Twenty-Ten

Another number day. For some reason Ms R always wants to know about numbers when I’m driving. They are always question that lead to base ten style answers which really need to be demonstrated with something. Pennies and ten pences would probably work as she understands them. Today she wanted to know why the zero after the one made it ten and not just a one with a nothing after it. I’ve been talking about things in terms of how many tens they are ("Fifty pence, thats five lots of ten pences you know!") but still, while thinking of twenty three as two lots of ten and three is so logical to me it just prompts unsureness from her. Maybe I need to draw columns for hundreds, tens and units and show her written down. Or maybe I’ve got it wrong (not unlikely). Is there an easy way? If only she didn’t ask.

Master R wanted to know which part of him we made first, he thought it might be his private parts. He seems to think Daddy did most of the making of him which could be in response to me blowing up the part that the Daddy plays when he first found out that he wouldn’t oneday be able to have babies himself. I told him we grew his heart first so he said "Oh, did you stick my bits on afterwards then?" I might need to rephrase some of my simple explainations.

Ms R has been printing certificates from a Thomas game. Very proud she is of all her certificates. She says she can’t wait until she’s old enough to learn to drive a car, that it’ll be really exciting and that she expects she’ll get a car for her grown-up birthday present. I explained that cars are very expensive and that she really needs to start saving now. She’s asked if there’s any money left over from the holiday if she can have it to start saving.

Master R has been talking about spiders alot lately. He knows all about spider webs and why I hoover them down and is very interested in the graphic detail relating to the catching and eating of flies. Yuk.

Dad asked when Ms R will be going to school and I finally answered him properly (sort of). I said that Daddy wasn’t really fussed about her ever going but that I thought she’d probably want to go oneday but for the moment, all the while that we were able to meet her needs and it suited us as a family she might as well stay with us. He said "Fair enough" and walked away signalling the end of that conversation. I’m really pleased that I said something sensible instead of stuttering on about something irrelevant. I tried to make it sounds as though it was about us personally rather than an anti-school thing and that we were open to school as an option for if and when we needed.