just another morning here

I’m totally too busy to blog, especially as I’m playing the newest generation of Animal Crossing! But we had a good weekend with lots of other stuff in it too, so I thought I should write something quickly.

Saturday was a music day: the girls had orchestra in the morning, Joe and Anna had a Suzuki practice in the afternoon, and then the evening was ECO’s Autumn Concert. We had Grandad and Nanna here for dinner before taking them to the concert too - and it was good fun as usual. Novelty of taking photos of orchestra has worn off I think as they’re pretty much the same! Anna’s orchestra friend (the one who moved to Reading) came down for the weekend so we had her to stay for a couple of nights.

In the midst of this I was hugely excited to pick up a review copy of Animal Crossing: Let’s go to the City. Had problems porting my DS character into it though so that took up the rest of the weekend for me! Can’t manage to wifi easily at the moment though, timezone problems plus the fact that I’m not able to play enough!

Sunday we went to church (me, Abbie and Joe), town (Anna and her friend), and the kit car show (Steve and his dad. I would have gone but the kids didn’t want to). All back home for dinner, and I invited Riona over for tea too because she saved me by lending me her AC:WW game card!

Back to work on Monday then dashed around doing various things after school before ending up at this Excellence in Exeter evening. We really didn’t have a clue what it was all about but Anna was receiving an award as well as singing in her school choir so we dressed up and went out.

Kind of giggled as her award was for ’sporting and artistic endeavour’ but hey, she was the only one in her year at school who got it, so she must have done something to earn it! I suspect it’s probably music related but we don’t get to find out why each child was nominated. Still very (VERY) proud of her. The choir were good too, we met a few friends whose kids also got awards there, and there was even some food at the end of the ceremony.

Must get up and get on now, we have another new child starting in our class today (the second this term!). And it’s another day when I think about Animal Crossing all day but can’t actually make time to play it! Oh I’m so sad! Scrabble turns will get played I promise, one of these days

What a manic day - or week in fact - at school we’ve had a week of things going wrong or being cancelled. First our trip on Tuesday had to be cancelled as the back door of the minibus wouldn’t lock so we couldn’t take children out in it. That was fairly bad for some of the kids who were pretty disappointed and spent that day and the next throwing tantrums about it.

Today seemed better - we normally go swimming on a Thursday but the pool was too cold for some of the kids - eventually we decided to take those that could go anyway, as they’d had enough cancellations for one week. So trekked down to the pool, got them all changed etc., got them all in - and then the fire alarm went off. Not someone burning toast, for once, it was a real alarm and the fire brigade came out. Turned out to be dust and fumes from the builders’ brick cutting but it had been going into one of the classrooms so a valid alarm. But by the time we knew all that we’d dragged the kids out of the pool, and got them all changed in a freezing corridor! Thankfully the drama of the moment overshadowed any tantrums that might otherwise have occurred on being asked to leave the swimming pool.

Anyway. Home with a headache and ferried kids around as usual, then helped them with Children in Need costumes for tomorrow - well, Josiah is being a Tudor as he has a school trip to go on (his outfit looks remarkably like his Victorian one but don’t say anything. Photos tomorrow if we’re lucky). Abbie had to dress up as something beginning with her initial, so after thinking of Avril Lavigne (hm, maybe not), then an Arctic fox or hare or something (no white trousers though), we discovered that Anna has a non-uniform day as well, so hurrah, Abbie can go dressed as Anna! My school is having a Pyjama Day - I must admit that this is one step too far for me, I would far rather give a humungous donation to CiN than go anywhere further than my bedroom in my pyjamas.

Cooking Beetroot Risotto for tea. This is still the search phrase from which the blog gets the most hits, which always amuses me. These days I just cook it plain (no goat’s cheese) and sprinkle grated cheddar over the top. Seems to go down equally well

At the kids’ primary school, they have Thank You certificates - these can be earned for pretty much anything. When you have received five Thank You certificates you also gain a school Commendation for outstanding contribution to the school.

Today I had made arrangements to miss the first hour of work in order to go to the assembly because Abbie was in line to receive her 5th certificate and therefore her commendation as well. We didn’t know what the certificate was for, and it turned out to be general ‘teacher’s pet’ qualities such as good behaviour and politeness all the time, helpfulness and also good attitude to work. Which is fairly similar to the theme of the last four certificates she’s had! And, to be honest, the vast majority of the time she’s the same at home

Anyway, she was beaming from ear to ear when she got the certificates, and Steve and I both made the effort to be there because we’re really proud of her. I forgot the camera though. Steve says she must have got the ‘good at school’ thing from me as he never paid enough attention in school to earn anything like that, even if he’d been motivated by rewards, which he wasn’t. I think secretly Abbie was so pleased about it simply because Anna didn’t ever get as far as a commendation during her time at the school

Couldn’t be bothered to go and get a proper camera so the photo’s rubbish but I don’t care all that much any more.

Spent most of the afternoon helping Abbie with her science homework. Just sometimes I am grateful for my folder of home ed links, as we first did this activity over four years ago (when I had an even more rubbish digital camera!).

Had orchestra this morning, and while the kids were there, I showed a friend and her partner around our ‘to let’ house and they have decided to rent it so that was a great result. Their first baby is due in 5 weeks’ time so they needed somewhere to live rather urgently!

Now cooking a roast and getting through the essential housework very slowly … and looking forward to a relaxed Saturday night.

I haven’t been, but this morning I am … nothing at all to do with having smashed some tetris scores

Not much to report really, hence the silence here. Everyone is just getting on with life and enjoying it mainly I think.

Josiah’s having a bit of a stress over violin - but this is nothing new The boy can’t make his mind up, one minute it’s the worst thing ever and anyone who suggests any practice is evil so a tantrum must be thrown, and the next minute he realises he’s grown out of his quarter size violin and could really have a half size, actually he’d really like one and he doesn’t want to give up after all.

Orchestra was a bit of a problem this week because there was not just one, but three changes during the section rehearsal (new tutor, different and bigger group of children, different room) and he just doesn’t do change well at all, so that was a tough one to get through. I am absolutely worried stiff about his Suzuki graduation concert next weekend as I’m really not sure how best to prepare him. It’s never ever the actual violin playing that is the problem, put it like that.

Joe’s really enjoying his new Tae Kwon Do classes though. These have (thankfully) stayed with the same teacher, in the same room, with a small group of children!

Abbie is fabulous She cleaned out the guinea pigs on her own yesterday (well, Joe was meant to be helping but I’m not sure he did really!), and is generally just good at getting on with things. She’s really happy with her new teacher this year which is great as I suspect she might end up with the same teacher next year as well.

Anna, meanwhile, seems to think that high school is the ticket to everything … and naturally, that means that she can act like a 16 year old even though she is still only 11! Hmm. She joined the choir at school this week which I think was a good move, she’ll enjoy that. She’s also planning to stay on at the primary school choir as their accompanist which will be good for her as well, but that doesn’t start up again until after half term.
Homework etc. doesn’t seem to have been too strenuous yet, neither have the lessons themselves. They spent one whole day last week doing Cognitive Ability Tests (as if they didn’t test the Y6s enough last term!), quite what the purpose of that was, I don’t know, as Anna says they’re already in groups for subjects, but there we go.
Apart from school, Anna’s particularly enjoying the church youth group which she started going to a couple of weeks ago.

Work for Steve and me just plodding along I think. Steve is sort of waiting for the ‘credit crunch’ thing to hit the garage but so far, other than actual car prices going down significantly, business itself doesn’t seem to have been too badly affected. Only time will tell.

My school had parents’ evenings this week which I opted to stay for because I am so nosey. No, seriously, it helps you to be able to support the children better if you have an idea of their family life, not to mention what it is that their parents want for them. All the children come to school on county transport, so we never get to meet the parents otherwise! I enjoyed taking my class out to Gym Club in the week too, and another highlight was spending an afternoon in a different class, just helping out as we had less children than usual and they were a member of staff down.

Still umming and aahing over this blog. A couple of blog-friends have stopped recently and I guess I have sympathy with the reasons for stopping a public blog, so watch this space. I might write more behind the safety of a password!

That when asking Anna about her day she informs me that during ICT lessons she visits my blog! School is going well for her although we all think she would benefit from getting up earlier in order to be more organised Today she had to run all the way to school after forgetting her PE kit then coming back for it! And we were most miffed to find out that neither of us made it onto her ‘top ten list’ of things she liked. Ah well!

Everything else has started up this week as well so we’re in full flow which means being busy after school most days. Josiah started an extra activity too; he’s asked a few times over the past year or so whether he could do some kind of martial arts type thing. Not knowing much about it I was a bit slow on the uptake, but this academic year I promised I would sort something out, so over the weekend we found EPMA’s website and got in touch with them. While I was talking to the instructor, it turned out that he had gone to school with Steve, and bought a couple of cars from the garage too, so those were nice links Joe gave it a try tonight straight after his piano lesson - and loved it It’s a relatively new venture and so the class was small which helped - we think it will be good for him, so we’re all happy about that.

Abbie is currently mastering ‘perfect middle child’ status - not having huge changes in any area of life or having hit teenage-like hormones, and as she likes being organised and getting things done, she is generally polishing her halo but also being really helpful which is nice. She’s enjoying reading some Patricia St. John books that a friend gave her, which takes me back as they were a staple of every good Christian girl’s reading list in my youth!

My work is fun as ever - I do really love it. Our new group of children is fantastic, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know them. Still miss a few of the ones who’ve gone to other classes but we see them in the playground, if we’re lucky enough to have a dry day to go out there and play!

In my spare time (not that there is much of it), I have been having an ongoing Tetris battle with a friend over the past few days - she is currently in the lead in one game but it’s got too late to fight back … that’s tomorrow night’s challenge but only after I’ve been to the library and cleaned out the guinea pigs! Also, note to self: remember to pay for school dinners online! And I must get to the garage at some point as I am majorly behind on the job I am meant to do there Steve is (rather randomly) being interviewed by some Guardian journalist or other tomorrow - I do know who it is but his name has escaped me … might update tomorrow if Steve has anything to say about it!

So it’s back to school, and back to sporadic blog posts! Had to hit the ground running when we got home from France last week, so we’ve been busy …

Since last weekend I have managed to do all the holiday washing, not only the clothes but all the sheets and sleeping bags from the caravan as well. I must admit that this was helped by coming home to empty washing baskets rather than the half-full ones I had left, that was one of the benefits of having my parents staying in our house while we were away, thank you Lorraine!

Last Saturday we didn’t manage to get much sorting out done - instead we all went out to visit Grandma, and Steve and Josiah went into town and then out looking at cars to buy for the garage. The girls and I enjoyed our friend Maria’s hen party - Anna and Abbie came to the afternoon ‘tea party’ and then I dropped them home before going out in the evening as well.

On Sunday Steve had to work as he had invoices that had to be done before the end of the month, so we dropped him (and our bikes) down to the workshop for the day. My day was spent organising - menu and food shopping, and tidying up all the debris left in the hallway from the holiday!

Monday was my last full day off before going back to work. I had thought that I’d need to do the last minute school shoe buying with the kids but then Steve offered to do that on Tuesday when a friend got in touch suggesting a day geocaching up and down the canal. That sounded infinitely preferable to me, and a nice way to end my holidays Anna arranged to go out for the day as she had a birthday party to go to, so Abbie, Josiah and I ended up doing 12 miles on our bikes, stopping for caches along the way.

Actually some of the caches were on the ‘not cyclable’ side of the canal, so we had to walk that part, pushing bikes through shoulder-height undergrowth - hard work! I was not allowed to moan and groan about all the bruises and nettle stings when I got home though, apparently ‘extreme terrain geocaching’ is an extreme sport undertaken at my own peril. Thankfully the kids had opted to stay on the proper cycle path side of the canal, they would never have made it!

Still, it was a fun day. We had drinks at pubs/cafes at both ends, and Steve helpfully picked our bikes up for us later on when he picked Anna up from Lush where she’d been for this party. Did you know Lush did birthday parties? I didn’t, and not sure what it cost per head - but it sounded fun and she came home with lots of goodies.

Tuesday was my first day back at school - no children until Thursday though. Had some time in the classroom and then some training on visual impairments which was interesting. So Steve had the kids and managed to survive Clarks shoe shop far better than I would have, emerging victorious with sensible school footwear all round. We realised that Anna had one more day off, so quickly arranged a day with Grandma for her on Wednesday. Piano lessons started after school, with a new piano teacher as our old one is having a baby soon, so we decided to make a change at the beginning of the term. Actually the teacher is not entirely new to us, she’s Anna’s cello teacher as well - all seemed to go well with lessons and best of all she forgot to bring the bill, so I have a reprieve on that!

The other two were back at school on Wednesday - now both in Key Stage 2 so that felt more grown up for Joe; waiting in the playground rather than going straight to his classroom, and lots of new things to boot. Josiah was a bit nervous about the changes, as he *really* hates not knowing what is going to happen, but he had a good day by all accounts, and now that he knows what to expect he’ll be fine. Both of them were happy to be back seeing friends and seem excited about the year ahead in their new classes.

I did some more interesting training yesterday, on the Optimusic system - we have a relatively basic system in school, on a trolley so that it can go to different rooms - just with a couple of light beams - but still plenty of possibilities. Some great programming uses for more able children as well as the easy switch operation making it accessible for children with additional needs. I liked it a lot, could see a lot of potential in it, but unfortunately I can’t see me ever really having time to use it properly so I’ll probably end up forgetting how to do it!

So today was the big day. Not only did I have children in my class, but Anna went off to high school. No big deal, she was all ready and had arranged to meet a friend half-way there to walk together.

Seems like it all went fine, she’s happy anyway, and that’s about all I’ve heard so far! Well, apparently she won a pen in English, for being the only person to remember a long list of something or other. Took her to her cello lesson afterwards and had to pay the dreaded bill - still at least there will only be one pupil concert to attend!