In a blogring way, we cooked Sarahs aubergine and chickpea casserole for tea – very nice, and now see she is planning beetroot rissoto.
I think Chris and I are too tired. Work is very full on – and I guess will always be so, so I feel that I am full on in every aspect of my life, with little opportunity to catch my breath and just waste time! BB not sleeping, and my dreadfulness at going to be early combine to make me permanently sleep deprived as well. I notice that Chris and I get short with SB at times when we wouldn’t have done before. I shouted today, and have felt dreadful since, as it was just about putting her coat on – not life shattering at all. She had refused, I said fine, we got to the car and she was complaining she was cold, so I shouted. Sigh.
Chris and I need to work on this, as SB doesn’t respond well to being shouted at, and it is usually entirely unneccesary, just a release of our frustration. With my working, she is always keen to stay up as late as she can push it to play with me, and I can’t help but want to play with her. This, though, is also not helping, as I think she is sleep deprived too, and much more likely to wail at the slightest thing, therby setting mine/Chris’s teeth on edge, etc etc – you see how this goes. I think, as soon as I’ve got the things at work vaguely running, I can try not to stay late – I’m often back at 7ish on Tues and Thurs, so that we avoid those being late nights, and potentially try and leave a bit earlier on the Mon and Fri to be back by 4:30 – 5ish if i can.
Anyway, to today. I got up late – another poor night, not helped by SB going to bed so late, that i stayed up unneccessarily later etc etc! We went to stagecoach [and I shouted about coats]. SB always reluctant to go, though enjoys it whilst there, and we haven’t renewed to go next term. We might try it or something similar again when she is older. I am not totally happy with stagecoach anyway, as I think they teach the children bad singing techniques – ie louder and false american with smiles, rather than concentrating on tunefullness. However, thought she would love it – how wrong! While SB there, me and BB had a nice walk around the nearby country park – good for my cobwebs, and giving BB her own time.
the weather was so lovely I promised SB we could eat outdoors for lunch – so we did, warmly wrapped. Chris had made potato and leek soup – yummy.
I the afternoon, I read SB a magazine and a story whilst BB fed and then dozed and she did spiral drawing. We then spent quite a long time painting and did blow painting and stamp painting. a rather imaginative under the sea picture with handprints as seaweed and the fish/shell stamps. she even drew a safe path for divers.
She then coloured in a picture for a present for me. BB woke up so we had a fair bit of playing all together. Mostly with the stacking cups and the moving tortoise, with SB also using the spacehopper to bounce up and down the hall – to BB’s bemusement.
Later I read most of the Roman Usborne time traveller to SB, and we had a look for Italy and Rome on the globe, discussed empires vs kingdoms, capital cities, slaves and the rather horrible roman games! We did a page of thinking skills in maths 1a. I am feeling guilty about the lack of formal maths at the moment, so will try and gradually creep it in. Yep, I know not autonomous, but then I don’t pretend to be autonomous, just generally child led, but would feel more comfortable with a ‘normals’ set up in addition.
Tea was the well received aubergine and chickpea casserole, and then some story reading and general looking at our globe before bed, and the magic faraway tree at bed.
To tell the truth, I am wondering whether we are a bit slack to be home educators, as SB such a bright spark that part of me thinks we should really be managing to do normals, and let the rest be child led. Somehow, we don’t. its not a worry so much now, as she isn’t even compulsary ed age, and I do think formal education is pushed far too early, and yet….. [everything we did today bar stagecoach was truly autonomous]
