Home Educating the Puddle Girls…

Its really quite extraordinary the things you talk about with 5 year olds… today there was a domestic violence eebate on radio 2 and as we were driving along i suddenly realized Pud was listening - and as i did she said “what are they talknig about mummy?” So i explained about violence in the home and how not everyone was as lucky as we were to live in a house where everyone was kind. “But why are they talkngi about the police not being good?” So we discussed the difficulties of having nowhere to run to and how hard it would be to tell the police if you then had to go home to that person.

I asked her if she could think where we would go if we didn’t want to be with daddy anymore… “Granny and Grampty” she replied promptly - and i said yes.. but what if they were not alive, or had a small house or not enough money to help us, because i only had daddys money… “hmmmm… uncle joe?” - but then she clocked that he was daddys brother and we talked about loyalty… my sister came up and she remarked there would not be enough space.. and we realized that even “we” don’t have many options and we have a fairly well off, large, extended family. It was quite an eyeopener - and i was struck by how well she handled the whole concept really. We don’t shield them, i try to answer questions honestly but without giving more than was aksed for - it seems to be a policy that works pretty well really.

In other news.. we are mid a great debate on Moo’s future as she haas been offered a place at a really lovely nursery school that is good with autism… its a toughie….

And Bubba, Impetigo aside - is walking LOADS!!! And being extremely bossy to boot!

Henry VIII continues to rule our lives here - this weekend Pud and I went to town and visited the grave of Katherine of Aragon - there was a really good display next to the grave and she was ever so interested and recognised lots of the pictures - she got some very funny looks from old ladys - and we made an old man laugh on the way out with a very frank discussion on coffin sizes! lol! Then we went into Waterstones and got three excellent books - must find them to put up the titles - she is currently carrying them EVERYWHERE!!!!

This morning Moo is at playgroup so she has played on the fractions section of Eduss maths and done some Reader Rabbit - now she is writing out invitations to a fictional party - seems like writing practise to me so i am happy to let that be!!!!

Hmmmmm… whats new…? Well - its kind of been a “finally getting back to normal” week really. We’ve done most of our activities out of the house, which was nice and started to get back into the habit of seeing friendsd again - we have been woefully anti-social recently. Pud, having decided she no longer wants to go to playgroup, was at home monday and tuesday with me and Bubba, while Moo went off and had a thoroughly nice time at playgroup; althoguh she always gave the impression of enjoying having Pus there, she seems to have talked more without her - so i think that good.

It gave Pud the opportunity to do different stuff as well… uninterupted computer time, chill out time without squabbles etc etc - it was weird - the dynamic is very different without the middle one because a 5 yog and a 1 yog just don’t collide in the same way. i had planned on really “using” the time - but a few other issues meant i was pre-occupied and she was also in need of some wind down time i think. So we chilled and loved it! However, on tuesday we went for (a futile) walk to the local bank and chatted about all the gardens we saw - it was really interesting to see that in a street of 1930’s houses, the gardens all have much the same plants - we talked about the fact that the seeds had probably blown from garden to garden or been dropped in bird poo! On the way back we looked at the house numbers, sussed odd and even and she flawlessly counted from the 50’s to the 100’s - i was impressed! She is so into Henry VIII - see MuddlePuddle for what we have been up to.

Moo seems to have relaxed a bit now and is pretty happy - loves Zoombinis, loves Reader Rabbit, is picking out words all over the place and has an attachment to Elvis songs! (i think this may be a Lilo and Stitch thing!)

Bubba is doing a fair bit of walking now - its really really weird….

I’ve been updating the website a lot (MuddlePuddle) as well and have been making cushion covers for my cousins VW camper van which i am really enjoying… then there is the garden, the rabbits, my mums birthday pressie, getting unpacked… sigh….

Well - first Pud had an almightly nose bleed while waiting 1 1/2 hours for a 30 second ear appt at the hosp ( and we were a 9.30 appt - honestly… p*ss up in brewery…), then Bubba fell out of a door, today iwas carrying her and put my foot on a toy, fell full length and dropped her. Well, it was drop or be squashed really… Still Moo is sensibly wearing shoes at ALL times to protect her foot. How Moo…

A chapter of accidents. :~)

On the upside, along with all the gardening and a cunning bit of car bootery by the Pud today, the three girls all played upstairs together for 2 hours today - amazing and lovely.

Zoombinis is proving very popular as is most of the DK software. Moo has been doing the Reader Rabbit Reading for 4-6 year olds game and today brought me a Harry Potter book and pointed to the word “I”. In true Moo fashion though she then pointed to her eye, just one of these differences in her levels of ability i guess - but it was still cool.

However, the big news of the day was Bubba WALKED. Got up in the middle of the room and took three steps - HURRAH!!!!!!!!!!

Sigh… you just get somone sorted and another one does something daft… Yesterday Moo jumped off a chair (butt naked as usual!) and landed on a sellotape dispenser, cunning placed on the floor… don’t ask me why… And of course, she landed on the serated edge and sliced the pad off two of her toes :~( Now, i can do blood, but flappy bits of skin… no. And there was a LOT of blood - it took ages to get it to stop and she was desperately shocked - she went all grey and shook dreadfully. We ended up in casualty having it steri-stripped back together - there was no way that they could stitch it without sedating her so fingers crossed they hold. Must say Pud was a star; got me a cold wet flannel, a first aid kit, warm coat for Moo - really came into her own - which considering the general lack of common sense we’ve had from her recently was impressive!!!

In other news… well, we now have a new rabbit to be a mate for Peter - Button, a broken fawn mini lop - very very cute. They seem to like each other and the kids are thrilled. Daddy has converted an old wardrobe into a double layer hutch - quite incredible - and a damn sight cheaper!

As for HE - well - we hve taken delivery of a few new computer games - Zoombinis for one - which Pud loves to play. Moo is doing her normal “sit and watch” routine, and will presumably just play it straight to the end in a week or two! We have also started on Eduss maths which is a non game based maths tutorial - and very good too.

The bad king continues to be a big hit - waxworks of him and his wives showed up on Tikkabilla yesterday to Puds great excitement - i must try to find out where it was. She is fascinated that we can find out so much about him and we have had really interesting dscussions on why he is buried at Windsor Castle and why its his sons and mothers of sons who are buried with him. I shall have to do a little unit study on him i think - its one of her first real natural obssessions. She is also back into Hama beads and made a beautiful star the other day and yesterday a heart to make Moo feel better.. aaah.

Not so good is that the LEA appear to have caught up with us. They asked for playgroup to profile Pud, we have refused and playgroup is petering out anyway… but i daresay i will get a call pretty soon. So i am working on an Ed Phil - hey ho.