Monster & Teeny

Monday A quiet day at home with lots of X boxing, geomagging and some painting for Teeny. My Dad came over in the afternoon and sat with Teeny while I took Monster to Badgers. This week they were learning how to say ‘hello’ in various different languages and wrote several down. Then they could illustrate the writing, which naturally Monster chose to do with a picture of Gromit.

Tuesday I was tired and impatient so there was a fair amount of shouting running through the day as a soundtrack. The children played with Happymais and made some more animals and other constructions. Monster has been making lots of the characters from his Project Zoo X box game which the first level of features W&G resucing a baby elephant trapped in a cage. He’d made the elephant last week, so this time he made a cage to put it in and a Gromit to start rescuing.

We went to the post office where there was a really long queue - and I had armfuls of parcels so we were there ages. There was a small terrier puppy belonging to the owners thought which kept the children, particularly Teeny, entertained for the whole visit. She adores dogs although I am scared of them and Monster seems to have picked up some of my nervousness.

Wednesday  A very efficient morning with me managing baking, washing, tidying and the children achieving non-messy, creative and imaginative play with the toy dinosaurs and record a Happy Birthday video for HEMUK’s Buttercup all before 10am when Lucy arrived with R & R. The weather was lovely and we headed off to Tilgate Park for the day. We had a fab day with loads of running around getting fresh air, chatter about all sorts of things, particularly in the discovery area where we looked at amphibians, birds, reptiles and mammals, loads of skeletons of small creatures, teeth and jaw comparisons of carnivores, herbivores and omnivores which coincidentally continued a conversation from a few weeks earlier, looked at a lizard and a timeline of the human population growth and various extinct animals. Oh and I learnt about the  different types of feathers on a bird - flight, down and contour being the most popular. As there were a variety of birds around the park I tasked the children with tracking down at least one example of each (which are still residing in the bottom of my bag among crumbs and two pence pieces giving me a shock every time I plunge my hand into it’s depths! ). We ended up at the playground area where the children had a great time mixing and mingling with all the other children there and completing the wearing themselves out.

Lucy and co came back in for a drink and Monster made a ‘thing to tell you where north is’ creation, so we chatted a bit about compasses and I did a quick diagram to show north, south, east and west, which led to explaining north east, north west etc too.

Thursday I had tickets to see Hoodwinked from Film Education  but had kept it as a surprise for the children. They guessed when we arrived at the big complex where the cinema is so were really happy. We popped into Asda to get popcorn and drinks rather than pay cinema prices and went in to watch the film. We all thought it was excellent, even Teeny was captivated for most of the film - it was only her third ever trip to the cinema so she is still faintly overwhelmed by the experience. We left there and collected Lucy, R & R to head over to SIL for a home ed event. SIL is a very active member of a Home Ed group which operates mainly over the other side of our county and although we are also members we rarely get along to any of the events. There was one other member there with her 2 daughters which made a nice group of children and adults. A really nice afternoon chatting about all sort of parenting and educational stuff with a trip to McDs for the children on the way home.

Friday Teeny has suddenly decided she wants to read and has been looking at the various workbook type sticker books I have lining one bookshelf from when I very first decided to Home Educate and thought a shelf of workbooks was an essential item along with a laminator, flashcards and base ten set to make you a Real Home Educator . Monster has never been a sticker book or workbook type of child but Teeny quite likes them. So we did some mathsy type stuff with spot the difference, link the pairs, odd one out type puzzles while Monster, not to be left out did some of a dinosaur atlas sticker book.

Monster then did some Happymais while Teeny and I went and baked chocolate brownies. She adores to help with baking and actually plenty of the jobs I hate such as greasing baking tray, breaking up the chocolate etc she is more than happy to do which means she actually is helping And it left Monster in peace to Happymais away to his heart’s content!

Ali and F arrived then and Monster took the chance to continue HappyMaising with the added attraction of Ali and I as a captive audience while Teeny and F did girly stuff together including painting their nails and liberally applying sparkly lipgloss. He enjoyed having Ali to quiz over X box tips too I dropped them home while A did tea and then we all watched Masterchef together, which is a bif of a family favourite with Monster making lots of food critic style observations on the gastronomes efforts.

Saturday I had a wonderful morning holed up in the playroom listing bag fulls of outgrown childrens’ clothes on ebay and listening to lots of songs which bring back all sorts of memories from the past for me, singing at the top of my voice with occassional breaks for dancing when the song required it! Monster did yet more Happymaising including bringing me a model of me he’d made:

I told Monster I wished he was old enough to go and make me a cup of tea at one point during the morning and shortly afterwards he returned with Teeny asking me to show them how so that they would know ready for when they were older. So we filled and boiled the kettle, chose a tea bag which included sniffing various of my hippie teas and even cutting one of the cheapo ‘normal’ tea bags open to show them the leaves, a bit of a chat about where tea comes from, how it grows, how the leaves are harvested and how loose leaf tea is made and then a demonstration of how a tea bag is used, removed and milk added. A useful life skill learnt there I am sure I will be reaping the rewards of passing on before too many years pass .

In the afternoon we went over to Lucy and Colin’s for a barbecue. A and Colin sat in the garden minding the children and cooking while Lucy and I got to sit around and chat almost entirely unhampered by small people What a change that made, we finished whole conversations and everything! 

Sunday We went over to BIL & SIL’s for J and M’s fourth birthday party from 11am to about 2pm where the children had a great time running around in their lovely garden with J & M and another four or five children invited along to the party. I helped SIL with the food in the kitchen while A helped BIL in the garden with the barbecue.

We left there and called in on my parents for a couple of hours and spent some time looking at holiday brochures and researching on the internet for a holiday they are booking for early next year. So that was exciting We always get lots of mileage from their travels by following their route on the globe, looking at the countries in our atlas and talking about the different cultures etc.  

Monday - We waved goodbye to Kirsty, James, Marcus and Alex mid morning as the last of our weekend house guests. I did what felt like about a hundred loads of washing, tidied the childrens’ bedrooms and put the house back together again. Lovely to have so many people staying, but equally as lovely when they all go home and leave you to it again!

We were all tired from the busy weekend so it was a pretty quiet afternoon with geomags and watching films. Then it was back to Badgers for the start of the new term for Monster. He dashed straight back in after the six weeks or so summer holidays and had a great time as always.

In the evening I went out for a lovely chinese meal with my Mum. 

 
Tuesday I had promised Monster that he could finally get his hands on all the wonderful birthday presents given to him at his party. So without further ado he launched straight in with a dig the dinosaur bones out of the lump of clay kit. We’ve done several such kits over the years but this was probably the best one as the tools actually did make an impact in the clay and the bones were a sensible size and strength. He did lose interest right at the very end though so I finished it off and washed all the dust off the pieces. Next he chose HappyMais and made several of the creations off the front of the box and a couple of his own design too. Not to be left out Teeny went and dug out the magic maize we’ve had, mostly ignored, for ages. Happy to report the Happymais is not only superior to my eye but was more popular with the children too.

My Dad arrived and stayed for lunch after which we walked to the post office with some ebay parcels. Monster rode his bike there and we all chatted about various things as we went along.

Once home Monster requested to make the electronic buggy kit so we spent some time on that. Not completed yet but I’m sure we’ll come back to that and we covered the basic prinicples of the battery etc. Finally he chose a magic sheep kit which we have had similar versions of before. It is paper impregnated with something which when dipped into a vinegar smelling solution absorbs the liquid and starts to develop crystals (or something! ).

A came home nice and early from his first session at a college course so I went out for a walk to the library.

Wednesday First thing we loaded up some software Ali and co had bought Monster for his birthday onto my old laptop. I didn’t actually see what was going on with it once I’d got it going but it certainly entertained and amused Monster and Teeny all morning while I made brownies.

Then it was over to Lucy’s house for the rest of the day. SIL, J & M joined us for a couple of hours and then Lucy and I took our four children over to the beach. Monster was in the sea and soggy within minutes, Teeny was slightly more reserved and spent some time collecting and bringing me stones. She then found a shell and did some digging and building in the sand with it, before coming over to tell me how clever she was for using it to dig with. I told her about how cavemen had used things like sticks and stones to make weapons, tools and so on and sent her off to find a bit of wood, a sharp stone and some stringy seaweed. We plaited the seaweed to give it strength (having shown her how one strand was very delicate but three strands together were far harder to snap and explained that was how rope and string is made) and then tried to use it to lash the sharp stone to the wood to make a sort of axe. It was not hugely successful (read : it didn’t attach at all) but it looked really good and we still got the whole point across. I love when education just happens out of nowhere like that, with real props, no books and the sort of memories she’ll probably carry to adulthood. We eventually left when Monster started to get cold and having stripped him down in the car headed for home and a warm bath to remove the sand and warm them up before tea and bed.

I baked three chocolate cakes to sandwich together for his birthday the next day, wrapped presents, blew up balloons and Teeny and I made secret birthday cards in her bedroom at bedtime. She can do a lovely copy of writing now although she doesn’t seem to comprehend much about what she is actually writing.

Thursday - Monster’s sixth birthday! 

A bright and early start with all pressies opened and exclaimed over before A went off to work. Cube World, which was much requested and had been contributed towards by friends was the definite hit of the day. We played the W&G board game which had been a charity shop find birthday present and is great fun if a little crazy (would love to meet the person who dreamt up the idea and all the tasks - it would make a great drinking game ), watched Barbie Fairytopia which was a small sibling pressie for Teeny, made a plaster of paris dinosaur mould and played with geomags.

At lunchtime A arrived home and we headed over to my parents for a birthday lunch with Mum, Dad, my brother F and my Granny. Lots of lovely food, more presents for Monster and the birthday cake. We spent the afternoon there and then headed for home via McDs for birthday Happy Meals. A really nice, low key but enjoyable day for Monster.

Friday My parents and brother paid half towards an X Box for Monster’s birthday present. The other half was raised by us selling the childrens’ outgrown toys. We had made a family decision to do so about a month ago and the children chose which toys they were happy to finally let go to raise funds. So the X Box is the ‘family X box’ but individual games will belong to each child. Monster got the two availble W&G games so today was the day he was allowed to spend all day long playing X box. And he did!

Teeny and I joined in a bit, we also read some books together, I looked at 100EL with her and the first set of Bob books but neither grabbed her really. She remains adamant she wants to learn to read NOW though so next step is flashcards or digging out Letterland stuff which I have a few bits and pieces of but have never really liked much and failed to inspire Monster when he was learning letters.

A got home early enough for me to disappear late afternoon for a nice long, child-free walk.

Saturday - After a mad weekend last week and a fairly busy week we called Saturday a quiet day and stayed home. A did householdy tasks like defrosting freezers and gardening, the childen X Box’d and played in the garden and I enjoyed the peace and read a book. Lovely

Sunday - An early start so we made the most of being up and about and headed to the local car boot sale. A couple of bargains to be had - total spend £1.50 Then we popped home to collect picnic food and headed up to the downs to watch the local annual airshow. We found a fab spot which we reckoned probably afforded better views than inside the (over a tenner a ticket) airport although obviously without the commentary and side shows around the airfield and sat and watched. The children ran around the field, I read my book and A got to watch planes to his hearts content .

Walking back to the car we spotted a dead slow worm in a field so that was examined and discussed and photographed before heading for home for an early night for very tired children. 

This week was pretty much a six day count-down to Monster’s birthday party on the Saturday. It is actually his birthday on 14th but his party was in advance on the 9th and we had about 50 guests. So it took plenty of preparation! Most of the planning and the actual party was Monster’s ideas with my facilitation - pretty much the recipe for our educational / parenting / life style actually. I was very proud of how much thought he put into it and what a success it was on the day.

Monday - We started the day with the sad news about Steve Irwin. He has long been something of an idol to Monster who loved to watch him on Croc Files and various other TV shows and was someone he often refered to.

Later in the morning we went off to the supermarket for various party preparation supplies. Teeny was not behaving particularly well so I told her that the sweets they’d been told they could choose if they were good all the way round the supermarket would not be coming her way any more. Monster listened and then announced that he would choose something that she liked too and share it with her. Awww! Needless to say they both ended up with something after that heartwarming display of sibling love.

Once home I got on with sorting out the goody bags and decorating a T shirt each for them to wear to the party while they were packed off upstairs to play. I peeked in at them at one point to see Teeny sat with a huge pile of Mr Men books and Monster playing with his V Tech laptop toy. He’d come down earlier to tell me he’d been playing a game on it called ’silly sentences’ with things like ‘the car jumped over the elephant’.

Tuesday - last day of the summer holidays around here so we met up with our friends Mel, L and L. L started preschool and L went back into year 2 the following day. In the morning Monster and Teeny had been bouncing on their space hoppers while watching a dinosaur dvd while I started the baking for the party with some cakes and biscuits. Then we headed off with a picnic lunch to meet Mel at a local park with playground, boating lake, miniature train etc. We had a play in the playground for a while, then lunch and the children had a clamber on some rocks before we all had a go on the train. L and Monster were very impressed with an older boy (about 10 I guess) who raced the train and ran around the whole boating lake infront of it. Actually so was I! They wanted to try it too but we distracted them with ice-creams. Then a final play in the playground before heading for home.

Wednesday - further frantic party preparation in the morning with us making banners and posters to decorate the hall with. I had ordered the Wallace and Gromit Curse of the Were-Rabbit original soundtrack as an early birthday gift for Monster and to be used at the party so that was played several times while the children danced, identifyed which musical instruments were playing and discussed which bit of the film the music was from. We have several soundtracks to their favourite films and they have often spent long car journeys doing this. It has given them both a pretty good ear for what instrument is playing, what mood or event the music is suggesting and of course the ability to shut up and listen!

Then we headed off to the park with lunch to meet Lucy, R and R who were already there. We didn’t last long there this week as all four children were in the mood for wandering and exploring rather than staying put in the playground -frequently all four of them in different directions! So we all went back to ours for a while instead.

An early night for Monster and Teeny and with A away I was left in peace to watch a very chick-flick film, bake the two birthday cakes for the party and finish off the goody bags. The goody bags were probably the biggest hassle of the whole party for me and I will be taking the sound advice of others for subsequent parties not to bother !

Thursday - A run around sort of a morning with us heading to the venue for the party to collect keys and finalise arrangements, off to collect a large Susumama order for myself and various friends (do go and check out the website - I’ll be doing another order in November )  and then ending up at Ali’s for playing, chatting and lunch. It’s been way too long since we’ve seen Ali for various reasons so it was lovely to catch up properly. Teeny had her first ever go on an X Box (one will be entering the house as part of Monster’s birthday presents so I guess it won’t be long before she’s an expert!). I decorated the cakes and my Mum called round to deliver four pairs of trousers for our The Wrong Trousers party game.

Friday - In the morning we enjoyed the peace and quiet and then Em, E and R arrived with Lucy, R and R in time for lunch, chatting and playing. Monster had met E and R previously at Kessingland Muddlepuddle camp in the summer but had claimed not to remember them. He certainly hit it off with R though and they all played inside and out very happily together. Em and Lucy headed off about half an hour before our next lots of guests arrived. First was Chris, BB and SB from Petits Haricots  followed shortly afterwards by Katy and Becca. The children very quickly settled themselves and were playing happily inside and outside, had their pizza for tea and with fairly minimal shuffling were all in bed by a pretty respectable time. Leaving A, Chris, Katy and I to eat our pizza not too long afterwards - although that is by A and my standards of late eating rather than the normal feeding time for most I suspect!

Saturday - The Big Day. Lucy came and helped me set the hall up with food, decorations and many blown up balloons (well done Luce! ) while A did sterling work entertaining the growing crowd of guests back at our house. Eventually we travelled in convoy with all of the already assembled guests to the hall at about 1.30pm to be joined over the next hour or so by loads more guests. I never did do a full head count but I know including babies we were at least 29 children so I imagine we went over 50 in all easily. With a couple of exceptions of little girls who were desperate for more party games most of the children were far too busy playing their own games to be wanting to be bothered with musical chairs, so we left interfering with them to a Pin the bow tie on Wallace, a very lengthy game of Musical Statues and a team game called The Wrong Trousers. We did the Happy Birthday blowing out the candles and I think I’m safe in saying a Grand Day Out was had by all.

Once everyone had pitched in with the tidying up some 30 of the guests came back to our house for the evening -  19 were sleeping here altogether! A managed to keep a constant stream of toasted sandwiches and party food leftovers coming out of the kitchen, various menfolk were sent out for alcohol, the children played in the garden until it got dark and then came inside where a lot of them were subjected to very sparkly, glittery, highly scented makeovers in Teeny’s bedroom.

A lovely day - thanks to all who were part of it.

Sunday - a relaxing morning for those who had stayed overnight with most guests drifting off during the morning leaving just Kirsty and James who were staying another night. We resisted the urge to just sit around the house and drove to the nearby beach where the children stripped down to pants and played in the sea and on the rocks, having a whale of a time. We all had ice creams and came home via the local airport. An anticipated early night for the children didn’t quite happen but the adults didn’t last very late - it had been quite a week!

Monday - Bank Holiday. Often A has to work Bank Holidays but this time he didn’t. We had’t actually planned anything much. I had a lie in and woke to find everyone else watching Little Shop of Horrors, which has become the new family favourite with Monster already learning the words to all the songs.

We went downt to the seafront where there is always a Bank Holiday market and wandered round that looking at all the tat for sale for a while before walking down to the beach. A took lots of pictures, Monster sat on a rock as close to the breaking waves as he could get (which of course meant he got wet!), while Teeny and I clambered on rocks and collected pebbles to put on our cat’s grave. We couldn’t find anything resembling the beautiful pebbles we’d seen on the beach in Wales the week before which had inspired us to use painted pebbles for decorating the grave though, so I think we may think again on that.

We then popped over to BIL and SIL for chatting and playing.

Tuesday In the morning there was much playing with the brio-alike wooden train track. Monster has a fairly large collection of this amassed over several years but it has always been one of those toys I wanted him to have rather than he was desperate for himself. Bet all our children have some of those . He was doing lots of vocal working out for how many straight and curved bits he’d need and counting how many bits he’d used when he’d finished.

In the afternoon we made some posters for decorating the hall his birthday party will be held at. About six months ago he started talking about and planning a Wallace and Gromit themed birthday party for himself. He has always had passions for a film or TV character starting with Buzz Lightyear when he was about 2 years old but I think Wallace and Gromit have been the most enduring. We have made all sorts of replicas of the characters including papier mache, plasticine, air drying clay and drawn pictures laminated. We have all the films and a massive collection of car boot sale and charity shop cuddly toys, I have hand sewn a Wallace for Monster and a Totty for Teeny and the obsession has generally spilt over to all the family. When he first talked about a party we did things like made job lists to plan the guest list, the venue, the party games, the themed food etc and although I have facilitated it - and placed limits where necessary really this is something he has planned and created. 

We dug out paint pens and a roll of paper and made large posters of all their favourite characters together.

Today was also, unfortunately the day when various struggles I’ve been having with the children came to a head. I’m sure there are plenty of reasons and excuses for both their and my behaviour but on a day when Teeny had me questionning my anti-smacking policy, Monster had me questionning my Home Educating ideals and they both had me looking up adoption agencies and considering breaking them up for parts and selling them on ebay something had to change! After debate with A and lots of serious thinking we have formulated a plan and things are improving. One of the biggest issues is that I get so little time away from the children that we inevitably get simply fed up or bored with each other’s company - tbh I would feel the same about any individual I spent 7 days a week with, A included! I actually really enjoy my own company and it is so rare I get to spend time alone I end up resenting everyone around me for simply being there. I also think Monster - at 6 is going through a classic phase of being a boy and needing to do the boisterous, physical, loud and silly thing that six year old boys round the country get to do in their playground time at school each weekday. Now I can’t replicate that but I can work towards at least providing him opportunity for more physical exersion and try and find some channel or outlet for all that energy in a production manner. To that end I’m looking at pursuits like football for him and of course Badgers starts again next week which I’m sure will help too.

We also decided to put into place our long term plan that both children periodically go off to work with A for the day.

Wednesday Our regular date with SIL, J & M and Lucy, R & R at the park. Lucy came round in the morning for a while first and then we headed off to a new park and met up with Julie there. It’s a local park which has had some massive injection of cash from somewhere (local council? lottery grant?) which has been spent on some fantastic play equipment. There must be about 20 pieces of equipment all really different and exciting to the usual swings, slides or roundabouts. It was also pretty heaving with children. Our six all played for a while and Monster made friends with various children - always makes me smile when I hear a strange child calling him across a playground by name. I love it when they are old enough to be making friends independantly of the people I introduce them to.

The children then wandered off a bit further into the rest of the park playing various games and settling into various different formations, duos and trios which is always nice to observe. Eventually we all collected ourselves together and followed them as they were starting to wander further than we were comfortable with. Unfortunately during the moving from one location to another somehow Monster managed to get seperated from the others and ended up doing the sensible thing and going back to where we’d first been, only to find we had gone. So I was up where I thought he’d gone to frantic with worry and he was down where we had orignially been upset that we’d gone without him. Two older women had seen his distressed and managed to help him spot Lucy as I continued to wander further away shouting his name and imaging all sorts of dreadful possible scenarios. After a very teary reunion we all walked further up the hill together to see lovely views of the sea and settle back down for chatting and the children to play in the long grasses. A reminder that we need to be more sensible about arranging a meeting place in the event of getting lost and also that we probably need to cover some sort of stranger danger type stuff too. I like to allow Monster, particularly and Teeny to a lesser degree at least some of the freedom that I enjoyed by their age when I was allowed to ride round the block on my bike, go to the local shop for sweets and call for friends who lived in the same street and play outside our houses. I don’t necessarily think there are any greater dangers to my children than there were to me, just that we are more aware of them and I would rather educate the children and equip them to make sensible decisions than shelter them completely and allow them no freedom. 

Thursday  As planned Monster went off to work with A for the day. By all accounts they had a lovely time, with Monster having McDonalds breakfast and lunch, learning a fair bit about what Daddy does each day at work and having some time on the beach in Dover looking at the channel tunnel entrance, the white cliffs and various other south coast landmarks.

Teeny and I enjoyed similar one to one time at home with some time spent cuddled up reading stories, loads of baking and cake decorating, Lucy, R & R came round for lunch and the girls did some girlie playing with make up etc, we did some jigsaw puzzle, spoke to Monster and A on speaker phone as a family conferance call and popped out to get some bits and pieces for Monster’s party.

A lovely day which we all got a lot from and will repeat again very soon, with Teeny having a go at going out with A too.

Friday In the morning the children played with geomags while I did various online bits and pieces including making reservations for Film Week. A and my Mum arrived in time for lunch and then Mum and I headed off to collect Monster’s reserved birthday present from Argos, some new nightdresses for Teeny and various cake making bits and pieces ready for Monster’s birthday cake.

While we were gone A had got out an Argos catalogue each for Monster and Teeny and drawn them a three storey house each on a poster sized bit of card and they were happily cutting out things from the catalogues to arrange in each room of the house. Teeny’s was a symphony of pink with lots of pets, fairy themed accessories and fluffiness. Monster’s was more minimalistic and included lots of electrical equipment and gaming stuff.

Saturday Lots of dvd watching and popcorn eating for the children and A while I went and had my hair cut. In the afternoon Monster and I made some airdrying clay models.

A and I went out in the evening to a friends’ 30th birthday barbecue - in the rain! So my Mum & Dad babysat and were subjected to lots of bedtime story requests and yet another viewing of Nanny McPhee!

Sunday We had planned to go out for a picnic and walk with BIL and SIL but the weather was atrocious so we stayed in instead. More dvd and popcorn eating with an hour or so of watching home videos of when the children were very small babies including the week that Teeny was born in. She was born on 6th December and we had been videoing Monster opening his advent calendar each morning. So a lovely countdown on 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th of me, heavily pregnant helping him open the door and talk about what picture was behind it and then on the 6th there was a 2 hour old Teeny sat with us as we opened that door.

In the afternoon I finally got round to photographing and listing pages and pages of ebay outgrown clothes etc.