School, Skool and Magic Bandaids

Posted by Deb on Thursday September 6, 2012 at 10:50 pm

Barney went back to school on Friday, and George and Freddy followed on Monday. George was in fine form when called for breakfast, very much looking forward to getting back to school, but the others were a bit more grumpy about having to get up early again. They all came home in good moods though – and with George saying to me, “Please don’t kill me”, because he was carrying his PE bag, which had been handed to him during music. That would be the PE bag he lost way back in March. Before the Great Lost Property Clearout that the school did in June. Only George could lose a bag so effectively that nobody even saw it for six months. He has no idea where it was found. I suppose it means we’ll have a few spare PE bits, but it would have been nice not to have to replace them in the first place!

While they were gone, I did a bit of sorting through ideas and paperwork, in preparation for getting back to some skoolwork for the younger three.

On Tuesday we were all a bit better adjusted to getting up early again, although Barney still had to be called three times – he’d been out at Air Cadets on Monday night so was in bed later than the others. The younger ones were up and eating before the big kids went out to school though, and Louie got back to his shoving-them-out-the-door duties. They’re very tolerant of this, and line up at the door in a row, then Louie pushes whoever is at the back and they go through the door train-style. After closing the door behind them, he told me, “They should all stay together, and then nobody will get lost.” Wise words ;-)

Once breakfast was cleared up, I got the little ones (not so little really these days – Jack is 10, after all!) settled down to do a bit of work. Jack used mind-maps to design the scariest monster he could imagine, then drew it. Toby did some reading with me – he’s still reading slowly, but he’s working out most words for himself and using various techniques to do it – and then some maths: presented with a page of “fill in the missing numbers”, his response was a gleeful “Yay! There’s loads of them!” When I was a witness in Family Court a few weeks ago, the anti-home-ed side’s solicitor asked me in a voice that suggested home-education couldn’t possibly work, “But how do you make them learn?!?” I wish she’d been there to see how unnecessary this “making them learn” business actually is…

Louie was determined to do some skool too, so he went and got Superphonics (although he still calls it “Supersonics”). He knows quite a lot of the letters already, but it’s difficult to assess exactly where he is, as he thinks it’s a huge joke to deliberately get them wrong. On Thursday, working through some of the letters with him, he had a brilliant idea when it came to one where he needed an extra clue: “Show me the mouth-move but don’t say the tune.”

Otherwise this week has been mostly mundane stuff: waiting for the mechanic to arrive (he didn’t), catching up on tons of laundry, etc. The big three arrived home from school on Tuesday and got stuck into homeworks, but by dinnertime George was in mini-meltdown mode – he wasn’t going to Sea Cadets, he had way too much homework and he was never going to finish his French. I figured out right away what was going on: 1. he was tired, 2. he was hungry, 3. every teacher he’d had all day had been telling the class how hard they were going to have to work this year and how horrible it would be and how important it was for their futures. I know they’re trying to scare the pupils into studying hard, but I wish they’d think a bit more about the effects of the stress they’re putting on them :-( I convinced George to down a couple of sausages and go to Junior Band, because I knew he’d feel better after an hour or so of playing his cornet. And indeed, by the time he returned, he had cheered up, and he settled down to do his French homework, and finished it in about 30 minutes. Freddy, meanwhile, went to Sea Cadets. They both made it on Thursday evening though, and Jack went to Juniors on Wednesday evening too.

Louie has been playing out the front with his brothers – this is fairly new, as up until now he’s only been allowed out with me or one of the bigger kids looking after him. But Jack is good with him, and Toby takes the responsibility very seriously too. On Tuesday evening Toby brought Louie home crying with cuts on his knees. He was just about able to draw breath long enough to wail, “I need a band-aid!” over and over between cries. I cleaned up his knees and put a band-aid on his left knee, but his right one was just slightly grazed, so it didn’t get one, despite his protests. I cuddled him and he fell asleep soon after. He didn’t forget the insult I’d added to his injury though. As soon as he woke on Wednesday morning, his first words were, “My left knee is better.” “Oh good,” I said, thinking he actually meant the right (less injured) knee, “What about the right one?” “It is not better,” he said emphatically, “because it didn’t have a band-aid.” Ah. Of course.

Last of the Summer Lying-Around

Posted by Deb on Sunday September 2, 2012 at 12:31 pm

The latter half of August…how come the school holidays go so fast? :-(

After such a busy week and weekend, nobody was inclined to do much on Monday, and as my extra “sons” were here anyway, I left everyone to entertain themselves. On Tuesday morning, though, I press-ganged everyone into helping tidy up, and then after lunch I fed everyone the leftover birthday cake, from which I’d removed the last few chocolate stars. A tried to convince me to give the stars to him: “Have I mentioned what a wonderful substitute mummy you’ve been?” LOL E arrived during the afternoon to collect her boys, but before she tore them away from me took them home, she and I went out for an early dinner together. Meanwhile George and Freddy were so engrossed in doing whatever it was they were doing with A that they forgot all about Sea Cadets and missed it. Unfortunately that also meant that nobody remembered that the Juniors were supposed to be in on the Tuesday night, and Jack was upset when he arrived at the unit on Wednesday to find that it wasn’t on and he’d missed the evening with the seniors.

Thursday was A-level and AS-level exam results day. Barney was very disappointed with his results, especially with his A2 maths :-( He had to go and meet with the Principal and his Head of Year in the afternoon and work out a course of action for the next year, and he was very worried about it all. He and I talked it through during the morning though, and when we went back into the school, the Principal and Head of Year were very much on the same page as us, so it didn’t take long to agree a plan. He’ll be resitting his A2 maths and working hard to pull up his marks from the AS sciences. It doesn’t affect his uni place, but it would still be nice to have a decent set of A-level results to be going on with.

Friday has faded from my memory, but on Saturday I went out with a friend, and stayed over so I could leave her to the airport on Sunday. Monday – well, that’s another faded-from-memory day. Tuesday was much more memorable, as I was in Family Court supporting a mum from our local home-ed group. It was an interesting experience, if a bit daunting, and I hope that what I said was helpful.

On Wednesday Jack missed Junior Sea Cadets again, because nobody had told us they were going swimming :-( Thursday brought more exam results – GCSEs this time. Barney just had the one result to collect, and all he needed was a pass, which he got, much to his relief. George didn’t even realise he was going to get any GCSE results this year (I wonder what he thought those exams were all about?!) but he did pretty well – Bs in both Tech units, As in his first units in Physics and Chemistry (and both only one mark off A*s), and a solid A* in the first maths unit. Lots of hard work coming up this year for him, but that’s a good start.

Jack had an appointment with the orthodontist on Friday – he’d been hoping to get his retainer off, but it just got tightened a bit (and he’s been clicking it around his mouth ever since, so I don’t think it was tightened enough). On Saturday Toby finally got his wish to sleep over at his friend D’s house. I was a bit concerned about how he’d manage, so I stayed over too, but as E and I were going out for the evening, Freddy went along as well, and he and A looked after the two little ones until we got back. On Sunday E suggested we go along with her to the Belfast Mela, an ethnic arts festival in Botanic Gardens. It was a great afternoon and the Mela was very busy (and very loud!) and E did some networking and I wandered about with Toby and D and they had a good time. I didn’t realise that not taking my car meant I’d have to stay for the whole afternoon, but I made it through the day and just about made it home without falling asleep.

Monday was another lost day – I can’t hack these busy weekends anymore! On Tuesday the boys and I met up with my mum and one of my aunts – I hadn’t seen my aunt in years and was a bit thrown by how much she looks like my grandmother these days. Afterwards I left Barney, George and Freddy at the second youth-group summer scheme of the summer. The younger ones and I went to my friend S’s house and spent the afternoon playing (kids) and talking (grown-ups). George went to Sea Cadets in the evening, but Freddy decided not to, as his uniform was still in the laundry and he didn’t want to go in civvies.

Wednesday brought more summer scheme, followed by Jack finally making it back to Junior Sea Cadets. He’s really enjoying it, and as it’s the same night as Cubs, it will be replacing Cubs in September, unless I can get him a place in a different Cub Pack. On Thursday there was another summer scheme event, which meant driving into Belfast again, and then killing time until it was time to drive home. E and I went for coffee/lunch at Ikea, where the boys cheerfully spent the time in the play area while we chatted.

On Friday some of us had a more relaxed morning, but not Barney or me, as he was back at school. The others got to lie around a bit longer though, as the older boys didn’t have to be in Belfast until the afternoon. I ran a couple of errands, then dropped them off and went to meet E for coffee. She had to take her younger son somewhere, so she gave me her key and I went back to her house to wait for her there – and managed to lose her dog! I’m used to the dog going in and out the back door all the time, so when she wanted out, I opened the door and let her out – not realising that someone had left the gate open. As the gate is around the corner of the house, it was a few minutes later when I realised what had happened (when I went to see why the dog was so unusually quiet). I drove around the area trying to find her, and recruited help in the form of one of the boys’ friends who’d come to the door, and I think he told a couple of other kids that she had run off, and eventually one of them brought her home safe and sound.

E had a friend staying over along with her kids, so the three of us made dinner for everyone and then chatted until it was time to go and collect the older boys from the bus at about 10:30 p.m. They arrived back tired and happy (always a good way for kids to be, I think!)

On Saturday morning I had a few errands to run, and eventually made it home again mid-afternoon. On Saturday night I was out with E again, doing a little early celebrating of her birthday and Freddy and George went with me to her house to hang out with her kids and watch Doctor Who. E and I did some talking and dancing and as she’d had a few drinks and I hadn’t, I got to drive her car – a Jag, much more glamorous than my bus ;-) I got home with my boys in the early hours, and we all fell into bed exhausted.

Back to school on Monday for George and Freddy – I’m glad they like it there, but I’m really not looking forward to all it involves!

Private: Much Music and Many Boys

Posted by Deb on Monday August 13, 2012 at 9:34 pm

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Private: Half the Summer Gone

Posted by Deb on Monday August 6, 2012 at 10:13 am

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Private: Counting Children

Posted by Deb on Sunday July 22, 2012 at 9:43 pm

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Private: The Big School Holidays – Part 1

Posted by Deb on Monday July 16, 2012 at 10:58 pm

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Private: Blowing Out Candles

Posted by Deb on Saturday July 7, 2012 at 11:22 pm

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Private: See enclosed for details

Posted by Deb on Thursday July 5, 2012 at 10:07 am

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Private: Aliens and Different Worlds

Posted by Deb on Tuesday June 26, 2012 at 3:15 pm

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Private: A Different Four

Posted by Deb on Thursday June 21, 2012 at 10:10 am

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