Archive for March 2010
Reasons to be Cheerful
30th March 2010
We had a lovely quiet weekend alone, while my parents and sister and co had a much noisier weekend entertaining my children, who returned utterly exhausted yesterday evening. Having some time just the two of us was really wonderful; there is so little time in a busy and full household to just be together as a couple and getting the opportunity is great.
We made the most of it, so much as you can at 9 months pregnant 
We shopped, watched Prof Brian Cox (rofl, there is a man i suspect would not have been entirely served by anyone insisting on him having a broad and balanced education!), ate lovely meals and dozed in mid afternoon when we felt the inclination. It was a great way to get ready for the birth of a new baby.
And today is due day. I’m incredibly relaxed about it – far more than i thought i ever could be and not even remotely fretting about the when, where,how,why and what of it all. I love knowing what i am getting, loving having supportive carers and still liking being pregnant. I like knowing it can’t be more than another couple of weeks and i like knowing these are the last few days of ever being pregnant. Whatever happens, and touch wood we are both safely through it, i know this was the right thing to do.
Over the weekend i did a lot of virtual nesting that has needed doing for erm… years! And the result is a brand new MuddlePuddle website, in as much as i’ve found and reorganised all the content from the old site and got it ready for a major revamp, edit and new content. There is stuff on there i had completely forgotten and ways of doing things we’ve stopped and which it really inspired me to restart and do our HE more freshly once we’ve back from baby holiday.
The other thing that happened recently was that we shut down the very old and tired BeadMerrily, diverting it and reopening it as CraftMerrily – a site with perhaps the loveliest logo i have ever met. But this has given me the nudge needs to fish out all the old content and put it somewhere else, so that it can be found and used and hopefully it will also inspire me and the girls to do new things for it too So the NEW BEADMERRILY is live, although it needs putting together much as MP does. But it does have a Flickr Account and a Flickr Group and i’m looking forward to doing more with it.
With much thanks, as ever, to our wonderful designer Meg, at WhiteOchre.
Baroness Deech & the Rights of the (Home Educated) Child
28th March 2010
A while ago, home educators watched (if they could bear it and weren’t too busy packing ready to claim asylum in the US) the reading of the latest Education Bill as it went through the House of Lords. We had some fairly strong support, which was heartening and said a lot for the people who had worked so hard to inform the various Lords about the plight of Home Educators in the UK. And then there was Lord Soley, who i suspect is just someone who “doesn’t get it” in the same way that people find they have conversations with friends who just say they can’t see how HE works while moaning about the school their kids go to.
And then there was Baroness Deech, author of two of the most poisonous blog posts i have ever seen. And honestly, after i had watched her in the Lords, where she spouted the most venomous, vitriolic speech i think i have ever heard, i was moved to wonder what on earth we could have possibly have done to make her so determined to attack us. I suspect it was that we dared to argue.
It is quite an odd thing, to see a Peer of the Realm actually and determinedly turn on a law abiding section of the community of the country she represents. Not terribly elegant at best; perhaps even something of an abuse of power.
Variously, Baroness Deech has referred to the Home Educating parents who bothered to respond to her as a lobby, or lobbyists (ha! not paid for our time in trying to make the law different or fairer though, are we?) and yet been apparently quite horrified by the lack of cohesion and “mish mash of views” we expressed. That doesn’t sound much like a lobby, that sounds like lots of individuals, with individual feelings and thoughts – people prepared to have a large conversation and exchange of views in the name of better information and thought.
But perhaps that is just me.
I could go through that speech point by point and perhaps i will. I think the part that staggered me most was the inference that in the UK we as HEers get more rights to do so than in Germany, where the Nazis banned home education and the ban has never been repealed. Baroness Deech comes from a family that fled from the Nazis. A family has just been granted asylum in the US after fleeing Germany after they were stopped from HEing. You’d think she would know better really.
But the part of her speech that shocked and threw me the most was her determination “to speak up for the rights of the child” in terms of home education and her later comment (if you follow the link) which followed a thoughtful and well argued response.
Baroness Deech said, “It is insufficient to “take children’s rights seriously”, as home educators claim they do. Rights have to be enforceable by an authority outside the two parties involved, otherwise one is subject to the other. That is why we have a Bill of Human Rights. The same is true of “listening to the child’s voice” – there has to be a third party ensuring that that is the case.”
It has taken me a long time to write about this because, to be honest, i really just struggled to imagine what on earth she was talking about. I find it hard to believe that a Peer of the Realm would be ignorant or uninformed enough to lump all home educating parents (but not schooling parents) in with the parents who we must all believe do not do what is best for their children – the ACTUAL abusers, starvers and killers of children. I find it hard to believe that a person involved in the politics and law making of this country would not see and know that the vast majority of parents are in fact doing right and good by their children and can be trusted and left alone. I find it hard to believe that she might not think that parents are generally good guardians of their child’s rights.
It struck me, as i thought about it, that it is an odd thing to pass down judgement on people and their freedom of choice in life and education, if you are a hereditary peer who has taken up the family career reins, with a privileged and expensive home that you can inherit and who probably went to boarding school privately regardless of personal wish, because life that way is how ‘it was done’ and the parents and family decide.
In keeping with Baroness Deech’s approach, i did exactly no research here on BD in person, this is an assumption and generalisation about what i think i know about the Peers and Ranked Classes of the UK. It may not feel nice to be generalised about i suppose. Obviously, as part of the mishmash/riffraff, i couldn’t possibly comment.
So i spent some time thinking about RIGHTS. I thought about what rights i saw myself having as a child. Not the ones i had, but what i believed was mine to hold and have and define myself by. I was lucky of course in that i was always fed, warm and safe at home. Those are rights. I was educated according to the wishes of my parents, i had clothes that they thought appropriate, friends that they felt were acceptable, books they bought me, things to do they felt were good and right for me. If those are rights – to be safe, warm, well, educated and entertained, then i had them – and they were all provided and set by the values and parameters my parents set. No one else intervened.
On the other hand, i was viciously bullied at school and no one was able to help me escape. No route was offered, no alternative found. The bully was not stopped, i was not able to to stop her and i was not removed from the situation. In the end, no one protected me effectively or sufficiently and the legacy lasted a long time. If safety and protection are a right even in the non-life threatening environment of minor bullying, my rights were not upheld.
I was not really happy at school as i went through Seniors; the school was a good school but it was not really right for me and in fact, in the name of their exam results and reputation, i was actively discouraged and stopped from pursuing my passions and delights of craft, business and theatre. Ironic really, given i went on to go to Drama School and now run a craft business. If it is a right to be allowed to follow your dreams and desires if they harm no one else, my rights were not fully upheld – and that restriction was sanctioned by the institution and people responsible for me.
It is true, of course, that they believed themselves to be doing what was best for me. It is possible they did. We cannot (as Deech so eloquently puts it!) know what we do not know. I could be very different if i had been allowed more time to pursue my passions, for good or bad.
These days the rights of the child are enshrined in UN law – i can only presume that these are what Deech feels need addressing when she says home educators have “indifference to the rights of the child”. And i’m really not great at legal speak, so the thought of trying to find a place when parents making an individual tailored decision, based on their beliefs and the needs of their child is a bad thing was daunting. For Deech to believe that a home educated child, alone of all the children in the country, needs a layer of protection from the wishes of its parents to be in place, sort of suggests she must feel that the rights of parent and child are in direct contrast, directly at odds with one another.
And then i happened upon a document which explains the UN Rights of the Child in ‘child friendly’ language.
Reading this, there is so much that i feel should be so enormously empowering to children and to those who love them. They are a creed by which my family and i live, without having ever read them before. They are about justice, fairness, equality, opportunity, a voice, privacy, safety, time to grow, a place to be and a chance to aspire to more than where you begin.
There are many rights specifically spoken about in this simple document.
The right to play and rest.
The right to give your opinion.
The right to find out things and share knowledge.
The right to live with your parents.
I do not think that choosing to home educate, no matter how it is done, stops a child from having these rights. I do think that gruelling days that start in before school club and end in after school club, that involve large classes and overstretched teachers & the National Curriculum COULD stop you from having those rights, if not properly policed and alleviated by loving and caring parents.
You have the right to choose your own religion and beliefs. Your parents should help you decide what is right and wrong, and what is best for you.
Your family has the responsibility to help you learn to exercise your rights, and to ensure that your rights are protected.
You have the right to choose your own friends and join or set up groups, as long as it isn’t harmful to others.
You have the right to privacy.
It seems to me that family and parents in relation to the rights of the child are actually central to this convention, not at odds with it. Parents and family are enshrined in these words as being central to the welfare of a child, with protection and extra only being needed IF things go wrong, not in case things go wrong. That just as it was when i was a child, the family unit, being what it is, can normally be relied on to win through and produce whole people, even if that family doesn’t co-incide with some plastic moulded norm that someone has constructed.
It seems to me that a child is being trusted in these articles to have a voice, to have privacy and to have an ability to shape their own being, without needing too much help or protection from anyone. That a child is entitled to be in a place, believe in a thing, be with people or their family.
It doesn’t seem to me that being home educated would stop your parents from helping you learn right and wrong or discovering core beliefs, or stop you from exercising your rights, or protecting them. It doesn’t seem to me that being home educated stops you from having privacy or choosing your own friends, any more than living in a family of any other type might. Home Educators MIGHT choose the friends they want for their children or engineer situations to make certain contact more likely – but so might any other parents. My parents didn’t try to force any religion on me – but my school did, and my parents didn’t stop that. I had a right not to be bullied – but no one stopped that.
You have the right to get information that is important to your well-being, from radio, newspaper, books, computers and other sources. Adults should make sure that the information you are getting is not harmful, and help you find and understand the information you need.
Your education should help you use and develop your talents and abilities. It should also help you learn to live peacefully, protect the environment and respect other people.
Since BD drew the battle lines, i have to say that i think that home education provides a better access to these rights than school does and that when a child spends time in school, they need to have parents who will go out of their way to provide these opportunities elsewhere. No school has enough computers, radios, newspapers etc for every child. No school can provide all the resources needed to open up the million opportunities that would be wonderful for all children to have.
These rights are not about school or home education. They are not about home educating parents or schooling parents – they are about time, effort, energy, opportunity and experiment on an individual basis. And if a child has the undivided attention of a parent, they are very likely to get some or more of those opportunities. BD exclaimed that home education was like an experiment being performed on helpless children – well, no more so that the new directive per week that Whitehall sends to schools – but at least HE can be personal to the child!
All adults should do what is best for you. When adults make decisions, they should think about how their decisions will affect children.
There are many adults in the lives of my children who choose to do what is best for them and who care about that responsibility. I do not count the politicians who have torn our lives apart over the last year among them. Nor do my children, who are angry, resentful and disillusioned by the government that claims to speak for their rights.
You have the right to practice your own culture, language and religion – or any you choose. Minority and indigenous groups need special protection of this right.
Unless, perhaps they are home educators and their children. My children, who have the right to a voice and privacy, unless they ask to be left alone and not spoken to by an official who Baroness Deech thinks should invade their home on a 3 monthly basis.
You have the right to legal help and fair treatment in the justice system that respects your rights.
Hmmm… listen well Baroness Deech. Listen well.
Do not mock me with a pretence that i do not care about the disadvantaged and desperate children of this world. I know they are there and i care deeply that they exist. But it is you who chose to wage war against a law abiding section of the UK with a Convention designed to protect the very most desperate, not me.
My children, not just me, ask for our rights as a family, as people who have done no wrong, to be respected. We ask for our voice to be heard, our privacy to be respected, our right to live our life as we choose to be accepted. We ask to be heard as people not a mish mash lobby, we ask to be seen as individuals who can choose our life and our friends without government interference. We ask for the right to uphold beliefs as people and as family, to safeguard our children as law abiding parents, to develop our children’s talents in a way that suits their personal needs.
We ask not to be assumed to be child abusers because we wish to live our life without government help or interference. We wish to live our life knowing we do not have to flee before our government simply because we are who we are.
Will you respect that right, Baroness Deech?
Posted in HE Politics, Uncategorized | 
Tags: home education law, home education politics, home education review | 
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Getting into Gear
25th March 2010
Oh dear. Two weeks have passed. Still here, still in one piece. Quite looking forward to being in 2 pieces now really. Have reached that “oh my god i am SO pregnant!” stage while simultaneously still not actually believing i am. I am slightly worried that the production of a person is going to be rather a shock.
Excuses for not blogging are that i knitted and crocheted a baby blanket and that we’ve been working very hard on getting new stock and improvements done to our websites etc. So my evenings have been take up. Added to which i managed to develop a horrid growth on my hand, apparently pregnancy induced, which is making doing anything somewhat harder at the moment. Hopefully having it cut off tomorrow. Baby is due on Tuesday, so i guess i know i am into the last couple of weeks now anyway.
So, we gradually recovered from the rabbit disaster; big girls had a chance to go Karting with the local HE group. Max took them along with DaddyBean and SB while Amelie slept through an asthma crisis and Josie and BB played here.
Apparently the karters had a fabulous time, although the kids did say the daddy’s took it a bit seriously 
Meanwhile Josie and BB did their best ever bit of socialising together and had a truly lovely time in each others company. I was very impressed by them as they often take a while to warm up but this time were just very happy. They played with animals, tucked away in a bedroom and there were gales of laughter the entire time.
A couple of other things have happened recently. One was Maddy really wanting to make a version of an arcade booth grabber, so Max spent a morning working at designs for that and then they made a working model out of lego. Along the way she found out about different types of gears, how they work and what they get used for. I do feel that really that stuff is “real home ed” and he does it much better than me!
Another thing was a random game he and the girls found on the internet which was a very simple fire an arrow in the air and try to hit the other player type one. They got talking about angles, trajectories and things like wind resistance and, while i half snoozed on the bed with one ear open, i heard them using protractors, plotting graphs, using excel to explain angles and predict things – it was all rather amazingly educational. See? He does it better 
I hired a doula, which i am happy about.
My dad came and whipped the girls away for a few days to give them a break and hopefully put the rabbit thing behind them – they had a lovely time and came back refreshed and ready for the music festival.
Found myself watching Fran kind of in awe a couple of times that week. The first was the festival, the second was during a little gym session she helps out at. She goes along when Josie does and learns the ropes of coaching, although she has strict boundaries of what she can do there but being able to demo, chat to them, encourage them etc is all very good for her. She was dressed in bootleg dancing trousers, a hoody and had her hair twisted up in a clip and suddenly looked so grown up. And just so assured; the coaches like her and she is really at home among them, she was demo-ing a vault and doing it in clothes just suddenly made her seem so capable and able and BIG! One of the kids there needs lots of support and she looks after her in a TA-ish fashion she does such an amazing job of it. I’m constantly getting parents tell me how fab she is and how grown up and mature etc etc. It has made me see her in a whole extra light – and see how teaching/coaching could very well be going to be her thing; all those sisters have given her some very good skills. This week she had a badge group and was showing thme how to do the skills (floor balances etc) all on her own and she did a fabulous job. I was very proud of her.
The other thing was watching through the window while she finished off her freestyle class not a little girl any more, a really rather big girl who is also a really rather accomplished dancer 
And then in the next minute she is asking me if it is okay to NOT have a boyfriend or want to watch 15 films like her KYT friends as really she still likes to be little and doesn’t want to have to do all those things. And it makes me so glad they have the space to grow up in their own time 
We’ve had some lovely days with friends, done some work and lots of craft. Nothing very dramatic just ploughing through more basics, doing project work (Ballet for Fran) and so on. But having a relaxed time in general, so long as people are busy and gainfully employed.
This week we’ve had a visit from the Djeco man, which meant lots of crafting from the samples he left, in company with Chloe and Latinetc day; girls had French home work which they’ve done, did music theory and practical, Latin and as usual, really great science which this week was fist looking at the light maze made for a bean and then moving on to making slides from the bacteria they had grown in petri dishes from their teeth and nails. Very interesting. Do love Latinetc.
Fran and Amelie have had a good gym week; Amelie got enough confidence to really throw herself at the move she broke her arm doing and then managed to do it from the high bar too – she was VERY happy. Fran has been partially moved groups so that she is now with a coach who is a tumbling specialist on one night. She’s ready for a change as working so hard on minute technique with the other (very good) coach has slightly squashed her natural exuberance. Although she was unsure about it, her demeanour on Tuesday night was very upbeat and she’d had a lot of fun. She’s ready to be stretched again. Maddy is still loving TKD too – so all that is good and had a fab week at rugby too.
Josie is seeming terribly grown up all of a sudden.
I love this picture
She had requested maths and reading workbooks so she can join in when the others do their more school-y bits so i got her some. She likes Explode the Code and seems to be getting much more confident with sounds and sounding out. We built some -at words and then used the two spare letters to say a new word and then she had to swap in the right front letter. Was good.
Today was music lesson morning; apart from Amelie i think they all had a bit of a blippy day today. Amelie is really flying because she has added violin to the list of things she is going to be ‘best’ at Fran and Maddy have some work to do. Still, Fran has The Pink Panther as her Grade 2 piece which is inspiring her – they are all currently watching episodes of the cartoon on YouTube. I call it research and immersion
Home Educated Children in Music Festival Shock.
16th March 2010
I’ve been intending to blog about the crass and annoying speech made by Baroness Deech the other week on how home educated children are denied the right to a voice by their ‘indifferent’ parents – but honestly, right now i can’t be bothered
However, Lord Soley, who is possibly well meaning if rather blinkered and unimaginative when it comes to HE, also made a speech, following on from his blog posts. In it he reflected that it was likely to be difficult for Home Educated children to access the music services offered to school children unless their parents paid for it.
Well, so far as i know, music lessons don’t come free in schools anyway, but my news for Lord Soley is that this particular set of home educating parents are actually quite happy to pay for our children to access music lessons which go considerably beyond what they might get in 20 minutes a week at school, fitted into playtime, or while missing something else, or dependant on room availability or teacher availability or a free instrument to loan.
We’ve paid, with help from my parents and grandparent, who also wanted to be part of this, for music lessons for about 2 years. We do it willingly and happily, knowing it is good for all sorts of parts of their brain, life and pleasure and because we are all very involved and the cost and effort those lessons take are self-evident, our children learn and practise willingly and diligently. The play music together, they play with grandparents and increasingly they play with friends. Fortnightly and sometimes weekly, a teacher comes to our home for 2 1/2 hours and coaches them alone and together in a group, in cello, violin, guitar, piano, recorder and theory. No time wasted getting to lessons, no forgotten instruments, no cancelled lessons or lack of room. And they take a lot of responsibility for it all, making sure the room feels nice and is clean and tidy, their instruments are ready, their books are found.
Neither Max nor i are particularly musical and we therefore outsourced, bought in a service, take an active part in making sure it is well used and thoroughly enjoy watching the fruits. We did, astonishingly, what adults do anywhere else in life where they need a skill they don’t have – we use the services of someone else who can. It isn’t rocket science. And we adapt; Maddy isn’t so keen on guitar any more and so we’ve adapted and been lucky enough to find a way of accessing flute lessons for her. Simple pimple. NOT, as i said, rocket science.
Today we had the joy of watching them get the benefits of their hard work. Amelie and Fran were both entered for the local music festival, Amelie as an 8 and under violinist and Fran as a 12 and under cellist. They both worked very hard and had practised daily, at a time of day they were fresh and relaxed and they were both keen to do well.
And they did Amelie was one of the better ones in her large group of 13 kids, probably only missing a top 3 place by a couple of spots and Fran, who was only in a group of 2, got top place and some really lovely compliments about her technique, tone and musicality. It is a joy to see them be rewarded for the effort they had put into their preparation.
It was perhaps just as much of a joy to see them, not in uniform but beautifully and classically smart, take the stage with confidence and assurance, looking for all the world like they had total belief in their right and ability to be there. They looked composed and calm and determined and they both kept going with the skill that comes from lots of performing when they tripped up slightly. As Max said, what stood out about both of them, in among the very nervous school kids, was that they looked happy to be there. And i just loved that they had their sisters there to support them and that we could all be there together to enjoy it. I particularly loved the way Amelie and Fran sat with their arms round each other when they got nervous.
We were incredibly proud of them.
(And very grateful to Granny, Grampty, Nana and RM for making it all possible.)
Ups and Downs
12th March 2010
March is marching by quicker than a person with 2 and half weeks till their due date ought to reasonably expect. I’m really not quite in the right head place for that
We’ve had a very good start for the month, given we’re aiming to have lots of ‘work’ done by the end of the month and then a month of crafts, day trips and stuff.
So, forgot to add to the end of February that the big two went off to HE group with W, Skye and Poppy and joined in the Stuart day. Zoe also did a fab soap making thing with them one day, which was great.
So – workwise what have we been up to? They are all hugely into maths, which is (to me) frankly baffling but it has been nice to see them enjoying doing it and be so comfortable. They’ve all been revising basic skills at their own level and the effort they’ve put into their table learning has been a big help. Fran and Maddy have finished the challenge and Amelie is still working on it but we’ve been doing table tests and they’ve all been getting them all right.
Amelie started working on comprehension exercises and appears to really like them – and be able to do them really quite well. She’s one of those kids, Amelie, who just doesn’t have any trouble with following instructions. So if you say “do it this way and you’ll get all the marks”… she just does. The same cannot be said of Fran, who is still convinced she will find a comprehension where they forgot to add the answers to the text Or of Maddy, who thinks that words were put on this earth to spite her
There has been loads of reading; Fran finished Carrie’s War and started on Theatre Shoes which was the next suggestion in her GP reading list and went on a Noel Streatfeild binge, has read White Boots and is now on The Growing Summer. Then she diverted to the Drina books but is apparently coming back to Tennis Shoes. Amelie is still busy with Fairy books and is reading something about plants and Maddy is heavily into painters again.
We’ve finished more project work up and they’ve all done a good job on those; Fran and Maddy are working away at Science and History very independently, French together and some Latin and music. Fran and Amelie have worked so hard on their music and their teacher is really pleased with them. Fran has set herself a challenge of being able to enter on piano by next year too. Fran’s got her Grade 2 pieces as well, so she is well on her way to doing that this summer.
Maddy is going through rather a perfectionist phase and won’t do things if she feels it won’t be perfect or if she knows someone else can do it better. Did persuade her to do some drawing again the other day and she drew a Moshi Monster style food.
There has been plenty of being outdoors and cycling, playing with street friends and so on – with the sun coming out it all feels a bit nicer. Amelie is riding her bike now and Josie isn’t too far off, so that is good. Looking forward to being able to get out and do the garden again soon; i’m too lumpy at the moment.
Josie is the star of the show again – sums up to 20 and written numbers all worked out by herself up to 29, lots of reading and word building and a continuing interest in pattern and order and how time and so on works.
She’s a star at the moment, really driven to work out how to access the world. It really is such a privilege to witness it over and over again, emerging it its own way each time. If they were at school we’d just assume school was inputting it i suppose but seeing it happen… well, it awes me every time.
We had a great trip to LeCielRouge this week and did an experiment to show how fat react when washing up liquid disperses it.
And then a bit of marbling for fun too!
Fran had been stressing over her flic, which had ‘disappeared’ so spent most of Monday practising it on the trampoline while the rest of them mostly managed to play and socialise until dancing time. It appears to be back perfectly beautifully now though, along with her baby giant and her vault, so she is happy Amelie is having a great time at gym still, but Maddy is giving up to spend more time on TKD and Rugby.
Wednesday was also a good Latinetc with science in the form of bacteria collection and growth, with antibiotics in a couple of forms added to parts of the petri dishes to see the effect. Also did flute, sewing, French and Latin and all came out pleased, apart from Amelie who was clearly heading into a asthma crisis.
Unfortunately, we got home to a tragedy as something dreadful had occurred in one of our rabbit runs and one rabbit was dead and the other at deaths door. Bit of a tragic accident really and dreadfully upsetting all round; mercy dash to the vets with the survivor was better than i expected and i brought her home again for nursing care which Maddy is helping with lots. She is absolutely distraught, as these were her two rabbits and i don’t think i have ever heard her cry like she did this evening 
On the upside, the vet felt only the fact that Button as clearly a well cared for rabbit generally had enabled her to survive, which has helped Maddy a bit.
Luckily Button, Maddy’s particular favourite, seems to be recovering; she is in with us and being fed lots of fresh veg and carrots, water and antibiotics and is already perky and filling out again. Nursing her is helping her feel she can do something useful anyway and seeing her eat, drink and poo as normal is a huge relief.
Must admit that lying in bed last night with asthma-y child in my bed, sobbed out Fran on a mat on my floor, Max upstairs with a cold, 2 well bunnies having a precautionary night in in the downstairs loo and a sick bunny having water checks and refilled hot water bottles every two hours in the lounge, i was thinking “this would not be a good time to go into labour!”
In fact, i’m staggered i didn’t.
RIP Smartie, we really are terribly, terribly sorry not to have you any more
Proud of Maddy today.
8th March 2010
Maddy did her first TKD grading today and was awarded her Yellow Belt. She was so determined to get it and not have to do the Yellow Tag one first and worked really hard at learning her pattern all week, not something that comes easily to her. We’re really proud of her
“I got 30 days till this blasts off!”
1st March 2010
As one of the wives from a favourite film of mine, Apollo 13, says, patting her bump.
Woke up this morning and thought – omg… the baby is due THIS MONTH!!!
I must admit, i’m kind of hoping for a few extra days (maybe not 14 though ) this time as i don’t feel nearly ready to have a baby! Max muttered this morning that maybe this time we’d get an early one and i thought “NOOOOOOO!!!”
It seems to have gone very fast this time; the first 20 weeks were a nightmare and stressful and then the last 16 have flown by – although all the problems at the beginning seem so remote and far away they could be from years back – like that was the end of something else, rather than the beginning of something new.
Wanted to say thanks to all the people who contributed to the baggage post below – i really need to go through and thank people individually but they were a huge help and much appreciated. After a good think i had a long conversation with a doula last night and hopefully we are going to go down that route. It feels the right compromise between needs, wants and costs. Thank you again – everything that was written on and off blog, including the offers to come and be there, were much appreciated.
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Kiddicare has an extensive product range of Maxi Cosi car seats, pushchairs and accessories which are suitable for all age ranges. For more information read our Maxi Cosi reviews.
