NotSheep

That blog-post title is completely irrelevant. It’s just that we saw the HHGG movie this week and I think that line makes a great title so I’m using it anyway. It was a toss-up between that and”thanks for all the fish”

It’s been another pretty busy week. On Sunday we drove to our friends’ house, as mentioned in the last post. Toby was surprisingly cooperative and fell asleep almost immediately in the car, and didn’t wake up until we arrived. The boys piled out of car, took off to play with their friends, and we saw very little of them for the rest of the day.

While there, I was amused to discover that Freddy didn’t know what an iron was. Honestly, no idea. My friend K’s ironing board was set up next to the kitchen table, and the kids were all grabbing their plates and carrying them into the next room. Each of them had to be told about four times “not that way! the iron’s on there and it’s hot!” - and Freddy’s reaction was: huh? the iron? what’s that then? I didn’t actually realise just how completely thorough this hole in his education was until Wednesday, when I dealt with some new fabric I’d bought for a tablecloth. As I was summing up what I’d done, I said “I’ve hemmed the tablecloth and ironed it…” and Freddy said “why did you have to iron it?”. Me: “Because it was creased.” Freddy (slightly baffled): “So what does the iron do?” Me: “Takes out the creases.” Freddy (now looking incredulous): “How?” He’s still not convinced I’m not winding him up A child who’s nearly six-and-a-half and doesn’t know of the existence of the household iron - now I think that’s an accomplishment to be proud of

On Monday morning we all headed off to the first of our National Schools Film Week bookings - Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Jack was slightly scared at one point, but otherwise all enjoyed it, Barney particularly. He’s growing up, and “getting” surreality…

After a stop for lunch, we headed back home, and again Toby was cooperative, not quite all the way this time, but most of it. Barney and George were supposed to have ju-jitsu on Monday evening, but both were tired and grumpy and said they didn’t want to go, so got packed off to bed instead.

On Tuesday morning, we had our second movie: Robots. We went with friends, also home-educators (obviously, since they weren’t at school). There were about 70 primary-age children there too, accompanied by four adults who talked loudly throughout the movie. “Settle down now, children, be quiet, hush there…if you talk through the movie we won’t be able to hear our own conversation!” Right.

The boys enjoyed Robots, I thought it was…well, let’s put it this way: I was glad I hadn’t paid for the tickets.

Afterwards, I went off to buy the previously-mentioned tablecloth fabric (since the movie theatre was near the best local place to get fabric), then to the garage to get the dashboard lights fixed. We had something done to the clutch a couple of weeks ago, and ever since there have been no…um…those lights that go on when you put on the headlights, the ones that let you see the speedo etc…I’m obviously very technically-minded when it comes to cars, aren’t I? Anyway, after a bit of hm-ing and ha-ing and muttering about “two or three hours to strip down the dash” and “need an auto-spark”, they finally decided to have a go, and presented it to me, fixed, ten minutes later.

Then we drove back across the city to pick up Scratchy from work, and he dropped us (that’s Freddy, Jack, Toby and me) at the library and took Barney and George to community circus. After an hour or so in the library, I walked Freddy over to Beavers and hung out there with Jack and Toby. Scratchy picked us up later, having collected Barney and George from circus and left Barney at St John Cadets, we went home for dinner, then later Scratchy went back for Barney. It is nice now that Scratchy’s exams are over; I don’t have to feel guilty about getting him to do more of the running about

While at the library we discovered that one of the librarians helps out with St John Cadets after her Tuesday-night shift: we’d a chat with her two weeks ago about home-ed, then she went off and met Barney, who announced he was home-educated - she thought it was an astonishing coincidence until she realised we were all part of the same family

Wednesday: no archery! Yay! I spoke to the guy who runs the archery club, because Wednesdays at 4.30 just wasn’t working for us - not fair on Toby when he hates being in the car so much. It turns out there’s a class at 5.30 on Thursdays, which works much better for us - Scratchy can take the boys at that time and I can stay home with Toby, plus we’ve nothing else scheduled on Thursday evenings. Since he’s taking them, I suggested Scratchy might as well participate too. The kids were keen on that idea, especially Barney. Even Freddy, who’d decided to drop archery for a while, changed his mind when he realised his dad was going to join in - this complicates the timing slightly but it might be do-able. So yesterday we had a quiet day at home, doing domestic-y stuff like making a tablecloth - admittedly in five-minute segments as Toby would allow. And Cubs and Scouts was cancelled this week, so we’d a nice peaceful evening with no taxi-duties too

Today we’d another NSFW movie booked: Madagascar this time, which was better than I’d expected. A different family of home-ed friends came with us today. Since the movie was at a theatre in the same complex as W5 science centre, we went there afterwards. Freddy’s dance teacher met us there and collected him, and an hour or so later we went for Scratchy, who left Jack, Toby and me at home and went to Archery as arranged, picking up Freddy on his way back.

We’re all home now, and tomorrow should be low-key - no activities except for swimming, possibly, in the evening. Thank goodness!