After the success of the Kandinsky Monday, it was probably inevitable that more would follow. The girls have been fairly actively arty all week, which suits me just fine. I can hardly believe it, but in some senses we are (as a family) heading in to the run of ‘the run up to Christmas’ soon – August is full of activities, then September, October and November will probably fill itself with work if i wave a crafty December in front of them again. That will be bitter-sweet I guess, as I did that last year to make being pregnant in our busy time bearable and who knows what this winter will bring. before I know it, a year will have passed since… well, since.
Josie, Amelie and I spent a truly lovely couple of afternoons making these.
It was probably more educational than it appeared as we talked lots about the art and the colours but most of all, we just sat together and cuddled and crafted. It was lovely. Not something I spend enough time enjoying.
Maddy’s pile of icecream.
One part of the week involved seeing a genetics consultant about our various little anomalies among the 5 children which concluded, as I suspected, that a link was unlikely but cytogenetic screening was wise as a precaution. She said, at 1/600 odds, the chance of bringing anything up was unlikely. I may have muttered that this was only so if our luck changed :/
Wednesday mostly involved a gradual introduction of more maths, music and writing again and a crafty afternoon and Thursday was similar, while Friday gave Max and I a chance to go out together and the girls an afternoon with an aunty and cousin. With haircuts and a trip to Toy Story 3 in 3D and TKD (Fran is trying out there), it has been a gentle but productive week.
Fran has really enjoyed learning to use Picnik
and has made several typically girly images. Do think there is masses to be said for letting kids really explore the tools of the internet. What a lot has changed in the 8 years or so I’ve been actively online.
She’s had so much fun that I’ve played too and I must admit it is a lovely thing to use from what I’ve seen so far.
I need to get back to some planning and writing up what we do each month. I haven’t done it since before Freddie was born; plenty goes on but overt education hasn’t seemed the most essential part of life just lately. Keeping everyone whole has. I think we’ve done that. I guess when August with its camps and days out and weeks away is over, then I think we’ll have to get back to normal. Planning, seeing ahead, seems hard now, there is a sense of ‘what on earth will happen next?’ Next week I have some time to myself and I think I’ll have to spend some of it thinking where we go on from here.
We had screening, but it’s a minefield.