Monday off

I love Mondays like today. Much as I like MMs, our Monday group, I love not getting up early, having a lazy morning, then all 3 of us going out or doing something together.

Had a shopping delivery at lunchtime, then we headed out, did 2 geocaches on our way into town, one very easy to find and the second a bit harder. Was a lovely bright day, nice light. 

Then we bought F some trainers, taking advantage of the Clarks odd shoe scheme as F has one foot more than one size bigger than the other. The trainers seem a good fit, hope they will be better for her feet than her boots have been - she's gradually developed a pronation with them. Could see her instantly walking better in the trainers.

Also bought a few bits in Holland and Barratt and some stationery and 2 Jacqueline Wilson books in Smiths.

Then we went and had lovely dinner in Pizza Express.

Lovely family Monday.

Mixed carbs

Trying to remember 5 days ago and drawing a blank - that's a bit rubbish! Er... 

Wednesday

I think F and I watched a film, but I can't think what else we did. Think we looked at some history in GP book, but can't think what we did before that. Oh, she had saved up for a ponyville building and that came, so I guess she spent a long time with that upstairs. Yes, it's all coming back to me now. She did some film making with her Flip outside too, and had a bath with a hot chocolate. A lazy home day basically.

Thursday
F continued to play with ponies, make Flip movies and show them to ponies and then we went to Home-Ed Drama - I went with F for first time - her 3rd week but first time I've been able to get along. Although she's enjoying it to an extent, I'm looking at alternatives as it's not as good, for her, as the one she was doing last year, in some ways. Also it would be nice to be doing it in Lewes again, to be able to walk there.

After drama, we went to the Phoenix to see an exhibition called Pigment and Light - which we got quite a lot from, mainly about colour and what colours make us think of and feel. Then we finished up with a hot chocolate in a coffee shop before getting the bus back. Texted with J on way back and we were both very much agreed that a takeaway was required. We watched The Truman Show, was very nice to be watching something a bit less Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks with F - she'd heard C talking about it and wanted to watch it so we'd got it specially. Good film. I love Jim Carrey, I know not many do.

Friday

I finished a bit of work (January has been rubbish, so March pay will be crap). Then headed over to Maidstone on train to see my mum and accompany her to an appointment at The Memory Clinic there. She hadn't managed to tell me what her letter said, over the phone, so after a few frustrating attempts I had given up asking. It turned out to be a post-diagnosis counselling appointment! The sight of which phrase made my heart sink, as you need to be able to remember your diagnosis in order to receive counselling, you'd think. 

Anyway, the guy doing it was lovely and he retested mum and she scored slightly higher than when she was in hospital but still got day, date and month wrong, claiming it was 20th September - at some points she does know the date but it wanders off quickly and she then makes it up with complete confidence. Very hard to find strategies that work with short-term memory loss. I definitely think a large digital clock with day and date on would help - would have to be placed somewhere where she just saw it frequently without trying, e.g. next to telly and another one by bed. Will try and sort that next time I go.

The other test she can't do is remembering three words for 10 minutes. Unsurprisingly. But she did know place names, Prime Minister, etc. It's the short-term stuff that's a problem, because it changes.

Anyway they gave us lots of bumpf and talked a bit, but there's really not much to be done with vascular dementia, which does seem to be what mum has. He did say exercise is good, mental stimulation can help, etc. But only delaying the pretty much inevitable further decline, etc. Which I knew, having Googled. Mum blanked it out and focused on other things, so not distressed at all. She is in good spirits. We popped to a shop afterwards and got nice treaty food to have for dinner. We watched a lot of Downton Abbey - I gave her the DVDs for Christmas but I don't think she's managing the DVD player so has to wait till I'm there.

I stayed overnight and slept really well, often I don't there, but was really comfortable with a stack of pillows stopping me coughing (have had a cough for a week or so).

Saturday

Watched more Downton Abbey with mum, did a crossword with her and waited till her Ocado shopping came (had managed to get late afternoon Saturday slot for her). Then set off for what turned out to be very long journey home, due to engineering works and my misguided attempts to outthink the rail replacement buses. Unadvisable. I did see a minor celebrity from Big Brother though, so was able to report that into my BB forum site, complete with picture! 

Was soooo lovely to get home and be with J and F (F in bed but had a quick welcome home cuddle). J made me a big cup of tea. Relaxed.

Sunday

Relaxation and a funny dinner made up of leftover bits that wouldn't make a dinner on their own. F looked at her plate and said 'this is a lot of different carbohydrates!' as she's recently looked at food, nutrition, etc. She was right - there was pasta salad, a few chips and a couple of slices of garlic bread! Still, alright for a cold Sunday when there's not much else in the house!

After F had gone to bed, J and I caught up on recent episodes of Fringe and a QI.

Really need to blog more often again as I know I've missed a few things I wanted to mention - F's vocabulary was one, some examples I liked but they have vanished from my brain now.

Sackboy retrieval, Eden's Eye

Quickish one.

Weekend:

Saturday was a late start and lazy for all of us, with watching of Total Wipeout and playing of LittleBigPlanet 2 and various other enjoyables.

Sunday J had to go to work and I had to work too, so F played some Animal Crossing and watched some Simpsons, not sure what else.

Monday F and I had to get up early to go to group, still got there a bit late but not too bad. Was a busy but happy session, group is good at the moment. F retrieved her little Sackboy figure, left there last week, and we made him a new hat - he's the social worker for her doll's house which is a care home for pipe cleaner people - they have all sorts of great facilities and a French chef to cook for them. Apart from that she was mostly off playing, though came back a few times for a bit of a bicker and/or cuddle.

I enjoyed catching up with various people again. Might give ourselves next week off, go 2 weeks out of 3. The main things I don't like are having to set the alarm and be woken by it and the noise and busyness of being in a group. The main things I do like are F having a good time as she mostly seems to at the moment, the top deck of the bus views, chatting with people there.

But I do also like Mondays with J, going into town and having a coffee and a wander, etc.

And we actually did both this Monday, as I remembered J was heading into town and rang him from the bus back, met him in the coffee place where I had a cappuccino with soya milk and F had a hot chocolate. Very nice.

Today we went to Drusillas and met C and co there, spent a good 5 hours there and admission price was a cheap January deal so well worth it. We went everywhere, looked at almost all the animals, did a lot of the zoolympics and knowledgey bits and everyone had a lovely time, with E and F playing some game where they were on holiday or something and one of the climbing structures was their hotel. F was particularly taken with Eden's Eye, which we hadn't been in before. And the zoetropes in the bat house.

And C and I managed a good bit of chatting as even D was running off with the girls a lot of the time.

F managed to hurt her knee in the soft play!

We finished in the restaurant, F had some chips and she and E suddenly had a cunning plan for F to go back to C's for a play while I got the bus back by myself.

C said it was fine so off they went. I did a really dumb thing, missed one bus, walked down to Alfriston and missed another by about a minute, very annoying! So then had to walk all the way back up and further on to Berwick station (now getting dark and no pavement or street lights for part of the way), where I had to catch a train going the opposite direction for one station, then change and go the right way to get home, much later than I should have done! Oh that norty public transport.

C very kindly gave F tea and brought her home at 7.

Other things: F has done some very clear drawings - she often does things that look very scribbly as she has gone over and over the line roughly a lot, but these are neater and make more sense to look at. Using Stabilo Smove, which does seem to give her a great left-handed grip. 

She is also much bemused by a couple of the children at Forest School who 'always want to have the white cups' (two white cups, all the others are green) but apparently if all the cups were white they would want the 2 green ones!

Tomorrow we have no plans HOORAY!

Farm visit, geocaching, new group and Aren't choices brilliant?

Tuesday

was a farm visit with a dozen or so families to Plumpton College. Very interesting on many different levels. One thing that was interesting was that, of a small group of people I chatted with during the day, there were some who felt massively drawn to farming, farm animals, that whole environment. I can't think of any other visit with a home-ed group that has produced such strong and spontaneous expressions of that kind of feeling. I found that fascinating. C and I were all about the 'no, we'd rather work in a fairly quiet library', while the person in the group who currently does work in a library is shortly off to do actual real proper farming in a variety of locations around the country, with her family! And J, who organized the trip, talked with great feeling about how much she would like to work with animals, which I never would have guessed about her at all.

All of which and more led me to think 'aren't choices brilliant?' in Fast Show enthusiastic character style, and that became a bit of a theme for my week. Oh, I've just realized that's the same area I was thinking/feeling very negatively in a couple of weeks ago (outside the norm, etc.), but with a much more positive spin! That's quite cool. Hmm this is rambly and probably should have gone on Monkey Shit instead. Will see...

OK so back to Plumpton visit.

F and I got the bus, one of the little villagey buses that we're quite liking these days. Particularly liked this one as it picks up from the next road down, over the stream (which is running now, so must be properly winter). We went to where Google said the stop was and sat on the wall, spending 5 minutes pondering how there was no sign of it being a bus stop and fretting slightly before suddenly realizing there was a big yellow rectangle outline and the words BUS STOP painted on the road. And we believed and it came!

I did actually say to the bus driver 'We believed and you came' but he didn't seem to think that was amusing, he's probably right. Lovely sunshiney bus ride with beautiful views.

At the college we met up with the other families - I really enjoyed having lots of conversations throughout the day with people one-to-one or in small groups, like chatting with J about her wish to work with animals. Had other chats with L, who is such a love and had had a difficult start to her day, M, C, other C, S and of course N.

The woman taking us round was good in terms of knowledge and ability to answer questions and listen. Think she would be good with an older smaller group at some point. She did tend to do the asking the group a question just to see if they knew thing a bit but she was mostly pretty good.

I got fed up, as I often have lately, with the few disruptive children in the group. Every group we go with on a trip seems to have maybe 5% or so disruptive children, who don't want to listen, probably don't even want to be there. Really annoying. I can see, if you have 2 or more children, perhaps you're going to have to drag some that don't want to go to something that one does want to go to, maybe there is no alternative, I don't know. But there must be better ways of handling it, encouraging them to not spoil it for other people would help. And just 2 or 3 children who are chatting or jostling each other has an effect that spreads, so that the children who are only a bit interested or easily distracted start doing similar, or wandering off, etc. Anyway I am fed up of that and am not the only one as several conversations proved. However, most of the children were engaged and listening most of the time.

Breathe. 

Aren't choices brilliant? (Am now imagining a Cameron and Clegg party political broadcast version which is making me slightly nauseous)

The visit started in the education centre with a bit of intro and health and safety wash your hands and don't get bitten type stuff. Then we went and saw milking shed, calves, cows, piglets and pigs. Had a wave of emotional reaction instantly on first encounter with calves, had forgotten how sick it all is: breed dairy cows to produce ridiculous volumes of milk, take their babies away and allow those babies only a few months of life, keep them all indoors as much as possible as is cheaper and easier and lack of sunlight doesn't actually affect pricing negatively so not a real factor. Reduce life to object. Sentience to commodity. Put nature in boxes and stack them high, sell them cheap.

So I reeled a bit on first sight of calves in shed, while the education lady told us how these calves were separated from their mothers at 24 hours and put here and how old they would be when slaughtered. I had to walk around a bit and redetach myself from it all. Didn't take long really. Stopped focusing on how the calves reached for anything they could, wanting to suckle, eager new lives that will be cut short. Focused instead on rays of sunshine coming in from high up windows of shed, happy children enjoying calves, etc. It sort of worked and I got a grip, reminded myself 'well, der, that's why you're vegan, stoopid' and aren't choices brilliant, etc.

After the calves, there was the cow shed (cows kept inside for 3 out of 4 seasons, as otherwise they will mess up the fields of grass with their hooves, apparently - good idea, bit like schools keeping kids off the streets most of the year, nice convenient artificial environment, preferably keeping them in rows, super) and the piglets and sows.

Piglets in weaning pens, piglets in the 'Finishing Shed', tiny piglets with vast sows in the farrowing unit. All confined, throughout the duration of their short, wasted lives. As intelligent and curious as dogs, but all they are is meat.

Anyway, that was the morning, and generated lots of interesting conversations, most of which I kept out of as I had already thought and talked it to death many times in my twenties and it looks like it hasn't changed, so the conclusion I came to then still holds for me. At least now there are more options for those who can't bear to give up meat or animal products, they can at least eat a bit of a pig that had a far more natural, happier and even slightly longer life.

Aren't Choices Brilliant?!

Some of the children were oblivious to all the above I think, some thought and felt quite deeply about what they were seeing and hearing and asked pertinent questions. F was not distressed but was a bit scathing about how the animals were kept and just thought they should be able to go outside, feel sunshine on their backs and run around on grass if they wanted to. 

I had managed to leave our packed lunch at home so had to get something from canteen/cafe place. Fortunately, as well as the meat and cheese sandwiches, they had hot pasta with mediterranean veg. Result. Aren't choices Brilliant?!

Was good to sit with N and C for lunchtime. Children who didn't really want to be there were getting increasingly rowdy and that extended to the afternoon session, which was a bit of a struggle as we were supposed to be listening to the woman telling us about cereal crops. Didn't really happen with all the disruption. Then a bit of hands-on grinding and F and I left early to catch a bus. And that didn't happen either, think it went a different route just to spite us or something.

We got a lift back with other C and F went into non-stop talk mode about a college she has invented (there are maps and things she's done) and what people learn where and how often. All I can remember is that I would be able to do archaeology once a week and gymnastics once a month.

Back home F and I watched a cosy snuggly film, talked a bit about the animals we'd seen and I suppose that was most of Tuesday.

Wednesday was a not-having-to-be-woken-up-by-alarm day. Pottered and faffed happily in the morning, F was doing a bit of writing, asked me something about alliteration and we talked about writing implements - pens, pencils, chalk and the joke about the Americans spending a fortune on a pen that can write in space and Russians spending 5p on a pencil.

In the afternoon we took the previous day's forgotten lunch out with us to make up to it for leaving it behind the day before and looked for 4 very local geocaches. Lewes practically bristles with them, so spoilt for choice. We found the second and the fourth, we're very much beginners but we both enjoyed it after some initial minor bickering, which we probably both also enjoyed on some level. F was very thrilled to find the last one. Definitely want to do more of that, was good having a walk with a purpose and lots of incidental chat. Perfect day for it, sunny and fresh, downs looked glorious from high up

Back home she had a bath and a hot chocolate in the bath and I pottered and faffed further to enhance my skills in both, which I believe I did successfully.

Thursday we headed off on a bus to Uckfield for a new home-ed group called Livewires. This will be a monthly group, with activities contributed by members on a different theme each time. The initial theme was 'Magic' which I was very uninspired by. I did Google a bit and found a trick with forks, a toothpick and a glass (not a magic trick, more a physics phenomenon). I tried to do it but couldn't, so didn't take anything to contribute at all, which was a bit rubbish.

I still had part of Tuesday's forgotten lunch left after the geocaching picnic, so I gave it some new friends and off we went. The bus journey is about 30 minutes and the sun shone on the downs and we were on the top deck and it was all very lovely.

My initial impressions of the new group were very disappointing, as about 10 minutes after we arrived, F was doing colouring in of printed pictures on the theme - that's fine if you feel like colouring, even at 9, but it seemed like 'busy work' for her really. The other activities I could see initially were playing with cornflour gloop and making a magic wand out of rolled up black card and shiny stuff. All felt a bit unchallenging, uninspiring.

And just as I was working my disappointment lovingly from moan through whinge to rant, things suddenly took off and several older kids and adults performed magic tricks and talked about how they were done, all having researched and practised. B even did the forks, glass, toothpick one I'd seen on YouTube! Was amazing to see it 'live'! And after all the magic (which was watched with full attention and no disruption, how nice!) we found a table with some reading and questions activity sheets for older children! 

So my first impression was wrong and I was really glad. F enjoyed it after that first 20 minutes or so and we'll definitely go again. Next month's theme is Egyptians. I feel quite enthused actually. A lot of people had put a lot of effort and, even better, intelligence and imagination, into it and it made me want to do the same in a way I haven't felt for ages. I can see a lot of potential there. The venue is good too.

And then we had lunch. Was lovely.

Then F and I parted company as she was going back with C and family for an hour or so before being taken to drama with E. Then she and E would come back to ours and E would stay for sleepover.

So I took the bus home on my own, which felt odd!

At home I did some chores and had a short bath, was a nice few hours to myself. 

C brought the girls over at 5 and F had high expectations and definite plans, including watching a Tinkerbell film and eating pizza and chips. Most of which went fine and they enjoyed the evening, but by 10pm, after such a full day they were both tired and F got very upset with me when I did something differently to how she'd imagined it. Then she could not get out of the upset loop, poor kid. She has got better overall at all this stuff, we have fewer meltdowns, less wailing and rage, but when she goes into one it is practically impossible to get her out. Which is obviously not much fun for a guest! I thought E handled it very well, she just read a book and waited and was ready whenever F tried to move on, which eventually happened. Phew. 

They had a slightly early midnight feast and fell asleep very easily and soundly.

I had to work through the night till 5am, which wasn't the best (Oh aren't choices brilliant) but I had lots of iPlayer and 4OD stuff to catch up on and even a bit of online company.

Today there was drilling and banging next door from 8ish onwards so no lying in. The girls had a lovely lazy day with ponies, Sylvanians (being given scenic cable car tours of Ponyville), filming 'interviews' using the Flip, activities from a Do Something Bonkers With String curriculum that they seemed to be making up and I'm sure would be prepared to share with other home ed families for a small fee and there would be exams and everything. I supplied grazing food and they ended their time together with a bit of Animal Crossing.

A mostly lovely and busy week!

Drama, Dampfross, Talent and Challenges

I hibernated a lot last week, with an achey shivery virus that kept nearly going then landing back on top of me again with a thump, especially if I dared to do anything like put bin bags out or hang washing up. Wearying it was.

Still there were nice aspects - time spent watching films, watching and helping F with games, etc.

On the Thursday she went off to a new drama group, which she enjoyed, though not sure how much of a long-term thing it will be for us, for various reasons.

 I continued sewing - er, I have nearly finished my daughter's Christmas present, go me. Am so enjoying having a semi-creative project on the go.

By Friday J was coming down with a different thing or the same thing and on Saturday he was not only feeling rubbish but on cover and got called out, so an anticipated weekend all back together after his working week didn't quite work out that way.

He had to have a snooze in the afternoon, he was feeling so rough. F and I played half a game of Dampfross (Railway Rivals, which J and I used to play with some very good friends back in our alcohol and substance enhanced late youth). 

F also played a lot of Kinectimals and finished the whole game, she's really enjoyed it and hopefully will go back to it for mini-games, with friends, etc.

We also all had a go at 'Fitness Evolved' (what a dumb name) and I really liked it - predictably I don't seem to have done it 'every day' - won't I get fit just having it in the house? The Kinect is really a very cool piece of kit.

Apart from that, we watched various family things and hung out and I had a long bath on the Sunday with a book, nice.

Today was back to Monday group, via a successful welly-buying trip into town, and it was a good session, ending with a talent show that the children had suddenly decided to put on and had organized rather well. F was a princess in a very brief play.

F spent some of the session a little out of step, wanting something more structured, engaging or challenging I think - she has been working out areas and volumes the last couple of days. I confidently said 'I expect there'll be some exercises on that in the Galore Park Maths book' but there weren't! So she's obviously ahead of where expected to be in terms of interest. Or something equally meaningless. 

So at group, although she spent a lot of time playing she also did a bit of measuring things and working things out and also some of her writing. She is writing pretty much every day at the moment - either in her diary or in her novel or both. Her novel is inspired by her recent reading of many Jacqueline Wilson books. The voices in it are well characterized and she knows her plot inside out, I like it very much. Sometimes she makes me mark it on originality, vocabulary, reader engagement and other categories.

She definitely wants more challenges, all this tells me. But it's difficult to fit them in when busy with groups and trips and all that.

We will find our way I'm sure.

Science Museum and Snow Queen

Thursday 

F had E round to play in the afternoon, didn't see either of them for about 4 hours but heard a lot of giggling in F's room.

Friday

We all went up to the Science Museum and had a fab time, especially in Launchpad. Attended the Rocket Show, which was fun.

J took some great pics, here's a few:

Friday evening, I left J and F at Victoria and went on to mum's. Mum was in fairly good form apart from memory issues and a little bit of confusion sometimes (possibly caused by the memory problems). Her main memory problems are still largely around days, times, dates. And she almost always calls F by my name now. I don't know if she's getting worse or not, time will tell. But she's happy and not distressed by the forgetting, she still finds it very amusing. Saturday morning, when I got up, she asked me how F had slept and I replied that I didn't know as she wasn't with me - that's the kind of thing that happens. Although, on one level, it's obviously weird and a bit worrying, I am very reassured by how untroubled she is about it. So far anyway.

We watched all of series 1 of Miranda on DVD and laughed a lot and I cooked and we ate and chatted. I was really glad to see that she has done a little bit of painting at some point, though she thinks what she's done is no good. It's probably not as good as before the stroke, but I couldn't tell and it's still better than any painting I'll ever do! I hope she will do more as I think it would really help with thought processes, if anything like that can.

Saturday evening I headed home and it was lovely to be back with J and F again for dinner.

Sunday J had to work, and F and I had a lovely sunshiney bus ride over to Tunbridge Wells to see The Snow Queen. My friend Nigel had written it and I managed a quick chat with him and with LJ before they were suddenly having to deal with a power cut. In the end the performance went ahead with no proper stage lighting, just house lights, and no proper soundscape, just a Yamaha by the side of the stage. The young cast did really well, every one of them seemed to be putting their all into it, no weak points. The music, which Nigel had also written, was lovely - especially the parts where the whole cast sang in harmony.

It was advertised as for ages 4+ but I think it would have been hard for young children to follow the story. F got most of it and quite enjoyed it, though she did yawn extravagantly at one point - and we were sitting right in front of Nigel and LJ. They just giggled fortunately. 

Back home, nice to be all together again, think I was very aware that J was back to work, normality resuming. I do love the unreality of Christmas, the break from normal. Hate routines.

Monday I felt rough with something achey and shivery and a very sore throat, so I mainly slept. J and F had to go into Brighton as J's phone has had a crisis with its SD card, not for the first time. He now faces having to hassle people to deal with this properly, so quite a stressful Brighton trip. Apparently F behaved really well and was very good whilst waiting for him, she'd taken her last unread Jacqueline Wilson book in.

Which she has now read, so a bit missing the JWs. J got her 2 Morpurgos for Christmas, hoping she might try them and like them.

Today I still felt a bit under the weather and F and I did a lot of film watching: Cars, Toy Story and A Bug's Life! Hoping for a similar kind of day tomorrow as I fancy a bit of hibernation still before launching ourselves into the maelstrom of home-ed out-and-about group here trip there busyness.

Quick one

Just to dip toe in water of 2011.

Went into Brighton earlier this week to this exhibition again. Last time we went, F had written a card for the suggestion box thanking them politely and enthusiastically but asking for disks to draw and colour on for the spinning tops at the green, or was it blue, table. They had acted on this but not with disks - rectangles of card. So F did tearing to make a roughly circular shape and experimented a bit. On the whole though, all the 'consumables' of the exhibition, for the activity areas, hadn't been topped up, so you could no longer have a go at making strips for the zoetropes, etc. Enjoyed it nevertheless.

Also went to cinema to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader (loved it - my favourite of the Narnia books) and had a meal out (norty non-frugal behaviour).

Apart from that, not much, games, films, books, more of the same.

Have been booking things today, places on 2 upcoming home-ed group trips, a theatre trip, looking ahead to various sciencey stuff in March too. So 2011 is now begun.