just another morning here

Joe’s second first day at school went really well.

The rest of us had a good day too, even me – felt a bit strange, but generally ok. We got all music practices done before school which was fairly impressive, probably won’t manage that every day but nice to know it can be done.

Steve came home to pick up the children from school with me and go to the dentist. We had to wait for almost an hour as he was running late, but that gave us some nice time to chat. Got home and had tea, now we’re watching yesterday’s Top Gear together before bed. Oh, and the children are trying to learn the books of the Bible in order so we’re going to practice that as well. Watching some ebay auctions through tonight, and packing them up ready for posting tomorrow, so far I’m fairly pleased as we’re making a profit on the Star Wars costumes that we bought on ebay earlier in the year. And tomorrow I have a job interview!

All three children have done nice things today; Anna had orchestra and then a friend’s birthday party, while the other two went to Crealy with Grandma and Robyn, making it a nice end to the week for all of them. Steve and I have painted a wall and snivelled our way through the day with help from Lemsip. Looking forward to a curry and Saturday night tv tonight, then a relatively quiet day (might do a second coat on the wall) tomorrow before school starts again on Monday.

A couple of weeks before half term Josiah decided that he’d like to go back to school again. Not sure what changed his mind exactly, but I have to admit that in some ways I was relieved. So he is going back to school on Monday. I’m probably feeling more anxious than he is at the moment, and slightly disappointed all over again about not home educating any more, but at the same time I’m quite pleased, as it has been such hard work for us to have a foot in both camps. So that’s our news.

Working backwards, just to be confusing.

Today Josiah and I accompanied Anna’s class to the local high school for a ‘Cool Science’ show. It was quite fun, and basically consisted of sticking various items into liquid nitrogen to demonstrate various things. Josiah enjoyed it as much as all the Y6s, and even answered a question, which astounded me somewhat, that he had the confidence to stick his hand up! He then threw a wobbly on the way home which wasn’t too helpful (he wanted to walk on the outside of the narrow pavement near the busy road, I wanted him to walk on the inside), but never mind. Photos are rubbish but give you an idea …

Yesterday we were in school again making Momos with yet another group of children – Abbie was there this time so that was nice. I was on my own, the other mum couldn’t make it, so it was more hectic than usual. Oh, and the school photographer was there so the kids kept disappearing to have photos taken – but that did mean that Josiah got to be in the girls’ group photo so an added bonus there.

And back at the weekend, a photo from the balloon launch that took place at the MA’s 25th Anniversary study day. I found it a strangely emotional and moving part of the day, surprisingly, despite not usually being touched by that sort of thing.

Joe and I spent a while on pentominoes this morning, Josiah had obviously been inspired by activities while he was away last week … we printed some out to play with but they were deemed ‘not as good as Gaffer’s wooden ones’, so then we downloaded this Polyominoes program and played on that for a while. Then came violin practice and some more Romans bits and bobs before lunch, interspersed with a few games of Scrabulous on Facebook – really enjoying that at the moment even if I am fairly rubbish at it.

After lunch we went into school for more momo-making … the third week out of five, so we’re over half way. One day I will get round to making some at home too, including the sweet version!

Abbie’s class are apparently going to see one of the free films for schools next week. This has left me wondering what the point is, really. They’ve chosen ‘Night at the Museum’, which has been out on DVD for ages and my kids have already seen it twice. They sent home a letter all excited about the free film then asked for contributions of £2.30 towards a coach. Call me Mrs Silly, but wouldn’t it have been cheaper and easier to rent the DVD and show it in the hall on the school projector? Honestly, I don’t think going to the cinema with the class is that much of an educational experience; I only ever did it as a HEor because it was free – and this time round Joe and I aren’t going to see any of them as they’re all films we’ve seen before anyway! The educational activities that follow may well be based on the film but don’t need the cinema experience as well, really – the class will just annoy the HEors there, watch out anyone local who’s going to see that film! Don’t know why I’m getting uppity as £2.30 isn’t that much and I’m sure they’ll all have lots of fun but it just seems a bit daft, all things considered.

Anyway, other stuff happened – cello lesson for Anna, while she was there we went and bought a new washing machine as on further investigation ours is well and truly broken, dinner, then I went over to do washing at a friend’s while having a church small group mtg. Now more scrabulous … and some sleep …