just another morning here

Josiah and I looked at Scratch for a while this morning. Well, everyone’s talking about it so I had to at least try it! We both liked it but by the time Joe had got to grips with it he’d lost concentration! Will look at it again later in the week I hope, I think the next step is to show him the website so that he can get some inspiration.

I went to work and wrote mileage letters while Steve pulled down our rotten porch (and half of the front wall of the house ) He was going to just replace the porch roof but now it seems that this might include bricks, and cement … aargh. I don’t really like DIY – either doing it or even being around while someone else is doing it! So it is best if I stay out of the way, although now that the mileage letters are done I’m going to have to get creative with my excuses. Joe helped Steve a bit, got paint all over his trousers, but generally had a good day I think.

When the girls came home Abbie was wasted and good for nothing; she is somehow not 100% and hasn’t been for a few days but nothing other than a few snuffles and a bruised elbow from the park the other day seem to be wrong with her. She did some nice DWN out in the conservatory ‘on her own in peace’, while the other two argued over who was going to bake what. Eventually Anna produced snickerdoodles, with help from Josiah who is more practiced at baking and operating the oven – it made me laugh anyway. She cooked dinner too – ok, it was only spaghetti and leftover casserole (mmm! ) but it was nice that she did it anyway, it’s unusual! I did suggest to her that she could cook dinner every Monday if she wanted to and she quite liked the idea but then procrastinated for a year or so by saying she’d wait until she was home educated again and I could give her cookery lessons. Oh yes, because my cooking is just so great.

Tired now. The evening has disappeared in a combination of obsessive computer games (just for a change) and then the excitement of planning a trip to see Nanci Griffith’s tour this summer

Feeling so much better here this week as I made a plan/structure for the week and both Josiah and I have been much happier as a result. It’s a loose plan but it works. I don’t know, the theory of autonomous education is fabulous and I wholeheartedly believe in it, if you are the sort of person who can operate that sort of lifestyle. I’m not, and my children don’t seem that great at it either, so some structure really does help us all to manage our time well and stay sane.

Also went to Home Ed Group in town for the first time in ages, having told Joe that whether or not he wanted to (he didn’t), *I* needed to go. Was nice to see people that I haven’t seen in ages, and of course Josiah had a great time too once he got there. Interesting to hear that there is a local GCSE exam centre that some of the teenagers have accessed recently, I’m looking forward to finding out more about it before Anna makes decisions about schools etc in the autumn.

Abbie is super-happy at the moment, as she’s just been loaned Aunty Emma’s flute. She’s planning to do Grade 1 on her recorder this term but after that she’ll be swapping to flute lessons. She’s also enjoying school; she’s part of the newly formed PEG (Pinhoe Environmental Group) at school which means she gets to do exciting things like make posters to remind people to use the right bins for paper etc. They spent a day last week going through the school bins and analysing the rubbish, sounds fascinating doesn’t it? And her teacher has apparently named her Fraction Superstar, she’s doing letter writing in literacy, and pop up construction in Art/Design/Technology/whatever it’s called these days – and just seems happy with all of it. Which is great

Joe’s been fine this week too, getting work done early in the morning and then enjoying other stuff we’ve done. Our swimming trip had to be aborted yesterday as the open air pool we’d tried to go to doesn’t open until 12th May! So instead we trawled charity shops in the town and he was thrilled to find a Super Soaker in really good nick for £1. Cheaper than swimming! I bought an LP of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for Abbie as she was moaning the other day that she only knew three of them, and a book for myself

Today Josiah’s done some Draw Write Now, which started off as an apple tree and turned into Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree with apples raining down all around, made me laugh anyway. He’s having his first official piano lesson with Laura today as I write, which he has really been looking forward to. I think he thinks he might be able to do less violin practice if he’s got piano to fit in as well, but I don’t think so

Steve’s been in Rotherham today and won’t be home for a while, so I have to do the Great Wednesday Lesson Run singlehandedly, thankfully Anna’s not here so there’s one less place to drop off and pick up.

Today Josiah took his bike round to meet Abbie from school so rode it up a stony path and then back down the grass. He was a bit anxious about it but once he realised he could do it he was fine. There was a funny moment where he kind of fell over just as some of his old classmates came out of school, but he managed not to go to pieces over it! Anyway, came home and had a snack, then he wanted to go back out and play on it; the big boy from down the close was out playing with his friends so Joe had someone to be with – big boys at that, which is always good

He also did some beautiful writing in his Draw Write Now book, and a good violin practice this morning. Apart from that we’ve just been playing, with Lego again, a bit more Sonic, some jigsaw, and that’s about it. I sliced into my thumb while chopping onions this morning so enlisted Steve’s help peeling and chopping a pumpkin, then repaid the favour by helping him out with picking up a car. Oooh we’re so nice to each other

This evening saw various ones of us doing table tennis club, swimming, and ballet. Well, that was the children, obviously – Steve and my lives are nowhere near as interesting although we have just enjoyed playing San Juan and then watching Comic Relief doing The Apprentice

Sun’s still shining here so I’m still happy – I like hanging washing on the line knowing that it will be dry in a few hours, it makes all the difference to a day And today’s been generally nice.

Joe started off with a Draw Write Now early this morning while the girls were still around. This was mainly so that he could cajole Anna into colouring the background and writing some of the sentences for him Still, the writing that he did was probably neater than hers! While this was going on the other three girls in the house (Caitlin & Riona were over here very early) were simultaneously practicing their recorders. Steve and I wondered if Rog & Ruth had done that on purpose?!!

Once the girls had gone, we sat and read the end of Monster in the Wardrobe which we’d started yesterday at the Music Festival. We quite like that Treetops series, they’re not bad stories. I think I did more reading than Josiah today though. Sometimes I insist on sharing the reading with him but other times I want him to enjoy the story without worrying about the mechanics of reading so it’s more fun to read to him. And often he’ll read something without really taking it in … I’m still generally waiting for his understanding to catch up with his de-coding abilities. He can read me a sentence out loud perfectly and then still turn to me blankly if I ask him what it said! Ahem, anyway. Moving swiftly on!

He went on to violin practice after the story, and that was very quick today. I told him if he could play his two pieces without stopping/making mistakes then that would be it, so he pulled all the stops out and did it. Fairly effortlessly as well. Which *really* makes me wonder why we have these torturously long and arduous violin practices!

After that he did some painting, from a Kipper kit that he had years ago. He got bored pretty quickly (it was colouring in by another name!) so had a bit of a play on Sonic Rings, then went and got the Lego out to play with for an hour or so while I spent some time with a Miscarriage Support Group person. Have had a couple of people through the group recently who’ve helped make it all feel worthwhile again so I’ve got a second wind with that whole thing.

Then came lunch, and we watched Friends and Heroes on CBBC. Because I’d seen it advertised and told Joe I wanted to see what it was like, he immediately said he didn’t want to watch it, he hated it, and it was rubbish (just like everything else at the moment it seems). However he then stood transfixed for half an hour while it was on so it can’t have been that bad

Another hour or so of Sonic, and I had a phone conversation with the other local Suzuki teacher who’s doing a group lesson in a couple of weeks. After the last disastrous attempt to join in with this group I’m more anxious than ever to get it right this time so I wanted to find out what she was planning so that Joe can be as prepared as possible. Apparently she’s happy to have older siblings joining in so I’m hoping to enrol Anna to help me by joining in on her cello. Anyway, more on that when it happens!

Then we played some other games together. We did some mindbender type puzzles from a puzzle calendar that we hadn’t even looked at since Christmas (got to about the end of January today!) so that was fun. Then we got the draughts out and had a looong game. It was looking touch and go at one point, I thought Joe was going to beat me but then he made a silly mistake at the end so I took him out.

The girls are home now and having piano/recorder lessons, and alternately playing chess and draughts with Joe. Then it will be tea and the mad rush out for violin, Stage by Stage (must write a cheque) and Wind Group. I’m missing my chauffeur tonight too … but at least that means I can take a short cut across town rather than sitting in traffic wondering if we’ll be late