It’s (i suppose) the duty of a blogger to report the good, the bad and the ugly. And today was ugly.
I’m quite sure it was my fault; i’ve been ratty and snarly and hormonal most of the day and i’ve growled and grumbled like a pregnant person. It just felt as if all the needs of the kids colided at once; no one seemed to be able to agree, be nice, occupy themselves, help out at all and it drove me mad. It was like having a house full of 3 year olds. And that isn’t even complimentary to average 3 year olds. I really don’t know what was the matter but somehow i felt as if i had got out of step in one of those circular country dances where you swing round each others arms as you swap from inside to outside.
All of which was a real shame as if i was feeling positive, there is lots i could make much of from today. I really wanted to give Maddy some time, so she and i sat and read the I wonder Why…? book on Egypt. Fran wouldn’t listen because she wanted to learn about the Queen and for once her interest wasn’t coming first. So she was playing with the word blocks while i read with Maddy; which was probably good and i’m sure she absorbed something but i just got annoyed because she wasn’t using them to make words really, just playing some game.
Then i got out paints (Baker Ross ones are really nice btw) and we painted pasta tubes ready to make Egyptian necklaces – and i got wound up with Fran for splatting everything. But Maddy did a nice job and actually Amelie did the best of all, plus i got really nice time with her just on our own. Although she has driven me nuts by getting hysterical every time Button has gone anywhere near her. Honestly, you’d think it was a rabid dog, not a mostly harmless rabbit.
Then they all did painting and Fran tried really hard at doing more realistic paintings. She would bring me a pic of the sun, or a rose, or a tree and i would ask her if she could make it more like a tree with branches, or a sun like ours really looks – and she would try again. So that was all very nice. But then she dropped a pot of red paint on the carpet and stood in it, so that REALLY wound me up.
Finally we did their boxes; Maddy asked for a sheet of sums and did additions up to 10 on her own and Fran did a whole mental maths page right, some really good mixtures of words and numbers stuff, all of which she could read, some lovely handwriting and read well too. Maddy finished her JP book and knew all its letters. So that was all good.
Finished up with Rainbows, which they loved (but trying to get all 4 out of the house makes me feel like a Boot Camp Officer) and found myself having one of those “oh you are so brave” HE conversations, fortunately with D there too, which was all faintly amazing and quite funny as all the standard questions came out to the point where we both just laughed…
Off to drink wine and read Aladdin to the girls. Tomorrow will be better.
