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.

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.