Friday, July 03, 2009
All aboard!
April was off out in the garden early this morning and was delighted to find LOADS of snails on the garden path. They'd presumably come out for a splash after the bit of rain we had overnight (I say bit because, despite what the weather forcast predicted, it has been gloriously sunny and warm all day ever since). Anyway, she collected them all up and sort of .....erm... took them for a ride on her toy Dizzy. Then she let them go, collected another load and made a garden for them out of bits of grass, leaves and old buckets which she kept nicely wet so they'd be cool! She played with the molluscs for three and a half hours!!!
I've been making a sort of moveable alphabet for her for September. We have actually got a very nice, proper Montessori alphabet but the font is wrong for us (bit Century Gothic as opposed to Primary Sassoon) as we are going to use the Jolly Phonics books from the autumn. So, the Montessori one is going on Ebay and I had to put together a homemade version out of loads of little boxes mounted on a sheet of card. Ok, it's VERY homemade but I think it looks kind of cute and (possibly due to the girly pastel colours), April thinks it's the best thing ever *smiles*. I downloaded and printed the alphabet from here.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
I don't know what to say really!
It is quite UNBELIEVABLY hot! Yesterday was hot, today is hotter, tomorrow is (apparently) going to be cooler - thank goodness.
Don't get me wrong - I am NOT moaning! I absolutely love this after the freezing winter and so-so spring but, really, it is too hot to do anything.
Oh, and Tim just made me want to cry by giving the kids the last of my Häagen-Dazs icecream leaving me with bloody Mini Milks!! What possessed the man?! Mind you, I do feel sorry for him - and pretty much everyone else at his company who does the same job (very physical) - he must have been terribly hot at work this morning!
Off now to sort of ... melt.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Creepy crawlies
April had a fun day today :) She spent ages outside this morning hunting for ladybirds (I got a photo of a newly hatched ladybirdy on her hand but it came out too blurry) and released one that had hatched in our bug box. After lunch it poured with rain but she still wanted to go out so she put on her rainmac and went off. She'd been gone a while so I went to check on her and found her playing with a GIANT slug! Bleeeuurgh! I think it's fair to say that she's following in Rosie's footsteps for liking bugs!
My brother and his wife popped over just before lunch with some homemade meringues and fruity icecream which we later ate for tea and were very yummy indeed :)
April also had her first gym club today - we've been on a waiting list for ages and I thought they'd forgotten us! She was her usual confident self and ran off and joined in, listen to the instructor well (which was a surprise because that's something she has difficulty with sometimes!) and was really quite good at it for a first attempt! Tomorrow it's Rosie's turn for the p.e lesson (heehee!) at her trampoline class at the Littledown - me, Tim and April will be out playing in the swing park while she's in there.
Got the letters sent off today to the education authority about April not going to school now. Very glad we did it. Very glad we finally reached this decision on what has been a very trying few months. Y'know how I considered school, partly because it would give me time alone? Well, it would seem I'm almost certainly going to get more time if she's homeschooled! Tim is being absolutely fab with wanting to help me out with this so not only does April get the fun of homeschool but I get a whole bunch of me time. Perfect :)
On the subject of homeschool, I've been really busy getting organised for the new year - got such a lot of really fun stuff planned that we almost can't wait to get going!
Categories: Cooking, Homeschooling, Life, Places, Wildlife
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Monday, June 29, 2009
It's here!
My Sims 3 has arrived! This is total torture because it's my birthday present and that isn't for another 3 weeks!
Other news, April isn't going to school. Not going to waffle on much about this other than to say that she became increasingly miserable and unhappy about the idea of going - the "indifference" from the preschool day turned into out and out not wanting to go. Tim and I had big discussions about allsorts connected with homeschool and one thing he agreed that, in order to give me more time alone, he would take the kids out more. So, April will be happy, I'm happy, Tim's happy (coz he's sick of hearing about school!) ... that is FINALLY the end of this sorry saga!!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Headachey
A bit of a headache thing going on today (because of the hot, muggy weather) - slightly unfortunate as we're off out for dinner tonight to some place called the Alice Lisle in the New Forest - it's fil's birthday - maybe have to down some pills before we go!
I've been busy getting a unit study on Japan ready for Rosie as this is going to be our first major study of the new school year. I'm really looking forward to this as it's a subject I love - we're going to do loads of crafts and some lapbooking to. I've found some great resources/websites for this and will post them nearer the time in case anyone else wants them and I've been getting into practice with some origami and have rather got into it! Very relaxing hobby :)
Oooo! Tim ordered Sims 3 for me - should be arriving from Amazon any day now! Just got the ENDLESS 3 week wait until my birthday now! I know, I'm beyond sad *laughs*.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Summer
We went fruit picking this afternoon at Sopley - the strawberries are at their optimum ripeness and are just divine :) We picked waaay too many really but they're only around for a short time so best to make the most of it. April has been feasting on these ever since we got home and now has strawberry juice all down her front :) We also got a few raspberries although they're not "out" as much yet - I love raspberries and me and the kids walked up and down the rows of plants eating as many as we put in the basket ............. simple pleasures ;)
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
So, how was it?
I don't even know where to begin on our little excursion to the school this afternoon. I truly wish I could sit here and say it was a positive and refreshing experience but it wasn't. It was tedious, stifling, patronising, boring and, frankly, a bit upsetting.
So what annoyed/upset/irritated me?
- Having to sign THREE times - once to get in the building, once to get into the hall (less than a minute later!!) and once to GET OUT the hall at home time.
- Being talked down to and patronised by the Reception year teacher who told me to "go natter with the other mums dear" (like, do I need to be told that - I will if I want to!!) and made a comment to the effect that, presumably, I would be getting tutors in to get Rosie (she knew that we home educated) through her secondary education. Erm... no.
- The almost cattle-market appearance of a bunch of insane mothers fighting each other off for the last 5-6 year old cardigan on the uniform stand (I kid you not).
- The smell of the place (ok, I'm being picky now)
What about April? Well, predictably, she took it all in her stride, didn't hesitate to go off and play when we got there and froze a boy off with the sheer force of her stare when he tried to steal a car from her. She went off perfectly ok to have a story in the other room leaving the mums behind (to "natter" presumably) and came back with the same indifferent expression on her face.
On getting home I had a quiet chat with her, gently probing for her views, asking her whether she still wanted to go to "big school". She says yes, because they've got a room like Tumbletots (gym equipment). That, for me, isn't good enough - just today a woman from a local gym class that I had put April's name down for AGES ago (when definately going to homeschool) phoned to say they had a place now ............. talk about timing!
April wasn't excited today, wasn't full of herself, wasn't raring to go. She was indifferent - not scared or crying or worried just .....indifferent.
Tim thinks we should still let her go and try school and he also says that we shouldn't muck her about by saying she's going to go one minute and then not the next. He's right off course. Part of me feels now we've got this far we might as well see it through and just see what happens. Part of me doesn't want to do that though ..... because ... don't know. I just keep seeing that indifferent, guarded, almost emotionless little face in my mind and it's bothering me.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Not sure ....
... the new blog thing is going to work. I don't like the layout (ugly) or the mucking around with html every single time I want to make a post.
Also, I've been innundated with requests for passwords - some from people I am familiar with (Nikki, Carolyn :) ) and others from people who seem to THINK they know me but clearly don't!
So, until I can think of a better way, I'm going to leave it and carry on posting here. Tim suggested just using a Wordpress account and just linking to it from here which is a thought. I know you can password those because Tim and I have our own ..... ahem ... private blog there ;)
Anyway, on a different note, I'm supposed to be going up the school with April this afternoon for the first of 3 preschool sessions. Now, not only is she still a bit "coldy" but I'm absolutely FULL of it - sneezed so hard this morning I made my nose bleed :( I'm not even sure we SHOULD be going on account of infecting everyone else but on the other hand I don't want her to miss these sessions as it's a chance for her to settle in a bit before September. It's only 3 sessions!! She can't miss them!! Y'see, I'm being caught up in the stress and worry of it all already :(
Yesterday, they sent me a HUGE envelope of guff - forms to sign (loads), info about fruit/free milk/uniform and so on. I felt truly depressed looking at it all and began to think, is a bit of free time every week worth all this hassle? Then I thought, yes it probably is because i'm not going to get any otherwise and she seems perfectly happy about it all.
I just feel miserable but it's probably just the cold mostly and I'll feel fine again in a few days.
Going fruit picking at Sopley tomorrow afternoon though! Always LOVE doing that so that's something to look forward to! :)
Monday, June 22, 2009
Bloggy stuff
NOTE: Blogging experiment to see how it goes - this may or may not work out! .....
For a while I've been considering having 2 separate blogs - 1 for very general, educational type stuff (links, reviews, recommendations, ideas etc) and the other for more personal, family related stuff.
In view of recent changes to things around here (school, yikes!) I've decided this is as good a time as any to start up the separate blog. I guess there are several reasons for doing this. For a start, I'm going to have considerably less homeschool related things to write about from now on (as I said above, I will still share links and whatnot) and also school type things which I'm less inclined to share with the whole world. Also, on that note, I have become, recently, less and less inclined to share all the general, non-school nitty-gritty and personal details with everyone - I want that sort of stuff to be limited to just family, close friends and blog-internet-friends (who are particularly well known to me).
All this obviously posed a problem because I wanted to still host the diary on my site and also not have to faff around with Blogger or Thingamablog (which I'm using to type this and which is, frankly, a pain in the arse sometimes). So, I've used Bravenet to set up a passworded page (link at the top of this page)- it's not pretty (you have to put up with the horrible ad bar at the bottom) but it does the job. Will try this for a while and see how it works.
Now, about passwords and things. This is going to be a bit like ex-directory telephone numbers - if you know it, please don't share it about with all and sundry! I don't have anyway of keeping track of this or who is reading the page so I'm just going to have to trust people. I've deliberately tried to pick a word that, generally, most people who know us reasonably well, or are family, should know. If you fall into that category but don't know it, just email me (email addy in a min) and I'll let you know it.
If you are well known to me (through blogging or internet in general), then please feel free to email for the password BUT please understand that I'm not going to give this out to everyone JUST people I'm familiar with. Sorry ... but there you go.
Email address for passwords and stuff: info (at) sarahsellers (dot) co (dot) uk (obviously replace the at and dots as necessary!)
So, sign in details are as follows:
username: diary
password: will be the first word in the name of the company Tim works for (clever eh?!)
If you know it (which hopefully, as I said, family and friends probably should), just go right ahead and sign in (not much there at the mo!). If you don't and want to, then please email me.
Finally, I appreciate that there are probably a lot of people who've been reading this blog for a looooong time but, basically, aren't known to me (either by blog comments or email contact). I know that some might feel a bit upset that they won't be able to read the new diary and I'm sorry about that I really am. Please, do still look out for the occasional education related post on this blog though :)
Sunday, June 21, 2009
I'm a bit not well
See the sad, droopy teddy? That's me right now :( Got the kids cold and although not as poorly as them, I still feel pretty yuk. Like the teddy, I need lots of cuddles.
PS - if there is anyone reading this and has contact with us - don't panic! We don't have swine flu or anything ... no need to paint a big red cross on the door just yet. ;)
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