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Its hard to believe we have lived without SB for a full month. I miss her every day, sometimes to a physical hurt. my chest feels heavier, my shoulders sag, and my dreams are unsettled. Why do we do this? because SB really wanted to, she wanted the chance and the opportunity to relish and fully immerse herself in another way of life, to learn to be french. So she is. I cant say it has been an easy ride, she has been homesick, had a few misunderstandings with french family, en famille sorted them out easily [as not that big, had just been worrying her] . but the french family, sb and us, as well as en famille, are all committed to making it work. I think it will.

today we had a few tears in the phone call, we all need a hug. it has been a month after all! however, things are carrying on, she lots her school card and wasnt let out – had to go to etude. she forgot her maths homework this weekend – etude again i reckon! but she is auditioning for the choir – chorale – they have 3 taster sessions. singing in french seems a tall order to me! she is enjoying scouts, she has friends. school is boring, but thinks civics might be ok if she understood it she is really happy with her french sister and has settled into life there. she really misses reading tho as she wakes up early and can’t think what to do. i wonder if french family could find audiobooks she might understand for those moments?? we put some simple ones on her kindle – not sure if she still is allowed to use it tho, as we forgot to ask. She was v excited to have bought some records – vinyl!!!! at a market stall. Her french dad [who she thinks is great, especially because he loves pasta so often buys that when he shops] says she is using more french and speaking to people SB says she mostly speak to otheer children/friends as her words are often in the wrong [ie english] order and need unmuddling still. but hey a start

miss you SB, but still proud of you for taking such a big step, and hoping you have a good week

more uneventful than planned! BB, due to good behaviour, got to go to a film sat morning. unfortunately, once it was booked she had a massve meltdown and the weekend has been… interesting. Anyway, glossing swiftly, we went to see despicable me 2, which we both really loved, made us laugh lots, and was v companiable. pretty much the high point of the weekend . She did manage to visit a tile shop [we didnt find what we wanted] and a bathroom shop – agreed principles for each item – before coming home. erm, fast forward…

Today i had hoped to take advantage of the lovely weather and go to brancaster beach to meet aunty m. unfortunately bb less keen, so a day at home. BB read some fact books to me and after some negotiation, we did a piano practice, which went well. we then did loads and loads of lego she is now happy to box things by colour/shape rather than by set – phew – as it helps her find the right thing when she wants to build a not-set. this is something of a breakthrough yippee :). our dining room table is covered.

we did some painting – mine as a practice run – post to follow! and hers she went wrong so no pic. she was happier on windows paint and then did a fair bit of play with her dinosaurs.

we had a phone call with SB. – blogged!

and ended the day with david attenborough hearing about the development of backbones and hip joints

you may have noticed, but my blog died! well,it lost connection with its database. before tht the server was part of some crash or other, so the blog was deactivated. sigh! so, i don’t quite know where the blog is, and plan to ‘go back in time’ with posts until i hopefully meet myself coming the other way [and DH finds whats wrong with the database]

This week has been a busy week for BB, she has worked quite hard at reading and also better at getting the 20 things on the ticksheet. These things are of variable length, and none long. it is just to try and develop structure we can build on. She likes the new organisation of ‘fact books’ and has been happily reading them.

Evening activities have restarted as well, so back at swimming and cubs. Judo had a miss as this weds she tried out for swimming club and has been put in the pre-racing group. v happy about that tho that means we now do something on a fri . This week some of the local home ed group stuff was going as well – the regular multisports on the thursday, but also a new thing – orienteering – on friday. She loved it and was happy with her group of friends, even though they mostly walked and ambled rather than being made keen to finish first [maybe DH has some pictures?]

on the weds front we had Weds4Ed, a perhaps not so snappy title! For me this was slightly messed up by a requirement to attend a very urgent work meeting in the morning, so jiggering around, gave DH to young engineers stuff to sort out. kfish also had a day out to take l to Ypres [see their blog] as far too good an opportunity to miss . E and B then got the day going, with chess, as quite a number of the kids are interested to quite serious about it, and animation. When I got back, the creating the storyline was going full swing v happily . Pasta for lunch and then some balloon rockets with young engineers. worked initially much better than expected, zooming along the string! the dual balloons not so good, but interesting how they twirled around [as not equal sized] and then the booster rocket ended up being predom adults only, keen to make it work! E and I took the interested [2] to do some general musicianship, starting easy and working up which was fun, and E and I then played some piano duets together – more fun – whilst the kids had some playing time, taking turns doing their credits animations. 4pm is the games hour, so some joined up to minecraft together and e and i played board games. think this will work well, as BB loves minecrafting with small and R , many of the other kids like boardgames

SO in all, a good week. BB still misses SB a lot [as do we] , but is shaking into new routine, and we are trying to keep busy busy.

SB has been settling in this week. A more upbeat phone call than last weeks. school still boring, but has lots of people interested in being her friend, as being english is cool . She mentioned a variety of v french names, i remember Mia . maths is easy, not done art. english tedious, and french horrible – the teacher more grumpy. they have civics – a mishmash of geography and history which is complicated. SB says the teacher is lovely and looks like a young me, and says she neednt do the homework currently as all writing. She has been nervous of school, so FrB came up with the lovely idea of blowing candles out for days at school.

you cant say a lot in 20 mins a week, and you darent ask much too deep. but it seems to be working out.

so, both because i wanted to see them, and also because bb and i need to keep busy and not brood on how much we miss SB being away, we went to visit my parents, leaving dh behind for diy purposes. the drive down was awful! the rain was bucketting, the road had lots of spray, and wereas most drivers were like me, staidly driving 50, some were still at crazy speeds. argh! however we got there safely, and it feels like home

sat we went to cliveden. just mum, as dad didn’t really want to go out. he didnt go out much all weekend, which makes me worry. cliveden was lovely. mum and i werent sure whether bb would like it – she is unreliable at liking! but she loved it. she loved the maze [a lot]the paths, the waterfalls, the slide from the terrace [very much] the icecream and shop, and also the younger childrens playground. when i said we would perhaps go back in the summer with FrB, she was really positive, especially as we will go to the older play area and the pagoda . so good day

the next day after a bit of negotiation – and lots of games of biberbande, we went to marlow to feed the ducks and go to the swings, and also to a gardencentre. normal things and she was happy with all of that as well

hooray and 3 cheers . negotiated lunch [thanks to mum for understanding] and went with dad to the village swings. gald dad came out with us. BB liked them. loads of red kites – 5 at one point! home and the drove home, at least a better drive.

great weekend, and bb agreed we should do it more often

BB is not keen on travelling, she is particularly not keen on travelling for long. you could say it wasn’t her week, but it was all shped round her and she had a fab time . Mondy DH took her to london to the natural history and science museum, where she met up with friends, looked aournd the bugs section, bought a wallbook and then went and got it signed , DH might blog more, or he might not… he has any photos! Tho I saw some when we looked at them. she got back v late as they went to pizza express for tea, missed train otr 2 and got in at 10.30 high on skittles

weds we went and met friends at ickworth a national trust property that was beyond bb’s drive tolerance . she had a fab time, talking with small and r as they walked round about minecraft, pretty much non stop! they enjoyed the playpark, she liked the packed lunch [woot] we went terrible wrong with a short cut after geocaching and she didn’t moan [suprised] but when we drove home she let rip about everything that was wrong . but she had a fab day, and prob was just tired. she fell asleep 3 seconds before we went on the drive

conservation group started on the fri – which was good and other than that she could stay in to her hearts desire .

oh, and her lava lamp arrived

SB has had a bit of a wobbly week this week, settling in , being nervous of school etc so en famille stepped in and helped her and her family with some talking at it seems to have worked out really well. Today on her phone call SB was pretty up beat, she didn’t have any problems, school boring, but she was going to work on that. she is gaining some french and the french family are filling her days and weekends. i am breathing again, and think it is going to be ok . they have done some stuff with scouts, played with young cousins, a bike ride got rained off, enjoyed baking with FrB

here is her first day at school

and here is BB really enjoying her phone call