NotSheep

I seem to be in a slump; I’m not sure why. The effects of this slump include a lack of blog-posts; I just don’t seem to be able to get my mind together enough to compose anything. So if this post is all vague and meandering and pointless, I apologise in advance.

Last week was a… well, not quite a busy one, really, but certainly one in which I had to live by other people’s schedules. Weeks like that remind me of one of the bonuses of home-ed; if my children were in school, I’d spend a large portion of my day doing school-runs. Assuming each of them attended the nearest school for their age, I’d be leaving the house with all of them by about 8.20 every morning, getting back about an hour later, leaving again at 1.30, maybe getting back for a few minutes before leaving again at 2.30, not returning after that until after 4 p.m. And that’s without taking into account any after-school activities. And my children probably wouldn’t be attending the nearest school for their age. And last year and next year I’d have a child in nursery school, which would mean the morning run would be extended by another 20 or 30 minutes, and an extra run just before lunch. I’d be spending a lot of time sitting in the car waiting for bells to ring - and I think I might be using that time writing letters to MPs demanding a North-America-style school-bus system.

Well, I did warn you I was probably going to meander.

Apart from the taxi-ing, and the frustrating bits I’ve already blogged, there isn’t much to say about last week. It’s all been very challenging recently. George is suffering from the lack of routine in our days right now, which means the rest of us are also suffering. I know I’ve written about it before, but he is not a child who would be happy with an autonomous style of living. He needs routines. He doesn’t need everything to happen at exactly the same time each day, but he is a much happier and settled person when the first few hours of each day follow the same approximate pattern. He can handle occasional days without it, but give him three non-routine days in a row and things start to unravel. Give him an entire summer during which, for one reason or another, we haven’t followed our usual routines, during which the weather hasn’t been good enough to get out and see friends every day, and during which there have been several stress-causing events affecting, and you’ve the recipe for the worst meltdown he’s ever had - which happened about a week ago. I’ve been watching the build-up all summer and have tried several ways to ease things for him, but in the end, it was all just there inside him and had to come out.

Next week we’ll be back to our usual daily pattern. I’d reinstate it right now, but the rain we’ve experienced all summer has finally stopped for a while, and there are only a few days left before the boys’ local friends return to school, so I don’t want to take away the brief opportunity for them to spend some time together. Barney was out yesterday with a couple of his friends; they are not pleased about going back to school. The older one wants to be home-educated too, apparently; I’m just waiting for his mother to arrive on my doorstep shouting at me for putting ideas in his head I’ve spent most of the last few days making educational plans and gathering resources for the next few months, as well as planning out almost the entire year for Beavers. I’m feeling very organised about that, but our Scout Hall is getting a new roof sometime soon, and I need to know the dates so I can arrange outings for the weeks when it’s not available.

I took Barney out with me to walk the dogs along the shore on Saturday morning; he wasn’t very keen to go, but he was glad he did, because not only did we have a pleasant walk, but we also got to meet some German people - a big plus, in Barney’s book - one of whom loaned him her binoculars so he could get a better look at some seals they’d spotted.

Toby has been trying to climb onto Jack’s bicycle, which is much too big for him, and since we hadn’t actually got him a birthday present yet, Freddy and Toby and I went in search of a set of wheels. The local bicycle shop didn’t have anything small enough, so I resigned myself to a cheap bit of plastic from Toys’R'Us, but we actually found a great little tricycle there - really nice quality and design, and Toby loves it. I have some photos of the trike, but I’m trying to get one of Toby actually on it - every time I point the camera at him he climbs off and hides in an attempt to wind me up Unfortunately, or fortunately, TRU also had a very good offer on a set of Little Tikes items, so I “saved” £100 buying that, and so now we also have a playhouse (complete with greenhouse), a large slide, a rocker thing and a Hot-Wheels-style ride-on. It was very much an impulse buy, but worth it, I think. Oh, and Freddy bought himself the biggest super-soaker we’d ever seen, so if summer ever arrives properly, we’ll be ready.

See? Vague, meandering and pointless