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.