Jigsaws and programming and french… oh my!!!!

Says it all really. Max has been doing some rather fab bits of Visual Basic with the kids, showing them how to programme a lunar module to land on a moon surface. it uses a booster rocket that you have to tap to stop the mph of the lunar module exceeding 22mph and if you land it safely a succession of penguins, tigers etc come out and walk on the moon. If it doesn’t land safely, it explodes. (ROFL!) It is particularly fun now we can connect pcs to the the tv; in glorious widescreen it all seems so much more real. ( 🙄 )

I’m not quite sure how much of the programming he let them do (ROFL again!) but the thought was there and they were inspired. I’d be very pleased if anyone passing could give me the links to the programming places their kids have explored (Jax, Tim?)

Josie is back into jigsaws and so everyone else is too; they are littered all over the living room, but that was the idea when we got games and jigsaw cupboards for that room i suppose.

Fran is liking French and seems to have retained a lot from last time we did any, enough for me to buy the GP level 1 book and cd anyway. I keep meaning to do something about Rosetta Stone but it never quite inspires me to part with the cash. There has also been rather a lot of Club Penguin too.

We are nearly at the end of The Railway Children and when we are i thoguht we might try both films. I’ve been wondering about the version of the book i had; i read it quite a lot but i have no recollection at all of the chapter with the barge on fire, nor a lot of the wordier bits. I haven’t found it an easy read-aloud, which is odd, as i loved it as a kid. Fran has been making lists of character and some fimo models of them; she wants to create a railway scene with our “brio-a-like” (which will no doubt mean i bring some of the increasing and rather lovely “compatible with other leading wooden train systems” stuff i stock on PM now. (Did you see what i did there? 😉 )

Wondering what to read next to them; toying with Swallows and Amazons or 101 Dalmations or could go for something like When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, given our war interests right now. Nearly cried on Friday when the bloke who runs the workspace BM/PM is in told me his only toy during the war was a knitted pink rabbit.

In the background, for those wondering, some very, very hard talking, some big decisions and perhaps, just perhaps, a little glimmer of hope in the “understanding where each other are coming from” stakes. It is going to take a huge effort of will, but i think just possibly we might be beginning to see where each of us could compromise.