T-Bird Anni Rides Again

This morning was taken up mainly with bathing one of the GPs who was looking distinctly second hand. 

If you are squeemish, skip the next paragraph okay?

She is a really shaggy haired thing so it’s difficult to keep an eye on her for the sorts of lumps and bumps that GPs are prone to and unfortunately I must have missed one or two.  She had what looked like bits of her insides trying to escape from just behind her front paws this morning which was rather startling!  I put her in some warm water so I could swish the fur away a bit and get everything nice and clean and the whatever it was popped out as a small fatty mass without any fuss or mess.  She had a good and proper bath whilst I had her though and found quite a few little lumps that I just couldn’t feel whilst her fur was all fluffed up.  Hmmmm.  Not good me thinks.

It’s okay, you can look now.

This afternoon we collected her new specs which are purple and make her look alarmingly grown up.  She’s been told she can wear these all the time even though they are really only needed for close work as specs are less likely to get lost when on one’s face.  We shall see.

And then we went swimming.  No, really, we did.  Didn’t count lengths but she did do some good back crawl (ie I had to push to keep up with her!) and some passable other stuff but I suspect that I need to book her onto a crash course or something to get a bit of style into her, I know she’s not doing it right, but I can’t see how and so can’t suggest how to make it work better.

This evening there has been lounging about mainly and now she is grabbing big armfuls of stuff to put into the tent so we can backyard camp again.  Aparently she feels the need to practice before we head off to Shell Island!

We went to a local adventure playground instead!  Was a very pleasant way to spend a morning   Slightly marred by them contaminating my very scrummy strawberry and chocolate ice cream with banana ice cream which I didn’t realise until waaaaaay too late but hey, serves me right for not insisting on the scoop getting a bit more than a swirl in a couple of inches of water before serving me really (why is it that your average ice cream seller things that a few inches of water in a jug is sufficient to keep an ice cream scoop clean all day anyway???)

We shopped in the afternoon and I got talked into "picnic tea" which basically means spending a fortune on cheeses, meat paste, crackers etc which we then eat far too much of (because it’s all spread out in front of us so we keep dipping back into it all way after we have really eaten enough)  Nice though!  She did want to swim (well, new floats needed water testing obviously) but by the time we had got the shopping home, hunger got the better of her and then there wasn’t time before Brownies.

Education happened, as did TV, but, alas, not room tidying.  Brownie badgework was discussed, but nothing much seems to be happening there either as I’m insisting it is driven by her, as in I will do the Googling etc for stuff but she has to ask me what she wants, this appears to be challenging her.  Am I being mean?  There are 4 she really wants to do, most of which are project based ones and would be great HE things but really, I do feel that she’s big enough now to direct things a bit!

And then the really exciting bit happened…. well, I thought it was anyway….. the other day Duke killed my huge dinosaur of a laptop.  Or at least, it died during major surgery (memory transplant) which may or may not have been directly his fault but I figured guilt tripping him may expedite it’s replacement! Anyway, Duke spotted a small Dell notebook on EBay, very pretty, adequate spec, re-furbed unit, very cheap.  He bid on it in the last seconds of the auction and got it for me  so hopefully by the end of next week I should have a netbook!!!!!   Is very excited! 

Less exciting is that I’ve declared the mooncup MIA.  I couldn’t find it last month and it’s still not turned up so I’ve wandered round EBay and have bid on a lilac one and a pink one :LOL:    I’m expecting mine to turn up the day after the new one arrives…..  Actually, to be fair, mine is a size B and is over 6 years old so I am due a new one really!

Wednesday we didn’t swim!  We went to Jungle Jim in the morning to plan a picnic in the park for local home edders, obviously only the usual suspects will turn up but we shall have fun and bggr the rest of them! 

Rainbows was good again, I managed to produce utterly shocked looks in them by saying rude things about a cartoon alien and ripping the picture to bits as I did it (it’s a way of showing how saying mean things really hurts and how, even if you take it back the person isn’t instantly okay again, same as it would be difficult to put a ripped up cartoon back together perfectly)  Then we did various other "kind and helpful" activities.  It was supposed to have been an enrollment night but as the girl’s subs still have not been paid, it didn’t happen.  In theory I should be booting half of my rainbows out right about now as the unit rules are payment of subs within the first 5 weeks and I’m still owed for 4 girls but I’m not quite mean enough to punish the girls for their parents’ inability to read the letters I send with such helpful information on as "Subs are due again"

Then it was on to the Red Cross Summer Social.  Nice food.  Good company.  Boring address by new area manager which had no relevence to anything most of the people there do but hey, did I mention nice food?

Yesterday I produced an essay plan whilst Aprilia did various electronic learning activities in the morning.  Then, to celebrate the arrival of her Zoggs Seals, we went swimming, stayed for an hour during which she spent most of her time figuring out how to sink (you spend months teaching them to not sink and then give them toys that encourage them to do just that!)  and a small ammount of time trying out "proper" swimming strokes ready for her swimmer badge which we are hoping we can ask a lifeguard to test her on.

And this morning, the postie knocked before I was dressed ps: so I had to take recipt of Aprilia’s new swimming floats in just a teeshirt ps: ps: and the cat has brought a sparrow into the house to play with.  So already today I have traumatised the postie and chased flying fur and feathers out of my house (and shut the door behind her so she doesn’t fetch it stratight back in again….) Bodes well for the day really……

We were very rudely awakened at 3 am this morning… the battery on the defib that lives at our house is running low so the unit very kindly alarmed in order to let us know.  For something with a low battery, it has a very loud voice!!!!!  We shall gloss over any questions of why there is a defib in Duke’s office and why it has to sit with it’s battery installed rather than just tucked in the carry bag shall we?

I declined to start my day at that hour though so rolled over and was rather pleasantly surprised to find that the next thing I knew was 8:30.  That’s the longest I’ve slept undisturbed for a little while and I felt incredibly better for it.

This morning we went for a play and tried to find a convenient time for Nelly and co to swim with us.  We gave up.  Her mum only has the  car in the mornings.  Nelly is too big to go in the baby pool but Bart and the baby need to be in there.  So we need a time when both the baby and main pool is available.  Only, that doesn’t happen at all in the mornings for more than about 15 minutes.  Grrrrr.

This afternoon we swam 12 lengths in just over half an hour.  And then spent a good half hour signing up for a monthly swimming pass.  Yes, really, it took half an hour to go through it all.  So now we need to go at least twice a week to justify the pass, I suspect we can manage that, in fact I suspect that, during term time, we will go much more often!

This evening she has done her various electronic learning bits plus a double spread out of each of her Letts Revise books and listened to more Greenwithc and the remainder of Gladiators of Capua, which was so much better than the TV version of that particular book but I can see how they would want to "sanitise" it for CBBC as it’s quite blood and guts.

Now I am trying to find the fortitude to write an essay comparing The Color Purple with another text of my choice on the subject of female alienation.  I’m sure I can find a fair bit of stuff to write, trouble is that, well, it’s a troubling subject really, and even alowing for the slightly saccarine ending (it all ends happily ever after), I’m really not enjoying attacking it (although bizzarely I was gripped by the book and the film adaptation and really couldn’t put it down)  Ho hum.  Between Jason at Kung Fu and this course, I’m really being made to deal with stuff at the minute.  It’s time really.

This morning Aprilia insisted that I create a couple of posters for her outlining her morning and bedtime routines, these were to include brain work, tidy up time, getting dressed, having bedtime snacks…. not that she has stuck them on her wall yet you understand, I suspect just *having* a routine is enough, you don’t need to follow it from what I can see!

She has done much Brain Training and Brain Assist today but has neglected her Moshi monster so it will be grumpy with her tomorrow   Then she demanded swimming.  So we went!  the new pool is very posh, being part of a "lifestyle centre" (that’s a sports complex with extra added bar from what I can tell) and she did very well, especially considering that we haven’t swum for ages, managing about 10 lengths of the pool in just over half an hour.  We both enjoyed it enough to make us want to go regularly so I’m considering monthly tickets for us and looking at kick board etc for her.

After that she had her annual eye test.  New glasses are on order as her prescription is slightly changed, I suspect because her eyes were tired from all the DS-ing in the morning rather than from any genuine deterioration but then, I suppose having your eyes checked when they are tired is probably a good idea as it will highlight weaknesses better?

This evening we have to go to Red Cross.  Normally we try to alternate (or, if there is no specific course on, just don’t go…) but tonight we are learning how to do blood glucose which is a whole new thing for us.  Typically, of course, having swum, both Aprilia and I are knackered and really not in the mood for this…. ho hum.

I’m utterly certain that I blogged yesterday.  It wasn’t a long post.  But it did adequately cover what we had been up to for 2 days.  And now I can’t remember that far back!!!!  Ah well….

Wednesday I had a migraine.  I think that sums up the whole day really.

Thursday we filled with lots of story reading I think, she’s enjoying Greenwich (part of The Dark is Rising) but it’s hard going for me as the print is so damned small!!!  It’s a combined edition of all the books and they have "condensed" the typeface to stop the book from being too big to handle.  I don’t remember it being so hard to read it as a kid, maybe my eyes are due a test!  Thursday afternoon we popped round to Nelly’s but didn’t say long, the decibel level seemed too much for her. 

Thursday evening i ambled off to Kung fu.  She didn’t really want me to go.  No, that’s not quite right, she desperately wanted me to not go.  There were tears and really quite strong clinging on and much begging.  Then Duke stepped in and seemed to sway the balance just at the point where I was about to give in.  So I went after all.  It was possibly the hardest but most productive training session I have done in a very long time.  Having established that there are a few manoeuvres that I really, really do not like to take part in, and having a fair idea of why, the instructor has decided that it’s his mission to get me not just used to them but really quite good at them.  So I spent most of the hour with him throttling me from behind and insisting that I actually make more than "touch contact" with him in defence, which means that basically if he wasn’t covered in bruises I wasn’t trying hard enough!  Odd boy….  It made for a rather unpleasant night of disturbed dreams for me but nothing like as bad as it could have been.

Friday we went to Jungle Jim in the morning and the library in the afternoon.  She wanted to borrow a specific book - The Princess and the Curdie - but we couldn’t find it.  The assistant had a look on the computer and discovered that there wasn’t a copy but then sent us over to the Boss Man who has put in an order request for it as a compilation with several other books by the same author.  He can’t guarantee that it will be bought but he will argue the case for it.  He’s a nice man!

Then it was Brownies.  Aprilia has been allocated a Brownie Buddy to help her as it’s been a bit of a struggle recently apparently.  I do wish she would TELL me when she’s struggling!!!!  Apparently she didn’t want to worry me FFS!!!!  Where she got that silly idea from I’m not entirely sure.  Also Brown Owl is considering packing Nelly off into a different six so that she doesn’t rely on Aprilia all the time (thus making Aprilia struggle even more)  This is good.  Aprilia is also keen on doing a few projects based round badges over the next few weeks as she has suddenly realised that she is "behind" on her plan to get every sodding badge before she leaves….. So, Brownie Traditions is first on the To Do list which will involve her learning to tie her shoe laces!  Wish me luck folks.

Which brings us to today.  Kung Fu this morning was very good.  Not sure what Aprilia’s lot were doing although it did seem to involve racing round the play frame at regular intervals.  I had fun too and somehow seem to have improved massively in two days.   Odd really, no idea why, (unless I’m just better when I’m half asleep) but I’m hoping it’s not just a fluke, I sort of like being good at something.  This afternoon seems to have been mostly full of me crimping Aprilia’s hair.  I’d take a picture but she’s starkers and not in a mood to be persuaded to get dressed just for the sake of a photo oportunity

Junior Brain Training

MoshiMonsters

Various "edutainment" websites

Letts World of Revision English, Maths, Geography, Science and History.  We like these books!

Bond NVR 2nd papers

Dark is Rising

visit from Nelly and Bart

Rainbows and Brownies Summer disco

I’m going to try to do the "in brief" thing again for a while to help me keep a track of what she does.  I’ve also suggested that she keeps a note of what she does each day by dictating it to me, with a view to her keeping her own records when she’s more confident and thus knowing which bits of her day actually do count as educational!

So, today.  JJs was hot and noisy and everyone seemed to be out of sorts so we gave up after a bit under an hour!   The garden, in contrast was cool and breezy so we pootled round doing very little until the post arrived with her Junior Brain Training for DS.  She likes it.  No, wait, she REALLY likes it!  it’s not as taxing as Brain Training or Big Brain Academy but she can do it unassisted and, for her, that is Very Important.  She has played on it for several hours.

She read to me this evening with something fast approaching confidence and competence.  Okay so it’s an "easy reader" type book that came with a CD so she knows it but she was genuinely reading it and enjoying it and read both the stories in the book before she started to tire.  This is a Big Thing!  Then she requested something sciencey so we did a page on good and bad diets which lead into that un-plannable discussion ed thing where we discussed our own lifestyle and how we could do better if we tried a bit harder.  So she wants meal planning and more oportunities to excercise and, being a good mummy (sometimes) I’m going to do my best to facilitate!

I think she is shifting back to wanted a little structure again now.  We have been in the doldrums for quite some time really, which has happened before, and will happen again, and it always gets me mildly worried that it’s all going wrong when in fact really it’s all going very right, she’s just taking time to assimilate stuff.  Hence from struggling to read a page or two she can suddenly manage a book without tears or tiredness.  Hence she then read all the instructions on her page of science stuff, and copied out all the answers herself, without even a teeny tiny wobble.  So I shall just stop worrying again should I?  For tonight anyway.

trip to playbarn

various amounts of time spent on Junior Brain Training, Brain Assist (on DS) and MoshiMonsters (on PC)

Read Aligator Tails and Crocodile Cakes

Read and completed 1 double page of Letts World of Revision Science 7-8

Listened to 1 chapter Greenwitch

I was chatting to a lass I know at the weekend.  I’ll call her Mag.  She’s more than an acquaintance, not really a friend, something in between.  She’s a single mum, one boy of 7 and a baby of 8 or so months who are happy, healthy looking beasties.  She has a new partner who is very protective of her and her boys and seems genuinely fond of them.  All sounds good yeh?  Well, yes, things are getting good for her.  But, she is a drinker.  She’s recently realised that she is drinking too much and, quite sensibly, went to her GP for help.  So, she’s getting the help she needs to "dry out".  So that’s good yes?  Well, obviously Yes, but then again No.  Because this raised a warning flag you see.  Because despite the fact that her baby is a gorgeous chubby alert little smiler who rarely fusses and despite the fact that the older boy is a lively, normal, friendly, sociable bright lad they are obviously at risk of neglect or worse because Mama likes her beer.  And so the SS cometh.  She is phoned several times a week by her case worker who pops by without making appointments and has spoken at length with the school that the older boy goes to (who are keeping Mag "in the loop" as they say.)  One assumes that she is also speaking to the HV team at the clinic where Mag religiously takes Baby every week for his weigh-in (done stripped bare so any signs of abuse would be very evident)  This week her case worker has informed Mag that she needs to speak to OS alone.  Does this sound familiar?

I know that any concerns of abuse and neglect have to be taken seriously.  I know that the SS can never do right by everyone and are always about as welcome as a pork chop in a synagogue.  But I worry.  Because now all Mag’s friends know that if you ask for help that you desperately need in order to do right by your kids then you will end up under suspicion of being the worst kind of parent.  I worry that up and down the country mothers are hiding drink problems, drug problems and mental health issues that could be addressed safely and compassionately, to make those families stronger and safer, because of fears of such allegations.  I worry that very soon home educators with less than perfect health, physically or mentally, will be under suspicion, their illnesses used as an excuse to force children into school regardless of it being the right or wrong thing to do FOR THE CHILD, further weakening the family and putting the child at greater risk than they were before.

And I worry that because of that fear of intervention, a mother somewhere is hiding away her problem, letting it escalate until she really cannot function and a child is dead that would otherwise have been safe and happy. 

And that elsewhere a child of aparently well balanced, upright parents is being mentally, emotionally or physically abused and destroyed because no one would suspect that the child isn’t just naturally "like that" (you know, the signs that in some children mean abuse and in others is just "them") because such nice people could not possibly be irreversibly damaging their child behind closed doors.  My brother was that child.  He died with a heroine needle in his arm many years ago now.  Because no one could hear us above the clamour of false alegations on council estates.