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

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

garden blog is up and running again

I had been meaning to blog loads of times over the last few days, however I never seemed to get there.

Tuesday felt like it was a bit of a wasted day, mainly because I’d planned to go to the Home ed group but was feeling decidedly shaky and too tired to face the tram and bus to get there so we never made it. It was a pity as it was a lovely day and they apparantly had a climbing wall available. Anyway I declared it a ‘lazy’ day and I sat on my computer. I half expected M and A to laze about too and watch telly but amazingly it never went on. They found some lego and played fantasticly together making up games. To say I was surprised would have been a bit of an understatement! So we didn’t do any work that day but when James came home from work it was still nice so we headed out for a drive to Chatsworth where we had a look round the garden centre and had a nice walk and play with the frisbee.

Wesdnesday was back to work and we did some 3 letter word practise for Alex, just trying to get her to think about the end sounds really. Marcus did something, I think it was reading Stunt Duck from the phonics book. We also did a bit of Maths too from the Orange Miquon book. Think that was probably the most of it in the day time. At around tea time James’s cousin came over and saw the abacus sat on the dining table and decided to sit down with Alex and do some maths with her. Half of me felt like he was testing her to see how she does with it, another part of me was just happy that someone was taking time to sit with them and do stuff and it made me realise how little they get in the way of time with others doing anything. My parents certainly don’t spend any time with them talking about anything other than what’s on telly, james’s dad definitely doesn’t either, although I imagine at a later date he will be useful when we want to learn about the war and all that stuff (he’s really interested in it and knows all sorts of useless facts ). Even James isn’t that great at doing anything with them. Anyway, Alex surprised me by catching on to counting in 2’s and generally just being good She definitely has a different maths brain to Marcus and can pick it up much easier.

Thursday I read the riot act to the kids. All week long when they go and get dressed in the morning they know I’m waiting for them to come downstairs and start work. We don’t ever do too much, really only about 15 mins of reading and maths plus whatever else I think they might like. Anyway, they always end up playing upstairs and leave me waiting which just riles me as I think it’s bloomin rude. They have all day long to play, I hardly nail them to the table to do work! So I went off on one and probably made too much of it, anyway I made them do lots of work. Marcus did some Explode the Code while I sat with Alex reading through some very basic Usborne readers we got from Barbara. She did quite well with them but got fed up by the last one so we left that. Marcus had a go after that and did really well too, I think it really was a bit simple for him, but was a good exercise in looking at the pics to get a clue to the word. While we were doing this some parcels with some Oxford Reading Tree books came (thanks Sarah!) and we had a quick look through them (not reading just looking at the pics) and I think they’ll be perfect for Marcus. He’s doing well, I think it’s helping making him focus on it once a day. After reading I made them do some maths (I was still being evil) so made Marcus do a page of sums (only about 6 though). Alex did about 4 pages and wanted to do more - she really likes them atm. I really wish I cold find something to help Marcus come along with it, he just doesn’t seem to ‘get’ it all. We’ve been doing some adding in little chunks for over a week now and he still looks at it as if I’ve asked him to perform brain surgery and he just can’t remember what to do at all. I dunno, I’m really struggling with it. Maybe a computer game or something might help. Shall look to see what we have and get him started, I know we have zoombinis. Anyone have any other recommendations? In fact if anyone has any good ideas for things to do with him shout, cos my brains seized up. Don’t want to make it an issue, just want to find the best way to do it with him.

We went to the park afterwards as again it was a lovely day, they took their bikes and scooters down and I read a book on the bench. Came back for lunch and then Alex and I sowed some seeds while Marcus played a bit on his playstation.

This morning we’ve all been up early as I wanted to tidy up as we’ve visitors coming soon. How come no matter what time I get up they’re up with me? But i’ve been grumpy this morning and already had a go at marcus because he has said he still doesn’t want to go to Beavers tonight and tbh I can’t be arsed to waste any more time on it. I can’t help feeling dissapointed that he doesn’t want to give it a fair go. But then I feel bad for getting angry at him and feeling dissapointed, I don’t feel like it’s the right thing for me to feel as his mum, but I do. So that’s got me down a bit. We’ve already done some reading practise but really I can’t face much more at the moment as I’ve very little patience. I hate feeling grumpy

where did I get to? Oh yes, Thursday was a funny day, mostly because we were out of routine and went straight to the bank in the morning after breakfast instead of doing some work. It was cold and horrible on the walk down and a little whinging was heard but it wasn’t all bad. I struggled to keep them doing anything worthwhile when we got home so I inspected the garage for seeds and the kids just pootled about and read some magazines I bought them.

Friday we did some explode the code, Marcus is getting noticeably better with reading, but I still feel he’s not there for books, he’s more at the few sentences stage, but I can stop worrying about him being able to read - he can Just need to concentrate on developing it. Alex is struggling with end sounds so I’m going to work on that with her.

I also introduced the kids to Fimo - they love it. Way behind on the trend but who cares! Made some lovely bits and bobs.

It was a lovely day on Friday and I was keen to be outside doing something and the kids fancied going to the park at Rother Valley. So amazed was I that they wanted to anything we jumped at the chance and took a walk all round the lake stopping at the parks for a play and a general muddying up.

Friday evening was time for Beavers - Marcus was so not keen to go but I made him go to see what it was about. Apparantly he liked it a tiny bit but wasn’t too overly impressed. James took him and noticed they really talked down to the kids and thought Marcus wouldn’t cope well with that. We’re going to try another night for him next week and see how that goes, he’s not looking forward to it.

Saturday was another nice day so James washed the car and I started chopping things up in the garden (my arms ache now!), with us being outside the kids followed and they helped in various ways. James’s dad came round and sniped a bit about Marcus going to Beavers as “well he has to learn to meet strangers” so I bit his head off. I was grumpy. Was sure we did something else but can’t remember now. Oh it was the eclipse wasn’t it? Yeah we spoke lots about it and the kdis seemed to grasp the idea and were really excited to be watching it all night. They were grumpy by the end though so we were glad when it was bed time!

Sunday was miserable weather but Alex and I walked over to the local allotments to put our name down for a plot. We’re 27th on the list so I’m not overly hopeful for anything soon, but I suppose I have to be on it to be in with a chance. After that we headed out for a drive, took a look round my village of choice for buying a house (yeah right) - Tickhill in Doncaster. Lovely village, still a good size, lovely small local type shops and very picturesque and in the country. I liek where we are now, but I don’t like the fact it has no shops, we don’t have a corner shop as it’s closer to go to Sainsbury’s. Makes it feel like there’s no soul to it though really iykwim. Very boring and of course in the city. After driving about we headed over to see James’s aunty who didn’t make it to the wedding and we showed her the pics. She treated the kids to a McDonalds for our lunch so we headed off to do that and then it was home for lazing about. I picked up my knitting needles again after sorting the stash under the bed and Alex is keen to learn so we’re going to try that soon.

Today was a lazy lie in as I’ve been very tired lately but then we were up and did some more explode the code and worked out the number bonds to 10. M & A both wanted more sums after I had felt we’d done enough so they made up some for themselves, Marcus did some writing and then they dissappeared in a whirlwind upstairs doing goodness knows what! And now it’s lunch, so I better get something made, house is empty though so need to be creative!