Just Jo!

We agreed last night that today was going to be timetabled …

It was, but then something happened, or didn’t to be precise. We got up in enough time to watching an hour and a half of school programmes. We went round to the cash-point to see if the cheque has cleared – it hasn’t, so I tragically spent my last 50p on 2 loaves of bread. We bumped into Lin (again!) and she was a bit concerned; but we have a fridge, a freezer and a cupboard full of food so we’re not going to starve between now and Monday. No matter what O says as she mourns the lack of prawn cocktail crisps (Walkers are vegan!) and bourbon biscuits (they are too!). And I’ve just remembered that A owes me £9, which is a debt that will be called in a.s.a.p.!

When we got home, I took great satisfaction in scribbling out the timetable; then O decided what she really wanted to do from it. She wrote out a list and just drew a line through each thing when she finished it. First was 6 questions from a new chapter (forces and motions) in her science workbook. She finished her current English book, and did some work on 2D shapes and area, and 3D nets for maths. Might as well have left the timetable up …

O started a Klimt-inspired doodle painting just before dinner; it’s looking good so far. Dinner tonight was ‘chicken’ style soya pieces fried with mushrooms and a tin of aubergines in a tomato herby sauce added with rice. The pieces were a bit too realistic and O got more and more concerned about them, until – midway through dinner – I had to fish the empty pack from the bin to show her they were OK. It tasted good apart from me being distracted by O when I was adding the chilli oil. All the way through the meal she kept commenting on how spicy it was; “Nonsense, eat up, it’s lovely”. Shame it smelt like a cowshed really …

Right … where did today go?!!!

It got to about 2 and I thought about washing my hair. But what else did we do? Nothing! What happened?!

O finished reading one Lemony Snicket and started another. Apparently, Count Olaf was wearing a tambourine. After a bit of digging, it turns out he was actually wearing a turban. Close enough I suppose.

She finished colouring a tessellating bird picture that she’d started on Tuesday. She also finished the medicine chapter that she’d also started on Tuesday. Apart from then building a type of city with Lego, that really was it today.

We wandered round to the shops to buy supplies for family night; it’s tonight this week.

A came home really tired after college. I think because he didn’t get back till late yesterday. He had a football match down in Truro. He’s doing sports science and has recently been promoted to the first team, which he’s really pleased about. But they lost 2-1, which he’s not really pleased about – obviously.

Anyway, he was really tired tonight, so we didn’t exactly have a night of sparkling wit and repartee. Do we ever? Neither of them wanted to continue our game of poker; because I’m winning – spoilsports! A chose to do one of O’s science kits that she’d got for Christmas. The ‘Sport and the Human Body’ one. We got as far as looking through the booklet and some transparencies, and measuring each others heights. Then A gave up and went to bed. I looked through the rest of the kit which actually looks quite good; lots of activities to keep O busy anyway.

Up and out early today for F.R.L. Lin and boys came over about 9.30. She walked with us again this morning – hurrah!

I said I’d do an activity today so I took along some string. How exciting is that?! It was to show the kids cats cradles and other string games; a few of the kids had a go and seemed to enjoy it.

O still didn’t feel like yoga. On alternate weeks there’s sketching or drama. Today was drama which O doesn’t do as she goes to the arts centre in the evening instead.

Spanish again after lunch. O gaily handed in her homework. All memories of last weeks panic-stricken rushed job happily forgotten. It’ll be interesting to see if she’s learnt a lesson; or will I have to remind her at some point; or, even better, ‘evil mummy’ rears her head and leaves it entirely up to her!

A man called Nick came to the park this afternoon. And why shouldn’t a man called Nick come to the park?! He came to teach the kids some environmental games and make concoct some ‘interesting’ smelly potions. It was absolutely freezing!! I lasted about 5 seconds; long enough to take a few photos before I retreated to the relative warmth of the hut. All the kids had fun anyway and there were plenty of rosy noses and cheeks.

We stopped off again at the library on the way to drama. O had a chat with one of the librarians who’s got friends in Spain. Her friends live very near to where my mum lives so we were comparing notes.

O enjoyed drama; they practised a song about black socks never getting dirty, the longer you wear them, the stronger they get… hmmm, I have a son who adheres to that principle.

Oh, stuff the … timetable!

We got up late: to be honest, I only got up because A knocked on my door to say goodbye and ask for money for his next driving lesson in the afternoon.

O’s decided she now wants to be a writer so she spent about an hour getting stuff ready for that. She does like to be organised, but no actual writing seems to have appeared yet. I think she’s planning on some collaborative writing with Lin’s boys – should be interesting!

She wanted me to help her with a medicine chapter for her project. When she started this project, she wrote a chapter list and chooses one she feels like doing. After the food chapter trauma, she thought medicine might be equally gruesome: which is why she’s asked me to help. She really can’t face it on her own! And we have to do it quickly.

She played with the villa, reorganising the cut-out figures. “Be careful”, I said, “like Rome, it wasn’t built in a day.” I am so, so, so, sorry! I have been trying really hard to not say that, but I really couldn’t resist! Temptation? Bring it on!

We went over to Lin’s in the afternoon. O got the boys writing a story, which they gave up on in the end. Lego’s much more interesting!

My lovely, lovely, lovely step-dad sent me the flight details and included a cheque for ‘travelling expenses’! £100! I need a new dressing gown, new shoes, new … whatever!! The money’s spent already and we haven’t even left town yet! I might just consider giving A and O some – if they do lots of sucking up!

O did some English, maths and science – she finished the section on electricity and drew some very colourful electrical circuits. We watched a programme on environmental change in Berlin. I’ve been there before, but it was before the wall came down so I told O about that. After lunch more T.V. on maths; rounding, percentages and adding to large numbers.

Then into town to pay in a cheque! On the way I was stopped for directions. I really should wear a huge sign on my back, “Please, if you truly value your sanity, do not – under any circumstances – ask me for directions!” I don’t know why; I’m not stupid; I know where I am; I know where I’m going; I always know the places people are asking for; I do know how to get there; I have a very good sense of direction and I can’t remember ever getting lost. Why, for the love of … , why can I not give simple directions?! I think it must be because I don’t drive and our town is full of one-way systems. We usually either walk or get the bus, and cars can’t go where we go … excuses, excuses. Anyway, the poor bloke ended up looking more and more worried. I did apologise and suggested that maybe it might be a good idea to drive on a bit, turn right and ask again. He drove off … quickly.

Ooh, the timetable thingy! The workbooks this morning was about the extent of it. Well, if people (thanks John!) insist on throwing cheques at me, chances are I’m going to be distracted.

Tomorrow is the last of the timetabled days we’ve got planned, so I think that’ll be the last one. O has decided that maybe timetabling just one day a week might be a better idea. Funnily enough, I find myself agreeing with her.

Timetable: 8.30am – up, dressed, breakfast and wash
9am – fill in background on mosaic and finish villa
10.30 – write list of Roman emperors
11.30 – 5 questions in science workbook
Reality: 10 am – open bleary eyes, “Timetable? What timetable?”

I’m left wondering how long this timetable thingy is going to be ‘funner’?

Anyway, O did a page of her fraction workbook (comparing equivalency), did finish her mosaic, did finish the villa – well, I did, which meant there was loads more, “Are you pleased with it?”
“Stop right there, love!”.

She also got through pages of maths workbook: a revision book of quick activities; proportion and ratio; multiples and square roots; factors and prime numbers; and, wonder of wonders, magic number squares. Ditto English and more of a Bible activity book that she’s been doing for … no idea how long now. It’s dot-to-dot, word search, spot the difference and tons of colouring, but it’s very basic for her so she’s really bored with it. I don’t like wasting money though, so it will be finished (there’s that evil mummy again!). All the activities are based on various stories, the current one being David and Goliath. The inevitable question being, “Can a stone on your head really kill you?”
“A boulder on your head most definitely. A stone would depend on velocity, trajectory, point of impact … no, we won’t be doing a scientific experiment … ever … absolutely not … it’s called murder and people tend to get a bit cross if you do things like that.”

Tonight was our family night. We have one every week because otherwise we’d never see A: him being 17 and a ‘sociable’ kind of person. He usually decides which night it’s going to be since he’s the only one with such a hectic social calendar. Me? Bitter? Nooo!

Tonight it’s tomato tart, one of his favourites. He’s not vegan, a confirmed meat-eater, so he usually refuses to eat with us (hence the insistence on family nights). Mind you, I don’t see him complaining when he has a plate piled with food in front of him.

As it’s Sunday, family night meant I missed an episode of ‘Invasion’ – the sacrifices I make! After dinner, we played poker and I am now chip-leader. Hooray! Who needs T.V.?

Fingers crossed for tomorrows timetable!

Forget to say that yesterday we started building the Roman villa and O started to make a bird mosaic. So first on the list was carrying on with those. O’s gummed paper for the mosaic – which tastes foul – so she’s only got as far as filling in the outline of the bird. And by about the 2 millionth piece of the villa, she got bored. So I’m doing most of the rest of it (well, it keeps me quiet and out of trouble), while she does a chapter on writing and numbers for her project. She can also tick the boxes for maths, English and science workbooks. But not, however, the book on fractions. We’ll save that for another day (evil mummy!). While I was kept engrossed with a certain villa, O made herself a hot air balloon, not a full-size one, we have a tiny house.

I was only interrupted once to tie a knot in the balloon and that was it. O was really pleased with herself and kept on, “Are you pleased with me? Are you proud of me? Do you like it? D’you think it’s good? Are you pleased with me?” (can you tell she was pleased with it?!).
“Yes, dear, as long as you’re happy”.

As soon as A walked in the door (he works in a bakers on Saturdays), “Do you like it? D’you think it’s good?”. He just jumped in the shower and went out for the evening. Why, oh why can’t I do that? Just once would be quite nice.

It seems just lately that O has been taking ages to get anything done – so I decided on a timetable today. Eek!! A very detailed timetable, even down to – 11am – get biscuit and drink! It seemed to work though; Spanish homework was finished so she won’t have to panic next Tuesday evening. We even watched more school programmes on T.V. (this is starting to become a habit). More importantly, O asked for the next few days to be timetabled because “It’s more funner”. Must remember to schedule in some grammar.

We got up a bit late today, 9.30. I was awake early though, so does that count?

O got on with her Roman project - it was food today. As we’re vegan, there were a lot of comments along the lines of, “Ew!”, “Gross!”, “That’s revolting!”. By the end a quiet little voice was heard, “I really do not like Romans anymore, why did I choose them?”. Particularly disgusting was the fish sauce was the fish sauce used in desserts!

Luckily, because I’m such a caring, kind and loving sort of mum, I found some riveting maths for her to do. Well, she said she felt sick, so I did what I thought best to take her mind off larks tongues!

A had his second driving lesson after college today. He looks and sounds so grown-up now. So it’s a little disconcerting to see him sitting on the sofa, clutching a ‘steering-wheel’, changing ‘gears’, screeching round corners and jamming his foot on the ‘brake’! Sadly, I have no photographic evidence. Is it really that immoral to blackmail your first-born?!

Wednesdays are our busy days. We go to Free Range Learning, a home-school group that meets on, surprise, surprise, Wednesdays. As we were walking there, we bumped into Lin and her boys who were heading for the bus stop. We ‘forced’ them to walk with us! It only took 40 minutes, what’s the problem?! And we did a bit of shopping on the way.

We really like this group because there’s always lots to do and everybody contributes. One mum was doing yoga when we got there, then another started sketching afterwards. O didn’t feel like either today, so she made an origami flapping bird with someone else instead.

Time for a play in the park with all her friends, then lunch before Spanish. O handed in her scrap of homework and how glad was she that she’d finished it last night? This actually sounds like Mathilde (the Spanish teacher) is very strict. She’s not at all, she’s very laid-back and makes it fun for the kids.

As soon as the room was cleared, pottery was set up for those who wanted to do it. Neil showed them how to make a pinch pot, which lots of them had a go at, including O.

Neil will take everything away to fire, so she’ll get her pot back in about, ooh… a month? Don’t know, Neil was vague!

We had to stop off at the library after group. It’s conveniently close to the arts centre where O goes to her drama group. It’s a lovely quiet time for me to sit in the café-bar there with a friend so we can chat, child-free. Her girls are home-schooled as well; but today there was one who didn’t go because she’s decided that drama’s boring.
“Why, child, why? This is supposed to be mummy’s quiet, chatty, gossipy, putting the world to rights time!”

after a lift home, and only being able to keep my eyes open long enough to make a quick tea, it was an early night for O and me. Sort of early anyway, we found a programme about wildlife in Spain that we had to watch – because we’re going there in 3 weeks!!

O’s turn for an extra long bath this morning. Her facecloth got wet which means either she did actually wash(!) or it just fell in the bath by accident (most likely!) While she was wallowing, I had time to make a soup, in peace and quiet, no interruptions at all. Bliss! One of yesterdays gems was, “Did you know, Caligulalalar was in the top 5 worstest emperors?”By the end of the morning, I had a prune for a daughter and enough soup to last a couple of weeks.

When O eyed up the soup, she was all smiles and happy that it looked like gruel (hangover from Oliver yesterday!). Hmmm…..not totally convinced that’s actually a comment, love! And gruel is grey and lumpy anyway, my delicious soup is a beautiful shade of green… and lumpy.

A doesn’t have classes ’till 1.15 on Tuesdays, so he didn’t get up ’till 12.15. Well,why on earth would a 17 year old boy get up before noon when there’s no need?

After lunch (of wonderful, tasty soup), O and me headed into town. First to the museum to pick up a papyrus-making kit for a friend. So good we got one for ourselves aswell. Then it was time for O’s dance class, a sort of ballet mixed with other stuff. She only started last week but really enjoys it. It is another chance for dressing up after all, and you can never have too many of them according to O!

On the way home, we stopped off at a friends. O had a chance to do her Spanish homework. It only has to be done by tomorrow… why does this sound like school?

Last night, just before bed, O announced that she wanted to be a pole-dancer when she grew up…. cue me spluttering half a cup of coffee across the room.

“What do they do Mum?”

“Ooo, um, er, not sure…. no, it’s too late really to look it up now, how are the Baudelaires getting on anyway?”

A huge sigh of relief this morning when she’d changed her mind and now wants to be an archeologist. Result? Innocence of child no. 2 safely preserved. Child no. 1 due for an in-depth chat about appropriate topics of conversation when within earshot of child no. 2.

We actually watched T.V. during daylight hours this morning.We don’t have reception downstairs and only get 4 channels upstairs. I’d had enough of T.V. just over a year ago and got rid of all satellite connections, so we’re building up our DVD collection instead. After watching the school programmes, the last one being a short Dickens biog., O was ‘in the mood’ to watch ‘Oliver!’. She loves musicals and used to be happy enough just singing along. Now she has to get dressed in full costume, quite often using props aswell.(A, bless him, has now learned to turn a blind eye, but he does have to have final say on any costumes she might wear whilst out in public!) Anyway, her favourite character in Oliver is Fagin, so she had a velvet jacket on before I could blink. No, no, no, no! We’re building a villa today, no more T.V.!

We didn’t actually get much of the villa made (ie, nothing!) because we changed our minds and went to the library instead. O’s got out 5 more books on Rome, and managed to entertain the library staff by falling off her chair quite spectacularly!

While I had a long bath, O added to her chapters on women and children. After I’d read it through later, she now also knows the definition of ‘plagiarism’.

A leisurely start to Sunday was called for this morning. I’d decided that today was the day to defrost the freezer. Why? No idea! This meant, of course, that I could amuse myself by shoving freezing hands down the back of O’s T-shirt! For some odd reason, she wasn’t as amused as me. I did manage to stop tormenting her when she showed quiet determination to get on with her Roman project. She’s decided to write about women and children today. Slight stress when she couldn’t draw a pair of dolphin earrings absolutely perfectly, but got there eventually. She’s also found a lovely intricate hair-do with lots of tiny plaits and coils. She’s had the brilliant idea that I can do it for her *and* make a stola. Hmmm…..

While she was busy, I finished off a Van Gogh jigsaw that we’d started ages ago. Well, it seems like ages when it’s been taking up a significant amount of floor space. Now it’s out of the way, I’ve promised O we can start building a Roman villa. Visions of major excavations in the back garden? Nooo, just small-scale cut-out thingy, just following instructions and a little bit of glue. Easy.

I also had a lovely conversation with my step-dad (he and mum live in Spain) to sort out a trip to visit them in February. It’s to ‘help’ celebrate his 60th birthday. And they’re paying!! Yeah!! We’re going for nearly 3 weeks, A only for a week because he’s got to get back to college. Apparently their neighbour is 60 on the exact same day….. can only hope the locals are fully prepared.

We had invited ourselves over to Lin’s for dinner. We aimed to be there about 2p.m., but O decided to wash her hair fifteen minutes before we left. Seeing as she always has plaits and I have to do them for her, I was not terribly impressed, owing to lack of time. When questioned about the length of time spent in the bathroom, she was admittedly honest, “I was messing about”. Through gritted teeth, “Well, let’s get going now then shall we?” Having stopped off to pick up a paper for Lin, we were only ten minutes late.

Me and Lin (not grammatically correct, but, hey, I don’t care!) spent ages looking at blogs, with Lin eventually setting me up with this one. The kids were all extremely happy playing on X-box, O being even more excited because we don’t do game thingies at home.

We cooked dinner, fajitas, with Lin adding a lovely spice(!) mix into the stir-fried veg. Spice being the operative word, with O having her head blown off and having to drink copious amounts of water! Lin had to scrape her veg out but I was the only one brave enough to finish, owing to half a bottle of very chilled Chardonnay!

We set the kids up with a video while we sorted my blog… and finished the wine! I will sleep well tonight and dream of exciting things for O to do tomorrow regarding her ongoing Roman project.

Outcome of day? Lost tastebuds, gained a blog, great fun had by all!

After spending a so-called social call to my good friend Lin, and having spent numerous conversations dismissing blogs(!), she has now convinced me to set up my own. So here I am… after a bottle of Chardonnay!

Now… what do I say? Obviously I’m home-educating, for 18 months now. One daughter, Olivia, 9, at home and one son, Adam, 17, at college. We live near Lin and luckily enough another good friend who also home-eds. Depending on my mood, we are either completely autonomous or she has to do the dreaded workbooks.

Well, that’s my very first entry