Funny how the blogring has developed its own in-jokes. Oh, and before i forget, apologies to everyone at the end of the ring i am not quite getting to at the moment and the emails i am forgetting to reply to and thank you for all stopping by so often and commenting and keeping me going over the last 6 weeks or so. I really appreciate it. And lastly, most of the people with blogger comments, i can’t comment on, so sorry for that as well. I get brief moments to read and it doesn’t allow for the 10 minutes it takes Blogger to decide to let me in :~(

An apology in advance for my writing style this evening – i was listening to Bad Housekeeping on the radio this evening and fear i may have imbibed a certain amount of literary style…

Anyway. Today was just one of those days… not one of THOSE days (was tempted to link the word in caps to Jax’s yesterday blog for comic effect but not sure if she has regained her sense of humour enough for me to do so *;~) at Jax*)

Don’t quite know how it all worked so well but it did. Actually, it was partly due to Josie sleeping till 2.30pm i suppose. But that did follow a feeding fest from about 2pm yesterday, all through a very fraught parcelling session, all evening and all night. Max had ended up taking my parcels for me and unfortunately saw someone being knocked over at the same time, which shook him up a bit. So no one was in a great mood but he and i pulled it round by sitting and chatting for the evening instead and ended up feeling better for it.

So, back to today. Took Maddy out to nursery, came back and set Ammi and Fran down to computer games. No idea why but our “World Explorer” is crashing if you go south, which is most upsetting, so she moved on to Jump Ahead Year Two for a bit. Ammi was also playing barbies, dollies and various other things plus sitting very endearingly at the bookshelves reading her favourite stories.

While they were occupied i… sorted and put on 3 loads of washing/drying, tidied the kitchen, loaded and unloaded the dishwasher, bleached the sink, cleaned the loo and tidied my bead cupboard. So i felt terribly pleased with myself. And when i emerged from the kitchen, Fran had moved herself from the computer and was sat at the table doing her writing practise. In fact, she did loads today; started the 3rd JP book, did some of her own writing, did several pages of sums (number bonds up to 20, addition up to the hundred which she wrote out in “block” form herself and got right and some other bits.) One page had drawings of base ten stuff, which she was doing the other week too – did inspire me to get out the Miquon. I KEEP saying that! Its been ages since we did anything math-sy so i was very pleased that she had remembered it all, although most of her numbers had turned backwards!!!!

Fran busy working stuff out…

And look!!! I remembered to include Ammi too!!!

We all had lunch together, hot but only easy-girl rice, but hot and cooked anyway.

We had a reptile activity to do but Fran had an urge to “do more about Alfred” so i decided it was as good a time as any to start a Charlotte Mason style Book of Centuries. So we did. I’ve got a pack of playing cards with all the Kings and Queens of England on them so we used the first one to top the page; should make for an interesting project anyway.

So writing and pictures of the great man…

…and another of him burning the cakes. Not ground breaking art admittedly but she tried so hard, i was really proud of her. She is very excited by the idea of making her own book. She wants to write books apparently.

It was time to go and get Maddy then. She had made it through the day without wetting so i was proud of her for that. Charged around failing to buy a replacement phone cable – grrrr…. and then went to tap. Had an odd “changing room” conversation with a mum who also knows Fran from Rainbows; something along the lines of “how will they learn discipline and how to behave in classes and groups if they don’t go to school?” Ummmm… remind me how it is our children know each other…… ? I do find these conversations odd, i really do. Added to the rather condescending attitude from the cgp salesperson today… argh… hmmm…

Maddy had got herself into a pickle in tap, something to do with the other girls not recognising the tune she was tapping out on a tamborine – she was a bit upset about it. Poor old thing. Its all fine until it goes wrong but she just doesn’t “get” that other kids can’t see into her head.

Must come up with a plan for tomorrow – atm though, i suspect its going to involve getting my boobs out a lot. Lol – one bit the bbc filmed was me reading while feeding Josie, from right over my shoulder in fact – does that mean i can say i have got my tits out on telly? And while i am at it, our tv died again and Max has just bought one on ebay – he is getting addicted that man; 4 purchases in a week!

Finish off with my mini Hama creation… i have ACHIEVED!!!!!!


You're an earth mother! Your friends sometimes
call you Gaea, because you're the original
earth goddess! You and your kids both have
dirt under your fingernails, and you spend as
much of your time as possible out of doors.
Your kids have an incredible appreciation for
nature.

What kind of a freaky mother are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Goes nicely with the template though…

Must just blog how impressed i am with this. Nursery are teaching the children to sign this year, i think they have quite a lot of non-verbal children there atm, and Maddy has just come home and shown me the signs for “please” “more please” and “hello.” She did them so beautifully, i was really pleased and she has just taught them to Fran and Amelie.

Anyway, just to prove that this really was the category chosen for Fran :~) , i’ll blog Fran’s day. If i can coax the zoom into action, you may get photos later.

Day started difficult-ly… hmmm… sure there is a real word for that… as we took Maddy to nursery which always unsettles the other big two and also means Josie can’t feed back off to sleep for the morning. In fact, she was wakeful and grouchy all morning and that after a hungry night too. First, i discovered the phone issue and that made all the calls i needed to make that bit harder, then i had the actual calls… argh…

Anyway. I got Fran to make little name plaques for her and Maddy – yesterday i bought little wooden paper trays for them to keep their reading and writing together in – Fran made them out of hama beads for me and they look lovely. I finished my hama card which also looks good- i’ve impressed myself! Then Fran did her writing and reading and did them really nicely and drew me a lovely Father Christmas and then did a couple of quite difficult Hama designs from the value pack i am selling. And then she found the Kings and Queens book and we read about Alfred the great, who came up in OIS this week and then as it happened we took delivery of our rather delayed Horrible Histories package. So we looked through those and she picked out the various characters and peoples who were familiar. I was chuffed with her! Also managed to read the rest of the reptile I Wonder Why book. Not a bad day actually.

Ammi has played even more Reader Rabbit, done train tracks, looked at books- all Ammi stuff! And Josie has just been weighed and is now 9lb 2oz – good mummy milk!

Edit: Just read the bible story of Elijah- probably a bad choice for the rare night that Ammi joined our story time – caused much hilarity anyway. Plus the taxi people are gonig to try and sort out alternative arrangements for Maddy which might possibly help a bit.

I dropped the camera and broke the zoom but before the insurance company will pay out i have to go into town and get someone to assess it. Blah..blah.. will take forever.

I just tried to use the phone and couldn’t, only to discover that someone/thing has cut/eaten the cable between the phone and socket.

Nearly blamed Ammi, who just looked exceptionally guilty when i found the ends but Max reckons that bad Button the killer rabbit was under the table for a looooooong time the other night.

Argh!

… the tv people being here, it made me wonder what exactly would i say was MY fantasy education for my children? Is it what they are getting? No, probably not. Are they getting the fantasy childhood i would like for them? Not quite… maybe not that far off though, most of what i would improve would be location, somewhere more exciting to live and a mummy not scared of flying so they could visit more places, i suppose that woukd have to include more funds!

What do i wish they were getting? Hmmm.. more languages, although that would come later certainly, more time per child but where do you get that? Not in school but not at home either unless you don’t have the siblings that i wanted for them anyway. More opportunity to explore anything and everything, more art, more reading… i don’t know. There are lots of things i feel like we could be doing better but its great to know we have YEARS to add those things in and do them. One of the great things about HE is certainly that its organic enough to grow slowly, you can change on a whim or in a day. Something i’ve liked since the summer is that i have imposed a structure on myself that means i feel more able to do things fairly consistantly without them being particularly aware that i am keeping an eye on such things. Its definitely in my game plan to add in more science and more art next year in much the way i’ve added the CM reading this year.

But if someone offered me the opportunity to create a fantasy from scratch what would i change? Not a lot. I wish i had been better at keeping the montessori thing going; children trained to actually hang up coats and wash faces properly would be nice. Slightly less lunatic guessing at reading might be cool but hey, there is time. Would they be the same children if i had done it differently so far? Dunno. Actually, if i could change anything right now this second, it would be a piano and a piano enabled mummy in the house. Parents nearby would be good too, they are most certainly an important influence on my girls and i’d love to live closer to them.

Anyway.

Max took the big two swimming again today. I so want them to feel more confident for Centerparcs and it seems to be working. They all had a nice time. Must keep it going, i’ve been horribly lax about swimming. Ammi and i sat and did Reader Rabbit and lots of stories too and then when she took herself off to play babies i managed to do some mini beads for a card design i want to put on BM. Ammi is just So chuffed to have her own game…

We’ve eaten together twice today, something we are making a huge effort to do and i am pleased with the table manners thing, Fran and Maddy really improved. And i have a shed load of work to do tonight but Josie is starving – again – so looks like it won’t be happening. Sigh.

Next week i am going to organise more reptilian stuff and i am declaring a Webland week to try and get a bit more use out of that! Its my first full week with the kids this week. Gulp. By the way, if anyone wants to visit, i’m ready for you, so long as you don’t want to stay the night as we are somewhat unpredictable at nights just at the moment! But daytrippers we can do!

We have Josie smiles!!!!! First smiles… aaaaah. Max was completely undone by getting a beamer from her last night… irresistable!

She still has really blue eyes too, maybe with a hint of grey but you know, i am not at all convinced she is going to be brown eyed at all. There will be talk…

(Waving at Zoe too – i removed your email address Zoe. I’ll text you about it.)

I did a good thing :~) Maddy, Josie and i went off for a quick jaunt to my mum and dads and we had a lovely time. She really revelled in having their full attention and a bit of space and seems much better for it. And of course i liked it too. Josie behaved well too so it was very relaxing.

There are good things to do up there, in a relaxed sort of a way, cello and piano and running about, indoor bikes, lots of rooms to choose from, different videos, lots of cuddles and silliness. And Max, Fran and Ammi had a nice time too with quality film watching and snuggling. Should probably do it more often.

This afternoon we have done castle jigsaws, Faraway Tree, Max is really Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to them too, A King Alfred story and Ammi started the Reader Rabbit Toddler game that Kirsty sent. Thanks ever so Kirsty, she is one thrilled little girl.

Now off to catch up on email and STUFF!!!!