Ramble ramble.

I’ve got a gazillion this to catch up on blogging wise. Oh how I miss the olden days when I could blog at 5pm each day about what we had done. I’m caught between feeling we do nothing and seeing what a huge amount actually goes on around here. There is masses of conversation ed goes on these days and, while I haven’t been looking, the girls are beginning to find ways of actually educating themselves too. While I spend half my life fighting Amelie, for example, she still manages to do things like read several chapters of an usborne book on world war 2 and then give me a very effective round up of how it started. I miss that I don’t get to fully indulge her the way I did with Fran; life just seems to get in the way of that kind of interaction but at least she is the kind of personality, like Maddy, who will just get on and find out about things. So long as I supply the book at the right moment, she does read it.

Currently all of the are very excited about the idea of reinacting in Tudor costume next year. As this will involve sewing a lot of Tudor clothing by hand, I have said they have to learn to sew to do it themselves. We are therefore practising sewing. A lot. This is good home education, I guess, if not the home educating in grand project style of the olden Puddle family days. I bought a felt projects book and they’ve been making little things from that. All of them are getting better at stitching and have been looking at our various fashion books to find out more about Tudor fashion, although they know a bit from friends already Reinacting this year. Apparently I want to dress like a Tudor too. Who knew?

Tudor Groovy Girls. There is a range in there, Manhattan Toy 😉

Maddy is deeply involved in a long story she is writing. Having read all the Lemony Snicket and a hunger Games books she wanted to do a fan fic of the latter but has got embroiled in a story about three detective cats. As you do. I’ve noticed lately she is asking for spellings far less, which is a great sign. Mostly when she does now, it is for confidence. I need to encourage her to write a bit I think, as well as type, to boost that if she can. She has moved on to Harry Potter books but may not emerge from her 3DS (saved up for since Xmas) for a while 😆

Amelie is showing considerable effort to work harder. This week I have given her some new ‘normals’ books including English for ‘more able students’. She seems to like the kudos of this, or possibly that it revolves around fixing mistakes in the language of the book. Can’t see why this appeals… 😆 🙄 the two maths books also stretch her a bit. One involves planning a planet for aliens and one has complicated stuff like comparing electricity prices and adding up how many bills you have to pay and how to make your money stretch to all the essential and non-essential things you might need to buy. I do tend to think education could use a bit more of that sort of thing in general. Lord knows I could do with knowing some of how to do all that. Budgeting, finding the best deal, working out ways of saving money etc. is something people really need to leave school or education having a concept of, rather than learning the hard way. It would be interesting to know whether it is taught in countries with lower personal debt.

Mind you, I don’t know why I think the education system might do that. Fran has to sit a ‘functional skills’ paper for English next week. This is the one that was about Big Brother and Dragon’s Den last time. This functional skills paper does not… and I quote… have to be answered in sentences. God save us from idiots and exam boards.

Josie is reading loads, playing on something called Magic Town that I need to review, sewing beautifully, doing times tables in her very own special book, sounding out words everywhere even if she hasn’t read them before (we have a workbook with fake words in it, she can spot them, she thinks it’s a stupid idea… Can’t say I blame her!) she wants to do a farm project.

Maddy made birthday biscuits. We pretend this saves money but really it just means we eat more biscuits.

And oh, I could write endlessly about Ben but will save it and I need to write about amazing dancing shows, catch up on two gym comps, a weekend with cousins and a trip to see my sister and a visit from my dad and going bowling and how doing a history gcse is going and whether I will last longer than 6 months feeding a baby who unlatches every 15 seconds and that I made a quiche and no one expired…. But family life leaves no time for blogging all the small things any more and besides it is more interesting to spend the spare seconds trying to learn a new job and save a few children from poverty and make pretty things with daughters while dandling a baby boy and enjoying kissing his head. I’ve no energy for anything else. It’s a good job I’m not trying to save any!

Hm. Someone asked me what my blog is about yesterday. Not much or possibly too much I think is the answer. How days go past and I feel like nothing is done I don’t know. This barely scratches the surface.

So that is a short Puddle round up brought to you late at night in the dark. Good night 🙂