Monster & Teeny

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.