today i thought i had better get organised and be as active and there mother as i could. plan to exude a calm environment and not screech. started off well with chris cooking me breakfast, as i am a bit knackered cos i slept with sb last night at her request – always leads to a dreadful night sleep for me, but it is an occasional treat for her, and i am trying to climb up the motherdaq.
i think i am going to lose track, as it has been a busy day, should have twittered! i know SB did a fair amount of education city. once she found the bit that said what the games were going to be about, she chose grids, multiplication etc, and enjoyed it. i will pay to go up a level, as this one def too easy. BB and I did lots of playing with merry’s borrowed digicolour, and i realised that BB not only can count to 10, but does recognise all the numbers as well [even if it is 1, orange, pink, 3,4 etc...thanks numberjacks! i liked that 12 was purple orange - sigh!!] BB did some games on the ‘puter whilst SB and I read the india chapter from SOTW2 [which i know she has done with chris before] and looked at some pictures of the caves and findings from the gupta empire. we also played a bit of spin the globe with SB and BB, finding which countries we landed on. SB read and did the jigsaws in an explorers book whilst BB and i played, and then SB did violin practice with me. she did some very good sight reading, and we are working on rhythm – at the moment it is easy bits quaver speed and hard bits minim, rather than whats on the page!
then we had lunch…
in the afternoon, the girls were keen to go out skating. there was a fine drizzle so SB was in charge of seeing when it had cleared up. this was obviously a mistake – or perhaps the mistake was in me not confirming, as we ended up going out in heavier than light drizzle! oh well, there i am walking the village with a v straight leg skating sb – who was just starting to losen up as we approached our front door on the way back, and bb, being v cute on her skates.
on our return, BB and I made cookies, i think SB was doing something on cbeebies. then i was bored, so i suggested we made coil pot easter eggcups. luckily both girls thought this was a fab idea, so we all sat down and did coil pot eggcups with air drying clay. SB made hers independently, and BB insisted that i roll her sausages [shes not so keen on mucky hands - despite always painting them!] put proved to be totally fab at winding up the coils. they decided to keep the ridged look and only smooth slightly. SB went on to make a really good model pig for nana, and BB an enormous but fab coil pot. we did this for nearly 2 hours, and I realised that joint craft sessions are what really make a home ed day for me, sitting there altogether enjoying fiddling with stuff. And so sweet that bb said thankyou to me at the end for helping her and enjoyed it. think this might be a cue.
whilst doing this, we had some lovely symphonies in the background to listen too – possibly aiding my chill factor.
washed hands and ate the baked cookies – yummy. SB back on cbeebies and bb and i read some red nose readers together and she was wild for a bit. i think she is a bit like animal from the muppets at times, maybe she needs a drum kit. SB’s birthday money burning a hole in her pocket, and she was thinking of ds games, and stuff merry sells. i remembered that i had found the other 2 games we were given with SB’s ds, and got them out. SO intially SB did a lot of brain training – hence the title, and then went onto the mario game, which she has enjoyed. BB, bless her, pretended to be playing her ds with a picture of a ds. my heart went to her, as she was being totally adorable playing it. she has been told she can’t have one till she can read, so she was making do. i am feeling the need to buy her a present. either a couple of this range, or the new range merry was considering – which is unbearably cute. gah – more of my excellence money spent on the girls!! it did pale sooner than the real deal did for SB, so she watched some bob the builder and magic school bus. At tea, BB insisted that i write her maths questions whilst she ate, i wondered whether she was in the right blogring family! did 2 pages of assorted match and sort!
Anyway i worked really hard today at keeping cool, especially at SB’s diddley daddleyness, and contrariness, and BB’s threeness, and i think it all came together. but i am truly knackered. couldn’t keep this up every day!
Hey! You exceeded the maximum possible points allowance for a day!
Supermum!!
You might think you don’t do too well, but you put the rest of us to shame, honestly!
but i was REALLY trying. today not quite so fab!
Helen–what makes you feel that the rest of us don’t have to ‘try’ to make every day a good one? I haven’t meet any mom yet where this all comes so naturally and blissfully! Stop judging yourself all the time–it’s just putting more stress on yourself. All those who have met your children seem to say they are happy–isn’t that the greatest end result?
erm, thats a bit of a difficult one Elizabeth, I think its partly because i used to find it much easier, when I was part time and then on mat leave, I had more freedom of time, worried less and we seemed to get a lot of fun [may be rose tinted spectacles!] that now i have far less actual time I hold myself against a mirror of perfection that is probably not possible, but that I would like to achieve. I think we all are allowed to navel gaze periodically at how we do things, and late winter early spring tends to be my season for examining the fluff!