but doesn't. So, on the wall we now have written "station", "nation" and "ration". It's a tricky old language isn't it?
Thursday
Up late which gave no time for anything other than ask Marcus to point out Northumberland and The Netherlands to her on the maps on the landing whilst I brushed my teeth. There has been a misunderstanding about where we are going on holiday . . .
Italian - a free lesson which is very nice of Deb. She feels we've been shortchanged as the last few lessons have not been the full half hour. Which is true but I still think we're getting value out of it. Very nice to get a free lesson though :-).
Then on to Stitch and Sew. The girls made bean bags this week. Not the large ones you can sit on (which really upset Clo the other week when she realised!), but little ones. They are excellent. Clo's is obviously the one on the far right:
Dashed back to have lunch with Marcus before he was due to go on an audio call. Then played Castle Keep many, many times until I begged to stop. She won more than I did - it's a good game. Then we played a Pirates of the Caribbean game from her National Geographic magazine (old copy) until I had had enough and she did some cross stitch before we had to leave to go swimming.
Got slightly held up by bumping into the dad of one of Chloe's peers that I've known since they were babies. He is still very down as his wife left him and the kids after Christmas and although he greatly wants her to, she shows no indication of returning home (and is continually affirming the opposite). It's terribly sad all round and I was wanting to be as supportive as possible whilst still not being late for swimming. I think he feels that he is surrounded by lots of happily-marrieds and it's all fallen apart for him. Did point out that couples are not always "happily married" all the time but think he needs professional counselling really rather than a roadside chat with me.
Anyway, ran down the lane to the pool, Kirsty (on the reception desk) shooed us straight through to get Clo to the poolside in time. I wasn't swimming today as the burn I sustained to my hand has a very fragile skin covering on it, that is off in a few places where it has got knocked. I am keen to keep the skin layer on as it will hurt a lot more if it all comes off. Clo had been upset over lunch when I said I didn't think it would be a good idea for me to go in as she says she can't stay in by herself. She is a law abiding little soul and if the signs say under 8's must be accompanied at all times in the water, then she feels obliged to do as the sign says. Marcus and I both feel this is a ridiculous rule and she is safer than a 10 year non swimmer so reassured her that she would be fine and that we didn't think anyone would tell her off if she stayed in the baby pool after her lesson waiting for A-L to arrive in the water with Deb.
Whilst she was in the lesson I popped upstairs to pay and then Clo's instructor had bought her new goggles so paid her separately for them. Her lesson over, her instructor said she could play in the baby pool so she played with the torpedo toy waiting for A-L. I then needed the loo so told her I was just popping off and she was quite happy to be left.
On my way halfway down the stairs bringing me back to the poolside all the alarms started sounding and staff ran out full pelt of the offices either side to the poolside. My first thought was a kick to the stomach - "the first time I leave her on her own in the water and she drowns" thought. So with that sick heavy feeling in the stomach I went through the doors and saw a young man half in, half out of the water - he looked completely lifeless to me - looked over to the baby pool and Clo standing transfixed, staring at him. Wanted her out as quick as possible and took me 3 goes of saying her name before she unfroze and looked at me. I told her to get out now and she did, bustled her into changing rooms, then realised I'd left all our bags at poolside. Left her in the company of a couple of older ladies who were about to go for a swim as she started crying (more out of being scared as she was confused about what was happening), ran in got bags and ran out again. Staff were then stopping people leaving the changing room and everyone was asked to leave the pool area and return to the changing rooms. It was just horrible. One of the young man's friends was banging the walls and doors and crying loudly as he was led towards the male changing rooms which scared Clo all the more, and even A-L who hadn't seen any of it as they had only just got into their costumes and were showering before entering the pool, was upset. I got very upset (daft woman not being able to keep it together!) and the lovely lady who looked after Clo for me when I went on the bag dash was very comforting. Got Clo dressed (sans knickers - they'd accidentally got left behind!) and we had to wait for quite a while until the ambulance had taken him away. A-L's instructor is very young and was very shaken up by it - it's her first experience like that and she was in the water near him when it happened. He is one of a special needs group and possibly has asthma and heart problems - and had swum a length. Clo of course had been on her own - had been happily watching her instructor teaching the group after her lesson and then heard shouting and looking over the man was on the side - she says "his friend was hitting his willy". I said this was an odd thing to do but she said she thought he was doing it to see if he was joking or not (Clo went through a pretending to be dead in the swimming pool stage which wound Sheila up big time) as if your willy is being bashed you can't pretend to be dead but she didn't think he was dead as his arm was moving slightly.
Anyway, truly ghastly experience. I feel so guilty for being so glad when I realised it wasn't Clo that the alarms were ringing for. Deb wouldn't let me drive so we walked to hers and had tea there. Clo mostly ok with coming over for cuddles every now and again. Then at home Marcus was crap and not supportive and managed to upset her rather than cuddle and reassure - just because he'd had a difficult and busy day. Though as Clo pointed out he didn't have someone nearly die in front of him and his response was that no but a number are possibly considering suicide. Really, really crap. (though I think now writing this he may be coming down with something). She needed a bath as hadn't showered at the pool and so I did that with her and then she did some cross stitch with Springwatch. I went to bed with her and she wanted me to stay and cuddle her - which I did but of course fell asleep myself. Hoping she'll sleep through the night.
I do feel that it's just typical that the first time I leave her alone in the pool something really dramatic happens. Bet she won't let me leave her next week.
[edited on 19/6/08 to add: the lad was transfered to a London hospital and has largely recovered - though is awaiting a pacemaker to be fitted. If the poolside staff had not reacted as quickly as they did and got the defibrillator to him it would have had a very different outcome. He had gone and they brought him back.]
Other bits:
This week she's really got into crafting. With needlework and knitting being picked up again. The scarf may even be finished for this winter :-)
Possibly my favourite piece she's produced recently is "Doodlerun". He/she started as a random doodle that took on life and was then coloured in. The eyes are surprisingly good. I suggested developing a cartoon out of it but when we talked through how an animation is made she felt it was too much like hard work and declined. She remembered watching the Paul McCartney Special Feature on "The Making of "Tropic Island Hum" and "Tuesday"" and said it would involve a lot of drawing. I still think Doodlerun could have had some mileage ;-)
Tuesday, 19 February 2008
Saturday, 2 February 2008
Tenny One
Clo's been fed up - she finds the weekends with nothing in the diary difficult.
So she eventually decided to walk with Marcus as he needed to pop to his office and then they lunched in town, visited the Pancake Fayre and did some grocery shopping whilst I had a looooong bath with L'Occitane bath stuff and read a magazine and then ate the 2nd pomegranate from our box in front of the last bit of some daft film with Tom Hanks floating on some suitcases then being blown out of a volcano. Bliss it was.
Collected them and then I polished off the spinach soup. Clo went out and wanted to do some pruning. Told her to leave the box hedge alone (am worried about box blight which can be exacerbated by mispruning or leaving pruning offcuts on the ground) and wouldn't allow her the lawnmower so she had cut the grass with the shears (yes it is that small a patch of grass) and then she decided to prune back the plants either side of the path. I like them flopping over but now we have a very clear access to the shed (rolls eyes here). There won't be many flowers edging the path this spring.
She does need smaller secateurs though - so may invest in a wolf small hands pair for her as I feel using mine that are slightly oversized for her is not ideal.
She and I watched Summerhill that M downloaded for her. Really good explanation of our education philosophy for her. I spent quite a bit of time on the Summerhill website. We chatted about how if anything happened to me what would happen to her and we think it would probably be best if she went to Summerhill. She would be fine but Marcus wouldn't. Hmm. Weekly boarding would be best but they don't seem to have that option. She is sad the programme will self destruct 7 days after watching it (28 days after downloading then 7 days after you have watched it). Very clever these people. A couple of puzzles (no looking at the picture) and dinner. She read a bit of a mermaid story book that I have been unable to renew as someone else has requested it so need to return it on Monday. Grr. Am going to have to make a special trip when we will be in town for the pancake races on Tuesday anyway. Double grr. She needs to finish it today.
ooh on the topic of finishing, she did finish that Letts workbook on Friday and cut out the medal covered cup at the end and it is proudly displyed on her wall :-)
I was exasperated though as 1+9, 21+9, 31+9, 41+9 and so on are fine. But she has an absolute block on 11+9. I dont get it. Can we start a campaign to rename eleven, "tenny one"?
So she eventually decided to walk with Marcus as he needed to pop to his office and then they lunched in town, visited the Pancake Fayre and did some grocery shopping whilst I had a looooong bath with L'Occitane bath stuff and read a magazine and then ate the 2nd pomegranate from our box in front of the last bit of some daft film with Tom Hanks floating on some suitcases then being blown out of a volcano. Bliss it was.
Collected them and then I polished off the spinach soup. Clo went out and wanted to do some pruning. Told her to leave the box hedge alone (am worried about box blight which can be exacerbated by mispruning or leaving pruning offcuts on the ground) and wouldn't allow her the lawnmower so she had cut the grass with the shears (yes it is that small a patch of grass) and then she decided to prune back the plants either side of the path. I like them flopping over but now we have a very clear access to the shed (rolls eyes here). There won't be many flowers edging the path this spring.
She does need smaller secateurs though - so may invest in a wolf small hands pair for her as I feel using mine that are slightly oversized for her is not ideal.
She and I watched Summerhill that M downloaded for her. Really good explanation of our education philosophy for her. I spent quite a bit of time on the Summerhill website. We chatted about how if anything happened to me what would happen to her and we think it would probably be best if she went to Summerhill. She would be fine but Marcus wouldn't. Hmm. Weekly boarding would be best but they don't seem to have that option. She is sad the programme will self destruct 7 days after watching it (28 days after downloading then 7 days after you have watched it). Very clever these people. A couple of puzzles (no looking at the picture) and dinner. She read a bit of a mermaid story book that I have been unable to renew as someone else has requested it so need to return it on Monday. Grr. Am going to have to make a special trip when we will be in town for the pancake races on Tuesday anyway. Double grr. She needs to finish it today.
ooh on the topic of finishing, she did finish that Letts workbook on Friday and cut out the medal covered cup at the end and it is proudly displyed on her wall :-)
I was exasperated though as 1+9, 21+9, 31+9, 41+9 and so on are fine. But she has an absolute block on 11+9. I dont get it. Can we start a campaign to rename eleven, "tenny one"?
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