Swallowing my Pride and Prejudice!!!

Well today was interesting… was feeling a bit down last night as my brother had changed his plans for coming to visit so we had nothing planned but now we have socialising this week, socialising next week and a weekend of entertainment planned too – so i doubt i will be doing very much blogging for a while. Fran has been working really hard and the benefits of it are really obviously too so i think a couple of weeks of fun and play are definitely in order.

Today we spent the morning with various interesting diversions – Maddy did several jigsaws, including a set of lifecycle ones she was convinced she “couldn’t” do but of course was easily capable of – bless. She likes a set of rhyming words pairs we have too atm. Fran did an enormous wordsearch with about 30 words on it and worked really hard at getting the words sorted in her head – she really is teetering on the edge of reading now – another month should have her climbing the library shelves i think. I know i could have left it but tbh a 6 year old who doesn’t realize she “can” read and write was outside my comfort zone and i feel really relieved to have addressed it in a manner that has been enjoyable. I was hugely chuffed the other day when she said “mum… whats m-a-p? Oh – its MAP!!!!!” (it was a new word so she “heard” itwhen she said the letters) and then went to bed with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, fiercely trying to sound out the first page. Today she had copied several of the words from the wordsearch on to the paper and despite not having practised letters, the writing of numbers we have been doing seems to have changed things massively; her letters have really come on. Okay, they aren’t really “properly formed” yet but i am far less worried about that than i was about not even wanting to try.

Anyway, Ammi had had a bad night and was asleep by 11am and so Fran Maddy and i sat down with a load of Terry Longhurst “I can draw” books and tried them out, each with our own sketchbook to keep it neat. Fran tried really hard with a sheep or three, i did a dragonfly while Maddy drew endless holiday cartoons and then Maddy copied my dragonfly and drew her own ladybird. Her drawing is quite amazing (well to me anyway because Fran has never really tried and Maddy puts so much detail in to them – its a new one on me really being thoroughly un-arty) – i’m hoping drawing might be a real unlock/destress key for Maddy so i am really going to encourage her. When i get a chance i am going to set up a Gallery for her on a blog to compliment Fran’s narrations. It would be nice to have them to look back on properly. maddy also played with our geometric cabinet for a long time and they both has a very good experiment with the “Insets for Design” possibly for the first time really.

After lunch, with Daddy again, we decided to go on a trip to Burghley House – to our surprise we discovered that it was partially closed for filming so suspecting a “fly on the wall documentary of servants stealing the linen” type affair, we went to nosy about. But it wasn’t – they are filming Pride and Prejudice with a fairly all star cast of Judi Dench and Kiera Knightley.

Sadly we didn’t get to see any big stars but we did see a few people in costume and far more interestingly for them, lots of the props, wardrobe, catering and production lorries were open, plus all the cameras and wires were about of course. For once, its something i really know about too, given that had circumstances not changed for me, that was the job i intended to do, so i was able to really get into it with them – we looked at all the location caravans, talked about lights, generators, the different people involved in producing a film and i told them the story (swallowing my hate! lol!) which they were very into and asked lots of questions about it. The whole thing was topped off by getting stopped by the local radio and interviewed about what we had seen! I managed to get home education in ;~) but i’ve no idea if it was played as i am way too embarrassed to hear my own voice, so didn’t tune in! lol!

We spent most of the time in the Sculpture garden again which was as lovely as normal. i had a very nice chat with a couple of mums, including one who was amazed by my calm and cheerful mood despite being a mum of three and a bit! She was lovely, and seemed quite into her two boys and she didn’t actually say this at all, but i do find the general sighing about spending time with ones own children perhaps the hardest bit about HE – i can’t really understand why people find it odd that by and large i might like being with them?

While in the gardens i got them to find specimens of lots of tree leaves, which we pressed in the flower press and also sent them to photograph leaves and trees too – they seemed to enjoy that, so that is Nature Study for this week i think!!! lol!

I’ve just finished a mammoth run to the Post Office and got back to find them both still up making a “Shrek World” – they had drawn loads of film related pictures and stuck them into a frieze for their bedroom wall – really nice co-operation, quite creative – AND they tidied up after themselves! RESULT!!!!