Consolation by way of Ice Cream
We got bored of watching the text version of the Man Utd v Exeter City match this afternoon and started one of our science kits instead – all about digestion and the digestive system, so that went down well. The kids labelled diagrams and discussed the digestive system, tested for the presence of starch in different foods using iodine, there were a couple of activities looking at fats, and an overnight experiment to do with gelatine and the enzyme pepsin, but we didn’t get very far with that one, it will have to wait until tomorrow night!
Ruth came to pick up her girls around 4.30pm, a bit later than expected. Also unexpectedly, she then invited Anna & Abbie to go back to her house for a sleepover, which they were thrilled about.
Josiah was not so thrilled to be left behind 
In fact he was distraught. In the end I told him he could have whatever he wanted for tea, in the hopes that he’d cheer up … but then he asked for ice cream, and we don’t have any! Anyway, as it was just the two of us I decided to take the new car for a spin up to Pizza Hut. Joe was very happy (unsurprisingly, lol!), and behaved beautifully, in fact he charmed our waitress by confidently making his own orders all the way through our meal – it was lovely to be out with him, well worth a tenner. I’ve also promised him that we can do some baking in the morning before they get home, too.
I guess it’s just par for the course that the youngest child in a family has to learn to deal with being left behind/left out occasionally, or the older ones doing things that the last one isn’t old enough to join in with yet, but it does seem to be a bit of a raw deal sometimes, so as well as him learning to cope with it, I would like to make it up to him a little bit as well. The girls are really good at including him most of the time, and I’m sure he does far more interesting and exciting things than they did when they were 3, just because of the fact that they are around and we do more as part of home education than we ever did before.
Anna always moans that she’s the one who has to help with everything because she’s the eldest, and I guess that’s true too. As an eldest child myself I always felt a little bit of that resentment, and it was always absolutely true that our younger siblings got away with murder compared to my brother and I. Steve says that Josiah has a habit of wrapping me around his little finger with that ‘I’m the youngest’ routine, which is probably true too …
Anyway, I’m wittering, with no conclusions to draw … mainly because I’m procrastinating until Casualty starts … some things don’t change … and I’ve decided I like that (more) thing. Do you think it ‘hides’ the text that isn’t on the front page from search engine type things, or is that just wishful thinking on my part?
January 8th, 2005 at 20:30
The (more) thing is weird, i can’t decide about it. I’m surprised at you really, its “one extra click” after all!
Oldest thing, hmmm. I’m an oldest two and i think i ask quite a lot of Fran at times. But hse gets a lot from me too, more than the others do. I suppose in my family i feel quite glad that the split will inevitably be two going, two getting left behind. Though not sure Ammi sees herself as one of the “young two” at all!
January 8th, 2005 at 21:07
Hm, I’m not sure about the teaser thing. I think I find it annoying, but then I’ve never liked being teased
January 8th, 2005 at 21:11
Ah, well, I wouldn’t want to annoy you, Joyce! Thing is, I don’t have to do an extra click, because I know what’s under there
Also, when you click on the comments it automatically opens the whole post up. I guess I like it because it makes the front page a bit tidier, and you can’t see all my inane witterings on first glance. Sort of hoped that the extra click might put people who don’t *really* want to read it off, iyswim?
January 8th, 2005 at 21:23
If you come in via the rss reader you get the whole post, so I had to go looking to find out what you were talking about!
Small is already showing signs of being rather cross at being left behind when Big is off and about with her friends, can only assume that’s going to get worse rather than better. And as an oldest of four, I had loads to do, and I’ll be watching carefully to make sure both kids pull their weight
January 8th, 2005 at 23:40
I often chat with Davies about the downside of being the oldest – as I am too. From a fairly early age my parents seemed to treat me and my brother (2 years younger than me) as equals – same bedtime, same pocker money, same curfew etc and from then on I didn’t feel such a divide in being the oldest anymore. I often feel for Davies when we are with his cousins – as they are 2 and so is Scarlett so he seems to get nagged a lot then as the oldest. As far as Scarlett is concerned so far she seems to have no real inkling that she is not four as well, and certainly does not miss out by being the youngest – I think if I had more childcare options then she would maybe get ‘left behind’ more when I did stuff with Davies but for now I would say he missed out more than she does.
January 9th, 2005 at 9:40
Sar, check out my blog to see what your girls are doing!!