Sing Ho!!!!!!!!
… for the life of a bear…. sing ho!!!!!!!!! for the expedition!!!!!!!!!
Archive for January, 2004
Heigh ho….
A year ago it would have truly delighted me to see Fran sit down and do a bundle of workbooks but now i find it really odd. She worked through most of a bundle of previously untouched ones today (yep Jax THOSE ones!) and while its obviously perfectly okay, good writing practise, blah blah, i found it slightly dispiriting to watch. Still nothing wrong with it. She said “Is this what you do at school mum?” and in trepidation i said “yes, a fair bit of it!” but she thought that sounded fairly boring. Odd really that she would then do a load more!
After that she played in the bath for ages, then she and i made a puppet dog together, then she did a load of Reader Rabbit and we finished the Killer Whale book
Moo was very unhappy at nursery today, not sure why :~( I feel bad for having made her go now.
Scruff still being a monkey - i apologise in advance for her behaviour at camp - feel free to let your children clonk her back!!!
Starting to get there with the list- only 12 things left on it now - unfortunately one of those is tax return and the other is pack - gulp. Still , the kids have home made colouring books, activity sheets and so on done - might laminate some mazes maybe.
Booked my hotel in Durham today - that IS organised!!!!
Kids are so weird!
My lot never last long in the snow- to be fair none of them are that well but they only made 15 minutes tops. Still they liked it and Scruff was most impressed by it - it was her first snow! The other two snowfought for the first time - i have a little camera clip of that but i don’t know how to upload it - still - prolly only interesting for mummies anyway!
Most of the morning passed in a blur of trying to get a plumber round and chatting to an occupational therapist. She was most excellent actually and is lending us a birth ball type thing and a rebounder on a long term loan for Moo - i like THAT kind of input! Moo’s is often much happier for a bit of a roll or bounce so it might help with more difficult days. Although has to be said that she is loads happier since CP. She’s also got a very cute haircut - like Julia Roberts in Hook.
Anyway, she went out, Scruff zonked (having only been cornered once today for violent offences) and Fran and i curled up in hat coats and gloves to play. (It was blooming freezing!) She did a sticker book of Barbies from round the world and we decided to do a couple of flag/atlas sticker books tomorrow, then did another Peter Rabbit one while i made colouring books for the weekend journey. We watched a Peter Rabbit video as she really wasn’t feeling up to much and had coughed all night and then she found a couple of Schofield and Sims workbooks and started a load of writing practice. (Odd really - she did lots of pen control ones but shied away from the letter and numbers.) Still she seemed to have fun. Finished off with a bit more of the killer whale book. When we got back she and Moo took it in turns to play Reader Rabbit thinking games. I love watching Moo play the cookie part - she is so methodical! Centre first, move along the rows, right every time - bless her.
I feel a bit weary of everyone being ill - it dampens the enjoyment. Still - more hols soon!
Oh bother
This will amaze you. (Or maybe not actually!) We have one and a half inches of snow and my letting agency has shut “due to the weather conditions”.
Un-bloody-believable.
So i have no heating, its snowy and i can get hold of anyone.
AND…AND… i had to have a hard drive removed last night as it was draining power from my writer and A drive and he’s taken it away to fix it and it has dreamweaver on it so i can’t upload the cute pics of the girls in the snow.
Hurumphf!
The January Review ;~)
Well - i would say that January has gone pretty well really, in fact i would say that everything has gone well since we became “official” as it were. The rhythm of the week seems to work okay, Moo seems to be enjoying nursery, flourishing in fact. Today she took her scrapbook in to show her keyworker (”She kills me that kid, really she does” quote unquote) and was s happy as larry when i picked her up. Not that you can have the faintest idea what goes on in her head really. When we got into the car at Centerparcs to come home she looked up and me and said in this really clipped, prim little voice “I don’t like holiday, i don’t like little holiday house and i don’t like to go swimming”. Nutter. I wouldn’t mind but she clearly DID like all those things :~D
Scruff has been somewhat less hideous today although i have a feeling i am in for a rough night with her. I don’t think she much likes being unpopular with the masses and she has been with all this hitting and hair pulling. She made me laugh yesterday when i was doing a in-a-hurry-so will-attempt-to-jam-babies-shoe-on-quickly-not do-it-in-less-time-by actually-undoing-the-laces frenzie - she gave me this disapproving look and said “Shoe Stuck Mummy”
I’ve just looked out the window and about 2 inches of snow has fallen. This is not particularly good as we have had to switch the boiler off - it sounds like it has an angry wasp in it. I’d prefer it not to blow up as i sleep right over it.
Today Fran spent a fair bit of time on Joe the Dragon multicount - thanks for that Alison. She really enjoyed the patterns the numbers made and got very absorbed. Apart from that we read The Whale and the Snail and the first half of her Killer Whale book and then did some more sand pictures in jars. We made a couple of large ones with shell beads in them which sort of worked. This evening i read some pooh bear and alice to Fran and Moo. Frans got an awful cough, poor little lady. She is dreadful at being ill, really milks it. Operations, no problem - snot? omg its pneumonia! Of course, i am not a very good role model, but i really was very sick!!!! rofl!!!
She is getting terribly cross cos she can’t read but doesn’t want to learn - its starting to be a pain as its becoming a source of “argh”- i think she wants me to put her “reading cd-rom ” into her brain or something! lol!
I’ve been purchasing merrily because i had a good xmas at BM and need to start stashing cash ofr having to pay tax after this - so far we have a elc order (smallish but “essential”) a BakerRoss order (smallest EVER!) a GummyLump order (cylinder blocks!) a science museum order (gooze) and tomorrow its going to be amazon.com courtesy of a nice american and s-cubed!!! (SHOCKING all round!) Still - i consider myself to have done ever so well as i haven’t ordered enough on any of them to qualify for free postage! lol!
Round the Universe and through time
*Gives self mental shake*
So, after a morning of tidying, snoozing, playing and doing the “Writing and Calculating” cd rom, Fran and i sat down to read one of her library books so we can take them back before Scotland. We looked at the Usborne Sun Moon and Stars one and read it all - very interesting. Excellent book actually. Various bits of chat came out of it - space, sunspots, Venus and Mars being visible (and the fact that i saw Mars on its closest night from the middle of Dartmoor which was fabulous), eclipses and so on. Also climates, gas and seasons. The picture of an Arizona crater reminded us of walknig with dinosaurs and the end of that series, so we watched a couple of episodes of that, talked more about poison gases and heavier/lighter in things we can’t see easily like gas and liquids, touched on volcanoes, mammals, reptiles, parenting in animals, extinction etc. After that we looked at some of the Mars landing pictures.
Then we finished off with revisiting the 2=2 20+20 thing with number cards and a base 10 set - went quite well actually. She got as far as building number into their 100’s with the base 10 set and seeing the bars, flats etc corresponded to different “sizes” of numbers.
Moo did a gorgeous weather sticking today - lovely i was!
Sneezing Merrily
There, you didn’t think of that one did you?????? Everyone has colds - except me actually - so i imagine i will by the time we get to Melrose. Still - I’ve gone a month without anti-biotics now- thats a record i think!
So - today… well not a lot really. Girls have FOUGHT all day (nice) including Fran eventually getting sent to her room for physical violence. WHAT is going on??????? I suppose its the colds, but URGH….. Other than that they all played lots of imaginative games and stuff.
Fran and i went into town, discussed art and artists and i tried to get her to grasp the if 2+2 is 4 then 20+20 is 40 notion - but she didn’t get it. Bless! She did ask me “whats 2 + D equal then?” and was a bit put out when i gave a reasonable answer. Not much chance of me explaining brackets to her though as the darn things never made any sense to me either. lol! She and Moo spent ages on a Nemo sticker book together which was sweet and they have finally progressed to playing games without an adult, like dominos, matching flowerpots etc etc Moo was HUGELY chuffed to do a jigsaw all by herself today.
She was also really pleased with her scrap book and filled it completely. Am pondering on a way of getting her to enjoy learning her letters - am slightly disconcerted by her knowing numbers, words but not letters - and she is 4 in a week - Fran knew her letters before she was 3. I suppose i shall have to ponder harder. Tonight she brought Alice in Wonderland to me so she and i have started it as her bed time book - she wanted the whole thing in one night! (:~O) She is starting to sleep better and has settled more easily the last couple of nights. She needs her own room or at least space now and can’t really have it till we move - she goes to bed in our room and we move her normally although she was so unhappy recently that she and i have shared. Anyway, we have set up a little box of bed-playing toys for her in our room so she has a few special things. Got her a couple of birthday pressies today - an adorable fairy dress and some disney stickers with an album - i love the Woolworths sale!
Ate more pasta today.. .more jars for sand art… i know you were all impressed…. ;~)
Frans been doing her “world” jigsaw a good bit - hoping to divert her to Romans over the next few days! (I’m a bit done on dolphins and Tudors!)
Scruff still being a prize ratbag… *shakes head*
The Vacuums of Doom….
So - after lapsing into a state of trance like meditation i was able to track the missing leap pad cartridges to under the sofa… i was less prepared for finding a bag full of single socks hidden in Fran’s room - practically one of every type we have!?!? What was weirder was when i asked her about it she chuckled and looked sheepish…
Is there something i missed??????
Couple more photos
Just tidying up and have a list as long as my arm of stuff to do, so i procrastinated a bit and made Fran a frame out of foam with a picture of killer whales in it that i found somewhere on the net. She had some dolphin stickers and decorated it. She was moved almost to tears by me doing this for her, which was slightly bizarre. Must REALLY like Killer whales!!!!
Also made up a sugar paper scrap book for Moo so i could keep bits she does in it for her - i worry she doesn’t get enough fuss made of what she does. Anyway, here are the elc spiral painting slodges she did last weekend :~)
Now i can get back to making colouring books and folders of mazes for next weeks expedition!
This weeks bargain basement craft activity!!!!
Last week someone from our HE group bought in and divided up large bags of cxoloured sand so anyone who wanted it could have about 2lbs of 7 different colours of sand for £6! Bargain! (Obviously we partook… rude not to!) So today Fran and i did little Sand Art things in small pasta sauce jars from Sainsburys - it was fab and we are going to have to eat a lot more pasta to get more jars! ROFL!
All but the top right were Frans, I did the other.
Not to be left out Moo then did an elc sand art kit she got from my sister for Xmas - i had to help a lot as it was fairly fiddly but she really enjoyed them.
Other things today were… hmmm… Moo started Grade lessons at ice skating and did very well - really coped fine. She and Max baked a very scrummy carrot cake after shopping for the ingredients. Fran played DK’s Amazing Animals for a while which is really nice - she earned several stickers and looked at some videos of different animals. Mainly its been “me time” for everyone today to recover from an intensive week of togetherness! lol!
The only thing getting me down is that Scruff is being horrid. Granted she has a cold but she is steadily becoming more of a bully; really hurts us and the girls, pinching, slapping, thumping etc. And she just laughs as she does it - she’s a right little vixen :~(
