The Red Plate

In this edition of Above Rubies there was an article about encouraging our children. People wrote in with different ideas that they use to encourage their kids. One of the suggestions was the New Zealand tradition of the Red Dinner Plate. They have a special red dinner plate which only comes out once or twice a week to mark a point of achievement with one of the children. When the family comes to the dinner table they see the red plate in someones setting and get excited as to why that person has the red plate. Then at dinner time the parents say why that child has been given the red plate, and everyone talks about their achievement and encourages them. It can be given for anything that has involved some level of achievement and effort. Perhaps for overcoming a fear, winning an award, showing kindness to another etc. Well, after reading that article I liked the idea. Of course the plate does not have to be red, it just has to be special. But then I accidentally ended up in the Marks and Spencer Christmas sale (I was supposed to be in the cinema but Luke got bored so we wandered round the shops for a bit). There in the sale section was a huge pile of plain red plates, reduced to £1 each! Well, I had to buy one. I felt a bit daft buying just one dinner plate, LOL.

This week the plate has been set at the table twice. All three children like the idea and they always discuss whether anyone will get the red plate tonight. Firstly Sam was given the red plate. This week his school report was sent home (I will talk about that in a minute), and over the holidays he has been offering (!!!) to help me with housework. Yes, I'm gobsmacked too! But every day he has been asking "Mummy, is there anything I can do to help?" That is something that definitely needs public recognition! Then last night Luke got the red plate, for overcoming his fear of hair washing. He was so scared of bath times that he became hysterical. It was horrible. I suggested showers to him and over a period of two weeks he has gone from being hysterical and shaking with fear in the shower, to asking for a shower every morning. (Santa put a bottle of cherry smelling Chicken Little shampoo in his stocking which has been a real motivator!) So we gave him the red plate to recognise his braveness and mark his overcoming.

I must mention Sam's first term school report. They are given two grades, A - D for achievement (A being the highest), and 1 to 4 for effort (1 being the most effort), and there are also some exam results in percentages.

Art & Design B+, 1
Drama A, 93%, 1
English, talking & listening A, Reading B, Writing B, exam 64%, effort 1
French 87%, 1
Geography A, 98%, 1
History A, 91%, 2
Home Economics B+, 73%, 1
Information Technology B, 1
Maths B, 2
Music 70%, 1
PE C, 2
RE A, 1
Science A, 90%, 1
Technology 76%, 1

Some of those results are very good aren't they? He was quite pleased with most of it. Every subject had a full A4 paged report with comments from the teacher. The staff seem to put a lot of effort into producing it every term. I was particularly amused at the RE teachers comment that if he struggles with spelling he should do all his homework on the computer to avail of the spellcheck facilities! LOL.

More of Steves portraits

Ok, I couldn't resist putting some more on. They are all so adorable, especially because they are my kids, so I just had to post them.

Don't forget to click on them for a better view.

Steves Portraits

This evening I looked at some of the photos Steve took in the college photography studio last week, as part of his course. I just had to come and put some of them on my blog. These aren't necessarily the ones he is entering for his course, but a few of the ones I liked (there were hundreds - it was hard to pick!) I'm sure I'll be posting more over the coming days. The session was primarily shooting pictures of Jude but he took a few group ones of the kids too...

Stress levels pretty high

Ahhh, I'm so stressed. I seem to have spent all day looking for lost things. Firstly we have misplaced a christmas present that we got Jude for Christmas. It's quite large (board game sized) so I don't know how we could lose it, but I just can't find it anywhere.

In the last few days Sam has managed to lose his coat (twice), his PE kit (twice), his lunch box, his pencil case (which he had last night) and possibly his brain (the jury is still out on that one). The boy needs to have everything stapled to his personage in order not to lose it. My stress levels are through the roof.

I'm going on Amazon.com now to see if I can order a nice book for my american death row penpal for his Christmas present. I can get it delivered directly from Amazon to save posting it from here. Not sure what to get but it's going to be something heavy!

Sam at school

Only one week left of school until the Christmas holidays. I can't wait to have Sam at home for a while. It feels as if we hardly see him any more. He has settled into school life very well and seems very happy. He even seems to enjoy his work. The only thing bothering him is one of the boys in his class. Every day when he gets home he has to talk about this boy for 20 minutes to get it off his chest and out of his system. LOL. It seems from what Sam says as if this boy is a real slacker. His only friend seems to be Sam and he kind of latches onto him, even though Sam has lots of other friends as well. Every time a partner is required this boys latches on to Sam, but then proceeds to let Sam do all the work and carry the brunt of the burden. Today they partnered up for a history assignment. They had to write some sort of essay about the Battle of Hastings, I think it was a newspaper report. Sam says that he did all the work by himself while this boy surfed the internet looking at sites about cars. Sam was not amused. He has written a note at the end of his essay to say that he worked alone and that his partner just skivvied. I advised him to try to partner with someone else. I said that if his friend is upset about it then explain that you can't partner with him because he doesn't pull his weight. Maybe that will teach him to work a little harder.

Are we going yet?

Yesterday evening we went to friends house for dinner. Luke had been waiting all week to go and was beside himself when the day actually came. The daughter of this family has a huge conservatory full of toys and Luke just couldn't wait to get stuck into playing with them, especially the Barbie Cars. Yesterday morning he was up at about 6am exclaiming "Horray! We are going to H & D's house today!" Happy days. From that point onwards he proceeded to ask me every 30 seconds on average "are we going yet?" I told him we weren't going until it was dark. At about 1.30pm he ran into the room screaming excitedly that he had looked out of the window and it was now dark!

He did manage to entertain himself throughout the day with little distractions. He decided that it was of utmost importance that he paint a picture for C. He got all the paints out and set himself up on his little desk. He painted a beautiful portrait of C, which we later added glitter to, much to Luke' delight. He told me about 30 times that C was going to be so pleased with the picture he had painted her.

Thankfully, the time to leave finally came and we drove the 35 minute drive to their house, with questions every 3 minutes asking "are we there yet?", "are we half way there yet?" Luckily for us some of the towns had their christmas lights on, and this delighted Luke and distracted him enough to keep us relatively sane.

Here is a photo of Luke looking so proud with his painting of C.

He managed to distract himself for a while with various toys whilst I got a little work done about the house.

As per usual, we were treated to the obligatory end of evening performance from our two older children and C. This time, much to mine and Luke's delight, was a performance of the Scissor Sisters 'I don't feel like dancing'. Don't they just look the part?

Parent Teacher Interview

I'm sitting here burning the tracks onto CD that me and Steve spent two days choosing and burning, for Hannah and David's engagement party, which is tomorrow night. Hopefully someone will come to it! While I'm sitting here waiting for them to burn onto CD I thought I might use the time to write about Sam's Parent Teacher interview, which was on Wednesday.

I met his teacher for the first time. She was SOOOO different to the old cow he had at primary school, before we started home educating him. She was a bubbly, smiley, enthusiastic and friendly personality. She only had good things to say about Sam. She described him as the boy the we know and love - energetic, bubbly, friendly. The last teacher he had, in P6 at primary school described him as a quiet, introverted daydreamer who had no interest in school. That is not Sam at all, but being in her class made him subdued and robbed him of his self esteem. Hence, we took him out of school. But now we have our happy, confident boy back again.

Mrs M said that Sam's class is a very quiet, academic class in general, and that Sam is like a ray of light in the midst of them! LOL. That's really what she said. She said he is always happy, always smiling, and very enthusiastic about learning. She actually seemed to like him (Mrs B from the old school positively detested him, and any other child that wasn't scoring 100% in everything). This new form teacher told me that she has a soft spot for Sam and that he is such a likable lad, always surrounded by friends. Yes, I knew that already. Anyway, the day before the parent interviews she sat in the various classes watching the kids at work. Apparently every teacher reported on Sam's keenness to learn (is this the same child?) She said that during science most of the kids were quiet and sat yawning, whilst Sam smiled the whole way through the lesson, asked countless questions (they were learning about reptiles and amphibians), and thoroughly enjoyed himself! Well that's great. He really does seem to be enjoying himself.

I guess the teachers may presume that his being home educated has starved him of any opportunity, and that is why he is so keen to learn. I know, however, that primary school sapped away his love of learning, depressed him and stole his self confidence, and during his two years at home he learnt to love both himself and the world around him, again.

Sam's School Report

It seems that at the Integrated School Sam will be getting a school report twice a term instead of twice a year! One arrived in the post yesterday. As they haven't taken any proper exams yet this report was graded on effort. (Something which Sam was sorely missing in his last year at primary school before being home educated). Anyway, I was very pleased with Sam's first report. Here it is...

Key to grades

1 Works well at all times
2 Works reasonably well
3 Needs to improve
4 Causing concern

Art 1
Citizenship 1
Drama 1
Employability 1
English 1
French 1
Geography 1
History 2
Home Economics 2
ICT 1
Mathematics 1
Music 1
Physical Education 1
Religious Education 1
Science 1
Technology 1

Attendance 100%

Isn't that good?
Well, today it's Halloween, and boy is Luke excited. The whole concept of knocking on peoples doors and getting free sweets is his idea of heaven. Trick or treating is a huge thing in this estate. Dozens of kids get dressed up and go knocking. It's quite a spectacle. Some of the houses in the estate put up Halloween decorations and make a big thing of it. It looks really cool. We have never lived any where before where kids went trick-or-treating.

Yesterday I took a notion to strip the wallpaper from our bedroom. For my 29th birthday (last December) Steve and the kids gave me a voucher that said they would decorate my bedroom if I chose the paint colour. What I didn't realise at the time was that it was dependant on me stripping the wallpaper. A hideous task. Yesterday I finally got round to doing it. It was a long boring messy job. Now our bedroom looks like a bomb site so we are of the B&Q in a minute to choose some paint. Then I believe that Steve will be painting it. Photos to follow.

Sam wins a prize!

Just a quick blog to mention that Sam won a prize at school today. For English homework the children were asked to write a poem about a magic spell. Sam was very proud of his poem and read it out very dramatically. They didn't realise there would be a competition. But during English today they had a Halloween party and all the children read out their poems (once again Sam read his like a performer - no surprise there) and then the children had to vote for their favourite boys poem and their favourite girls. It was close between Sam and another boy but Sam managed to win in the votes and was presented with a spooky Halloween light up pen with bulgy squeezy eyes! Cool eh? You can read his poem on his blog by clicking here.

Musical Sam

Just a quickie blog post because it is almost midnight and I won't be able to get out of bed in time to get Sam off to school if I don't go to sleep asap. I'm just back in from belly dancing, then a coffee in Starbucks with Mum.

Today Sam and his classmates undertook another music test, in their music lesson at school. Every child had their own keyboard and headphones. They each had so many minutes to listen to the music which was playing (it was a carol, can't remember which, but it wasn't easy). Then they had to pick out the tune as best as they could on the keyboard, and they were marked. At the end of the lesson the music teacher stood Sam up and asked him if he had taken piano lessons. He said No. She said that he had done best out of the class, and that she had never seen a child so perfectly replay the piano without lessons, in such a short amount of time. She told him that he had an exceptionally musical ear. He came home with a rather inflated head, a huge smile and an ego to match it! That's two really nice encouraging musical comments for Sam this week. One from his music teacher, and one from his guitar teacher. Just thought I'd share it.

Home grown roast dinner, Sam on guitar, and pet spiders!

Steve came home with a huge joint of beef a few days ago and so I thought I better cook a roast for my hungry family, who LOVE roasts. Two hours into cooking the meat I thought I'd have to pop to Tesco to buy some vegetables. Then I remembered the veggie garden in the back yard. (yeah, how could I forget, eh?) We had some potatoes left from our potato harvest, which I roasted.

I popped out into the garden to get some carrots and parsnips. I didn't really have any idea whether they were ready to dig up yet. I was under the impression that I would just pull the top of the parsnip and it would pop out of the ground. I also didn't know what size the parsnips would be, as they are hidden under ground. Well, you remember the story of the giant turnip that takes a whole village to pull? That was me. Dinner was cooking, and I was out heaving and pulling trying to get a parsnip or two out of the ground. The top came right off in my hand and so I had to dig around the parsnip. I dug, and I pulled, and I dug a bit more, and I wobbled the top of it. Sam thought it was hilarious and was taking photos of me from his bedroom window (they are not suitable for blog viewing I'm afraid). Eventually I got the first parsnip out and I was pretty pleased with the size and quality of it. The whole parsnip patch smelt divine. Sam dug out the second parsnip and both Sam and Luke dug out two varieties of carrots. One is a dwarf carrot, and the other isn't. We've got plenty more parsnips and carrots to keep us going.

Next year I'll definitely plant them again. It's amazing how they grow so big and strong from such a tiny seed. This whole gardening and eating our own produce really has made me appreciate the whole of God's creation so much more. It's truly awesome to see how God has provided all this fresh tasty food for us.

Here are some photos of our bounty...
A very stubborn parsnip that was quite happy to stay put. It's actually much bigger than it looks in the photo. Well, it was, before we eat it.








Sam with the parsnip that he dug out with ease, compared to mine.


















Luke pulled some dwarf carrots.
















My boys, looking like farmers, all proud with the treasure they had dug up.
















Parsnips, carrots and shallots, from the garden.












All washed and ready to cook.
Parsnips, carrots, courgette and red cabbage, all from our garden.




One completely home grown meal. OK, so we didn't grow the beef, but still, its pretty impressive, right?

Does anyone have any idea if the parsnip and carrot tops can be used for anything, other than compost? I think I remember reading that carrot greens can be used for juicing.

Onto other news then. Steve told me at dinner time that Sam's new guitar teacher came into his shop to speak with him about Sam's progress. We have always known that Sam is musical. He spends all day every day singing and dancing. But his guitar teacher is really impressed with the speed that he has learnt so far. He's been having lessons for about 4 weeks now and is putting chords together to make songs that he knows. He sits in his room every evening (I can hear him right now) playing away on the guitar that was his Grandads when he was a boy. Anyway, his teacher said that he has never before met anyone with such a musical talent! I'm not sure whether this is a huge compliment or whether the guy just doesn't meet many people, lol. He said that Sam has learnt in a few weeks what took him months to learn himself. So he is very impressed. And I felt so proud at dinner time when Steve told me this, and Sam was hiding his face with embarrassment. So, if Sam turns out to be the next Jimmie Hendrix just remember that you heard it here first, on his Mum's blog. That's my boy! His teacher must be pleased. He is still teaching him without accepting any payment. He says that he gets so much satisfaction from seeing someone learn, someone that wants to learn, and that is all the payment he needs. Plus, he is a friend of Steve's. I really must get him a gift or something to say thank you.

Lastly, before I go, I keep meaning to blog about Jude's pet spider. Aha. A pet spider. It lives at the top of the patio doors in our study room. Every morning Jude spends about half an hour finding a dead fly, which she throws into the spiders nest. Every morning she tells me about it, but I never gave it much thought. Then, a few mornings ago she asked me to come and help as the little dead fly would not stick in the web. I threw it up a few times and then tried to put the fly into the net with my hand. "Don't do that Mummy" Jude said, "the spider will run out and try to eat your finger". "Don't be daft" I said. So I popped my finger into the net, and like lightening this spider leapt out from it's hiding place and tried to eat my finger! Of course I leapt back, screaming like a lunatic. Jude thought it was hilarious. She has been studying the habits of this spider for weeks. The spider seems to know that she will feed it every morning and waits for the little flies which she brings!

Every week we read a chapter from 'Secrets of the Wood'. Both Sam and Jude love this book, and Sam wants to keep reading it even though he is no longer home schooling. Every chapter in it is about a different animal, from the woods. Last week we read about Meeko, the squirrel. The author talks about each animals as he sits and watches them for weeks at a time, in the forest. He gets to know all about the personalities of the various creatures. Meeko is a thief, a nest robber, and a fighter. The kids were mesmerised by the stories of his adventures. The first chapter, about the mouse, had them enthralled too. It occurred to me that Jude has treated this spider in the way which the author treated the woodland creatures. She has watched it, learnt about it, gained it's trust and developed the caring nurturing side to her nature. This evening she did the same thing with the pet gerbils. She sat and watched them, for such a long time. We had put a new box into their cage, just on old food box. She sat and watched them as they filled up their cheeks with bedding from their old, half eaten box, and transferred it all to their new box. She watched them make their new home all comfy and warm, and then came to tell me all about it in detail. Jude has such a gentle caring side to her. Sometimes I don't know what to do with her. During the summer, when Daddy killed a wasp, she lay in bed sobbing her little heart out for a full hour. I know that she is sensitive to other living things. She cares for every creature, even a tiny ant. It's strange really. As a younger child she did not care at all for nature. It was Sam that, at the age of 4, became so overwhelmed during a walk in the woods that he had to stop with me and say a prayer thanking God for his beautiful creation. Whilst Jude spent the whole time whinging "what are we walking for? Is there a park at the end?"

Gosh I have rambled on far longer than I intended. I have to check some essays that Steve wrote for his course now (snore). Tomorrow Jude and I are going to watch Romeo and Juliet at the cinema, for FREE, as part of the national schools film week. Woo hoo.

We made the newspaper! Front page, no less!

Well, weren't we surprised today to see our lovely photo in full colour on the front of the local newspaper! The photographer came out last week to take a photo of the kids with their sunflowers. He took a photo of them with the tallest one, which was 9ft3 at the time. We hoped it would get into the paper somewhere, but didn't expect to see it on the front cover! How exciting for the children. Even Luke was chuffed to bits. We will have to buy a heap of copies to send to our family in England. Here is the photo from the front page...

(click on it to see the real size version). I was slightly disappointed that they didn't mention that growing the sunflowers was part of their home education project, but oh well.

Whilst talking about the newspaper, I read an article in it about the problem with dogs fouling the pavements. There is nothing that disgusts me more, than people who let their dogs poo all over the place. Would you believe that Sam found a doggy poo bag in our garden, opened it, to discover the dog muck inside! Someone had picked the mess up and put it in a bag, then lobbed it into our back garden!! (A garden which is clearly filled with childrens toys - swings, slides, trampoline etc) What sort of person would do that? Anyway, there is a dog in our cul-de-sac that is allowed to roam the street from time to time, and it has taken a liking to our front garden. Currently there are 3 piles of dogs mess in our driveway, and today Luke trod in some. I shouldn't have to worry about the kids in our own garden, especially when we live in a quiet little cul-de-sac, not even on a main road. I'm trying to get Steve to go and politely talk to the neighbours about it, but he is reluctant, so it looks like I will have to do it myself. I'm thinking of trying a sort of "a dog keeps fouling in our garden, and we would be grateful if you could keep your dog out of our yard, so that we can pin point the offending dog and deal with it" approach... Sam thinks we should get photographic evidence, and Steve thinks we should leave a note at their house. Anyone got any suggestions? I really don't want a fight with the neighbours, but I can't stand that they let their dog foul in our garden, while their own garden is all neat and clean.

Three quality hours with three quality kids.

I went out of my way, yesterday, to give Steve a relaxing day. He slept all morning after the exhaustion of the fair, and then I ran him a big bubble bath, and tried to make the room as calming as possible, with incense, candles and music. Then I bundled the kids into the kitchen and tried to keep them quiet, so Steve could unwind. Our bathroom is downstairs and Luke was very interested in the music and smells coming from the bathroom. Steve was so relaxed at the end of the day that he decided to cook a curry. He kindly cooked enough for two nights so that I didn't have to prepare dinner tonight. (Monday nights are always hectic as Jude has to be at brownies by 6.30, and I'm always trying to squeeze dinner into that half an hour slot when Steve gets home at 6).

In the evening (Sunday) we all watched half of a DVD about Esther, from the Bible. We will watch the other half next weekend. It was some fun trying to explain to the kids exactly what a harem is, and why the king was 'interviewing' prospective wives, but they seemed to enjoy it. It was nice just to sit with them and watch something like that. We have a few of the DVD's from that series, (Samson, Jesus, Paul, Moses, Abraham etc). Sam and Jude watched the Jesus film a few months back.

Today was a pretty good day. Nothing amazing happened, but we have all been happy. I spent an hour doing some maths with Jude. I can give her more help with maths this year, since Sam has gone back to school. He had the bulk usage of the mathematical side of my brain last year (it's not a very big section of my brain and is quite spongy). I found out that she had been working out answers to division by drawing lots of lines, eg 25 divided by 5 would be IIIII, IIIII, IIIII, IIIII, IIIII, answer 5. Could I explain to her how to work it out any other way? She started to get upset, as she tends to do if she doesn't understand something. As usual, I told her not to get upset. I explained that it doesn't matter if she doesn't know how to do it, as she hasn't learnt it yet. I said that I wouldn't be cross, even if she got it wrong every time. I told her that I'm bad at maths so I understand how confusing it can be. She was welling up, as usual. But this time she managed to keep it in, and actually enjoyed learning with me. I tried to explain that she could work out division if she knew her times tables. It was hard going, but eventually the penny dropped. She was answering those questions that everyone hates. The first one was along the lines of "there are 30 chairs in 6 rows, how many chairs are in each row?" (of course it wasn't written simply like that, it was written as a riddle!) I managed to show her that the question was 30 divided by 6 equals what? But she couldn't divide in her head. So I asked her if she knew how to do 6 X ? = 30. She knew the answer to that was 5. But I couldn't get her to see that it had anything to do with the original division question. We got there in the end but sometimes I wonder if I'm making the learning process harder because I don't really know what I'm talking about. I will need to spend a lot of time with her this week to make sure she really understands the concept.

After all that maths I spent another hour playing with Luke. I got down onto his bedroom floor and played cars with him. I find it fascinating to watch him play. You can see so much of his little personality by watching him in his little fantasy world. I picked a car, and he picked a car, and our cars went to the cinema together. Then we picked another car each, and these cars went to the beach, where they encountered a crocodile that tried to attack them. Then Luke got all the cars out of his car box and we lined them up in neat equal lines, which he loves to do. I tried to take a photo but couldn't find the camera. He put certain cars together, buses went next to each other, tractors went in front of one another, then he arranged all the red cars together and got all excited about the colour red, showing me all the things in his room which were red. There is nothing he loves more than to share his special things with someone else, whether it's his favourite toy, place or movie, he loves to share it and share that specialness with someone else. I quite enjoyed myself!

This evening I spent another hour with Sam. He was all excited about his English homework and asked for my help. He had to research a flower and write notes about it. At school they will write a report about the flower. He told his entire class that his mum is a professional gardener! "Well, you are practically, aren't you Mum?" He chose the nasturtium for his study and we learnt all sorts of interesting facts about the plant. Then he spent 20 minutes telling me all about 'Troy". (Not the DVD!) In stageschool they are studying the Greek story of Troy for a play which they will be putting on at the end of term. The whole story obviously really sparked his imagination. I felt sad that he was no longer home educated, as we could have done a big study on Troy while he has the interest, to run along side his drama.

I went out into the garden with him to look at the nasturtiums, and realised that the garden requires some attention. Some of the sunflowers were blown down in the gales. The play house was blown on top of my parsnips which have been crushed, the peas have gone mouldy and died and need removing before they infect the red cabbages, which are now HUGE and ready to harvest, I think. I was delighted to see a huge marrow, lots of courgettes, and some tiny weeny (plum sized) baby butternut squash pumpkins. How exciting. The winter vegetables are now starting to thrive as the summer ones die off.

This afternoon I also watched the first in the new Jane Eyre drama series, which was on last night. I recorded it for Jude as she showed a real interest in the adverts for it. So we watched it together and she really liked it. I never did read Jane Eyre, but if I find it in my book shelf I might try to read it before watching the rest of it. Otherwise I'll never read it.

Well, I'm off now to relax a bit for the evening. Just going to tuck the kids in and then chill. Plus I plan on looking up a few bean and lentil recipes.

Hospital appointments and newspaper photos

What a busy day it's been. I'm not feeling at all well now. I feel like I need to sleep for a month. I've noticed I'm getting tired every day, just like I used to before I started making bread from home milled wheat. I'm going to get back into making a loaf every day again, as it's so beneficial to my energy levels.

Today Luke had an appointment at the Royal Children's Hospital in Belfast. Our appointment was for 10.30am but we weren't seen until after 12.30. It seems that they give everyone an appointment for 10.30 and then just let them all sit for 2 hours or more. Jude came with us, as she thinks that going to the Royal is a good exciting free day out. There are plenty of toys, and the whole place is like a kids museum - umbrellas hanging from the ceiling, display under glass floors, playdough to create with, dolls houses, castles, things hanging down from the ceiling. It's like an indoor adventure playground. When we got to the orthopaedics outpatient department there was a children's theatre group putting on a performance! How exciting! They were all dressed in ridiculous costumes, one was playing the guitar, one playing the accordion, and they had a flea circus with them. They perform various acts with performing fleas, which were quite enchanting. We had the camera with us, so Jude stood up to take a photo. The performers relished this photo opportunity and started posing for her. "One more", they kept saying, pulling different poses. She got some good shots. It seems that they go round the hospital performing in the various wards for the children, which is lovely. They were there for about 20 minutes after we arrived, but then the kids entertained themselves for another hour and a half while we waited to see the consultant.

Eventually we were seen. The consultant was lovely, and very good with Luke who hates people looking at his feet. He had already taken his socks and shoes off to show me that there was nothing wrong with his feet, and so he didn't need to see a doctor! The consultant asked him to walk up and down the room, and then played with his feet a bit. Once again they told me that he is unusually flexible and he should be enrolled in a dance or gymnastics class to help strengthen his ankles, and because he could have a natural talent because of his flexibility. I must look into that. This time the consultant decided it is time to do something about his feet. They are not improving on their own. So he now has an appointment in October to get a plaster cast taken of his feet. They will then use this cast to make him a special pair of insole type supports, moulded to the shape of his feet. He will need to get his feet cast every time they grow a size (which is very often, I can tell you!) It's going to be some fun trying to get him to wear them.

We were planning to go to W5 after the appointment but there was no time left. We did go to pizza hut and had the buffet while we waited for Uncle David to finish at Uni. (We had Aunty Hannah with us). Then we drove back home with them both. They are, at this moment, getting some portrait photography done, to celebrate their engagement. Then I drove to the school to pick Sam up, drove Jude to archery, drove Sam home, drove back to archery to get Jude. Then we had the photographer from the local newspaper out to take a photo of the children with their tallest sunflower, which is now 9ft 3.

The boy in Sam's class who thumped him, thumped him again yesterday. The boy tried to tell the teacher that Sam had kicked him, but a classroom assistant had seen Sam working away, minding his own business. So this boy was suspended for the day. His parents were called to collect him. He didn't go back to school today either. Sam was glad to see that the school are doing something about his behaviour. The violence is not just directed towards Sam, but anyone who happens to be within reach, it seems. After the surprise of Sam getting into the higher maths group, he came home today all pleased because he had received his first 'grade'. They grade work A to D for attainment, and 1 - 4 for effort (1 being the highest). For Sam's RE homework he was graded A+, 1. He was delighted! He seems to be doing really well at the school so far. A little praise really spurs Sam on to do better. Something which was sorely lacking at his old primary school, where he was constantly put down by his teacher.

Schools are pants.

I've had Sam on the phone from school twice today. Firstly, we agreed he could take guitar lessons. I gave him the form and cheque straight away, but he couldn't find the music teacher to give it to her, and the office wouldn't take it. He finally found the teacher today who told him he was too late, all the guitar lessons are fully booked, as are the piano and drums. All they had left was trombone. He has no interest in learning that. So he was a bit gutted, I think.

Secondly, the school has a system for lunches. Every child has a credit card type thing. You send your child in with coins, which they load into a machine. It puts the amount of money onto the card and they use this to pay for lunches. On the first day of school the machine wasn't working properly. Everyone put their money in (£4.50 for Sam) but the machine didn't register it. Sam later put another £10, and some more money this week. But he phoned me today to say that there was only 12p left on his card. I phoned the office to ask what has happened to all his money and they told me that on the first day any money put in didn't go onto the cards properly. Instead of telling the children this, so that we could rectify it, they just left it. It will get sorted if and when parents realise that the child has no money. How crazy. Half the parents won't realise it's happened and the catering company will have made a small fortune!

Edit - Steve has managed to organise guitar lessons with a friend of his who lives next to the school. This guy has offered to do them for free as he wants to start teaching guitar and will use Sam as a sort of guinea-pig to see how it goes. So that's good news! He's a nice guy too, and plays in a gospel band. Excellent news. Sam will be pleased.

News schools and new colleges

Steve left this morning at the crack of dawn to catch his bus to college. It is his first day on the 3 year HND Photography course. Right up until Sunday he wasn't sure if he was even going to do the course. Yesterday he made up his mind to give it a try. I hope it goes well for him. I really hope he enjoys it, and that it's a source of pleasure, rather than stress. I'm hoping that he really enjoys that time away from work and home every week, with something to concentrate on, other than making money and running errands.

Sam has left for school. He seems to be enjoying it so far. Now that all the 11plus passers have been taken off to the grammar school, Sam seems to be top of the class! Which he is really enjoying! His favourite subject is English (never was before - but it's amazing what difference a nice teacher can make to a subject) and from what he tells me, his English teacher uses his work all the time for examples to other kids. He decided yesterday to write an extra essay about literary genres to "impress the teacher". Well, blow me down! Sam? Taking on extra work? They must have drugged him or something.

This week the after school clubs start. Sam has signed up for drama (no surprises there!), choir, and cooking. In his first Home Economics lesson he impressed the teacher, all the kids, and himself, by being the only one who could cook. The fact that he could single handedly make a spaghetti bolognaise rocketed his popularity with the other kids and the teacher (at least that's the way he makes it sound). Thanks to his Dad, Sam is regarded as something of 'the cool kid'. This is a new experience to him. His Dad owns the coolest shop in the town - the CD shop - the coolest, hippest place for teenagers to hang out after school. From the day he started, teenage girls kept saying "oh there's the kid who's Dad owns the CD shop". This makes him automatically cool. Two teenage girls chose him as their 'pet year 8' for the year and they look out for him all the time. Yesterday at lunch time Sam was surrounded by a crowd of teenage girls, all wanting to talk to him and asking him about the shop. His class mates all watched in envy at his popularity with the girls! (Honestly, this is what he is telling me... ) In between lessons, travelling from class to class, Sam says that along the corridors big kids keep saying "hello Sam", "hi Sam", "how are you Sam?" and the kids from his class think he must be really cool because of it. So, so far he is enjoying it. Sam's never been one to shun a bit of attention from anyone!

OK, Luke's begging me for breakfast, so I better go and feed the poor little mite.

Not a happy day

I'm feeling quite sad today. Firstly Sam is going away for 2 weeks. My husband (who sometimes has his head in the clouds) gave me the impression Sam was going for 1 week when he organised it, but it's not, it's 13 days, which to me seems more like 2 weeks. Steve also neglected to tell Sam's grandparents in England that he was coming, and that they would be looking after him, so that was a nice surprise for them when they spoke on the phone Sunday night. I can't believe he forgot to tell them about it. Sometimes I wonder what planet he is living on. So today I'm packing up Sams bags for him. Me and Jude went out to Tesco's last night and bought him enough socks and pants to keep him clean for 2 weeks. We also bought some treats to hide in his bags - sweets and snacks, a book, his favourite football magazine, etc. I'm really going to miss him. Two weeks is such a long time. I keep hugging him and telling him how much I'm going to miss him and I feel very tearful. He leaves this evening.

Today Steve took the kids out for breakfast and while he was there he told them about his other grandparents getting divorced. We thought it was time we told them about it, seen as their cousins know, and we didn't want them trying to guess about it. They were both really upset. Sam more so. He said that everyone is getting divorced, and he has a good point. First one Aunty, then another, now his grandparents. That's 3 major families in their lives that are going through separations. Sam's face was horrified and they were both genuinely upset about it. The very sad thing is that now they are wondering if we will get divorced too. Everyone else is, so why shouldn't we? Sam voiced this to his Dad who tried to assure him that it wouldn't happen, but he wasn't at all convinced. I feel really sad about this too. Firstly, that my kids should be hurt by other peoples problems, and secondly that every time me and Steve have a disagreement or argument, we will be so cautious about worrying the children unnecessarily. So all in all I'm feeling damn low today and not at all good company.

On the plus side, my eco balls arrived today and I'm currently putting a wash through the machine with them. They cost me £26 and should last 1000 washes, so I'll report back as to how well they actually clean.

Uniforms and Caterpillars

Yesterday it stopped raining. Today it is pouring from the heaven's again. Steve was off work so I decided it would be a good day to go out and buy Sam's uniform - without having to take all 3 kids. So that's what we did. One blazer, 2 shirts, 1 tie, 1 pair of shorts, 1 sports top and 1 pair of hockey socks, came to £95. Plus one pair of shoes at £39. That's without the coat, trousers, 2 school bagslunchch bag, and all the art, english, maths and writing equipment that I have to purchase, as well the 'voluntary' school fees. My friend said it cost her almost £400 by the time she bought everything. Phew! He does look very smart in his new uniform, but Sam will be posting about that on his own blog, so I won't put the photo on here.

I spent the rest of the day out in the garden, while it was relatively dry. Steve mowed the lawns, whilst I annihilated the caterpillar community which had moved into the vegetable patch. Rather than use pesticides I hand picked all the tiny just hatched caterpillars, and all the unhatched eggs out from all the cabbage and broccoli plants. It took 2 hours. Fun fun fun. I planted out some more baby lettuces which we had grown from seed. Luke helped with that. He loves planting.

As usual blogger isn't letting me load on any photos so I'll have to put them on later.

Friday was spent at Jenny's house. Seven children and three adults made for a fun packed day. The kids were good enough in the end, after a short period of upsets. We all played karioke with them, and then the kids had a disco in the living room. Jenny's house is looking fabulous now that she's spent so much time and effort on doing it up. It's looking very homely indeed.

Stage School Report

Here is Sams report from stageschool...

Principals Remarks:
Sam has really grown in confidence, An intelligent worker. A pleasure to have at stagecoach. Well done.

Dance Teachers Remarks:
Sam has continually worked hard this term and the results are evident in his work. He is great fun in class and gives 100%

Drama Teachers Remarks:
Sam has produced some lovely work in drama class this term. He has a good instinct for comedy and has participated very well in all activities. As Sam learns to trust his own decision's, his confidence will improve and work will develop further.

Boys Day

Whilst me and Jude worked at the book fair Daddy and the boys all had a boys day. They just basically spent a lot of quality time together. In the afternoon they had a bbq which Sam cooked (his rite of passage into manhood!) Then in the evening they watched a video.


Don't forget to click on photo if you want to see the full size versions.