A new day

Today was Annabelle's first day at school. She was a bundle of nerves this morning when she got up and put her new school uniform on. The whole morning rush is something I haven't missed at all whilst home educating. "Have you done this? Have you got that? Have you brushed your teeth? Washed your face? Come on you're going to be late." Ergh, hate all that.

Anyway, here's a pic of my darling girl in her uniform...

We took Jimmie to school first and then Annabelle. Annabelle's school have a kind of 'turn up when you feel like it' policy. Children can arrive any time between 8.45 and 9.10am . Needless to say we'll be as late as possible most mornings. I took her into the school, we met with the principle, and she and I (and little Barney) took Annie to her classroom. The Principle had picked out a buddy for her. She was all clued up and prepared for Annabelle's arrival, bless her. This little girl was chosen to help Annabelle settle in, because she loves reading and is reading at a very high level, like Annie, and also because her Dad died unexpectedly last year, and she has had a difficult time. They must have felt that paring her with Annie would give her something new to focus on at school. The poor girl, how sad.

I felt quite sad walking away from the classroom. I have so enjoyed home educating the children. I don't know if this is the right thing for us, and for Annabelle, or not. I do hope she is happy there, and that she enjoys herself and makes lots of friends. I hope so much that I'm not letting her down, making a bad decision for her. I have told her, a million times, that she can change her mind and come back home at any time. She has a month to try the place out and think about it. After that we will review the situation and make a firm choice one way or the other.

Today I have to sift through all Annie's home school work. The new school wish to see it to assess what level she is at. They are going to keep her reading the same literature that she is reading at home, because she is so much further on with that. I feel a bit nervous about taking in her maths work, science books etc in case they don't think much of it. I'd hate to home education a bad reputation!

I'll post again when I find out how her first day went. Now onto other things. It's been a busy week, a fun week, and a sad week. This weekend we had J's kids sleeping over for 2 nights (you remember she had my kids the weekend that Dan gave me the ring? - well this was payback). It wasn't too bad actually. All the kids were very well behaved and the weather was beautiful so they were out in the garden a lot. We spent all day Saturday in the garden... Dan mowing the lawn, Barney and I planting seeds, and all the kids playing on the trampoline. Here are some photos...

Here's Annabelle and her cousin B, wearing matching t-shirts. They spent the entire weekend joined at the hip (not literally!) Whilst the others were out in the garden, screaming and shouting, these two were always quietly hidden away in a room somewhere, playing together.

The other 4 kids spent a lot of time on the hammock or in the trampoline.

Barney spent Saturday morning helping his Dad tidy the garden, and Saturday afternoon helping me plant seeds. Here he is having a lift across the patio!

Barney has always been a great help in the vegetable garden. Here he is helping me to plant garlic. We managed to plant garlic bulbs, as well as calendula, spinach, 3 types of lettuce and radishes. There is still a lot more work to be done in the garden.

This is what our neglected veg patch looks like at the moment. It's basically been left all winter. We found a pile of carrots still growing, which Barney dug up for me. The herb garden is still there, but all the other beds need a little weeding and then some more planting. I quite enjoyed getting back into it again.