Ups and Downs

March is marching by quicker than a person with 2 and half weeks till their due date ought to reasonably expect. I’m really not quite in the right head place for that 🙄

We’ve had a very good start for the month, given we’re aiming to have lots of ‘work’ done by the end of the month and then a month of crafts, day trips and stuff.

So, forgot to add to the end of February that the big two went off to HE group with W, Skye and Poppy and joined in the Stuart day. Zoe also did a fab soap making thing with them one day, which was great.

So – workwise what have we been up to? They are all hugely into maths, which is (to me) frankly baffling but it has been nice to see them enjoying doing it and be so comfortable. They’ve all been revising basic skills at their own level and the effort they’ve put into their table learning has been a big help. Fran and Maddy have finished the challenge and Amelie is still working on it but we’ve been doing table tests and they’ve all been getting them all right.

Amelie started working on comprehension exercises and appears to really like them – and be able to do them really quite well. She’s one of those kids, Amelie, who just doesn’t have any trouble with following instructions. So if you say “do it this way and you’ll get all the marks”… she just does. The same cannot be said of Fran, who is still convinced she will find a comprehension where they forgot to add the answers to the text 🙄 Or of Maddy, who thinks that words were put on this earth to spite her 😆

There has been loads of reading; Fran finished Carrie’s War and started on Theatre Shoes which was the next suggestion in her GP reading list and went on a Noel Streatfeild binge, has read White Boots and is now on The Growing Summer. Then she diverted to the Drina books but is apparently coming back to Tennis Shoes. Amelie is still busy with Fairy books and is reading something about plants and Maddy is heavily into painters again.

We’ve finished more project work up and they’ve all done a good job on those; Fran and Maddy are working away at Science and History very independently, French together and some Latin and music. Fran and Amelie have worked so hard on their music and their teacher is really pleased with them. Fran has set herself a challenge of being able to enter on piano by next year too. Fran’s got her Grade 2 pieces as well, so she is well on her way to doing that this summer.

Maddy is going through rather a perfectionist phase and won’t do things if she feels it won’t be perfect or if she knows someone else can do it better. Did persuade her to do some drawing again the other day and she drew a Moshi Monster style food.

There has been plenty of being outdoors and cycling, playing with street friends and so on – with the sun coming out it all feels a bit nicer. Amelie is riding her bike now and Josie isn’t too far off, so that is good. Looking forward to being able to get out and do the garden again soon; i’m too lumpy at the moment.

Josie is the star of the show again – sums up to 20 and written numbers all worked out by herself up to 29, lots of reading and word building and a continuing interest in pattern and order and how time and so on works.

She’s a star at the moment, really driven to work out how to access the world. It really is such a privilege to witness it over and over again, emerging it its own way each time. If they were at school we’d just assume school was inputting it i suppose but seeing it happen… well, it awes me every time.

We had a great trip to LeCielRouge this week and did an experiment to show how fat react when washing up liquid disperses it.

And then a bit of marbling for fun too!

Fran had been stressing over her flic, which had ‘disappeared’ so spent most of Monday practising it on the trampoline while the rest of them mostly managed to play and socialise until dancing time. It appears to be back perfectly beautifully now though, along with her baby giant and her vault, so she is happy 🙂 Amelie is having a great time at gym still, but Maddy is giving up to spend more time on TKD and Rugby.

Wednesday was also a good Latinetc with science in the form of bacteria collection and growth, with antibiotics in a couple of forms added to parts of the petri dishes to see the effect. Also did flute, sewing, French and Latin and all came out pleased, apart from Amelie who was clearly heading into a asthma crisis.

Unfortunately, we got home to a tragedy as something dreadful had occurred in one of our rabbit runs and one rabbit was dead and the other at deaths door. Bit of a tragic accident really and dreadfully upsetting all round; mercy dash to the vets with the survivor was better than i expected and i brought her home again for nursing care which Maddy is helping with lots. She is absolutely distraught, as these were her two rabbits and i don’t think i have ever heard her cry like she did this evening 🙁 🙁 On the upside, the vet felt only the fact that Button as clearly a well cared for rabbit generally had enabled her to survive, which has helped Maddy a bit.

Luckily Button, Maddy’s particular favourite, seems to be recovering; she is in with us and being fed lots of fresh veg and carrots, water and antibiotics and is already perky and filling out again. Nursing her is helping her feel she can do something useful anyway and seeing her eat, drink and poo as normal is a huge relief.

Must admit that lying in bed last night with asthma-y child in my bed, sobbed out Fran on a mat on my floor, Max upstairs with a cold, 2 well bunnies having a precautionary night in in the downstairs loo and a sick bunny having water checks and refilled hot water bottles every two hours in the lounge, i was thinking “this would not be a good time to go into labour!”

In fact, i’m staggered i didn’t.

RIP Smartie, we really are terribly, terribly sorry not to have you any more 🙁