Life is a Highway - it’s the journey, not the destination

Today’s been fairly busy even though we’ve not been anywhere and not done half the things I wanted to!

It started lazily (as always *sigh*) but then Marcus launched straight into some questions about the Tay bridge disaster having remembered about it last night. So we looked on google for some stuff about it then he compared it to the Tacoma Narrows bridge which we’d seen as there is an exhibit at Magna about it (actually not sure he even looked at it yesterday, but he has seen it lots of times before) and so we looked up stuff about that, when it was built, if they built a new one, where it was etc etc. Marcus thought they were really ’stupid’ for having built it wrong so we discussed about mistakes being the things we learn from (and I’ve been saying this lots lately about loads!), looked at what was different about the new bridge and gave an example of the Titanic and the Zeebrugge disaster which had been on the news not that long ago and how things had been made better because of them. Cue talking about those for a bit too! We looked at pictures of the Titanic in the Britannia book, spoke about the brave musicians who played till the end and about it being the cold that killed most people not drowing. And just to keep the disaster theme going he then wanted to know about 9/11 so we looked at pics of that too and had a quick run through of it. Phew. And then we had *breakfast*!!!!

Maths consisted of sharing out a packet of refreshers between 3 bowls! Then we baked a lemon drizzle cake and the kids helped quite a lot with the measuring and talking about halves for working out how many eggs to use. More maths! Then as the kids were licking out the bowl and I was off to head in the shower I realised it was nearly 1pm! Argh, where had the morning gone???

James called to say he was finished once I was out of the shower and we spent most of the afternoon tidying the tip we live in. We have so much stuff, but I’m so crap at decluttering. Argh. While we did this the kids played outside (cos I kicked them out!!) with lego, and that kept them occupied pretty much till evening.

I was a domestic goddess all day long, what with doing lemon drizzle cake earlier (kids not impressed, but James and his dad loved it) and then doing ‘The Beans’ veggie curry for tea. Was gorgeous, could have eaten twice as much. But then I am a greedy so and so. Also made some naan breads too, yum.

James’ dad came over in the evening so it’s been a fairly late end to the day. Alex spent ages reading some of the word lists from the ‘I can read it’ Sonlight books. She did really well, all 3 letter words and she’s getting much better at the end sound but she still adds whatever she feels like sometimes! I wish I could find our book 1 of it though, Alex can amble through that one and I think it would be good for her to have her own book that she’s reading as she tends to want to do what Marcus is doing but it’s often way beyond her. Marcus never finished it, but on looking at book 2 I think he’d be ok to start with that one. must look harder for the first one.

today has been a bit weird. I’ve been up and down all day long. Started first thing, I just couldn’t get myself out of bed and just wanted to snuggle all day long. Eventually got myself out knowing James would have been just setting out on his test. I felt sick all morning, probably due to wondering how he’d do, so when the kids came down we declared a snuggly morning looking at books. Which was convenient, since my Amazon order came Marcus was over the moon with his DK readers (yay!), we got him the Star Wars, Spiderman, Rockets and Sumbmarine books (all level 1) and although fairly simple, probably just right for him. We read a little bit of the Star Wars one taking it in turns as it’s quite long. I also bought some maths story books; What’s Your Angle, Pythagoras?, Sir Cumference and the Knights of the First Round Table and The Grapes of Math. Alex and I looked through the Grapes of Math one, which is lots of riddles to try and get you to count things easier, like grouping into sets etc. Was right up her street tbh, she amazes me with her ability, not because I think she’s a maths genius or anything, they are just so contrasting that it surprises me We were counting in 6’s and I stopped after 6 thinking she’s never know but gave her a chance and she actually came out with the right number. Was very impressed. Other books look good but not read them to the kids yet.

Also looked at seeds in a jar experiment (still not written anything!!), one of the beans has split. Duh duh duuuuuuuh!

News of James passing his test kind of stopped everything and when he came home we went out for a celebratory lunch to Mcd’s Kids well impressed by this!! Then we went to Magna and had a really lovely time there, much nicer than usual. We seemed to have a much more in depth look at stuff than we normally do. I also met another home educating family there and I was very brave and struck up a conversation once I decided they really must be he’ers (4 kids from 5-10!). She made me laugh as she said one of the defining characteristics of He’ers she knew was that they ate hummus!!!! Kids had a good time bombing around outside in the playpark afterwards as it was gorgeous by then.

Went off to James’ aunties house after that and Marcus and I just started to flop, don’t know what it was, probably just changes in the temperature but we just felt awful. Felt better on getting home, basic tea was had and Marcus headed for the playstation and Alex headed for the pc. She;s been playing on some games I found yesterday on the PBS kids site, mostly the George Shrinks game.

Read more boxcar children story tonight, Marcus was very impressed to learn there’s a whole series of stories about them, going to try and get some for him for his birthday maybe. Marcus then went to bed with his lamp on to read (new rules, only reading aloowed, no playing!!) so he was looking at our Britannia book and found the story about the Tay Bridge Disaster. We got a fab book about it last year in Scotland, can’t find any immediate evidence I blogged it though, but anyway, he wants the book again, so looking on our library site to find it. It was a Sparks series book and I remember thinking they sounded really good to have stories about history and I meant to look for more but must have forgotten about it. Just found one on ebay I’m going to get about Vikings and tehre seems a few at the library so we’ll have to try and check some out.

James has just passed his HGV test - wooooooohooooooo!!!

thanks everyone for sympathy last week when he failed again, glad I don’t need more!!

Another good day here today, helped in part by the sunshine although we weren’t out much in it. Wasn’t it just bloomin gorgeous?? Like summer.

Anyway we started the day with a little recorder practice. Alex seems to really like it but her fingers are just not big enough yet, Marcus was a bit self concious but once he realised I was only after practising one note was a bit better. He struggles as he rushes so much and doesn’t always stop to think what he should be doing iykwim. But a good first lesson I think, not going to go by the book we have yet, but just experiment with rhythms and notes for a bit.

After that we did some maths. I feel this is coming along well now that I’m paying more attention to it. They did a dot to dot from the red miquon book and you had to do it by counting in 2’s. Both of them got the hang of it well, Alex is much quicker at working out the next number though! Sometimes I forget there is 15 months between them as the are quite often at a similar level. Also did a ‘guess my number’ game where they guessed hwat number I was thinking and I had to say higher or lower. More work definitely needed there as it was clear they didn’t have much of a clue about that!!

Also did some Explode the code again, M read another ORT book (still level 1 but gaining confidence rapidly). Actually all of a sudden I’ve noticed M trying to read almost everything, it’s like all of a sudden he’s realised he could do it if he tries. I never realised how long a process reading is and it’s quite an eye opener really (although why I didn’t think it would be a long process I don’t know!!). It seems so long ago that Marcus looked at a word and realised it’s sounds added up to a word, so to still be at that struggling reader stage is quite weird and I suppose a little frustrating. I hope our fairly relaxed last year where we did hardly anything hasn’t kept him back too much, suppose I’ll never know though! Getting some of those DK readers from Amazon soon and think M will be fairly impressed by Spiderman and Star wars books - here’s hoping.

Then we got out some old cereal boxes and did some junk modelling. Well actually what I had in mind was making some magazine holders but the kids had other ideas. Well who can blame them since we hardly do any crafts round here lately? Paint just scares me in this house, so will have to be just sticking I reckon

And then we had lunch And James finished work early so managed to join us so that was nice. I also was looking at some maths games sites so since I was looking at them the kids just had to play them didn’t they? So they did some tessalations, adding, and measuring plus a little more work on higher and lower numbers. Sneaky but good Alex managed to get herself onto some other games that had spanish language in it which kept her amused for a while.

Afternoon was Sainsbury’s shopping (been putting it off as can’t stand to go at the weekend) and then we popped to see W and her daughter and grandkids were visiting. The baby had chicken pox so you never know, we may actually come down with it. Tried to entice M to go closer by saying he could have a day playing the playstation if he was ill, but it didn’t work

Home for tea and telly and M has just read James his book from earlier on so all happy

Been to a car boot today Managed to come back with not too much crud which is always good. Got a Mastermind game after seeing Alex playing with it at Hunstanton, a microscope set, a bloody awful car board game and a couple of books and small things. Was actually quite nice although we’d kitted ourselves up for muddyness and it was typically lovely!

At home we had some patch time and Alex and I played Mastermind with her rules which were slightly easier, but still made her think about it all so of educational value still! (need a logic category).

(Em hair fell out yesterday so we decided on a SB hairstyle as I can do that one!)

Marcus sat and played the playstation - *sigh* He is rather obsessed, can’t imagine where he gets that trait from

There was also some looking at some Usborne beginner books and Marcus wanted to do some of the internet linked bits at the backs of the books so they spent a good deal of time playing the Jousting game.

We also did a little bit of science / gardeningy type stuff in the way of “The Bean Experiment”, am hopefully going to get them to write up (narrate!) what happens in a little book. Oh and kids did more counting practice in 2’s with help from the 100 square on the kitchen door.

And that’s been pretty much it for today, Alex has mucked about with my camera loads, taking quite a few photos of toys and requesting photos of herself. I liked this one:

Back to ‘proper’ work tomorrow again

before I get out of the habit

Hunstanton was fab and loved it all. Although I am so not used to staying up late as I struggled through the days to make up for it. Sea life centre was great and brought some education to the week Marcus was very good at asking questions, not shy at all which helps with my worries about him (him not wanting to do groups etc). I just loved seeing the kids all getting on so well really, I know we say it all the time after we get together, but they really do mix so well with limited bust ups.

Since we got back we’ve chilled out mostly (it’s the weekend!) but in amongst the lazyness has been some early morning sums done in my bed, counting money (Alex managed to grasp counting in 20’s quite well even while Toy story on in background), Marcus also seems to have got to grips with counting in 2’s and 10’s. We discussed sets of numbers so I suppose a very basic foray into multiplication going on there. Not bad really.

Also today we caught the tail end of The Clan of The Cave Bear movie which led to some discussion on Neanderthals, early humans, a bit of evolution (seems to be a recurring theme round the blogs!) and if I could have found the book I got from the charity shop on early people we’d have looked at that too, but I couldn’t.

Been browsing round the web today and come across the DK readers which tbh I never knew existed. How silly am I?? been away from sites like the book people for too long. Anyhow I saw on Red House that you can get some superhero one’s so pondering getting those one day. Unfortunately they aren’t on the bookpeople site which has others I want. Always the way. Seems to be a few boy-ish ones, so am going to try and get a level 1 book about something to test the water with them. Marcus is very into comic books so maybe, just maybe this could be the thing we need to inspire him. Can feel an amazon and book people order coming on.

just have to get this t-shirt for my birthday. Cool.

I will update soon, promise

decided St Patricks day should be the day before Mothers day??? *sigh* was looking forward to breakfast in bed, a lie in and general laziness but didn’t get it. I did get flowers, chocs and some lovely cards (great one from Marcus , he drew a vw bus on it and a peace sign - I think he thinks I’m a hippy!!) and if James gets his butt in gear, possibly the James Bond dvd today too

today’s been a bit of a thinking day. I get days like today every so often, where I spend quite a lot of it just sitting and contemplating how our lives are going to go. I like having plans and this is my problem I guess! All the following is a bit random, just trying to put things down in the hope it will help I guess.

James’ job isn’t helping really with it all, I’d like for him to have a nice job where he enjoys being with the people he works with, isn’t shit on every day and pays a decent wage that we could eventually buy a house. he hates this new job, so I’ve no idea where we will end up on that road. I try and help him out, but tbh he’s a bloody nightmare. Ages ago he decided he wanted to be an ambulance driver so little old me finds loads of stuff out about it on the net, presents it to him, he looks all interested and proceeds to do *nothing* about it at all. Repeat at least half a dozen times. So when he complains and wants out, I help by finding a site with jobs, but I resent having to do any more legwork. But then I feel bad about that, I mean I am at home. Maybe I should help a bit more. argh!

So anyway, that’s a crap bit. James also has high hopes and expectations of me on the job front. he thinks I’d be able to go out and get a job with the click of my fingers, and a good job at that so puts a bit of a guilt trip on me for not working. But the thing is, I can’t. I may have got Highers, which is more than he or a lot of his mates got, but really they don’t count for anything at all do they?? And I have no experience doing any worthwhile jobs that would lead to a well paid career as he expects of me. Honestly, he’s so deluded. I could go out and work and sometimes I want to, so that come 10 years from now I’m not some housewife/mum who’s after a school dinner lady job or something. Know what I mean? I keep waiting for the day when I know what it is I want to be in life. I never knew, ever. Will I ever???

I wonder also about our intended year out travelling. It won’t be for 2 years now as the wedding took a lot of our savings away, but I still want to do it. But I worry about the effect it could have on the kids. I wonder if they’ll feel too uprooted and when the bloody hell will we ever settle down anywhere?? If we do that we’ll be back 3 years from now in another rented house, trying to get another job and waiting till we’ve been in it long enough to even think about a mortgage. I dunno. It’s such a wonderful idea, but I do worry.

But then say we decide not to (or even fast forward till we come home and this will still apply). How on earth are we ever going to afford a house, ever???? Everything is so out of our reach at the moment. Even if James manages to get into HGV driving which is better paid, we’re still going to struggle to get in an area we’re happy in. I really like where we are now, although the house is way too small, as are all new builds I reckon (I walked past 2 open garages the other day and not one had a car in it, all jam packed with stuff - cos there are no damn cupboards!!), but it’s at least twice what I think we’d ever get in a mortgage (actually not 100% sure, been a while since we mortgaged anything!!). I don’t want be living in the middle of a council estate in the city, it’s not ever in my grand plan!!

I guess I’m having an off period in it all. There’s times when I think to myself that it doesn’t matter that we’re not on the housing ladder, that it doesn’t matter that we don’t have a place to put down roots cos we have each other and so long as the kids have a family that love them that will be all that matters eh? When we moved down from Scotland I was so upbeat about us not being tied anywhere, we could do what we want. But we still can’t. It doesn’t work like that, we have the kids to consider and I’m not sure it will help them if we decided to just up and leave a house with no thought to the future.

So although of course nothing needs to be decided straight away, I like to know what we’re going to do, which way we’ll jump and how we’ll manage what we plan. It never goes to plan though, so why I bother I don’t know!

Marcus spent absolutely ages just sat looking at this Dandy, not sure if he was trying to read any of it, but for something to keep his attention for that long it must have been good whatever he was doing.

I cleared the kitchen table yesterday

And I don’t know what inspired this pose from Marcus today, but thought it was rather cool (if you ignore crumbs from lunch on the floor!!)

Trying to take more pics of the kids lately. Or rephrase that, more decent pics of the kids. Normally manage to get them with their backs to me or the tops of their heads!! Now getting one with a straight face from Marcus would be good!!