How terribly civilized

HE:
Dinosaurs
- She chose a dinosaur book - first time she has chosen a factual book, in fact only the second time she has really picked out a book in a bookshop with such determination. I was in another part of the shop and she came and got me and said she wanted this book. It's a short book about different types of dinosaurs, with flaps and the names of the dinosaurs spelt out in 2 different ways - one to help you say them correctly. So on Wednesday we read it in the morning she initiated a conversation about all the different kinds of protection/armour dinosaurs had - horns, various spikes in different places, neck frills, club tails, sharp teeth. We had a really enjoyable hour with this book, conjuring up different scenarios of dinosaurs protecting themselves from other dinosaurs and talking about what they ate, how big they were both in terms of modern things like buses etc. and in relation to each other. Then at the end of the afternoon, we made a kind of amalgamosaurus together out of clay, which was basically a collection of bits of dinosaurs we had seen in the book and liked. Sadly most of it hasn't survived. Next time we do clay I'll have to put it up somewhere out of reach to dry! All in all this was a great combination of activities that we both enjoyed - a book that gave rise to good conversations, followed through with a craft activity and more conversation later. Will definitely look for other similar opportunities.
Poo and Pee
- Our main 'educational' activity of the week has been learning to use the potty. F is 4, but I haven't been convinced that either of us was ready for this (for instance, in terms of effect of the stroke that she had as a newborn, effect on bladder control, difficulty in undressing, etc.). This week has been great though, think we're well on our way. A couple of months ago when we tried, I couldn't really see how it could be done, as she was peeing every 20 minutes or so in a different part of the house and by the time I'd cleaned one up there was another one, often right on top of a collection of miscellaneous small items that were difficult to clean. However, this time, I was prepared for that, and it hasn't been like that at all. Almost all the poo and pee is going in the potty and she's only going every hour or two. How terribly civilized. I have to not watch the procession of the full potty to the toilet, as F insists on carrying it up the stairs and it's a wobbly ascent to say the least. But she hasn't spilt any yet, so it's better for me not to watch the near-misses and be saying 'careful' every 2 seconds!
Other HE - conversations about trees, more interest in sounds/letters/words, more casual maths.
Resources - I have bought a laminator and some printer ink at last. Watch this space!
Life:
Grandma Ju
- came on Sunday for a few hours. She brought a paint-your-own piggy bank, which F and she then painted - bright pink with gold glitter and frankly scary eyes, but F is very pleased with it, and it was a good idea of Grandma Ju's, nice of her to bring something to do with F like that. So now F is looking out for coins here and there and sticking them in her piggy bank! Much talk with Grandma Ju about pensions/investments etc. She is coming up to retirement and pondering her options.
Hurty feet
- my feet hurt - eczema, cracks, splits, bleeding, nasty horrible things. *waves to Lynne* - my friend Lynne has sent me some excellent protective moisturising stuff in vast quantities, so hopefully they will be getting better soon.
Tree Removal
- The landlord (nearly gave him a capital letter!) came over on Monday (at short notice, so I sprayed pong removing stuff around recklessly and hoped for the best!). It was time to remove the tree from our front garden. It's a beautiful tree in Spring, but its roots are wrecking the foundations and path, and its branches are flirting with the power lines and nothing grows very well in the front because of it. So he came and brought loppers and a chainsaw and his wife and her mother turned up after a while and we all spent much of the day disposing of large pieces of tree. They're fairly enthusiastic about Home Ed, and had a few good chats with F about tree age rings and how chainsaws work and such stuff. He came back on Tuesday to finish off, and some plants that I had ordered arrived on Wednesday, so can go in to nicely dug root-free soil today.
Katya, Ria and Belle
- came over on Monday too, fairly late on in the tree removal process. Had much conversation with Katya about her teaching job - just started, not qualified, fairly scary. She was talking through why she's doing it, and why she thinks she's doing it and why she's really doing it - it's very complicated, but I think we got somewhere with it, and she's sticking with it for now. She gave me her tips for our potty mission too. It was one of our more serious chats, but lovely to see them all.
Friends adopting
- Exciting e-mail on Monday from Glo and Shula telling us how their first meeting with the children had gone. It went really well, a very positive start, the children seemed very happy with what was happening so far, and had liked reading the family book and seeing the video of 'mummy Glo' and 'mummy Shula'. Am looking forward to hearing from them again when they get the chance. They will be spending increasing amounts of time with the children, in their foster home, with the foster family, over the next 2 weeks. And then, unless things have gone really badly, they all come home and start being a family!
Music and Movement
- Someone I used to see at a mother and toddler group in Brighton turned up in our group on Tuesday! She moved away to Manchester when F and her daughter were about 2, but now they're back. So will be seeing more of her hopefully. And her daughter is also friends with Madeleine, who we also see there.

Kept the rest of the week quiet to focus on poo and pee and getting them where we want them. Which has so far worked really well. Also had plenty of work, now finished for moment.
Tonight - Rioja and curry and relaxation.

Highlights: Poo in the potty; Amalgamosaurus; well-dug front garden
Lowlights: Tiredness, bad nights; feet of horror; spending money too quickly (see HE Resources!)
Quote: 'Mummy - look - it's the man with the stump!' (landlord carrying tree stump, so OK, phew)