Um…. never decide to cut the childrens hair on an empty stomach….. i don’t think i DARE post pictures!
Archive for September, 2003
Henry Henry Henry…
Lol - in a bid to gather all the postcards, leaflets, books etc into some sort of order Pud and I pasted them into a ringbinder filled with sugar paper today and created a Henry box to keep the odds and bobs in. its nice and she is delighted - then we made lavender bags which are lovely (WILL post pics over the weekend!!!!) I think this MAY have been prompted by knowing the area has a new and slightly ill-informed LEA officer about :~/
Moo had a good day at nursery and seems quite animated about it. We also met the people who will be taking her there and she seemed okay with that and had a climb about in the car - fingers crossed… its working….
I’m in serious need of sleep - funny how knowing the Bub will “probably” wake up, keeps me up… sigh…..
Did i mention Moo has been dry at night for over a week now? Just suddenly did it - just like that- on her terms - just fabulous that girl :~)
The black bag routine is paying dividends now… we have managed to eliminate a fair bit of horded paper and she is trying really hard to put things away… now i just need someone to do this to me i think…. *looks shiftily at front room* I feel a bit mean about it but i don’t think its asking much to have paper and rubbish put in the bin is it? I really don’t mind toys out - its just not actually being able to open her door i find a bit… tiresome!
DH got a new job and an upgrade, so hopefully some of the pressure is going to start to ease now… lets hope so anyway :~)
We found the PVA - and our crafty fingers!
Hurray!
Moo went into nursery without a backward glance today - she was upset when we collected her cos her painting was very wet still and she didn’t want to leave it till ext time, but with a bit of patience we dealt with it :~) She has been tired but full of it this afternoon and has told me about a fair number of things she has done. So i feel pretty good about it - we are meeting the transport ladies later in the week and once we have that part of it resolved i think we will be okay. She is very full of the lady who is her keyworker, who seems really nice. Its quite funny though, she is really young and i am used, from playgroup to older women - i can’t quite get my head around “teacher” being younger than me! It made me sad how many kids were being led in crying - i just couldn’t do that now - but so long as i take a “whole” child in and get the same back out, i feel it might work - i was really pleased to see, when i arrived and Moo was upset about the painting, that her keyworker was down on the floor next to her being very gentle and reassuring etc. Good beginnings. It doesn’t change the fact she will be HE’ed - but i am prepared to use it as a resource for a time i feel is difficult at best and not great for Moo at all. The weight of anxiety about her being left to her own devices while i do stuff with Pud is gone - its amazing how hard it is to work with three of different ages - cos the older two want to do the same but Moo gets frustrated - whereas with Pud and Scruff (Bubbas new name) - Scruff just plays next to us while i can concentrate on giving Pud a good experience.
I guess when Moo emerges from “reception” level at this place, if she stays two years, Scruff will be going in and I’l get good quality time with 2 … whats the word…..”workwithable!!!!… kids while she gets something special. I love having my children at home - i feel immensely good about the decision, but there is no doubt its hard and good resources, in terms of places people are happy to spend time, are worth theri weight in gold. Pud have such a positive experience at her playgroup, she was there 3 years - she has good, schooled friends from there, a good sense of what is “done” in those environments and an understanding of adult leaders etc - its not the only way, but for me its been a happy medium that leaves me confident she can now continue throguh brownies, tumbletots, cadets or whatever with a feeling of confidence about it.
We have had such a lot of success with our no tv thing - pats sarah and jenny very hard for inadvertently pushing me back into this. in fact, i needed 30mins this morning and offered telly and got turned down. They have been playing really nicely, used the garden lots, drawn, read, made things, used their toys far more. A major success.
Today we all sat down with a big load of laces and pony beads and Pud made her first ever bead weave with it - she did really really well - it was good and she stuck at it for ages too. I was also doing one, Moo made a necklace really carefully and was very proud of it and Scruff sat transfering beads about for ages - we had a nice time. In fact - i shall take photos later.
This afternoon Pud and i made a pomander very like this one Pomander and while we were at it we had a long talk about using flowers and herbs for medicine, medieval toilets (or lack of them), the fact that daddy does very smelly… er… i mean… germs, sewers and alsorts more. Must look up some stuff about herbal medicine to talk about. Then, because we are encasing our pomander in muslin, we had this extrordinary twist where she wanted to know EVERYTHING that we would need to make a shirt… and she came up with really good stuff, including a machine to make the material, thread, pins, paper to draw it on and a person to work in the shop to sell it. I thought that was impressive thinking! We also picked lavender that we grew to make lavender bags on thursday and picked some more to leave to dry properly.
Oh yes - yesterday we tried out the buttons and beads glued to things idea and decorated several opitec boxes - everyone did one and it was good sticky fun - we had intended to varnish them… but erm.. mummy couldn’t get the anti-solvent sniffer lid off (i daresay anyone who wanted to sniff it could have though!) so we will have to do that later - we are going to paint them gold as well. i shall have to do piccies of those too.
Einstein is still a big deal - we tend to do it in the early evening - gives us some nice quiet time - she is doing well at it and i am quite chuffed with myself because the ways i am giving her as mechanisms for doing certain sums seem to be working for her - considering my anxieties about maths i feel really pleased its actually a past time i enjoy doing with her.
Thought for the day - i will NOT scream at my daughter about her room, becasue being screamed at did not make me tidy… i WILL continue to employ the “you have half an hour to find a home for everything in that black bag” routine… even if it kills me!
After a weekend where yet again my lovely hubby has had to nurse me through a bout of hideously infected tonsils, i happened to find this on a website. We had it read at our wedding - and i love it, as i love him :~) A few weeks later i coached him to read it at his brothers wedding; and the person who read it for us, my friend Anne, is getting married with her god-daughter (my Pud) as flower girl, next month so its even more special right now.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
Oh no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken,
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me prov’d,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.
Sonnet CXVI
William Shakespeare
Playing School!!!!
Oh… so funny….. kids.. you gotta love em! Today was Moo’s first day at nursery where it was a full session - we were entitled to stay but she clearly didn’t need me so we went. Pud was quite impressed with it all really too I think. Anyway - when we got home she announced we were going to play schools - so I told her to set it up and I would play. She set up various toys all with paper and pen and a book on Henry, Elizabeth or tudor times… bless.
So first of all she (guess who was teacher!) asked us all to write down “CAT” - so I went “ummmm…. how do I spell that out teacher…?” and promptly got taught how to sound it out! So I wrote it out and she whipped my paper and used it to copy the word on to all the other “pupils” papers - writing practice!!!!! (LOL!) I can’t tell you how weird it was when she went round with a red pen and marked it all - she has never had anything marked in her life!
Then she got out the abacus and taught us all how to do 1x and 2x…. just a bit intrigued, cos its gone no higher than that yet, I asked her how I would do 3×3 and quick as a flash she produced 3 rows of 3 on the abacus and told me 9 - then did 4×4 as well - I have managed to produce a daughter who has a concept of number processes!!!!! I’m so proud! Then we were allowed to do a bit of reading and play in the garden - bless bless bless!
After this I asked her if she was playing school cos she really wanted to go to one - she gave me a withering look and said “no mum, it was just PRETEND!!!!!! I only do schools if I am the teacher!”
*Snigger*
Ouf! (as it used to say in my french text book!) We have had a nice chilled out couple of days…. yesterday my friend Bev came down for the day yesterday and we had a nice time - she has an egyptology MA and the girls, bizarrely, had their little model pyramid out when she arrived, so they got an impromptu lesson on the gods and burial in ancient egypt! She even did us a hama pattern to do! We all went out to play and had a good time - Bubba (actually i think i am going to rename her now as she is getting big) really enjoyed herself - she has a major car and train fetish so loved the brio table there. Then we all went to Toys R Us - bev and i know each other via the *shudders with unashamed glee* my little pony world - we are avid collectors of the 1980s variety… well of course they have just brought out a 2003 range so we umm…bought some for the children…. *chokes* Actually i have had to sell an awful lot of my collection to fund my business venture.. sigh… still….
Today we have had a really nice quiet day doing spanish, wizard of oz songs (grin - jolly old fun!!!!) a hama robin and then a visit from my cousin and her little boy - who is really starting to play now. Pud is spending a lot of time listening to Roald Dahl stories on cd and is asking if they come in books - she loves charlie and the chocolate factory and happily listens to it right the way throguh while she plays. She really enjoys her peace at night - i hear her do a lot of very creative play and getting all those angelina costumes on and off has improved her dexterity no end!
My dad asked me yesterday if she misses being in a group like playgroup - its really good to be able to honestly say no. For the last three years she has gone, at varying times, for anything up to 2 1/2 days a week to our favourite one, but last term she had started to get bored. I often ask her how she feels about not being in school, but she really doesn’t want to go - she likes her life. I would hate to give her a false impression; she has been in a school, i have told her about school days and i have offered her school but she seems adamant that its not for her. We have such freedom to just do and be - its one thing i am going to miss now Moo is going to a more regimented form of nursery than playgroup was. But i think the time it will give us will have other benefits so i am happy to work at it. A friend reminded me yesterday that i used to be worried that her lip would cause her trouble - its amazing how little i think of that as being an issue now - if only i could have known on that day she was born that it would all be fine - god what terrible days those were - i was 24 - i was SO young to be dealing with it :~(
Anyway - our never ending list of unmissable resources has expanded yet again - giggle (oh that poor credit card!) - I got from Amazon a collection of Dora the Explorer books - i had been warned by an mp’er that most haven’t much spanish in them but got the book of opposites and the book of counting that have everything in it in english and spanish (AND pronunciation!) Also got Doras book of words - its great - each page has labels by the pictures and there is a tab you can pull that changes them from english to spanish! And of course its all words from the series so a lot of the sounds are familiar - and now they can look at the word as well as hear and say it - excellent i say! Of course… i SHOULD have waited till my amazon voucher came through… but you know… seize the day i say!
Yesterday was a bit of a dark day really - i spent all night worrying about Moo and whether i could possibly be doing the right thing :~( Still today came and we had fun in the morning, listening to “The Enormous Crocodile” - we had a tray of pony beads and threaded them on to sparkly pipecleaners - Moo made a lovely one all in various shades of pink. Then a friend came and i got Moo ready for “the visit”. She threw a wobbly, very upset and i had to really fight for the right to take her out. We had a little talk in the car and when we got out we promised not to let go hands unless she felt happy.
We went in and she let go at once - we walked into the room and she headed straight for a number caterpiler jigsaw and had a really good go with it. Loved it - very tactile with a nice wiggle to it :~) Then she asked to try painting and then settled at the playdough table where she stayed for the hour. All the staff came over to chat and she made eye contact with most and talked to one or two okay - we had one little altercation with another child who tried to use the cooker too (sigh) but other than that she coped okay. She didn’t want to leave.
I feel better for lots of reasons - one was the HUGE interest the staff took in HE, another was they run toddler mornings and i think we will go as it will be good for bubba and nice for moo to see us as all participating in her place and i also think they might be toddler groups more suited to Pud - they said it was fine to go along and they will have resources on site closer to her age group - it could potentially become a useful resource centre.
Other than that, we had friends to play (ticks socialise box!) and watched the wizard of oz! oh - and did einstein - Pud now does 1 and 2 times tables without an abacus or blocks.
