The Brick House

This morning K decided she wanted me to help her play “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” on the xylophone. I demonstrated the first few notes a couple of times, held her hand to guide her (her request) and tried tapping next to the key and counting for her as she played. She had a good go at it, although she seemed to lack confidence and eventually insisted she wanted to play the song using different notes *g* We’ve been having a very musical morning, as she also had the bells out, and H has a maraca and some shakers to play with too!

And now H has done a lovely musical squit, so I should go and do something about that…

K made her first attempt at writing today *g* She wanted me to write her name, then her full name, along with various others. She had a go at “Liz” and “K”. I was impressed with the attempt at my name – with the L it was more like she’d scratched something down then decided it was an L, then she made a real effort with the I, and even managed a passable Z once I’d demonstrated how to write it a couple of times. Then she tried an M for monster, and asked me to draw one, which led to me having to draw Sully, Mike and Boo from Monsters Inc, which of course led to her asking to watch it again…

K got up with me at 6:30, had breakfast, and watched an episode of Play School then some generic dreadful American garbage (shame, ABC! Where’s the intelligent kids’ programming? …Well, okay, but what’s wrong with wall-to-wall Play School, hmmm?). She came in when I was vacuuming the dining room and told me a story using her flip-book. The TV sneakily went off after she moved into the playroom and started playing with the Little People ferris wheel. I watered the hairy alfalfa caterpillar; she was very pleased to find sprouts! We had a “Why?” cascade: while getting her dressed she was asking all sorts of questions including “Why do I have to wear socks?” to which the answer was, “Because it’s autumn and otherwise you’ll get cold feet.” Of course then she asked “Why is it autumn?” so I got the globe off the shelf and gave her a very simple explanation of axial tilt.

She entertained H on the nice clean dining room floor with her engines and ferris wheel. H is still getting about alarmingly well: he can now hoik his butt up in the air and lurch sideways. Although his range hasn’t increased hugely, I’m sure mobility is not far off! He is fascinated by the ferris wheel, and apparently it is very nice to chew 🙂

I took H upstairs while I had a shower, and K watched Bear in a Big Blue House, Five Minutes More, and Bananas in Pajamas. H went peacefully off to sleep in his hammock just before Play School started but woke up again after less than half an hour (aaargh). The TV and puter are about to go off, but on our Things To Do list today is my dentist appointment at 11 (double aaargh with a side of eeew). We’ll probably also go op shopping and maybe look in at the library if everyone is sufficiently equable after the dentist. Mum “invited” us out to the farm this afternoon so we could take B home. Depends on whether I get anaesthetised and hacked about if I feel safe to drive…

Right. Getting on with it now.

B did some of her maths workbook this morning, and ended up panicking and getting hysterical because she didn’t know what they were asking. It was something she was perfectly capable of doing but she had just shut down. So I took the book away from her and gave her A Talk, based on the mathematician’s lament E pointed me to a while back, about how school maths curriculums are designed to obfuscate mathematics as far as possible. Not sure how much she took in of the broader argument, but she did seem quite reassured by the idea that getting confused by the textbook didn’t mean there was something wrong with her, just with the book! I tried to get across the idea that if she wanted to keep doing the book, she should think about it as a game and start by figuring out what rules each particular page wanted her to play by, then take it on its own terms, rather than taking it to heart as an indictment of her competence if she didn’t know what they were asking.

After that she quit the workbooks for the day, then she decided she was too tired to go to pottery and German, so she came to playgroup with me and the littluns instead. I think she had fun, although she was disappointed that there wasn’t a craft activity or any music happening today (the usual leader wasn’t there). When we got home, she played in the garden, then did some ‘pooting, then Naannie arrived (late)to take her to the farm.

K had a Notable Day – it was her first excursion to playgroup in knickers! She didn’t have any difficulties, either. Only one in day nappies – yay!

Friday:

• E home sick, spent most of the morning in bed
• K spent most of the morning going “Ow ow OWWW” with an earache: some garlic-infused oil, lots of mama milk, and lying with her ear on a heat pack and then a hot water bottle for a couple of hours seems to have nixed that early. Watched a couple of episodes of Play School.
• Since screentime restrictions had gone out the window with K, B spent a lot of time on the computer, interspersed with worrying if she’d packed everything for camp.
• K and B made a “hairy caterpillar” with egg cartons, potting mix and alfalfa seeds.
• B off to Scout camp at 4:30.
• K did some drawing, and spent a lot of time learning the words to “Once I caught a fish alive”.
• E and I debated about a telescope on eBay and eventually decided to buy it.

Saturday:

• B at camp
• E took H and K to the computer fair in Woden to look at second-hand laptops.
• I tidied and vacced the dining room while E was out with both munchkins; when they got back we all tidied the playroom together.
• H had a sleep; K and E went for a long walk.
• K played with part of her Bananas in Pyjamas Opposites game – need to find the rest of it and its box.
• Managed to do a couple of loads of laundry, including some putting away.
• After all the walking, K went straight to sleep at 7pm!
• E did all the washing up.

Sunday:

• I slept in with H after awful insomnia ALL night.
• K played with felt story-boards.
• K and E played with mega blocks; tidied up some of the mess in the living room; now K is watching Play School.
• I put away drying up, cleaned the counters and stove, and put on a load of nappies.
• Did the rest of the supermarket shopping while E, K and H pottered around the mall.
• E and K tidied her bedroom and played the shopping cart memory game.
• I updated my stockpile list, started working on lists for bug-out bags and box of food, and started assembling the box from the stockpile.
• Picked up B at 6:00, she was looking very sorry for herself as she’d had a reaction to the sunscreen she’d put on her face. After dinner and a shower, she watched Robin Hood and then a downloaded ep of Dr Who with E, before going to bed about 9:30.
• Wrote out a shopping list for the bug-out box, and did up emergency cards for the kids’ BObags.

It was cold and miserable this morning, and since both K and H have colds (admittedly, K has had hers for months) and I was too tired to drive that far then have to chase K all over the property, I decided not to go to the picnic out at Bywong. I did try to rustle up a lift for B but there was none to be had.

They both pottered around, had breakfast, and K watched Play School while I showered and H slept. Then B checked over her list of requirements for camp this weekend (yet again!) and went up to the local shops to look for a pair of sunglasses. I had refused to buy her a pair on the grounds that she’ll just lose the damn things, plus we could just buy a pair second-hand. She couldn’t afford any of the ones at the chemist this morning, but hatched a plan to spend some of her bank money on a pair this evening with E. I don’t object particularly to that scenario and who knows, maybe she’ll actually look after them if she paid for them with her own money!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I blew bubbles for the little ‘uns, which H loved, and then K had fun doing some collage while B was out. B got back and poked around on the shelves until she decided to explore the vehicles kit I bought a couple of years ago, which has never been touched. She worked through the various suggestions in the booklet fairly methodically, although she was peeved that the propeller one didn’t work. She also added a remote control from her electronics kits, and substituted a stronger motor than the one from the kit. This activity took a fair whack out of her day!

After lunch, she did some more work on the car, and they both played outside for quite a while. They helped me make muesli bars (which I subsequently burnt *sigh*) then pootled around with the contents of the Busy Box. By then it was about 3pm, so K watched Play School. They both did their own thing after Play School and didn’t object to the TV being off again until 5pm. I didn’t turn my machine on til after 5pm either – I took notes during the day on my Palm Pilot instead, as well as snapping more pix of their activities. The limitations on screentime seem to be working quite well! After a slight disagreement on whether my computer should go off at 6pm if her TV had to, which was resolved when I pointed out that the TV might be going off but her computer could then go on, we both pootered, and I read some books to K. We decided on pizza for dinner, so they went off with E to get them, plus go to the supermarket for the other thing on B’s list for the weekend, and some groceries. When they got back it was time for Catalyst, then the last episode of Life on Mars, then bed for H (who had been asleep in the hammock) and K. B was reading her latest My Secret Unicorn novel in bed when I came down to say goodnight to her at 9:45 🙂

It’s much more exhausting having a no-screentime policy when it’s just me and K… as a result I have just weakened and turned on her show for her. We did make it to nearly 1pm with no more than 1 episode of Playschool, though! What we have done instead (after H’s first sleep of the day):

• played the Funny Felt Faces game, while H played with the tin and the camera cord
• played with the musical instruments – H had bells and a maraca
• read a bunch of books, some of which H ate
• played with the ABC wooden puzzle, while H chewed on a fluffy bunny
• pottered about while I bounced H off to sleep and cooked pasta for lunch

I even have peektures, which I’ll add later. Doesn’t look like much, but it filled in three hours just fine, and now I’m knackered. Paying so much concentrated attention to my munchkins is much more exhausting than just ignoring them…

ETA: B came home in the afternoon and was doing some more packing for her scout camp, when she discovered that her tent had been packed away very badly the last time it was used, and as a result had several large holes in it, rendering it effectively useless. She was predictably peeved about this, and we offered to buy her another one, when on reflection she decided she didn’t want to sleep alone in her tent anyway. So I rang Bilby on Thursday morning and explained the situation: fortunately he says it won’t be a problem because she can just go into a communal tent with the other girls, which will suit her much better anyway.

• got up reasonably late (after 8am) and did computery things
• had the option of screen time til ten, but decided she was finished sometime after 9 (I was in the shower) and independently started on her workbooks
• Basic Reading Skills, Spelling, and Vocab and Grammar wkbks – did 1 or 2 pages in each
• got dressed
• currently playing in garden (11:37)

TV and computers went off at 10; this one got closed but not turned off, so I’m making these notes (with permission) then shutting down. Nannie is expected at 1-1:30 to take them swimming, then B out to the farm.

ETA: B came in after a while in the garden and did some maths and the rest of her English workbook pages…

• played with a matchbox car and wondered which wheels the car would go onto when cornering too tightly – I was very braindead but managed to get her thinking about how the car’s weight would be distributed
• pottery 9:45-11:15
• got a lift to German with Caitlin
• German 12-1
• got home, she got really frustrated over her mouse not working, Managed to fix it, but then we had a big fight when she wouldn’t help me out for a minute when I had a screaming boy and a poopy K. I decreed that computers would go off and TV would be limited to 1 hour of shows each (they can watch each other’s shows). After we finished yelling at each other, we negotiated that all the ‘puters would go off from 10-5pm, and that TV/computer use would ideally be restricted in the evenings to times when there were limited opportunities for spending time together (for her, eg., when E and I are putting H and K to sleep)
• sat there and looked at each other wondering what to do when we’re not on the ‘puter or watching TV
• she decided to start making dinner; looked at her Usborne cookbook but decided to wing it instead of using a recipe. Made a tomato and vegetable sauce with bacon, and perfect, fluffy white rice on the stovetop *was impressed* She and K scarfed down a huge bowlful and there are three pots of it in the deepfreeze for future meals
• I started reading to her from the Visual History of the World, starting at the Prehistory section (only 500+ pages to go! *g*)
• I let her turn on the TV slightly earlier to watch Creature Features (I’m such a sucker). She and K played a shortlived game involving turning the coffee table into a boat
• We all snuggled on a chair for the last half of Rollercoaster, then I read a chapter from her latest My Secret Unicorn book.
• put away the drying up while I cooked dinner, and put away all the laundry currently in her bedroom
• helped me make dumplings for the Stoo
• ate some dumplings, although refused the Stoo
• read some junkmail and talked about Film and Literature classification levels
• played on her computer

UPDATE THIS BLOODY THING!