Living 2008

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.

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.

I did housework this morning while the Rs played although Ms R demanded help with learning to play her little recorder half way through the washing up. We now know about semibreves and how to play an A. There are two lines of music of B and A notes, crotchets, minims and semibreves to play. I really wanted to ’show her how it’s done’ but she refused the offer.

I heard the Rs decide to play Toy Story. It’s the first time they’ve enacted out a scene from a story, usually they make things up as they go along. Ms R quoted huge chunks of the script including an american accent for Andys mother. A bit of a surprise as they haven’t watched it for ages.

And then we spent the rest of the day with friends. I sat quite still using only my talking and coffee drinking muscles. The children played. Interestingly they’ve started including some organised (playground type) games into their time. The weather was great so they spent quite a bit of time outside and Master R wandered round on his own to check out the hens. They were all on top form which meant they managed to smooth out their usual niggles without too much trauma. It’s a pity I don’t have more to say about it because the amount of learning, enjoyment and satisfaction they get from spending hours playing together deserves more than three sentences.

Master R got tired and needed to go home before Ms R was ready so she asked if she could say. She was a bit surprised when I said she could and questioned me quite sincerely on whether I really would leave one of my children there. So she stayed for a whole twenty or so minutes while I took Master R home, organised him some dinner and then handed him over to Daddy. He was asleep by the time we got back and Ms R went to sleep very quickly.

Buzz always comes up for storytime and lays in the middle of my bed purring while I read. When the light goes out she stops purring and when all three are asleep I creep away. Tonight the Rs went to bed seperately into their own beds. When I went back up to check them she was asleep on the floor between their bedroom doors.

Master R wakes up in the morning and likes to sit very quietly for about half an hour before starting the day. Ms R starts talking almost the moment her eyes open, Daddy often sends her back to bed because he can’t cope with her bounce first thing. This morning he overheard this at 6 am.

Ms R "Do you know what two and two is? No? Is it four or is it two?

Master R "Two"

Ms R "No it isn’t two, look at my fingers, two and two is; one, two, three, four. See it’s four. Did you know that? Two and two is four. Can you say four?"

Master R "GO AWAAAAAY!!!"

I caved in and let Ms R have a new activity book. It was only £1.50 and has a practice book inside it and a page full of gold stars which made Ms R feel like she got really good value for my money. It’s basic addition and subtraction and involves lots of counting dots on dinosaurs and adding them together or working out how many sweets you had left if you ate so many etc. What it does seem to be good at is working on the translation between numbers of objects and written figures. She loves it and took it to my grandparents to do, since then it’s stayed in the car and whenever we drive somewhere she reads out the letters at the top of each page so that I can tell her what she’s supposed to do. I’ve not really looked at what she’s done but on listening to her mutterings it sounds easy enough for her.

It was a surprisingly calm visit to my grandparents house. Ms R impressed them with her keeness to do ‘work’ (which earned us comments about homework when she’s older) and I did some Magic Painting with Master R. Afterwards we made an unplanned visit to the pick-your-own farm. The tractor ride prompted lots of questions about tractors, why they have big wheels, why they don’t go very fast and tractor machinary. The raspberries initially looked disappointing but then we seemed to get lucky and found loads. They both like raspberries although I’m not keen. I talked a bit about how people may once have had to forage for food and Ms R seemed to think I was talking about my grandparents. We pottered along and picked some peas, Master R was eating instead of saving but eventually we thought we had enough so went on to pick strawberries. We talked lots, the Rs waved and smiled at various babies and small children, they pretended a building on the hill was a darlek (now that I work Saturdays they watch Dr. Who) and the tractor-stop shed was a tardis and we spotted butterflies. With no clock to watch and the freedom of the fields time flew by and on returning to the car we realised we’d been there for three hours.

We cleaned Ms Rs fish out this morning and afterwards sat on her bed looking at The Usborne First Book of The Recorder. We got to playing a B and learning about crochets and minims which I found fascinating because I’d never understood music at school. We clapped some rhythms and then Ms R has been practicing playing them. She was really keen to move on to learning more notes but Master R was getting bored and had his fingers in the fishes mouths.

We cycled along the cycle lane to the swimming pool. I suggested taking the trailer but Ms R wanted to cycle and Master R really likes sitting on the back of my bike. It’s just under two miles but took us well over half an hour. We had to have a stop on the way when Ms R wobbled onto the stones and fell off but she made an excellent recovery and we were soon on our way again. We were told that the swimming pool was slightly colder than usual but that didn’t deter them. Ms R practiced her swimming, she seems to be able to doggy paddle for a little way but her legs sink and she holds her head so high she ends up as just a face peeping out of the water until eventually she disappears completely. Master R splashed around loads on his tummy with me holding him and did quite a lot of jumping in. It was drizzling when we came out and we were hungry so we got chips to eat and sat in one of the shelters looking out to sea. The ride home in the drizzle seemed to take forever. Ms Rs legs got tired so we walked the last little bit and Master R had nodded off on the back of my bike.

We visited Nana and the Rs played with an older girl.

We finished our Roald Dahl book so read picture books at bedtime. Ms R didn’t go straight to sleep, first she put loads of soft toys and books into a box because she doesn’t need them anymore and then I sat and talked to her about Master Rs eye appointment. She gets quite squeamish whenever it’s mentioned so I’ve explained everything as best I can and have asked her to be positive and supportive. He looks up to her and trusts her judgement, if she acts like hospital appointments, eye tests or wearing patches are bad things then he’ll think I’m trying to con him and will be scared an unco-operative.

Stories are usually reserved for bedtime. Actually we don’t even call it bedtime, we call it story time but the end result is hopefully two sleeping children. It’s very rare that I don’t do bedtime stories but if it is late or if one of us is particularly tired I’ll race through them pretty quick. The general rule is one story or chapter each, occasionally I break this rule. We lay in my bed, me in the middle and a child on either side. After stories they snuggle into me for a cuddle then Master R rolls over, closes his eyes and floats peacefully off to sleep while Ms R needs reminding to lay still and stop humming. She doesn’t seem to have an off button and is active until the moment she drops. Sometimes she’ll start a sentence but be asleep by the end. Even once she’s drifted off her body still jerks as though in last desperate attempts to keep her awake.

Tonight Master R chose The Gruffalo again. It has started to annoy Ms R, in fact it’s started to annoy me slightly too but at the moment it is his very favourite book. Ms R was cross with his choice and wriggled about in bed next to me so I told her to go into her own room and read a book. She stropped off grumbling that she couldn’t read. At a car boot sale on Sunday she found four Disney Winnie-the-Pooh books for twenty pence each and when we got home I read them out loud while the R’s were in the bath. After Master R and I had finished reading our story we could hear Ms R, it sounded like she was reading one of the new books so I called out to ask if she wanted to finish reading it to us and she did. She was already halfway through but continued reading it fairly fluently. At first I wondered if she was relying on the pictures and her memory to tell the story but then she got a bit muddled and instead of carrying on she stopped and muttered the sentence while pointing at the words. Once she figured it out she read it how it was written and continued with the story. She was surprised and then elated at getting to the end of the book and as I was telling her how proud I am Master R climbed across me and flung his arms round her saying how clever she is. She was genuinely thrilled and rushed off to get another one which she started but we prematurely ended because Master R was also attempting to read out loud from a different book and it was affecting her concentration. I read her a couple of chapters of Charlie and The Great Glass Elevator and once the light was out she whispered that once Master R was asleep she’d come downstairs with me. As I snuggled Master R down he whispered that once Ms R was asleep he’d come downstairs with me. So with both of them pretending to be asleep in order to help the other one go to sleep it didn’t take too long. Of course, it doesn’t always happen this way. Sometimes I fall asleep first and then they both get back up.

Buzz

Is growing and now feels like a proper grown-up cat to stroke although I’m sure she’s still got quite a bit of growing to do. We’ve been taking her to my parents house fairly regularly and she is getting used to their dog. The little ginger kitten she is wary off and growls at, the bigger cat doesn’t get too close. She’s comfortable inside the big conservatory and the garden although won’t go into the little conservatory where the litter tray is kept and the cats are fed. It is also the only outside door with a catflap so she’d be expected to enter and leave via that room. But there is still time yet. She happily walks into the cat carrier and goes to sleep when in the car.

At home she is now venturing further than our back garden and is asking to go out to play at night time. Last night I caught her following a little hedgehog round our garden. I think she’s reaching maturity and wanting to find companions, of which there are many.

Recently Ms R has been learning her left and right. It’s not something we’ve discussed or anything that I felt was particularly important or relevant but in the last couple of weeks she’s been asking which is which. Initially she’d ask which was her right and then ‘um’ and ‘ah’ a bit before working out that the other one was her left. As the days have passed the questions have become more about confirming that the one she was holding up was the one she thought it was. She’s twigged that she usually writes with her right hand but wouldn’t know that it was her right, rather than her write. My Mum went into a long but very clear explanation of why her right hand was opposite Ms Rs right hand when they faced each other and at the end Ms R said "Yeah I knew that anyway".

We’ve all been riding our bicycles. On Sunday we went for our first family ride. The short ride to the park with Master R singing away in the seat behind me and Ms R wobbling happily along behind Daddy was pretty much what my pre-children imagined snapshot-of-family-life looked like. Of course, all those years ago I never envisaged the five or so years of endurance needed to reach that particular point but to any passer-by at least, we looked the perfect picture of family happiness. The only downside of the cycling, well it could be anything I suppose but I’m blaming the cycling, is that Ms R seems to have slimmed down to the point where her shoulder blades and spine is visible through her clothes and I’m starting to wonder what people must think.

Rainbows is a roaring success. Ms R absolutely loves it and while she hasn’t made any particular best friend (or managed to remember anyones name) she chats to everyone. Last week she said she didn’t really trust the leaders but this week she sat next to one who helped her to make a bracelet. She looks forward to the show-and-tell part although it’s not always easy to know what to take. So far she’s made (well decorated) cakes, made an instrument (shaker) and a bracelet. She’s also doing her best to learn how to hula hoop.

Activity books (or are they called workbooks?) seem to have made a comeback in our house. We have have a collection of them, most of them given to us by well meaning family and friends on first hearing that we weren’t using school. They are now all doable by Ms R, occasionally she asks me to read what it says at the top of the page but often the requests are obvious. Master R was eager to do one too so sat on my lap carefully tracing over numbers and shapes. I told Ms R that in some families the children are required to do a couple of pages of a book every morning and she said she’d like to do that too but asked if it would be okay if she did a whole book at a time. I said once she’d filled in every page of every book then I’d be happy to buy her some more.

We’ve spent plenty of time in parks. They’ve now reached the age where none of the equiptment eludes them so I’ve started taking a book. I don’t actually read much as I keep peeping to watch them play but it’s so much better than standing around feeling like a spare part. Ms R usually finds a smaller child to mother and Master R is often not far behind her but sometimes he takes himself off and will spend ages doing the same thing over and over until he has completely mastered it. I’ve also seen him just sitting and watching other children. Ms R is very proud to be able to slide down the pole by herself now.

Master R can count to ten. He counts objects and understands how many there are (rather than just being able to recite the numbers) although if one was taken away he’d need to start counting from the beginning again. Unless the objects were biscuits and then he’d just batter me. Today Ms R was playing with numbers and I asked if she could count up in twos, which she did so I then asked if she could count up in threes to which she said she couldn’t but she got a little pink calculator which is usually some magical or sophisticated item in a game and typed in three plus three equals, equals, equals etc and read me the numbers as they came up. I was rather surprised, I didn’t know she knew the plus or the equals signs or what a calculator was for. Obviously all those secret agent codes are more than just random numbers.

Master R acquired a plastic boat the other day and has fallen in love with it. He sails it in the bath.

Mum looked after them for a couple of hours the other day and with her friend she took them to the park, read them stories, fed them and let them play in the garden. Afterwards the friend said that she thought they were lovely children and almost made her want to return to her former job of working in a nursery. And today someone commented on how well behaved they were being and offered them both a sweet. It’s nice when strangers see good things in my children.