just another morning here

I’m concerned that this blog is suddenly going to turn very Josiah-focussed, as I’m sure I will revert to posting a fair bit of waffle about what we’ve done as part of our home ed life which does mainly concern Josiah now.

So while that is kind of inevitable, I must add that apart from a small groan of “oh, do we have to go back to school tomorrow” from Anna yesterday, the girls went back to school after half term and had a great day, and I’m sure that will be the default background to my education-type-blogging! Anna’s reluctance is only because she doesn’t like having to get up early! I’m still very happy that both of the girls are doing what they want to do and enjoying themselves at school.

Steve and I managed to talk a bit about Joe and home ed while we were away last week – generally we’re just going to go with the same sort of approach we had with them all before (a few workbooks here and there to keep the basics bubbling away, and other stuff when we get inspired!), but we did both agree that we wanted to spend some time doing music related things with him as we think he’s quite good at it.

The morning here was really relaxed – the first child I saw was Abbie, who had been overjoyed to realise that the kitchen clock was still an hour ahead – she’d thought she was up too late to have time to make porridge and then realised that she could after all, so she was stupidly happy.

Anna was up too, as usual having lost one item or other of her uniform, but got on with the morning including music practice (grade 2 piano date is on the calendar for next month, aargh!) and they were both ready by 8.30am – practically unheard of.

Meanwhile, Joe came up around 8am to ask me what his ‘home work’ was? Not one to miss an opportunity (even though I’d imagined we could at least have one day of deschooling, lol!), we got through a couple of pages of the nearest maths workbook that I grabbed from the dresser, (then the girls left for school) and then he read me a picture book of his choice, and then an extended violin practice. Sooo nice to have the time to do all that without the pressure of having to go out to school.

After that we wrote a shopping list and went out to Sainsbury’s, where he was just so helpful and happy that it was lovely to watch. Seemed as though all the pressure had just lifted and I saw a glimpse of the little boy that I used to know – I seriously hope it’s going to last, as he really was lovely all day. The checkout operator said to him ‘aren’t you good, helping with all these boring jobs’ (meaning the shopping, I suppose) and he stood there and said ‘well it’s better than being at school!’. Hmm!

We bought a pumpkin for him to carve, so came home and did that together, then made pumpkin soup for lunch with the scrapings. Photo by Joe

Then he spent his afternoon extending his ICT skills by exploring the playmobil website

Meanwhile I went through the stuff in the dresser and dug out a few more workbooks that will be suitable for Josiah to use over the next few months. Carried on sorting out the van and getting through loads of loads of washing as well.

I walked up to meet the girls from school, then did snacks and drinks before heading out for swimming lessons. Had a relatively chaotic teatime with Telewest engineers in the house at the same time, Emma on the phone to Adam in Iraq as today’s his birthday, and Ruth, Caitlin & Riona popping in to borrow Halloween costumes!

But generally it was a lovely day. There were a number of times when Joe and I just *talked* about stuff, and I remembered why I love home ed so much. I suggested to him that I might teach him a bit of piano and he thought that was a great idea, so that’s a good start to the music thing – maybe tomorrow we’ll get around to starting

Must go to bed now, but I’m happy as I think I’ve just about caught up on my blogging tonight

Made pumpkin pie today That was after a very slow start for everyone (couldn’t get myself going, never mind the kids – had to wake them all up at 8am! still got Joe’s violin practice done, that amazed even me!), and doing the Sainsbury’s run. Scoured the net for recipes that matched the ingredients that I had in the cupboard, didn’t take too long to find a suitable one – I just wish I didn’t like eating it quite so much!

Currently it’s just me and Anna in the house, which is quite nice really. Steve has taken the other two to swimming lessons, don’t know where Emma & Robyn are, but we’re enjoying the peace and quiet (and pumpkin pie) while doing her homework together before her dress rehearsal this evening.

Really interesting to see the way she’s been taught to do long multiplication, breaking it all down and using a grid, then adding the grid answers together. It seems to be working for her, when she can remember her times tables at least. (lol, just checked it and there are just too many places for a dizzy blonde to make mistakes – she’s either made mistakes with the multiplication or with the subsequent adding up, I despair )

Despite nothing having changed between HE and school with her mathematical ability, she’s also just written a whole page on ‘The Most Worrying Night’ (a night in an air raid shelter) which is far and away better (and more) than she would ever have written before school. I guess part of that is an age/maturity thing anyway but another part of it is the school & Anna combination which does seem to be a Very Good one.

I spent the afternoon in school hearing readers from Josiah’s class today … despite enjoying it when I’m there, I can’t say I’ll miss it after next week.

Right, I’m off to cut out a skeleton and make some dinner.

We couldn’t have done much more PE or socialising today if we’d tried! Swimming lessons first thing went well again, Joe managed to join in straight away and I didn’t stay and watch for the whole time today. Friends who aren’t normally there were in Abbie’s and Joe’s lessons as they had catchup sessions today, which meant I got to have coffee and chat with their mum too, so that was cool. Hanging around at the swimming pool is always more bearable with company!

We chilled out here for a bit, got the Draw Write Now stuff out, had lunch, then the girls went off to gym with Caitlin and Riona. I thought I’d earn some ‘good mummy points’ so did some baking with Josiah while they were out. He opted to make Blue Cake – well, I was reaching for the vanilla essence and he spotted the food colouring in the same tray, so it had to be blue – no camera trickery here, the boy really has got a blue face …

We’re planning to decorate it with smarties later

I also made a pumpkin cake which has turned out a bit stodgy but very tasty – best served warm with custard for tea, I think!

Ruth brought the girls back again having hatched a plan for Anna to go for a cycle ride with Caitlin, which Anna was absolutely over the moon about – so the big two girls went off with Roger, after a cuppa and a chat Ruth took Riona home, leaving me with Joe, Abbie and Mollie, who’ve played beautifully with playmobil all afternoon. Joe’s room is a bit of a tip, but never mind!

Another new friend turned up unexpectedly for tea, cake and a good natter on the subjects of faith, friends, and emails (3 of my favourite topics!) … so what started off as a relatively boring day on my own (I hate Saturdays sometimes, they’re often too quiet because everyone else is off doing family things, even MuddlePuddle is quieter than usual!) has ended up being nice and filled with chats. Think I’ve eaten way too much cake already, but what the heck.

The plan for tonight, as ever on a Saturday, is TV and working my way through the laundry pile. I don’t care what anyone else thinks, I like leaving it all to pile up so that I only have to do it once a week, it’s my worst job, so I might as well do a huge pile of washing & ironing once a week rather than fold loads every day and still end up with the ironing board out on Saturdays anyway …

ooh, has it been two days again? I really am going to lose my t-shirt if I’m not careful

Friday night’s bonfire party has to be the most scary thing I’ve been to since the Tar Barrels in Ottery St. Mary! Despite a very safe distance between fireworks and viewing balcony there were a couple of near misses including one fountain that shot very close to Steve’s ear. I took Josiah inside the house when he’d had enough and we half watched the rest of the fireworks inside, until the very last one, a rocket, got stuck on it’s stick and exploded at 3ft high rather than right up in the air. It made a massive bang and I just saw a huge flash, it scared me silly because both girls were still outside at the front of the patio, and I hadn’t really seen what happened, so I went rushing out in a mad panic. They, of course, thought that the last one was the best, but honestly, I had my heart in my mouth a number of times! No-one was hurt, anyway, and I guess it added to the excitement, but also made you realise how easily disastrous accidents can happen.

Saturday was swimming for all three children, Joe’s lesson went well again, thankfully … and then gymnastics for the girls later in the day. We finally dealt with the rest of our pumpkin stash – made pumpkin soup, and cooked the rest of the pumpkin flesh which I’ve frozen for use in the next few weeks, cleaned out the hamster, and I had a friend round for the evening for tea and chatting. Steve was farting around with bags of sand and a white sheet for most of dinner time, and then forced us all to watch the X Factor on the projector, while yelling ‘mind the wires!’ at anyone who went anywhere near it. Ho hum!

This morning Anna had her first public performance on the cello. The Young Strings group that she is part of held a coffee morning so we all went along, plus Grandma & Grandpa, and Emma & Mollie from up the road. It was a nice relaxed affair with lots of cakes and the children just took turns to perform … we ended up staying till the end which was good because there were lots of cakes left over! Anna did really well, and it was nice to hear the other children playing as well. Josiah particularly sat still for ages watching – he is fixated on learning the ‘liovin’ when he is older, and he definitely enjoyed watching the older children play.

Once home we watched this week’s ‘A Different Life’, which was one of the 2-4 productions episodes. I happen to know that it was a difficult one to put together so I was quite surprised how well it turned out!! We’ve played some games together, eaten too much cake, and now the children have settled down to watch Microcosmos on DVD. They watched The Future is Wild earlier and it got them started on the bug theme, so it was a natural continuation

Ooh, just noticed that an ITV dramatisation of the Railway Children is on this afternoon, that might be nice. 3.55pm for anyone who sees this in time and might be interested. Anyway, I have a huge pile of paperwork that I really should be doing instead of blogging …