Living 2008

I’ve thought about sending mine to school a couple of times but there’s always the same few points that keep coming up. Could a school offer my children the same quality of social interaction with such a vast and diverse range of people as they are currently used to or would they be restricted to children in their year group and adults with singsong voices and boxes to tick? Would a teacher be able to teach them at the right level for them, taking into account their interests, ability and special needs or would they be restricted by the constraints of the National Curriculum? Would they have the freedom to study a subject in as much depth as they want for as long as they want or would their learning constantly be interrupted by bells and breaks? Would school really be the best place to prepare them for adult life in the real world or would they learn more about the real world and the adults in it if it was the base for their learning?

Master R has had two eye appointments since I last blogged. The first was at the opticians where the optometrist was not very positive about his improvement (or lack of) and the assistant tried to charge me for the new spectacles. The second was with Scott, the wonderful orthoptist (I think) who reassured us that there was improvement and even though only just being able to see the fourth line on the chart with a thick lens on might not seem great to me it was indeed much better than it was. Although Master R was still struggling to pick out the 3d images apparently his eyes were drawn to them and he could see that something was different. So we are sticking with the patching. I’m aiming for a minimum of four hours a day and Master R is trying for as little time as possible. He seems to be quite happy watching television with his patch on and has had a couple of ‘tv days’ lately. It feels a bit negligent just leaving him sat in front of the box but improving his sight is my main priority for now so I’ve been using the time to do stuff with Ms R. He’s also enjoying playing Lego Starwars and Lego Indianna Jones on his DS.

We have a book that Ms R and I have been looking at together. It drew me in, not because of the words (words like Maths and Study) but because of its cover which is red and shiny (oh I do love red!). I read it one night to refresh my basic maths and to give me an idea of what might be expected of Ms R had she been in school. Oddly it seems to start with some very basic stuff like counting to twenty and then jump to some fairly complicated stuff like adding up huge numbers in your head. I found some of it reassuring knowing that it was things that had cropped up in our normal everyday lives like counting money, halving and doubling and sharing. Some of it seems a bit bizarre, like needing to know about pentagons, hexagons and octagons but not about heptagons. But anyway, Ms R was also drawn to the shiny red cover and we have been reading through it together and then sprouting off in other directions. I missed out page one that stated "Whatever subject you’re doing it’s the same old story - there are lots of facts and you’ve just got to learn them. KS1 Maths is no different" because Ms R would have asked why and I couldn’t have explained it without making the book sound like it should be uninteresting. We went off on a different path altogether and started doing sums the way I learnt years ago, Ms R enjoyed swapping units for tens and tens for hundreds and we went through several bits of paper doing sums together. Afterwards she wrote her name on them and got in a muddle as she was trying to do joined up writing but still using a capital in the middle so I showed her how it was done and she spent a while practicing. Once bored with that she took herself upstairs and started playing the recorder leaving me somewhat surprised that a child would ask for sums, then handwriting practice and then willingly do music practice.

Everyday that I go to work Ms R and Master R wave at me from the bedroom window, they wave until I’m out of sight and then apparently either start a game upstairs or finish what they were doing downstairs. Whatever they are doing they always stop to say good-bye and wave. Recently Master R has been telling me that he’s going to try not to wave me off but rather carry on doing something else when I leave. Usually though his head pops up at the window just as I’m pulling away and I make sure he sees me wave back before going round the corner. I asked him why he was trying not to wave me good-bye anymore and he explained that sometimes it made him feel like crying and that he had to hold his breath for a few minutes after I’d gone so as not to. Colin did reassure me that he doesn’t ever cry though.

We have been going to our home ed group weekly since it started back in September. The Rs are both very confident and happily play with the other children and chat to the adults. Recently all the children have been playing some sort of playground type game together in the hall where someone is ‘it’ and when giving a word everyone runs from one side to the other and the person who is ‘it’ catches someone who becomes the next ‘it’. Really nice to see the ‘group’ thing going on; not initiated or supervised by an adult, every child getting a turn and the bigger ones helping the smaller ones. Not so great seeing Ms R standing in front of all the other children lifting the bottom of her dress up to wipe her nose on and revealing everything from her belly button downwards. I think the kids have benefitted from a weekly meet up with the same people and I hope that it will be one of the things they have fond memories of. There are members who are small enough to be considered babies but big enough to sit up and be played with by Ms R so that keeps her happy. Lately she’s been more keen to join in with whatever activity an adult has put on (they include making and sharing soup for the Harvest Festival  and making paper clocks). Very kindly Jem bought in one of his guitars to show her, she’s had a thing about guitars since she was three and although I suspected that it was the sound of the word rather than the actual instrument she was interested in she proved me wrong by spending half an hour playing with it and letting him show her some basic things. He was quite impressed by her interest and liked that she looked so excited just to be holding one. We’ve given a lift home to our friends who were three but now two since one of them started at school. It’s interesting to hear how thats going, the impact that it has on the whole family and the correspondance from the school on various issues. I know I would be the parent from hell if my child was in school but hope that if oneday either of my children want to try school I’ll have the same strength of character that this Mum shows and be able to offer mine the same level of support and encouragement that she offers to her daughter.

Visits and trips with individual friends have been taking place as usual. Master R seems to get lots out of playing with his friend A who is just a couple of months younger than him, has a lovely gentle character and enjoyes the same sort of thing. Their games usually involve Bowser and Buzz Lightyear with a sprinkling of Sportacus. Ms R enjoys playing with his baby sister which gives us adults a chance to chat. Although my angle is ’child led’ and hers is ’star chart’ dominated I’ve known them since A was just a few weeks old and it is interesting watching how the family has grown, developed and been influenced by home education. I like to think I played a part in their decision as the first time I mentioned home education to her three years ago she reacted with the same horror that most people do when they first hear of it. Ms R enjoys time with her friends but seems to also enjoy doing her own thing too. It’s balanced out from at first not being able to join-in and make friends, to finding it easy and seeming to ‘need’ friends everywhere to being able to play with friends when she wants but also choosing to do something on her own if she wants.

We popped into the library today for me to swap my book and Ms R grabbed a few books that she thought she’d be able to read herself. The first couple were very basic, a sentence a page nursery rhymes which she was a bit disappointed with. The third one she’s looked at is called ‘Stranger Danger’ and actually has chapters. She told me before I went to work that there were too many words and she wouldn’t be able to read it so I told her to put it to one side and we’d take it back tomorrow. When I came home from work she’d already read two chapters and told me that not only is it an interesting story but it is educational too. Master R informs me he’s also done some education today and now knows how big a snooker table is.

It’s a funny thing that I remember learning formulas at school. I don’t remember them now and I’d get flustered if I had to do a complicated sum and show my working out because I doubt I’d remember the right formula but at some point after I left school and began to live in the real world, numbers (or money to be more specific) suddenly started to make perfect sense. So now I could do that sum in my head and maybe with a little help from my fingers and I’d know exactly what the numbers depicted. For my children I wanted to bypass the complicated bit and get right onto the logical bit so most of our maths is talking and demonstrating. Sometimes we use money, sometimes edible items (these work best), sometimes Geomags, anything that we can add to, subtract from, share out, or change in some way. This means that Ms R (and possible Master R too) would be ‘behind’ in this subject if they were at school. Ms R might know what an equals sign looks like but she wouldn’t know many others and 12 / 3= would be to her what chinese is to me. She very quickly told me what ninety-nine plus eleven was today but has no idea what I’m talking about if I say "Imagine they are in columns, you’ve added the units up now carry the one over and add it to your tens". She can count in twos, threes, fives and tens and today we talked about counting in elevens. She got the pattern straight away and suddenly had an idea of what it would look like written down. Interestingly but rather logically I suppose, her imaginary written numbers started at the bottom as she said "You’d have a one and a one and on top of that you’d have a two and a two and on top of that…" I suppose it was years of looking at times tables trying to memorising them that had me briefly horrified that her numbers went up and not down. Master R said he wanted to learn to count up in tens so we did a bit of doing that. Often the most educational part of our day is the journey to some place promising educational opportunities.

Other recent gems:

Finding lots of sticky notes that read ‘OOT Of ORDRE - SORRY’ stuck on chairs and other places.

Ms R making a tiny book at our home ed group and starting to write a story in it about Master R and his cat Buzz.

Rainbows beginning again and me being able to drop her off and pick her up (as I wasn’t working). She’s still hoping there’ll be a sleepover soon and I’m hoping there won’t.

Master R piping up "If you cut an eight in half you get two threes!" when I was randomly giving Ms R numbers for her to halve. After a bit more of what seemed like daydreaming he said "And if you cut it the other way you get two zeros!". This very predictably led to talk of symmetry and asymmetry and which other numbers you could cut in half.

Ms R having one of her paintings displayed in an art exhibition. Unfortunately I didn’t realise it was a weekend only thing so we missed seeing it.

We went camping for five nights, returning to the site of our maiden camping trip. We had a chuckle remembering how small our first tent was and how naive we were in the blanket department. Our big tent makes camping easier. The weather was mostly glorious although a little breezy at night, which didn’t bother anybody else but did effect my already over keen imagination and kept me awake enough to learn that the little boy opposite hated his parents and the woman in the tent to our right had smelly wind. The entertainment as always was patronising to children and slightly inapropriate (do three year olds really need to worry about dating?) as well as deafening. During the week nights most of the other children were three and under and Ms R didn’t want to be dancing with toddlers but at the weekend there were plenty of older children for her to blend in with. Both of them managed to get themselves on stage and win medals/certificates. Master R was very proud of himself, having sat listening very solemnly when the teamstar was introducing a talent act and explaining how difficult it is to get up on stage in front of a huge audience. He said "It’s difficult getting up on the stage you know, Mummy" in a very wise been-there-done-it voice. "The man said so", he looked thoughtful for a moment and then added "You have to sort of climb up, I guess thats why there’s steps".  We managed to swim everyday, Ms R made lots of big splashes jumping in and then swam about lots. Master R swam around with his floaty jacket on and his face in the water so on the second day I suggested he try without the jacket and so he did. He realised he could swim under water unaided, we realised that he can hold his breath for about three minutes but then it’s best to drag him up a bit quick for air. One day we went to the local theme park. Master R seems to be a bit of a thrill seeker, loving rollercoasters and being big enough for most of them…if accompanied by an adult. Colin and I took it in turns and have made a mental note not to return in two years when he will be big enough for the most terrifying ones. There was a circus show on which we all enjoyed and some more tranquil rides to bring our heart rates down and settle our stomachs. We are all grateful to be back in proper beds and using proper non-communal toilets.

Our home ed group started up again the week we were away but we were back in time for the second week. It was busy and noisy with the addition of new families and the Rs took a little while to settle in. Another child into the equation rocked the boat a bit by suggesting that some of the smaller members were too young (or the wrong gender) to be involved in private conversations. I don’t really get the need for girls to lock themselves in a toilet cubicle for secrets at the age of six and seven and am keen to discourage Ms R from getting dragged into that sort of thing. Eventually, after many interruptions the group disbanded and the Rs fell into a game with their usual friends which the other child didn’t want to join in with. I did briefly wonder why I had been so looking forward to going back. Master R found some "black chalk" left over from someones bbq and was delighted to discover that it could be used for writing. He really was excited by it and drew an ‘H’ with a piece which he remembered as being a letter from his name. He went on for ages about how useful it could be and was clearly very pleased with this newfound information going on to think of many situations in which he could apply it (if all the pens in the whole world got lost, for example). Ms R lost her first top tooth in the evening leaving a huge gap. She made quite a thing about putting it under her pillow and showing me exactly where it was so that the tooth fairly could leave her a pound for it. The following morning as she was waving her gold coin around excitedly Master R looked at it suspiciously and asked me "Are you sure there’s a tooth fairy Mummy or do you just put the pound there when she’s asleep?" rather loudly and insistently. Something happened then (I can’t remember what) which got me out of answering that question. Of couse I’m quite sure Ms R doesn’t really believe in the tooth fairy but she’s not going to risk admitting that in case she loses out on a quid. One of those little games we play like when Colin does magic for them and they look all wide eyed and believing but as soon as he goes up for his bath they explain matter of factly to me exactly how he does it.

On Tuesday we had our usual visit to my grandparents to consume biscuits and the Rs both came away with a pack of cards and a small packet of animal shaped biscuits. We went on to visit our friends in Lewes, arriving early we decided to stop at a shop. After that we got totally lost, went the wrong way down a one way street which was closed due to road works (made a pretty bad dent in one of the wheel hubs) and then followed a road for miles ending up in another village at which point the petrol light came on. We did eventually make it to our friends house, only an hour late, and it made the time we visited them in the rain by train seem less traumatic. I think next time we are early we’ll just wait in our car in the next street as opposed to being clever. The children had a great time though, lots of mess was made but no fallings out and I got to drink some well needed coffee and cuddle a rapidly growing baby.

Wednesday deserves a mention as it was the Not Back To School Picnic. First though the Rs had a dentist appointment. Master R went first and got a lecture about not eating sweets every day but having them only once a week. Ms R got the same lecture and I’m quite pleased really. They ask for sweets nearly everyday and I keep explaining to them why I don’t like them having sweets so I’m glad they’ve heard it from someone else too. They didn’t realise though that biscuits, cakes and squash also counted as sweets. I think the message must be sinking in though as Master R asked me (on the train, no less) if the Salt & Vinegar sticks he was eating contained sugar. A quick glance at the ingredients revealed they did which has given us more to think about. The Not Back To School Picnic was held at our local park-with-lake. The weather looked threatening but held off although it was a bit windy. I met lots of local home educators whom I haven’t met before and saw some bigger, older home educated children which is always reassuring. Ms R is fairly tall and it was nice to see her in a group where she was one of the smaller ones for a change. Master R ran off and played with the main group of children which seemed to involve carrying sticks, hiding behind bushes, sometimes crawling along on stomachs and lots of running around. Ms R hung around a bit, played with a couple of very small people and eventually played with a couple of other girls. My first nephew spent some of the day in hospital having an EEG, this may or may not reveal whether he is having epileptic fits during the night. I’m not sure if it will give any indication as to why he has developed mild cerebral palsy over the past year.

Today we went to London. It was a very last minute thing, decided between breakfast and getting dressed. The ticket man tried to charge me £7 more for a ticket than I wanted to pay (I simply didn’t believe it would cost me that much to travel two stops on the tube), this delay of about ninety seconds caused us to miss the direct train, it literally pulled away as I reached out to open the door. [Edit: Deleted the long rant about the ticket man who, after all was only doing his job] Thankfully another train came within five minutes and the one change was quick and easy and at a station we are familiar with. We found our way to the Science Museum where we spent about three hours. We discovered all sorts of things and probably walked up and down every set of stairs at least once. For some reason nothing was where it was meant to be the first time we tried to go there but was the second time. I found it quite hard with two children both having questions and needing help with different things at the same time, there were things I’d have liked to have explained in greater detail to Ms R but Master R was commanding my attention most of the time. Maybe that was fine, Ms R could have found the answers or a way to get more of my attention if she’d needed it I guess. Before we left we sat in on a show about explosions. The message was very basic; that you need heat, fuel and oxygen to make fire and that fire causes heat, light, sound and movement. Some of the experiements weren’t successful and some seemed unrelated but the children enjoyed it and Master R was chosen as a volunteer to make a bang. We then raced back to the station as I couldn’t remember who said what about train ticket restriction times and had sudden visions of us not getting home and sleeping in the Underground. The tube was packed on the way back but Master R exclaiming very angrily "Mummy! Why didn’t you choose one with seats?" resulted in not one but three people leaping up to offer us their seats. It was slightly embarrasing and doesn’t really enforce what I’ve been saying about how getting what you want can be dependant on how you ask for things. We really enjoyed our trip to London and are eager to go back.

Master R is back to wearing his patch on his right eye again. He had an appointment last week at the eye hospital and not wearing it at all in the six weeks since the previous visit has resulted in his left eye getting worse. He tried lying to Scott (the opthalmist) about having not worn it but as the words were about to escape his hands flew up to his mouth as if to try and stop them. In our family telling lies results in having bad dreams, as confirmed by both children who have indeed had bad dreams after having told a lie  so we talked a bit more that. I think Master R would prefer the threat of prison to that of nightmares but in the end he confessed all and his conscience was eased. We are struggling a bit to get four hours of consecutive wear with the patch as he tends to take it off for various things but we are probably clocking up nearly four hours over the course of the whole day. He is happy to wear his glasses most of the time now and just takes them off in the evening, I don’t know if they get uncomfortable after a whole day or if his eyes get tired from all that seeing and need a rest.

We have been swimming a couple of times recently. Ms R did a weeks intensive swimming course which she really enjoys but didn’t seem to improve much. She can swim across the pool in her own style and the lessons are now at the stage of just going back and forth across the pool with floats in various positions practicing different strokes. With enough practice she’d be able to perfect them but she has no interest in practicing strokes during her swim time, she’d rather go down the slide, jump in and swim about on the bottom. I haven’t got round to enquiring about weekly lessons and I think if she had the choice between them and a weekly free swim she’d choose the free swim so we’ll try and go weekly together. Now that she is going down the big slide she is pretty independant of me which gives me time just with Master R although she does look small queuing up with all those big children. Master R is very confident to swim around wearing his float jacket which gives me some exercise too. He can stand up in the shallow end of the learning pool and likes to take his jacket off sometimes so that he can launch himself away from the side to try and swim to me. He has also got the hang of putting his face under so does that lots too.

We’ve seen various different friends in small doses and the usual family members. Master R is becoming a friend in his own right now rather than the little brother that tags along behind Ms R. We met up with an internet group, most of whom I hadn’t met before. They seem to be a group with very young children which was disappointing as I was hoping that Ms R would find find some six year olds to play with. She didn’t mind though as there were plenty of babies to touch, stroke and coo over. Master R found his friend A to play with, I think it is his only same aged, same gender friend and they get on great together. A is a fairly gentle character and while they might chase away imaginary monsters they never play rough with each other. Now that Master R is four and would be about to start reception I guess I have to start thinking about home educating him in his own right rather than just letting him tag along as a younger sibling. His needs are different to Ms Rs, at the moment he is spending lots of time explaining things to me and wanting to have sensible conversations. He seems to especially enjoy the little lectures I dole out every so often about how other people might feel and what we could do to put things right, he seems to take them as a responsibility rather than as a telling off.

We visited the last of the Roman Days held at the Roman Palace. The activities were much the same as the last one we attended, the highlight was very much seeing our friends there. At the end we discovered the dressing up area so both the Rs dressed up (twice) to be photographed, so we have two nice pictures which need scanning into the computer at some point.

On a visit to my Mum today she presented them both with an activity book and crayons. Ms R had a Times Table one which promised to take us on a magical journey. We looked at the first page together and she wrote the answers to the two times tables mostly in little boxes, stuck a couple of stickers in and started to colour the page. Master R had a First Alphabet book. We looked at the first page which was a bathroom scene with various pictures and words round the outside. We had to find certain stickers (things like a towel and shower cap) and a couple of words. I found the word ‘taps’ for him to stick in over the top of the same word and asked him to check it and he very carefully checked it letter by letter to make sure each one matched.

On the way home Ms R asked what ‘Times Tables’ meant so I explained that. She understands the concepts when I talk about ‘lots of’ (as in four lots of two) and ’shared between’ (as in six shared between three) but gets totally lost and goes quiet if I talk about times or divided by. I’m sure the terminology is far less important than the concept. Later in the evening she asked again and as we were at home I told her to grab a load of Geomags and put them into groups of three. She was happy to tell me she had four groups of three but that she could also divide them up into two groups of six or three groups of four and she knew that whatever way she did it she still had twelve. I told her to grab some more so that she had eighteen and divide them up into threes and before she had finished she told me that it would make six groups. She wouldn’t have any idea what the written sums would look like and if presented with such sums it would mean nothing to her but she has a good grasp of what numbers feel like and I’m sure that will give her the foundations she needs to build upon. I remember not really getting maths at all and was probably a teenager before I finally grasped that divided by wasn’t scary at all and just meant x number of sweets shared between x number of children. I wonder how I got away with being mostly middle of the class with maths when it made so little sense to me. She has also asked what ‘percent’ meant so I explained briefly that it meant per one hundred. She translated it into money but quickly understood that one percent of two hundred would be £2 and one percent of five hundred would be £5. Somehow she already knew that fifty percent was another way of saying ‘half’ but didn’t at all get that twenty-five percent was a quarter.

Today Ms R completed the summer reading challenge. We hadn’t actually got round to reading the books she had planned to talk about as they are both too long to be read in one sitting (Magic Kittens) so before we left she grabbed the two books that I’d chosen from the rocket section and read them to herself. She didn’t seem to think it was any great achievement and was almost embarrased at my verbal praise and pride although she did ask if I’d show her where that section in the library was. She recieved a medal and a certificate and a dvd voucher which she used to borrow Shrek 3 on the basis that it has a baby on the front of it. Master R got his second set of stickers and a bookmark although neither seemed to talk about their books and both got a bit confused about their surnames. Ms R told him her middle name as he apparently asked for her second name and Master R forgot completely what his other name was, leading to the reading scheme person to not be able to find their cards and to think that we were somehow not related to each other despite them both calling me Mummy. We joined in with a nursery rhyme sing-song with our good friend Nic. I am so thankful that we have passed that stage of our lives and will never have to revisit it. The toddlers present didn’t seem to get much out of it at all and probably thought all the adults were bonkers for sitting around singing senseless, repetitive songs but I expect it’s good preparation for when they go to nursery and have to sit around listening to adults. I do imagine though that the library story times and nursery rhyme sessions are an almost life saver to some Mums who mightn’t otherwise have a reason for leaving the house or the chance to meet other Mums. I remember life with my first baby being very lonely.

As a baby Ms R never met her milestones slow and steady, a graph of her progress wouldn’t have shown a smooth upward incline. No. She’d do nothing of any interest for weeks at a time and then suddenly, three new things all on the same day. Her graph of progress would have shown big chunky uneven steps. She is still like that now and it still surprises me when so many new things happen at once. We discovered the first new thing this morning when I brushed her teeth. I don’t brush her teeth every time but try to do it most days. Today in the back of her mouth she had great big white shiny new teeth. Two at the bottom still partially covered in gum and one at the top, it was quite a shock for both of us as there had been no warning signs and I didn’t even realise six year olds grew new ones. So now she has five of her permanent adult teeth .

Later we visited my Mum and took advantage of her having a Wii Fit. I played first and at one point Ms R said I had a personal best. I asked her how she knew that and she pointed to those words on the screen next to my name which did indeed say ‘Personal Best’. Given that my part in her learning to read seemed to involve little more than me sounding out cvc words like ‘cat’ and ‘Dad’ and more recently, randomly telling her that the letters P and H make a ph sound as in photo (I get these wobbles you see) it is pretty amazing that she should be telling me what words like ‘personal’ say. The whole reading things seem to be happening in a rather snowball effect way, I guess each new word shows a bigger part of the puzzle and eventually you can see enough of the puzzle to know what every word says. But as if that wasn’t enough later she knew that she had scored one hundred and four. She must have read my look of disbelief as me not believing her so she explained how fifty two and fifty two make a hundred and four in a way that was almost challenging me to try and prove her wrong. And there was me worrying whether she could add two numbers up to make twenty or not, maybe I underestimate her . I’d really like to stop now but I can’t because there really is more. This evening she was riding her scooter with Master R up and down the pavement outside when she decided she wanted to put her skates on. I didn’t like to remind her that last time she wore them she needed to cling to me for balance but I did explain that I wasn’t planning on walking up and down with her right now. So she did it herself, just skated off.

Master R has also been coming on in leaps and bounds. He can all of a sudden pronounce the letter ’s’ at the beginning of words. Sometimes he gives a very slight pause before saying particular words so I’m thinking that it is a fairly conscious thing. He has also very recently started to recognise that words are made up of different sounds and can tell me the first sound of any word. It doesn’t sound like a big step because it is something that is so obvious to most of us but it wasn’t to him. Just a few weeks ago I was getting quite frustrated because while playing eye-spy his choice always started with ‘err’ and he just didn’t get that ‘car’ or ‘grass’ or ’sky’ doesn’t start with ‘err’. He has also taken to being completely independant in the bathroom. I don’t know if it’s because I wasn’t available one time and he realised he could do it himself or if he just decided but I’m very happy and quite relieved that he didn’t need constant coaching and support like Ms R. He even flushes when he’s finished.

I’ve talked to Ms R about possibly going to school next September, it’s a nice long way away and I like having a boundary, the idea that home education could go on forever and ever is too scary. She believes and has told me on many occasions that there is a missing number between six and seven. Apparently when you are six you are still a young child but when you are seven you are on your way to being a grown-up. Maybe she is feeling herself become more independant, I’ve noticed it. She needs me less during the day and reports back to me less often, when I’m away she doesn’t seem to miss me so much. She still struggles to fall asleep without me though and while it is tiresome that she needs to smother me at a time of day that I’d rather be left alone I’m aware that it might not go on for much longer and that I’ll sorely miss it when it stops. Ms R, please stop growing up so fast.

It’s been commented lately, by more than one person, that Ms R is bored. Of course, it doesn’t help that she uses boredom as an excuse not to do things such as going to sleep or as a way of getting attention when my attentions are directed elsewhere. Surprisingly, despite her apparent level of boredom, she never seems to need me when I am available. That is, when I’m ready and willing to spend some quality time doing stuff with her she is always far too busy occupying herself, no longer lacking in the mental challenges that others percieve her to need. What people are really trying to imply is that her boredom could be easily remedied by going to school. That she is bored only because she doesn’t go to school. That sending her to school would solve all our ‘problems’. Suddenly going to sleep wouldn’t seem boring if she’d been mentally challenged in school all day, expecting attention from the adults around her would cease if she’d spent all day with children her own age. Instead she’d be content to watch cartoons and would stop trying to engage (aka interrupting) in conversation with the adults around her. Sometimes I even wonder if Ms R would be a happier, more content child if I set her some work; if I made her read out loud from a reading scheme or if I set her some sums to do. So before I forget what a wonderful, interesting day we had and start printing off Key Stage One activities to do in order that she be challenged I’ll blog:

I woke up to a bang, once again believing that the Local Authority were at our front door with Social Services in tow. I really need to get this out of my head and stop waking up to imaginary bangs. It was early but I found Ms R sat on her bedroom floor drawing up the plans of our house. 

It was early so I climbed back into bed to read a history book (about Celts, Romans and Anglo-Saxons) and heard Ms R wake Master R up to find ‘treasure’ by reading her map. There was no point in staying in bed once everyone was awake so we got up. Ms R found the bit of paper we were using yesterday to write words on that sounded the same but were spelt differently (mints/mince one/won etc) and wanted me to show her some more but suddenly remembered that we were seeing friends today and abandoned the words in favour of doing something for them. She designed an activity for one friend:

And made a Hama bead heart for the other.

Between all of this and 9.30am when we left the house we also fitted in breakfast and getting washed/dressed. On our forty-five minute car journey we covered various topics that started with wondering what would happen if you kept going in one direction long enough. We decided that eventually you’d end up back home again but Ms R was very unhappy with the idea that half way round the world you’d actually be upside down. I talked about gravity and the atmosphere and how even when you are ‘down under’ it doesn’t feel like you are upside down, in fact it doesn’t feel any different at all. She talked about airplanes needing lots of energy to get them off the ground and about space rockets needing fire to get them through the sky and not being affected by gravity once they are in space. I was very impressed that she knew this and had obviously grasped the concept, not sure where it came from. I mentioned about perspectives and how the way we look at things can affect the way they look. We talked about different climates and species and game reserves and she was upset that people didn’t help the animals in some game reserves but rather they were left to nature. We talked about survival of the fittest and what happened to the weaker ones. She asked what happened to their bodies when they died so we talked about water content, scavengers etc and what might be left over and wondered what happened to all of the bones. We talked about different languages and she was interested to hear the few words that I remember of Zulu and Afrikaans and later expected me to be able to speak Chinese. By the time we arrived I thought she might be out of questions but then she wanted to know what would happen to the car if we drove it into the fence post. It was a fairly study looking post so we decided that the front of the car would be damaged and this lead to discussions on the radiator and the cooling system and what a leak might mean for us.

She played for the best part of five hours only pausing occasionally to cuddle the baby, eat something or to tell me she loved me. 

I was expecting a musical journey home but Ms R wanted to know what ‘beheaded’ meant and then wanted to talk about the wives of Henry VIII. I wanted to talk about the Romans and Anglo-saxons that I’d been reading about in the morning and Ms R was happy to listen and asked questions that I either bluffed my way through or promised to look up. Of course, if I was a real teacher I’d not only already know everything but I’d have known months ago that I needed to know it for today.

We had to pop into the supermarket on the way home which was uneventful except for the twitchy customer assistant who was quite bothered by Ms R moving things around on the conveyor belt. She was concerned that Ms R was mucking my order of things up but Ms R assured me she was reordering it in a better way. Like I care what order the stuff goes through.

Dinner was had and stories read. Ms R made a point of reading out loud the parents notes that were in the back of the book Master R chose. Master R was thrilled to think he’d chosen a book that was going to help him learn to read one day.

So that was Ms Rs day. Looking back over it I realise we didn’t do anything that involved numerals. Oh well, that will be tomorrows subject then . Master R had a very different day. I caught him this morning trying to weigh things on the bathroom scales and explained to him about the kitchen scales and where they were. Briefly I had a mental image of him weighing things on the kitchen scales and gaining immense mathematical knowledge from the experience, but it wasn’t to be. I hinted heavily that he could get the kitchen scales and then gave up realising that I was starting to hang towards coercion in my quest for spontaneous, autonomous education. He too did some drawing and some Hama beading, this time making a pattern. He didn’t have his glasses but that didn’t seem to hinder him.

him.

He slept both to and from our day out so missed all the discussions although woke up in time for a couple of rounds of eye-spy before we got home.

While out he went off and had lunch with his friend

And afterwards went for a ride

We did have at least two discussions on why it isn’t a good idea to throw stones in a car park although thinking back these were possibly rather one sided. He was later to sleep than Ms R so watched a dvd in bed and then had cuddles.

We’ve made it to the point where I’m happy to say that Ms R can read. I’m not exactly sure when it happened but the general words that are scattered around our life in the form of labels, signs and headlines are now easily understood. This morning at the sandwich chiller she helped Master R choose his lunch by reading out all the fillings for him. She wasn’t consciously trying to decipher the letters on the front, she just knew by looking that it wasn’t just a salad sandwich but that it had chicken in it too. That another one had bacon and another had tuna. There was no place for me to praise her on being able to read all the fillings out loud, I didn’t even bother acknowledging it because I doubt she realised that she was reading. She was just helping her brother which happens almost subconsciously for her; she’ll often pass him something without being asked when she sees him stretching, lift him up if he’s not tall enough to see or explain something he doesn’t quite get. She proved her skills again when we got home by reading on the front of some mail: ‘To the parent or guardian of…’. I doubt she could have read the word ‘guardian’ from a flashcard but she knew what the g word in the context of that sentence would say. After she read it out loud without faltering she took another moment to look at it, sounding the word out under her breath as if dismantling and then rebuilding it so that she’d know how it was made and why it said what it did. I often catch her looking at a word and muttering under her breath, I guess she’s got enough of the required tools to not need any interference.  

We have new neighbours, next door upstairs. This afternoon when the Rs were playing in the garden they became aware that they were being watched, after a while they started waving up at the window and before long were giving their names and ages. They have made friends with Rob who we are guessing is between ten and twelve, apparently there were two more little faces up there as well although they didn’t speak.

The grass is up in our eco-system. It seems to be growing before our very eyes being twice as tall this evening as it was this morning.

It has been hot today, lots of people have been complaining about it. I’m hoping it lasts for at least three months.

Ms R asked about The War today, to which I took to mean the second world war, so before we’d even got dressed this morning we spent half an hour sprawled across the bed reading the relevant chapter from a CPG book. I was quite pleased to get a chance to use the book as I’d been questioning my sanity on the purchase, and of course very pleased that when she asked the question I had a book to wave at her. It seemed to cover the few points that I remember learning about; the blackout, evacuees, rationing, the blitz and the fact that many women had to go to work for the first time. Ms R was very indignant about women earning less money than men but was reassured when I explained that it wasn’t so much the case now.

A couple of days ago we collected a small fish tank from a Freecycler and have made a sort of eco-system in it to demonstrate the water-cycle. We filled a lunchbox with water in the tank, some soil borrowed from Nanny, a couple of small plants from B&Q and some seeds of cress and grass. It is in direct sunlight and during the course of the morning the water collects on the clingfilm top, forming larger and larger drops until they rain down again. The cress has shot up and looks ready to cut already, no signs of grass or flowers yet though. This has inspired some interesting conversations and while Ms R is more interested in the rate of growth of the cress Master R took more time in trying to understand the whole process.

Both of the Rs have been swimming in Nannys swimming pool. Master R is out of his depth but is very confident in his swim jacket, Ms R can touch the bottom. I’m hoping that she’ll be able to have some more swimming lessons during the summer.

Ms R, by her own choice, left the nest for a whole day today. Only for a brief moment did she question whether she really wanted to go and then that moment was gone. She was grabbed by a friend to be a partner and the Rainbows boarded the bus two-by-two. We waved at each other for the best part of half an hour while waiting for the late comers. Extremely annoying as I woke up at thirty minute intervals through the night in a panic about missing the coach and was wanting also to keep the good-byes as brief as possible in order that neither one of us would cry or change our minds. I felt a bit lost afterwards so we visited Nana who was thrilled to see us and gave us a Mars bar to go on our way with.

I wasn’t able to be there to collect her due to work but heard all about it at the end of my day. She had a great time, ate lots of sugary foods and dozed off on the way home. I was partly happy that she was visiting a place that she was familiar with and slightly concerned that she’d be bored by it but I think she enjoyed the novelty of being sheparded around in a large, uniformed group and getting to share a large picnic lunch. I’ve definately felt a shift lately in the amount she needs me and can feel her growing up. Having said that it’s a foregone conclusion that she’ll be wrapped around me when I wake up in the morning.

I thought Master R would be lonely but he didn’t seem bothered. He mentioned about going too but I don’t think he would have done if it had been an option. He looks forward to being old enough to join a similar group but isn’t in any rush. He still likes to exercise his independance while I watch.

Todays education was pretty hardcore for us. If only I could have predicted this twelve months ago.

We started with History which is fairly regular for a Tuesday morning. Not because of well adhered to timetables but because it is the day in which we visit my grandparents and for some reason that incites questions relating to the ‘olden days’. Todays subject started with cars (I think it was “Why doesn’t Nana have a car”). We I talked about the numbers of cars on the roads and a bit about speed and safety and other modes of transport. We discussed I lectured on the topic of small local shops and the sorts of foods available which lead on to the subject of larders. I quite clearly remember Nanas walk in larder so talked about that for a bit. Master R wanted to know if people had larders upstairs too and Ms R told him that houses hadn’t been invented yet and everyone lived in flats . As Nana lived in a large farmhouse throughout my childhood which hadn’t had much modernisation I also remember things like the outside toilet, fireplaces in the bedroom and the old fashioned telephone. We arrived at Grandmas to find her outside preening her roses (or something) and carried on the conversation with her. She enlightened us to some of the joys of only having an outside toilet and somehow linked it to how old men grow such big vegetables so I guess we could call that bit Science. She told us about bathing and about the scullery. It’s fascinating to listen to her talk of the past, she has always been a very modern grandma in my mind. Or maybe we’ve just come a full circle in some things (like breastfeeding, co-sleeping, growing your own, natural remedies etc). The Rs like to play cards at Grandmas house so we did a bit of that. First I played pairs with Master R while Ms R did something similar with Grandma and then we swapped and I taught Ms R a new game which involved picking your opponents cards to try and make a pair and trying not to be left with the odd card, can’t remember the name but remember playing it with picture cards as a child. Grandma and I had a roam around her garden which is beautiful and always in bloom. She is a tomatoholic so there are many plants on the go all of different varieties. Master R has a little tomato plant which he purchased yesterday for 50p, it’s the only thing we are deliberatly growing at the moment. The rest of our garden is autonomous.

After we left Grandma (with crayon on her tablecloth ) we visited the stunningly beautiful reclusive gardens nearby. Usually we just race to a favourite place and I sit on a bench while the Rs run around and make ‘camps’ but today Ms R wanted to follow and fill in the childrens activity sheet on offer. She was already armed with a pencil and looked the stereotypical student with map in hand and bag on back. It had a section for ticking off wildlife that could be spotted at the pond so we spent quite a while there looking for water boatman, lily pads and the like. We saw some dragonflies too, bright blue ones and an orange one. We found our bearings on the map and talked about where North might be and why I might hold the map sideways, she didn’t have any problems following the map or finding the things we were supposed to be looking for. The flowers smelt nice, we saw some birds fairly close up (one eating a worm!) and Ms R rescued a little caterpillar who was stuck in a web and with the aid of her trusted pencil took it safety. It’s the first time she’s shown any interest in wildlife and it was like she was seeing everything for the very first time despite us being regular visitors of the garden.

On the way home we stopped off at the big pet shop. Master R found a puppy to stroke and then tried to convince both me and the assistant helping us that we should take a rabbit home. He seemed to want one very much. Ms R looked at the fish and we decided that we really needed an algae eater to join the little goldfish. Although this is the very last chance, if the little goldfish manages to kill this companion too then it will be living the rest of its days in solitude. At the very least the fish did take us away from discussing the flea cycle again.

At home Master R decided he needed to do some more school work and continued with the goldstars workbook that he started yesterday. Although he didn’t quite match the thirty pages that he did in the first sitting he did a few and clearly feels proud of himself for being so clever. Ms R made pizza (aka cheese and ketchup on toast) with minimal help and then they took themselves off to play something together.

On arriving home from work I recieved the usual picture/message from them both. Ms Rs had lots of stickers, hearts and ‘To Mummy I love you from R..’ and Master Rs was his usual scribble but today in a different colour. For so long it irritated me that Ms R wrote form instead of from but she seems to have self corrected, she also got the you right too which she’s been finding tricky. I guess it was only a matter of time before she got them right.

Yesterday at the checkouts of our supermarket my daughter had a conversation with the checkout lady. It went like this:

Lady: No school today?
Dd: No.
Lady: Inset day?
Dd: Huh?
Lady: Is it an inset day?
Dd: Erm, I don’t know, I don’t think so.
Lady (getting a bit impatient): Well why aren’t you at school then?
Dd: I don’t go to school.
Lady? You don’t go to school? (Looks at me disbelieving) Are you home tutored?
Dd: No. I’m home educated.
Lady: (quietly and away from me): Wouldn’t you like to go to school and make lots of friends?
Dd: I’ve already got lots of friends.
Lady: You might have lots of fun there.
Dd: I already have lots of fun and I’d miss my friends if I had to go to school.
Lady: Don’t you want to go to school?
Dd: No way. I’d miss my friends and my Mummy and going out all the time and learning things.
Lady: Well why don’t you just try it for a little while and see if you like it.
Dd: No. Because then we’d have people coming round and asking lots of questions and stuff and we don’t want that.
Lady to me: Are you going to do it forever?
Me: I don’t know, who knows what the future holds but for now it’s working for us.
Dd: I might be going to school in September. Daddy wants me to go to school because of my behaviour.
Me: *Blushes"

Then we finished the shopping and the lady complimented me on my daughter. Said she has a really good understanding of things for her age and talks well and that she enjoyed talking to her.

A bit later my daughter wanted to know what ‘Bug day’ was. I think she was slightly suspicious that she may be missing out on something fantastic.

The week long swimming course has finished. It was a great success, not only because she learnt to swim but because she really enjoyed it. She’s shown that she can learn in a group setting, can follow instructions, can be regulated etc. All the things that non home-educators talk about. From day four we had to arrive half an hour earlier to join a different class which was interesting. It was harder work for Ms R and she was no longer used as an example to the others. They were introduced to breaststroke; she got the hang of the arms but her legs seemed to do their own thing and after trying to swim a width of breaststroke she gave me a rather sad look and a thumbs down sign. I wondered if that would end her enthusiasm for swimming but on the last day she discovered she could swim lengths on both front and back and was awarded a ten metre certificate and badge.

Master R has also got loads out of swimming on a daily basis. He liked watching people jump off the diving boards and was really impressed with one person doing somersaults and turns. When we were in the pool he kept jumping in and a couple of times tried twisting round in the air which made him quite difficult to catch. He’s also pretty good at dunking under the water. When he asks me to let him go I push him towards the edge and let go at the last minute so he can grab hold. They both completed their first fitness diary and recieved a voucher for a free swim or a free entry to a soft play.

They’ve both been doing quite a bit of cycling. Master R has got the hang of his pedalless bike so it won’t be long before he’ll want to attempt riding a proper bike.

We visited our very close little park today. It has lots of climbing and balancing things and it was fascinating to watch Master R clamber across everything. He seemed to instinctively know where to put his feet and how to balance on things, it all came so naturally to him. Ms R is two years older and has had the benefit of me helping and showing her but was still faltering and doing it in odd ways.

Ms R has been doing a lot of drawing lately. Her people are still stick people but we can usually spot who is who by their hairstyle. She’s getting more adventurous and is drawing cars, aeroplanes and animals with smiley faces. She’s also taking more time, using different coloured pens and doing decorative borders. A lot of the pictures depict things we’ve done or plan to do and she’s trying to show feelings and thoughts. She drew many pictures yesterday while I was at work and one of them was a picture of Master R thinking (thought bubbles) of a ham sandwich and crying because he wanted me. Another picture showed her and Master R stroking Buzz and others showed all four of us having a fun day. Master R attempted to write an R but it didn’t bare much resemblance to mine. His drawing often consist of a quick round and round scribble which is then presented to me as something he has done especially because I’m the best mummy in the world.

One of our library books has been illustrated with cartoon characters over photographs and we’ve talked about ways of doing this.

The summer holidays are whizzing by, I had visions of long lazy days stretching before us (not that the rest of the year is much different to that). I don’t think we get as much for our six weeks nowadays as we did when I was at school.

They both weighed themselves (which they do every so often but I don’t usually take much notice). Ms R is 20kg which puts her on the 75th centile and Master R is 15kg which puts him on the 50th centile.

I’ve forgotton how to blog, I can never remember if I’ve mentioned something already or if it has happened since I last blogged. So it’s back to lists until I remember how to fill them in a bit more.

Today was day two of Ms Rs week long swimming course. Yesterday she did okay, today she excelled. She swam across holding one of those small rectangle floats in front of her, then she swam across holding it with just one arm, she swam back with it under the other arm and then she put it down and swam across completely independantly. It was quite amazing to see. She raced across like a torpedo and was most surprised to find herself at the other side. So proud she was she nearly jumped right out of the pool and for a good few minutes afterwards she bounced around waving at me and giving me thumbs up. She was then told to show everyone how to float face down which she did wonderfully even she’d never done it before although she told me afterwards she expected to sink and drown. I’ve been getting in after the lessons with Master R so that he gets a chance to splash around. His getting very water confident, enjoys coming down the slide and uses his hands to crab walk back to the steps.

We saw my grandparents who I find quite inspirational, they make being old look great fun. We discussed things like make-up, fashion trends and their recent spur of the moment daytrip to the Isle of Wight. I think my Grandad is a bit confused about the not going to school thing although thats probably because I’ve not mentioned much about it. The way Grandma parented probably didn’t have a label back in the 1950s but I reckon if ever our conversations turned onto more serious subjects she’d be totally for autonomy and attachment.

We shopped. Master R had been treating me as a punch bag all through the day. Ignoring it, instantly meeting his needs and speaking in soothing tones about being gentle doesn’t seem to be doing the trick. It was at the checkout just after I discovered the milk had a leak that I lost it. It wasn’t just a punch, it was now a box (right, left, right) so I said ‘No’ rather too loudly for my own good and then with a clenched fist I made contact with his shoulder. No. I didn’t punch him, it wasn’t a hit or even a hurt, it was just my closed hand resting on him. However, he didn’t see it that way and shared the full extent of his lungs. The five children at the next checkout stared with wide eyes and gaping mouths. And just in case there was anyone in the supermarket who wasn’t quite sure what all the fuss was about Ms R started yelling at me that I mustn’t punch my little boy. Thank goodness it is school holidays, judging by the cashiers response similiar scenes had probably been playing out all day.

The library trip went better, partly helped by the fact that we went a day earlier than usual and it was actually open. The Rs sat at a table and chatted to the librarian about the books they’ve read. I wasn’t sure if I should hover over to prompt them and translate or if it was better to keep out of the way. I opted to keep out of the way but was in earshot so heard Ms R reading out her favourite bits of a book and then heard her prompting Master R who quickly got the hang of talking for himself although there was a slight disagreement about whether he had actually read it all by himself or not as he was claiming. Ms R chose a book and read the title out loud to herself as ‘I want my little on’. I read it back to her as ‘I want my light on’.

A quick trip to the post office restored my smugness and gave my children the chance to stare wide eyed and gaping mouthed at someone elses bad Mummy.

Yesterday we visited friends who had kindly made birthday cards and yummy cakes with candles. Ms R stropped about a bit inbetween having the best time ever and is really looking forward to next time even though at one point she exclaimed loudly that ‘They are the worst kids in the whole world’. Lets all hope that she doesn’t make it into world politics. I’m hoping that she’ll learn some self control and tact sometime soon.

Master R got stung by something, possibly a bee. I expected being stung by a bee to be a lot worse than it was, obviously I wasn’t the one in pain but after Neurophen and a good nights sleep it’s been forgotton.

Sunday was my birthday celebration. We opened my presents, bathed in them, spent it, ate some, visited my Mum and my Nana and then the Rs had a late night. They get as excited over other peoples as they do their own.

The fish wasn’t dead which made it a little easier on me as I only needed to tell Ms R it was sick. She said she thought it was dead when she saw it laying on the bottom but then realised it couldn’t have been because it’s eyes were still open. By bedtime though it was dead and she expressed a bit of sadness but I think this was more to delay going to sleep than genuine grief. I asked her if she wanted me to deal with it which she did (so it went down the loo), she hasn’t asked yet where I put it, maybe she won’t. Poor little fish, like I don’t already have enough to feel guilty about.

I don’t usually talk about my birthday but I thought this deserves a special mention. Because I was working today (and because Daddy does things at the last minute) we decided that tomorrow would be more of a celebratory day. When I arrived home the R’s were awake and still full of Happy Birthdays but very tired to the point of hysterically irrational. After I’d calmed them down and read them a bed time story Ms R told me she had some birthday money for me and asked if she should give it to me now or wait until the morning. My head was spinning wondering who it might have been from so I said I’d like it now please and she pointed to a pile of coins on my bedside table. She had counted it out of all the money she had saved (from picking mine and Daddys pockets!). She had even given me her one silver coin because she knew that it was half a pound and she had tried to make the money up to a pound. She said I had to have birthday money on my birthday.

In other news.

Master R is not wearing nappies at night and I’ve not needed to change the sheets for three whole days. I’m hoping this is it because as far as he’s concerned he doesn’t need them anymore. He has also got the hang of using the mouse on the computer. He played a very easy game on Cbeebies and after I got fed up of restarting it every few minutes I tried directing him from afar and he can do it.

Ms R can now skip using a skipping rope, it’s been something she’s wanted to be able to do since joining Rainbows. She played on Education City for a while and has just about completed all of the Year one science. She enjoys playing it but the questions are slow coming and I think she gets bored waiting for each one as there’s a lot of unnecessary animation surrounding each one.

Sadly one of the goldfish is dying. I’m not sure why and I’m hoping for a miracle through the night so we don’t have to spend tomorrow grieving. It’s all sort of bent and floating around the bottom but is opening it’s mouth and gills so I guess there’s still hope. I feel a bit useless, I can neither put it out of it’s misery or do anything to make it better.

Buzz has just come in dripping wet all over, I looked outside and it’s definately not been raining so maybe she’s found the source of the frogs. She’s also hardly using the litter tray now which is nice. I think she’s just passed six months.

Ms R drew a picture of stick people next to a building with many doors and across the top wrote "WoT doo Hd THE ENT" which translates to ‘What door should they enter?’. I also notice that the building has extremely straight lines so was probably drawn against a ruler or something similar. I am very proud that she has written something that she can read.

We’ve been visiting and hosting friends, making ice-creams out of yoghurt, playing in my Mums big paddling pool, visiting the pick-your-own farm and seeing relatives. I’ve had to explain phrases such as ‘Five minutes or so’ and ’Yes, no doubt’ and we’ve had quite a lengthy conversation on illness, the immune system and vaccinations.

Both of the Rs are now sleeping all night in their own beds after a couple of nights of me keep returning Ms R to her bed. Master R is trying again without a night time nappy and so far has had one dry night.

Ms R thought it great fun to try and read words that I wrote on a piece of paper so after a while I printed out a list of the forty-five key words that she would have learnt in reception had she been. She was thrilled with it and read all of them bar five. The ones she couldn’t read were oddly spelt words like ‘our’. She was really pleased, she talked excitedly about how being home educated was really great because she still learnt things but she could stay with her family and play with her friends. It was really sweet to see her so enthusiastic. It wasn’t a deliberate test but she was happy to see a measure of her success as well. She wanted more words so I printed out the year one words of which there are lots more crammed into the same space. They got progressively harder and we got bored less than half way through them so they were abandoned but interestingly we came across the word ‘too’. Ms R read it correctly but then told me it was wrong so I explained about the three different spellings and their meanings and she recognised ‘two’ further on.

Master Rs eye appointment was disappointing as the person he was supposed to see wasn’t there meaning he only had a partial test and no glasses yet. We did gain something out of it though, a parking ticket.

There’s probably loads more I should be blogging but my minds blank at the moment.

We’ve been reading the same books over and over. This is good because Ms R learns to sight read sentences.

(Edit: I’ve just proved that theory by writing the word ‘flight’ on a piece of paper and asking her to read it. She looked thoughtful but only got as close as guessing fish. On the other side of the paper I wrote ‘A flight of stairs’ and she laughed out loud before reading it easily)

Anyway that sentence is from ‘Don’t Forget The Bacon’ by Pat Hutchins which we read everyday until the point when Ms R took over the reading of it and read it to us. She spends quite a long time on each page trying to get the expression in her voice just right.

We’ve also been reading two of John Burninghams books (Avocado Baby and Mr. Gumpys outing) both of which we’ve had out before but this time were Master Rs choice. And we’ve enjoyed ‘Mog The Forgetful Cat’ by Judith Kerr. It irritates me slightly that two out of these three books have burglars in and one has bullies. It’s surprising how often bullies crop up in the picture books that we borrow.

So today we joined the masses of school educated children in the library to sign up for the summer readig activity where we found Mrs. MonsterTeeny being ever so patient and kindly.

We spent a weekend in the midlands visiting Daddys family and that involved a day at Alton Towers. I was initially a bit disappointed to find that Ms R didn’t want to go on all the slightly bigger rides that she is now big enough to ride on. I’d been looking forward to wurlitzer and mini roller-coaster type rides only to be told that they didn’t want big, fast or scary. Didn’t go down well with my ‘lets get our moneys worth by scaring the sense out of us all’ attitude but I recovered quickly and enjoyed the more sedate rides. My favourite was a ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ ride which involved a gentle boat ride and a flight in the great glass elevator. It was very clever and didn’t involve much movement but I guess if you are five and under and the graphics are really good then you might really believe that you were shooting through the roof of a building and that would, understandably make you rather hysterical.

After a couple of days at home we then packed up our tent and headed for a tiny Park Resorts in the middle of nowhere. The lady in charge of the campsite side of things obviously ran a tight ship and returned to lecture us and scold us more than once while we were pitching the tent but then thankfully left us alone. The entertainment manager took a liking to us (possibly because we were often the only ones there) and so we got a pretty personalised entertainment plan. Sparkle, Sparky or Narky visited us depending on who we’d expressed hope in seeing and both children were known to everyone. They won medals, stickers and t-shirts and over the busy weekend took part in a dancing competition which found them blinking under the bright lights of the stage and expected to perform. Ms R has learnt from somewhere (I’m blaming Cbeebies) how to wiggle her hips and shake her shoulders and Master R tried to copy an older boy doing break-dancing. He won a prize in that comp based on trying to stand on his head while waving his arms and being the smallest. We visited another theme park for more thrills and spent lots of time wandering along the river bank, spotting rabbits after dark and fliying kites. We swam most days, Ms R practiced swimming under water. And they made friends with three older girls who mothered them lots.

I’m sure if I could remember every detail I’d be able to put lots of educational spin on our trips. I remember Ms R getting pretty good at reading grid references from the road map ("There’s a picture of a duck in C3") and she finished her Maths workbook during the time we spent travelling. She finally got the hang of number lines but didn’t see the point in them when she already knew the answers and also finally got the hang of working out what the missing number was. She hasn’t asked for another one yet but I think by the end of the book she was getting a bit fed up of it. Thirty-two pages of sums totalling no more than ten was pretty boring.

The Rs washed the car this morning. Or at least they threw wet sponges at each other while I washed it.

Ms R seems to be ‘collecting’ money so that she can buy us all an ice-cream. Last time she counted the copper in her little bag she had twenty-nine pence. Today she tipped it out to count but said there was too much to count. I was busy so not taking a great deal of notice but heard her have a lightbulb moment and decide to put it into piles of ten pence. She called me to help and told me that she had four lots of ten with three pence left over and then after a pause told me that it was forty-three pence. We talk about larger numbers as ’so many lots of’ ten because she seems to understand that concept and later we talked about adding up in tens which she got pretty quickly.

Ms R had rainbows this evening. They spent some time outside and on their way out of the door she yelled for me in a slightly panicky voice and sort of got shuffled along by an adult helper but I told her I’d follow her out. Once out she was fine so after a couple of minutes I told her I was going inside and reminded her where the door was if she needed to come and find me. She raced in a bit later to let me know that they were going to do show-and-tell outside too and that I was to stay inside. I guess I wasn’t needed. She took a First Dictionary book that my Mum gave her and apparently told everyone how to look up a word after I’d explained it to her on the way up.

At bedtime Ms R wanted me to read Tom and the Tinful of Trouble by Nick Sharratt and Stephen Tucker but as I held the book up and took a couple of deep breaths she started for me. She read the first half pretty fluently and then started stumbling over words like ‘and’ and ‘the’ so I took over and read the second half. It’s very fluently written (and we’ve read it about twenty times) so her reading isn’t all about decoding individual words but some of the time she used her fingers to point along the line of words. She’s definately reading the words even if some of them are unknown and being filled by memory of the story which is completely different to Master R who can appear to be reading a story very well to somebody who’s not aware that he’s actually on the wrong page for that bit.

Master R has his eye appointment in a couple of weeks, I can’t imagine what seeing might be like for him but it would be great if something is done to make things look clearer.