T-Bird Anni Rides Again

I just got my latest TMA back and I got 74%   Could possibly have got more if i’d read the unit properly first as I missed a whole passage that related really well to the third part of the essay!  Typically, I’m going to miss the next tutorial (again!) cos I hvae better things to do with my Saturdays than take the train into Manchester and sit in lecture with a bunch of grown ups who take life seriously when I could be drinking tea with friends!

Today seemed to rush past in a bit of a blur.  There was "schooly bits" in the morning complete with some puzzles and a discovery that I have broken my previous record…. this time I got to week 19 before I got totally out of sync with the Sonlight Instructor guide and gave it up as a bad job.  Maybe by the time we hit "senior school" we will have cracked this whole following instructions thing.  We ahve really enjoyed the Greek Myths book which has been our story book for the last few weeks but now, intead of pushing on to A Year with Miss Agnes, Aprilia wants a return visit to Homer Price, especially the one with the donuts. I’m thinking of recording it to audio CD for her so she can have it as a bedtime book.  In fact I’m thinking of doing that for a few of her favourites and building up a bit of a better library for her, she’s grown out of the faerie story CDs now really and it costs a fortune to keep buying new ones, although dad does his best to remember to buy the Telegraph every time there’s a CD in it.

I also had to build a new desk today.  Duke has revamped his "office" and has lusted after my corner desk for long enough, he was going to get one for himself from Ikea but it appears it’s discontinued so in a moment of weakness I said he could have mine as when we revamp our room I want it a bit more bedroom-like and less office cum storeroom cum general disaster zone (I’ve mentioned this before I’m sure)  So yesterday I emptied not only the desk but all the stuff arround it onto the bed so taht Duke could run off with my desk, thinking we could then assemble Duke’s old one in it’s place and get stuff back off the bed before bedtime.  Didn’t work though.  I made do with an upside down crate so I could finish my essay (which was due yesterday, not today after all!!!) whilst I waited for him to be ready to give me a hand.  This is what it all looked like at this point.  i feel I have to point out that a lot of the stuff there is because, in trying to get his desk area just so, Duke had strewn a lot of the stuff that was previously stacked by his side of teh bed to find specific cables, gizmos and gadgets, but there is a lot of clean washing (usually stacked just by the desk) stray Rainbow books and more books than I have any right to keep on a desk!

By the time the corner desk was out of the bedroom and reassembled in his office and he had fastened various gadgets and gizmos to it, installed all his stuff on it and sat admiring the effect for a short while it was too late to start putting anything together for me.  So we slept on the sofa bed, which claims to be a double and once more we remembered that actually it really isn’t.  So today I put the desk together myself and managed to do it with remarkably few problems besides actually finding the bits (how can one desk spread itself out over so much house?)  I’ll get used to it I guess.  Trouble is, of course, that now he’s back to one job the revamp of the rest of the house is on hold so who knows when I’ll get this.  I sort of liked teh minimalist effect of the up ended basket but it was a bit hard on the joints to sit cross legged for the 2 hours it took to write the essay

Oh, and it was Rainbows, and I couldn’t think what we were supposed to do nor find the book we are using so I declared it a parachute game meeting, took them onto teh field and pretended that I’d planned it taht way.

And then, being as it’s Duke’s birthday, we went out for tea.  

All of which probably explains why today was a bit blured round the edges, looks rather busy now I look on it from this end  

Today we have shopped, including buying her a pair of "croc-a-likes" for £2 off the market which she is ever so happy about.  Then we gardened for several hours and although there wasn’t a lot to show for it we did at least get the first sowing of peas in.  And there was swimming, 2 "rations" of DS time for her (we have a timer, she likes to know when her half hour ration is up!) a visit from the BT engineer who agreed that the fault really was at the junction where it should have been fixed lsat time but wasn’t   and lots of generally just being.  I’m sure some of it was randomly educational.  I’m not sure which bits though!  I suspect I’m a traitor to the "stuctured home ed" brigade just now, but we are really, we are just having a "rest" from it for a while

I’ve been granted a "Daisy book" player through the OU which is great as it’s what I’ll need for my next course, as they stop doing tapes.  Trouble is the are buying me this one which is a hulking great desktop thing and more expensive than this nice portable one ( http://tinyurl.com/5vbkwd )which is what I asked for, would prefer as it’s more practical and will probably end up buying for myself at some point!

Wouldn’t mind if I’d not asked for a specific one or if what I’d asked for was more expensive but the portable is cheaper, does more and would mean I could put a small wallet of SD cards in my bag and head off out of the house nice and easiely.

Ah well, guess beggars can’t be choosers and all that! 

Well, I can’t say as I’m overly enamoured with having a patron saint who isn’t english, who possibly never even set foot in the country and whose claim to fame is that he rescued a fair maiden from beign lunch for a dragon but anyway, Happy St Georges day folks!

Today was fairly bitty really.  There was Sonlight and Miquon, there was one page of Stile which again brought up the issue that actually she is still struggling with words when there isn’t a nice picture clue and a bit of context from the rest of the page to help her along.  I also found out she has forgotten alphabetical order completely, how did that happen? 

I faffed about trying to tidy up a bit, getting ready for Rainbows and generally pootling.

Had a slightly surreal conversation with the mum of a new starter, she somehow had decided that her offspring didn’t need uniform to be a Rainbow and was going to let her darling child pick which ever fashion victim items she fancied to turn up in each week.  Now, I have to say, as far as I know Guiding has always been a uniformed organisation, all the rest of teh girls are in uniform with one exception (who was enrolled by my predecessor so I can’t do much about it) so you would think there was a clue there really wouldn’t you? She was really rather taken aback when I pointed out that she needed uniform within the first term, not much, just the top is fine.  She hummed and hawed so I pointed out that I’d consider taht she didn’t want to join and would give her place to the next girl if uniform was not purchased within the time.  And unless she knows of a charity shop with much better quality that the ones I frequent, she aint worried on a cost basis.  And she was 10 minutes late picking child up.  I can see her being "that" mother taht they all warned me about…. mutter mumble…

This evening we pootled as a family in the garden which is coming on nicely now.  No mice any more, either the relocated to more peaceful surroundings or they were a midnight snack for someone else’s moggy.  Must get on top of the horsetail again.  Where the grass has grown really tall there’s non to be seen but on the scrubby bits it’s rearing its ugly head again.  I’m tempted to declare chemical warfare but I just hate to break out the chemicals over something that’s beatable without.  Also need to clean up the pots and get set to start off the runners.  Then it’s time to build the beandome again, wonder how many swearing sessions it will take this year?  Each time I think I work out what I did wrong lsat year adn each time I just make a whole new set of interesting variations on a theme of how to not erect a pentadome! 

Well, just for a short while I had a lovely shiny new promise badge, presented to me after renewing my Guiding Promise in front of all the girls which makes me pretty much a "real" Guider now rather than a trainee (just got one bit to do, which is the combined Rainbow and Brownie bash in June) 

Then I went home and instead of doing waht I usually do and taking the uniform off right away, I decided first to deal with ice for Aprilias’ very sore finger, then tea for very sad Aprilia, then cuddles and Calpol when tea didn’t cheer her up and ice didn’t stop her finger hurting.  Then, because she kept fussing I got serious and taped it to it’s neighbour so it was supported which worked wonders (not that I think it needed it but if it makes her feel better….)  Then I realised I no longer had my shiny new Promise badge pinned to my shirt.  And now I have no idea where it is.

Learning has been mainly craft based today as she is going all out for her Brownie craft bdge.  She has done a friendship bracelet on a braiding wheel, decorated a teeshirt and had a hot glue, fabric and sticker fest to decorate a wooden box.  I’ve yet to decide if the box counts as a textured collage, a decorative item made from wood or "another craft of your choice" but she had hours of fun making it!  Whilst she was busy we chatted about all sorts of stuff, real deap and meaningful one minute and innane the next.  Lemony Snicket provided "vocabulary development" at bedtime. 

Typically, since joining the structured HE blogring all structure has evapourated!  Do I care?  nah, it will drift back again soon enough! 

Aprilai has turned into a friut bat in an attempt to (how does one put this politely?) "go" without a strain.  So far it’s having no effect at all but hey, she’s eating fruit by the tonne and thus has no space for snacks other than fruit so it’s got to be good!  I’m assuming that a few days of fruit has got to shift things through and get her back to going normally surely?  Not sure I can cope with the expense of feeding a fruit bat for more than a week!!!!  She scofffed a full bag of grapes yesterday and half a punnet of plums (so surely she should ahve been up all night on the loo with that many fruit skins?????)

Anyway, enough of that!

Whre can I post up a video clip for you all to watch that isn’t public?  I’m guessing I can’f flickr it?  She got hold of the camera yesterday and discovered the video feature so we have a clip of her doing a "piece to camera" about our back garden.  It’s very comical but not entirely truthful…. aparently she and her friends have absolutely no fun in our back garden because it is so muddy but it always looks fun when they are out there - maybe they are just good at making the best of a raw deal?

I did the card last night, it’s nothign special, but it’s hand made and that makes all the difference.  So now I need to remember to POST IT TODAY otherwise I’m going to ahve to hand deliver it which I don’t really want to do

"school" is going well, she’s rediscovered Study Dog , finished level 1 and now has level 2 installed and had a good go at that yesterday, shame I didn’t download level 3 before they withdrew teh free versions, it’s good but not good enough to pay that much for the limited use she would get from it.  I am still looking at Education City though, I do think that it would be worth shelling out for some time soon if for no other reasons that it’s on line (so it must be good if you are 7 and a potential Geek!) StringBean already has it (and anything yoru mates have is therefore cool) and I can access "reports" to waft under certain noses.

She also did multiple pages of Miquon - it was more easy stuff, in fact she surprised herself by looking at one four digit sum and "just knowing" the answer.  I am trying to romp her through the bits I know she can do easily really fast to give her a feel for just how much she can actually do to hopefully bost the confidence for when we get to new stuff which she tends to instantly assume she can’t do!

Oh, and I promise to to a nice big Flickr upload later today, I just realised I’ve not been very diligent with Flickr recently and I have some very cute shots for you to giggle at! 

Today Aprilia has had to have several of these.  She has swung from whining, limp pseudo-teenager to hperactive, in-ya-face toddler demanding full attention.  She whined when I read to her, until I pointed out that I fully intended to carry on starting and stopping every time she whined until I finished what I intended to read and if that took all day then so be it.  Once she actually sat and listened she was actually quite interested in today’s bits, she had just decided before we started to be vile about it all. 

She bounced and deliberately gave the wrong answers whilst giggling manically when we did puzzles until I pointed out that I wsn’t going to start making tea until she finished the page sensibly (and she had been declaring herself to be starving for the past 2 hours) 

She complained that we haven’t done any practical stuff for a while and I pointed out that we only do that once the chores, stories and puzzles hvae been done because much as I love baking, gardening, crafting and practical science,  they all make a mess and require effort from me both to plan, carry out and CLEAR UP AFTER which I don’t feel inclined to put in when there is nothing being given in return.  Actually I took rather a long time to explain this part of the Greater Scheme Of Things as its something that really winds me up (can you tell???), I am very concious (as I’ve noted before) that she’s an only one and the chances therefore of her being a spoilt brat are much higher than with other kids.  It’s not a character trait I particularly want her to develop.

She cheated when I got a board game out by moving my counter when she thought I wouldn’t notice (becuase of course, i’m not going to notice going back to just near the start having been quite near the end of the board now am I) and by picking th number she wanted on the dice and putting it down having "pretended" to roll it.  All blatant button pushing more than anything else but it’s the wrong time of the month to push buttons.  Grump, growl, grizzle.

However, tomorrow she is with Granny and Grandpa so once I hvae dropped her off I am heading striaght back here for a leisurely day with me and my timer - 30 mins study, 30 mins PC time, 30 mins housework, 30 mins with feet up and a brew and something tastey, repeat until its time to get her back.

the problem is, of course, that we have fallen out of routine.  She falls totally apart without a solid routine but when I try to pull it back she swings between wanting it and fighting it.  and she loaths change, the changing of the hour renders her vile for a week or two every 6 months.  I’m tempted to not bother changing it at all and just living an hour out from everyone else all summer.

I’ve just got my mark back for TMA 2 and it’s a much more respectable 71% which, considering I did it within a week and with non of the background info I would ahve had if I’d read the whole block rather than just the bits directly relating to the question I think is pretty damned good!  I did laugh at the tutor’s comments though, the guy is the epitome of tact and diplomacy…. I threw in a quote that at the time I thought really reflected well on teh question but now I read it again was totally off the wall and his comment was "The precise relevance of this example for answering the assignment question is a bit unclear."  which is, I guess, a polite way of saying "you lost it then didn’t you?"

Onwards and upwards now, next TMA is on how women with mental illness were treated but that’s not due til the 26th so I can actually read everything up to and including the chapter it relates towith a bit of luck, planning dn cooperation from small "needy" child (and oh my is she "needy" just now!!!!) 

but I do wish I could train Duke to actually LOOK at the package sizes before saying "yes, of course it will fit in my Volvo"  because this is twice now we ahve really, really struggled and ended up with me driving it home with the seat as far forwards as it will go (which means I am seriously up close and personal with the stearing wheel)  Which was sort of excuseable in the past but these days Ikea deliver!  And I dont’ care how much it costs (don’t think it’s too bad though) it HAS to be better than me having to drive with my face 6" off teh airbag and Aprilia having to sit slightly skewed because the item is shoving her carseat over slightly.

Hey ho, Aprilia is now the proud owner of a bright red "Billy" bookcase and we spent today transfering all the books off her floor (shriek!) and all her books from teh bookcases in teh living room into it.  It sort of burped and said "is taht all you have to give me?" whilst the shelves downstiars wept with relief at having huge numbers of books evicted!  She also agreed to part with a few that she has outgrown so we have stuff for charity shop tomorrow.

She celebrated by reading me 3 Cahrlie and Lola books.  Not saying it was fluent but it was reading and it was pausing to work out what a word was and it was a damned sight more interesting than listening to her read desperately boring "learn to read" books.  There really is a light at the end of this tunnel isn’t there?  Just need to break this panic reaction she gets to books with more than 3 lines of text.  It’s not that I don’t understand this panic, I’ve been known to break into a cold sweat at close packed, small typeface text myself, but she does need to learn to deal with it somehow!