Home Educating the Puddle Girls…

Nothing much

I feel duty bound to report that NOT A LOT went on here today! Moo presented me with a lovely Hama beaded heart in glittery green, blue and purple and Pud played on the cbeebies website for ages, but other than that it was just chat, dancing, singing (Pud keeps sings “Who cares what you’re wearing….!!!”at the top of her voice but its the only line she knows!).

We did “library” and i sorted out the whole playroom, chucked a load of books, toys etc while finding a few bits that might be use in the sealife project, did the world jigsaw and um… well.. not a lot.

Still we all have those days - a midweek weekend!

A bit of catching up

Thought i would add a few photos to brighten things up - think the last lot have just about disappeared now!

First of all we went to Sealife at Hunstanton - not helped by the thumbprint on the lense, here are a few from there.

Aw… i just love seals… ithink Moo could have been one in a past life - she has the eyes! (although she is NOT keen on fish!) This place is a sanctuary - they had 6 babies waiting to be rereleased and 2 old stagers who live there - one is blind from mistreatment by a dealer in seals :~( and the other is a bit short on brains and doesn’t try to eat!

The fabulously patterned Rays - i really love these - i like how the poke their noses out of water!

Scruff really loved the penquins and went to get Moo to show her…

and frankly, who could resist????

The Raymond Girls, out in force!!!!!

Here is a bit of Puds writing - she was REALLY chuffed with this - and so am i - i have had to try really hard to relax about writing!

You can probably guess the recent favourite film… all together… “Tooooooooooooo….morrow….!!!!!”

Today Pud and i did a School Express unit on the Ocean. I have subbed to this site as i don’t feel very confident on the sealife thing and it has several good units on things of that type. I have no desire to follow the units religiously, but they are good jumping off points, for me as much as anything. We got talking, among other things about the sea bed and continental shelves and it prompted this, a quick plasticine build of a landscape which we gradually filled with water to see mountains turn into islands (And yes, the most impressive thing about it was that i could find the plastincine!!!!!) She was really intrigued and did it over and over again.

It has inspired me to make the Montessori landforms with her.

We went into town this afternoon, got a great world jigsaw with my Boots points and some BBC magazines to have a play at. Moo was shattered; she did walk into the house from the car but by the time i got in from locking up, this was how she looked!!!!

Must have been all that work on triangles yesterday…

Grin…

The ultimate insult…

Its not often my big two fight but i have just heard them having a right set too over something or other, with a variety of insults being hurled.

But what was the one that won the argument and reduced Moo to tears???

“YOUR FAVOURITE COLOUR IS RED!!!!!!!!!

*bewildered!*

A-mazing

It does amuse me when you go to a relative amount of effort to get organised for an activity and then suddenly they go off at a complete tangent - in this case i finally got my whaley-butt in gear only to find Pud got enthralled by mazes generated by a v clever little program a grandad of some friends wrote. She did mazes for 2 1/2 hours!!!!!!! However she also wrote “Annie” on the magnetic writing board and a load of other words she asked me to write out to copy too. I watched her practise her “E” and “S”s for AGES!!!!! Gosh its hard, but you can sit back and it DOES all come together.

Moo got herself out playdough today and sat at it for ages in preference to telly- a major achievement and leap forward really - she is coming on loads.

Scruff is currently being a monster- really demanding and angry - if she wasn’t my 3rd she would be REALLY stressing me out! lol! I’ve always blamed this stage on me being pregnant, but no, its JUST A STAGE!!!!!!!

Day out

We normally have really quiet lazy weekends so for a change we met some friends over at Burghley House for an Autumnal walk. It was really lovely - the kids played fantastically (these are schooled kids although i think mummy “might” one day consider HE) and it was nice to see things going well for Pud. They ran about, climbed over sculptures, rolled in leaves, investigated the ice house, played with Poi, hid, yelled - it was great.

On the way over Pud managed to ask me about… the moon, the moons surface, the moons atmosphere, space travel, alien life forms, time, solar systems, why dinosaurs became extinct, evolution…. i was exhausted!!!!

Sealife

We thought we would have a day out today to take everyones minds off the Rainbow thing and seing as Pud was into sealife, would go for a related day out. So we did and it was great, moreorless. Okay, i got a bit stressed the kids were more interested in the free plastic dolphins they were given than the sealife, and i got fed up with them charging around, but over all it was a good day. We listened to talks on seals and penguins (its a sealife sanctuary) and watched both get fed and we stroked a starfish and poked an anemone (is that spelt right?) We were highly amused by the hugely publicised “Finding Nemo” display which turned out ot be a 2 foot tank with Nemos friends and yes.. you guessed it, no Nemo! But the seals and stuff were really fab, the sharks were scary and the rays really beautiful. Scruff sat by the see-thru side of their tank and just STARED for ages.

It was slightly one of those “should have been great but slightly missed opportunity” days, but probably more for me than them - they loved to look but i didn’t get a chance to read anything about anything and felt a bit frustrated.

But hey.

I’ve taken pics so will add them tomorrow or something.

Skating was,… amusing. Moo managed to be in the way of one kid, who in fairness was going way too fast and not looking but did chuck himself sidewards to avoid her, and he had to go to casualty for the resulting bump on the head he got. She was having her lesson so i really don’t think it was her fault but it was.. unfortunate. Then later the girl nannying her, who was not her normal one and doesn’t really know her said “go to mummy now” and of course moo just locked on to me in the crowd and legged it and brought down about 15 people as well as canoning head first into the side of the rink! *rolls eyes*!!!!!!! Pud managed 16 “push togethers” and started chassis… chasses… um… don’t know… some skate/lift foot type thing anyway…

Nuclear Rainbow Fall out

Hm…. well…. after last night i wasn’t really quite sure what to expect. Pud exhibited some major shows of stress through the night and was quite weepy at various points through the day. Still, we went out to skating and she made it all the way throguh her programme and finished on the right note, facing the right way and upright!

Then we went to play with some friends and had a lovely walk out.

By the time we were home it was pouring with rain so we snuggled up for some stories, played on the cbeebies website and genrally chilled out together.

This evening i have spoken to the Rainbow leader and agreed an action plan of me talking to the girls to explain it and doing a brief info letter home to their parents so they have answers to any questions. Lets hope it works.

Know your sister…

Oh yeah - i forgot… Scruff was in a strop today and pointing wildly for things but i couldn’t tell what. Eventually i gave her a pink curly straw that is absolutely Moo’s - no one else can have it at all.
She looked horrified and said “Oh no… it moo’s!!!!”

Her first sentence!!!!!!!!

Pud also did a couple of drawings of whales etc- including a slightly gruesome one of a shark with a large bleeding human arm inside it. I told her about the shark attack the other week on a young girl and she has been well, not worried, but curious and very concerned about the girl… clearly it needed to come out in a drawing!

Can’t sleep… can you tell… :~/

Horrible Happenings

Well, aside from the disgusting tonsils i have, 2 other horrible things have happened today. First, my dh’s bosses have gone back on their agreement to upgrade him, so we don’t get more money so we an’t afford to move to a better rented house and secondly Pud got laughed at by the Rainbow girls for her speech problems.

In a way i am really proud of her but i am absolutely gutted too. She has been through 3 years of playgroup and ice skating, had countless groups of friends and never had this. Its not like she has been hidden away, we see LOTS of people every week and she is happy and sociable and secure. And if people ask about her gap, she tells them - and she expects them to be sensible and listen.

So what does she get today? A bunch of sniggering girlies following the pack and laughing at her speech - all because a couple of her sounds are still affected by the hole that is left. And she tried to do her normal explanation of it, and they laughed more until she gave up. BLOODY KIDS. I think she is more baffled than upset but i am fuming; at the kids, the leader, the lot.

I tell you what, not that it ever has wavered, but if my resolve to ever HE ever does waver, i shall remember this and what could be happening day in day out in the corner of a playground.

NEVER. NEVER EVER.

It seems to me that my girl is quite mature enough to handle her difference and get on with it - but i don’t see that kids shut up in a school all day are mature enough to handle it. We have SO MANY HE’d friends and they have never teased, never laughed, they ask, they enquire - they treat it as part of life. We had a completely reasonable example of it a while back and they ALL, Pud included, laughed about her saying Cokky instead of Poppy - she knew it was funny - she was happy - but it wasn’t a snigger at her - they all shared a joke. AND she KNEW that is not what was happening today.

*SCREAMS INTO PILLOW*

Whale thing slowly coming together… once i feel better i think we will get quite into it.