He's a Superstar - Yeah!

I have been really overwhelmed by the number of lovely messages and tweets I have had since my last blog post. Thanks everyone.

I wanted to let you know that as of now, 8 o clock pm, Middle Small has been FANTASTIC today. All Day! At the park, at the allotment, at meal times, with his siblings..............his behaviour has been outstanding. He helped his Dad water the tomatoes and hoovered up in the den for me.

It is a hard choice when you blog about when to stop being honest. It is perfectly acceptable to say - We made X today or we went to Y today and keep it simple and not go into too much detail.

• Parenting is hard, especially if you have no intention of breaking the spirit in the process, I feel it would be dishonest not to acknowledge that.
• Home ed problems have home ed solutions.
• Attachment parenitng is investment heavy in the early years but I believe the dividends are paid later. We will see.

The Creator has a Masterplan

The Creator has a Masterplan

This song by Pharoah Saunders is truly wonderful, fabulous musicians, free form jazz, peace and happiness for everyone. It's long, really long, like half an hour or something and gets pretty intense in places but it has been a favourite of mine for over twenty years.

A twitter friend wrote a blog post the other day that was two different versions of the same day, she asked her readers to guess which was real and which was made up. This is an appropriate way to view our Saturday. From one view S had a friend over, they did drawing, washing animals, playing shops and we went for a cafe supper at the beach. From the other perspective a brief summary would be to say Middle Small broke the window in the outside toilet. Both of these perspectives are true by the way. S had a super day with her friend, so much so that we rather lost track of time, to be honest I had sort of thought she might ask to go home at some point but she didn't! She is exactly two years older than S and 4 years older than E, almost to the day, in fact her birthday is one of the only two days that separate Big and Middle Smalls! We'll call her I! I did a fabulous drawing of a row of terrace houses and pointed out to S that she used to draw a gap between the land and the sky in her pictures until she noticed that there wasn't one! S read to I, Winnie the Witch: Mini Winnie, and The Trojan War, I notice now that S is really putting feeling into the characters when she reads. Lovely to hear. I likes things tidy, organised and neat and she had a great time re-organising our wooden shop into the correct classifications and size ranking the schelich animals. We landed up a Sea Lane Cafe in Goring for supper, I even indulged in banoffe pie and an iced coffee. A little daft really considering but, after the events of the afternoon, I rather fancied it. After food we had arranged a rendezvous with I's brother and sister and all six of the little people had fun in the sea and the rock pools. The tide at Goring was the farthest out I have ever seen it. They found a crab. For the red heads in our family early evening is the best time to enjoy the seaside. That was the good day. If you read my post yesterday you will know that almost from the word go we were having problems with Middle Small. I started out well suggesting: fist clenching, deep breaths, drawing pictures in response to angry feelings, all things that have been helping recently, but when all of this failed and I got angry, Baby Small had been up in the night. 1am, 2am, 3am. I handed over to The Daddy One until his patience was spent then we both just had emptied our reservoirs and totally lost it with him. Not good. His response was to break the window in our outside toilet. With his fist. In addition there were so many toilet based accidents that at one point yesterday we had actually exhausted our supply of pants. He is seriously strong. In the photo here he is (far left) the youngest child by more than a year in one case and three years in another. He is the biggest by quite some margin. So, after thinking that progress had been made, we are back to the drawing board which, after a good hours crying on the sofa last last night today looks like this.

1. Re investigate food allergies: thoughts include bread and red food colouring. I have been considering taking him for some vega testing which we did with Big Small when she was a baby following a strong reaction to avocado.
2. Take him to the Doctors just to rule out physical problems, although confidence in this is very low, I don't hear positives about this angle from anyone.
3. Would be benefit from some time with a child minder? Is separation the answer to what might well be an attention based problem? Not for a moment do I really think it will help him but might give everyone else some space.
4. Try some new discipline ideas. He does not seem motivated by carrot and stick or fear and guilt and sanctions at all and is acting on impulse is just that? Does impulse control come with maturity? Perhaps there are a few occasions recently when we should have left him at home but would he even make the connection or, if he didn't want to come where we were going would he act up just to stay home with a dedicated adult? Is he even that smart?
5. That all of this is actually a pretty normal part of raising a boy who is jealous of his baby brother and intimidated by his Big Sister's abilities It is just that people are not honest about how hard they find parenting or they delegate most of it to someone else and so blame them when it all goes wrong.
6. Fundamentally we do not want to raise compliant adults who do as they are told but failure to respond to a request like "Stop hitting" is not acceptable. How can we encourage cooperation without a backlash?
7. We need to try and ensure in future that something specific is organised for the other siblings when a playdate happens especially in the winter.

As I type this he is playing so nicely and has been for an hour or more, it is hard to imagine yesterday happened! Well obviously if he wasn't I wouldn't be able to write down my thoughts. This is not a 24/7 issue and of course I am aware that many parents manage children with specify conditions and disabilities but for our little unit this ripple is making waves. Overall Middle Small has been significantly better today, certainly there have been no further breakages, thankfully. He slept in this morning and so The Daddy One and Big Small went swimming early, just the two of them, and, as a result, were able to do lots of practise without the float and for S a further opportunity to show off her new swimming costume, although the pool was empty bar two adult swimmers doing lanes they tell me. S has been reading today, on Tuesday she discovered Jacqueline Wilson and has so far read "Sleepover" "Mum Minder" "Werepuppy" "Vicky Angel" (skip the first chapter Mum it's too sad) and "Lizzie Zipmouth" and signed up to the website. It would appear that Jacqueline Wilson is as prolific an author as S is a reader. Should keep her going for a week or two!

Born or Made?

This morning during another of our, now very regular, simmer down chats Middle Small asked me if criminals are born criminals. He was trying to destroy the duplo castle his brother and sister were playing with so I removed him from the situation. We are trapped in a circle, neither vicious or virtuous, where his attention seeking actions are rewarded with the wrong kind of attention. We landed up having a very long chat that was essentially the nature nurture debate in a nutshell as to whether the criminal mind is born or made. We went back inside and he, immediately, smashed by the building so I took him outside again and we had another talk. He came back in and, after eating a snack, came apologised and rejoined the game.

Big and Baby Small were up for 2 or 3 hours after Middle Small fell asleep last night playing Top Agents and fairies, despite (or because of?) their 4.5 year age gap The Daddy One and I were not required to intervene once. Further reminder, if one were needed, of just how disruptive their brother can be at the moment. It is very waring for everyone especially as often he is okay and his outbursts are not always predictable.

At our local park last week a little girl who we often see there alone had a friend in tow. I asked her who her friend was and she replied "She's gonna have to come and live with us now coz her Mum just can't cope with her no more." Later on I told The Daddy One about this and we started speculating about how man such informal fostering arrangements exist.

A few weeks back I watched The Kennedys docdrama on BBC2 and I was struck by how one sibling was running the country whilst simulatenously another was being lobtomised. The line between genius and insanity maybe finer than we think. The recent tragic deaths of creative genuises like Amy Winehouse and Alexander McQueen have been on my mind too.

No matter your ability to be comfortable with yourself and how you behave in your interactions with each other outranks the importance of academic or financial success in my opinion. I just had no idea it would be so hard.

What we are really thinking: home educators and the school summer holidays

I and I am sure many other home educators were not really looking forward to the school summer holidays this year but, one week in, I have to confess they are turning out okay, well, apart from the disruption to The Small's regular Tuesday swim. We have had several friends over for playdates, aquiring several forgotten jackets in the process, and stuck local because there have been other children at the nearby parks to play with. In term time a 30 mile round trip is generally required to replicate this state of affairs.

Many Home Educators will have not yet really noticed that the summer holidays have begun because they are too busy having fun at HESFES, the annual home educators summer camp festival, held in the holidays I assume because so many home educating families have a school teacher in the family, not a fact widely broadcast to those outside the community and less so by the teachers themselves.

It does make our autonomous follow through a bit tricky though, there is no way, for example, that I would cultivate a sudden interest in dinosaurs in July but I have drawn up a list of suggestions for Autumn days out and explained we will be staying home significantly more for the next few weeks.

And, at the end of it all September is one of the best months of the year to be an out of school family, last year we had our fabulous term time Tuscan gallivant but in previous years the Indian Summer weather has handily coincided with our usual haunts emptying out. A particular meet up at a deserted Littlehampton beach where the older children swam in the sea will always stick in my memory.

The September Not Back to School Picnics that started as a response to the Badman report I believe are now an annual feature of the national calender, it looks like there will be 4 here in West Sussex alone. A great celebration of not having to sew in name labels and breezing past the shelves of teflon and text books.

One more seasonal trend I have noticed, in this the 5Th annual cycle for our local facebook group, is the pick-up in enquiries about home educating that occur for the next 7 or 8 weeks. I am not sure if this is a regional or a national trend but I do like to look behind trends, I can't help it, I was an economist before I was a Mummy!

I Don't Care About Anything (Being with You)

I Don't Care About Anything (Being with You)

Haven't had a song on the blog for a while, have slipped out of the habit since using the tablet as I am not so sure about how to do links! GP played this on his all winners show on Tuesday. 'Tis really mellow I think.

Thus far today I have remained cool, calm and collected. I like it! We switched our cleaner day this week plus The Daddy One has his monthly Friday off, keen to tackle our 200ft or so of hedge before we had no where left to park our cars, having already fixed the shower and the dishwasher this week. Forget all those articles about how much it would cost to pay for mothers' work. His practical skills save us a small fortune! With the help of google which trouble shot the dishwasher not draining in seconds, it needed "rocking" apparently! So, I volunteered to go for a mini local gallivant with The Smalls. We started off at Storrington park where we achieved a personal best, even for our hungry family, the whole picnic eaten by 10am! There were some school holiday boys in the park who flew paper aeroplanes with us until Baby Small posted his tennis ball in the periscope........The children amazed me with their ingenuity and team work, the periscope is at the top of a slide I am too big to climb so I had to leave them to it, eventually they retrieved the ball and triumphantly returned it to O and, you guessed it, he sent it straight back in there, but this time there was no retrieving it. It was stuck firm! Then the park was suddenly overwhelmed by 30 or more play scheme children and even they couldn't budge it. Bit annoying really as, of course, now the periscope doesn't work but what could we do! Order some more tennis balls! Big Smalls catching is getting great, we call out sums as we throw the ball back and forth! Mental maths! We wondered in to town where The Smalls chose a small playmobil toy each, they don't have pocket money from us as such at the moment, we just tend to buy them things as they need them or on pay day! and into, heaving, Waitrose as we were, obviously by now, picnic less! Then to Fittleworth for a swing, climb and play. In the past, I have to confess, I have found the school holidays a bit of a challenge but now the children are bigger, and we stick local and avoid the busy towns, it is great that there are other children in the parks for them without us travelling 15 or 20 miles like we have to in term time. Anyone with socialisation doubts should see them in action! They are inclusive and thoughtful, then from the swings I hear this:

Big Small (6) is chatting to a new friend "How come you are not at my school?" "I don't go to school, Mum tries to teach me but I prefer learning." What more can I say? NB If you are new to my blog I would like to clarify that Middle Small owns 3 identical pairs of the navy and white stripe towelling frugi shorts he is sporting today. They are his favourite and his best. Back in March I wrote several blog posts about the challenges of clothing without uniform!

Repeat to Fade

So Middle Small has just finished reading to me when Baby Small does a poo in his nappy, he doesn't want it changed, he is busy counting and stacking plastic cups, but he is teething and his bottom is sore and I don't want it to get worse so, as he screams, I wrestle his nappy off, this is happening, I am convinced, because I just opened all the windows, then just as I am finishing Middle Small yells down that his poo has missed the loo so I race up to him, it is clear from the mess, he needs a bath, I would normally hose him down with the shower but The Daddy One has taken the shower hose to work so he can call in for a replacement on the way home......... Whilst he is in the bath Baby Small comes to investigate, much splashing follows and his, freshly fitted nappy, is now soaking only from the outside in. My efforts to cut the amount of junk in our diet always meet with predictable dietary consequences.

All of this time Big Small has been doing her 3D Young Scientist human body jigsaw which is often a source of great frustration

"I am through with the liver and the pancreas." she yells from downstairs as I rush down to help her.

The body is completed as the door bell rings, an epic shopping delivery arrives featuring a large amount of frozen content so needs immediate attention, just as the floor is clear of bags the bell goes again, the tennis balls I ordered yesterday afternoon have arrived, Two of the smalls head outside to bounce them because new tennis balls have a great bouncability, meanwhile our friends are texting because my directions were too vague, they arrive and soon after one of their number announces he is hungry, somewhere along the way it appears I managed to put 7 jacket potatoes in the oven which means we can eat.

managed to squeee in a little chat with their mummy One about how people try and trransplant the skills of dog and horse trainning into the sphere of child rearing.

After lunch we head to the swings, Baby Small is tired and the walk should do the trick, it does, and between the squabbles we fly paper planes (& sneak a few chunks of chocolate)

Sometimes I am ahead of the curve. Sometimes I am firefighting. This blog post lacks punctuation: I think that is a reflection of our day.

I know for sure that it will not always be this way, they will not always need me and I'll miss them when they are gone. I wonder what I'll do

Love Parks Week

It is 'Love Parks Week' this week, the whole year we spend so much time at parks, that every week is Love Parks Week in our family! Consequently I must have already used Donald Byrd's Rock Creek Park as a post title but now I am on the blogger app on the asus tablet it doesn't alert me to previously used titles. It obviously figures I have a memory! It is a great song. No harm in listening again.

The morning started at Petworth swing park, whilst Grandma was here I made a picnic lunch and we headed to Petworth for coffee and carrot cake in the park (from the fabulous local deli, that carrot cake in the 'photo was sublime!) Grandma heads home via Petworth so after a while she headed off and left The Smalls rolling down the grassy bank and me drinking my coffee. The play equipment at Fittleworth park is superior but there is no caffeine outlet and no toilets nearby! You now have to pay to park your car in Petworth, only 20p, but a sign that the ripples of disruption from the astronomical parking charges in our local village train station car park are being felt 8 miles away!

So, once they had exhausted the helter skelter slide and tunnel fun we headed over to Fittleworth Park, we were considering heading further south but there were so many glorious Goodwood coaches clogging up the roads we decided to stay local.

Shortly after we arrived at our second park of the day a family of 4 girls arrived and S and E played with them for maybe two hours. It turns out they are going to be at our local park, Pulborough, tonight, so weather permitting it might be 3 parks that we land up visiting today!

For now though we are making pink paper and gold wire Barbie guitars and a Barbie newspaper with stories in, I am loving that Big Small, 6.5, is so genuinely autonomous now, making no distinctions between work and play and what would be classified as "school" work and with no idea that the majority of her peers wil be recoiling from making a newspaper today because it is far to much like school work and that all the ideas are her own from her own inspiration. All I do is facilitate and that is fabulous.Middle Small by contrast has already had several outbursts of physical over exuburance today **sigh** It is getting pretty tiresome now. I can talk him round and I can help him out but it is really exhausting and totally unfair on his siblings. Thankful that we have so many nearby parks where he can bounce around at let off steam. I think I read all the good books too soon. The Biddulphs and the Mazlishs, were I coming to them now they would be so refreshing. The Blog has been immensely helpful, several mothers of super teenagers have confided in me that their children were worse as toddlers, another mother told me a few weeks ago that she took her year old son for a hearing test convinced his lack of listening must be due to a lack of hearing. The consultant suggested to her that she was not alone in her assumptions. If he were my only child i would, course, be blaming myself but I have two other children who are fantastic, feisty, but fantastic! Were he at school I would probably be suggesting that was the problem. When Sandra Dodd was staying with us she suggested that we were too polite saying please when we were actually not making a request but issuing a demand for compliance but this strategy simply encourages major kick backs. I feel like I am at a dead end with his behaviour. Although a 6 year old in our home ed group did tell me last week that her brother is even naughtier than my son which raised a smile! We seem to be in a phase of higher highs and lower lows at the moment. Average is fine by me.

Bucks Fizz

In Other News

Grandma took the big Smalls swimming today, she arrived first thing armed with a new stars and stripes tankini for S, but the pool timetable was messed up for summer holidays, no one told them as they paid their money and entered the water so, after only a short while in the pool, they were forced to complain and organise a refund. They only swam for 20 minutes or so. How hard would it have been to say when they arrived? Whilst they were out I filled up the new furniture.

Big Small has today finished the circus reading scheme, she was saddened at the librarians underwhelming response. I think they were a little embarrassed. I explained to her as we walked home that really the scheme is designed for people who need incentives to read 6 books in 6 weeks and not for a 6 year old who generally reads 6 books a day. The DVD vouchers were not ready and S was sad not to have one. I think had I not told the librarians that our home ed friends in other parts of the country had already finished that they might of said we needed to wait! We tried out S's new nail transfers when we arrived home, they lasted under 5 minutes.

A second act of kindness today, a bag of paper aeroplanes were waiting for us on the doormat! S was really thrilled and intrigued that the one she said wouldn't possibly fly flew the best.

Despite two or three random acts of aggression from Middle Smalls overall today has been pretty cool. We have had friends over to play, they played shops, on barbie website, made a cool railway; messed around in the garden.

Using the cool question function on facebook I asked our local group if they go out with their children everyday. The response is surprising and the Nos are well in the lead. In comparison to our home ed friends we go out, definitely, more than average but in contrast to S&E's schooled peers whose life's are a whirl of daily extra circular activities the amount of time we spend at home would definitely be seen as boring. Just as we were getting ready for bed this evening a hot air balloon flew over, with all these paper planes we will need air traffic control in the garden soon, the boys were not quick enough to see it so S drew them a lovely picture of it. She has expressed a desire to neaten up her handwriting.

Easy like Monday morning

It is seven years this week since I quit paid employment. S was due in October 2004 and I had accrued lots of holiday so I left my job as a strategist and economist working in the city of London at the end of July for a little break before becoming a Mum, as it turned out it was well into November before S arrived but that is another story. Thanks to a very generous maternity scheme it was a while before the money stopped arriving but it is soon approaching the time that being a full time Mum will be the "thing" I have done for the longest time! This thought struck me this morning as I was shining a torch underneath a wardrobe searching for a lost Barbie shoe.

Yesterday I accidentally shut the strap of S's swimming costume in the washing machine, I didn't notice until it was too late and, after the energetic spin cycle, one strap is now almost double the length of the other. New swim wear required. E and I were up first this morning, we seem to be stuck at Book 4 on Peter and Jane again so he chose to read a book from the DK Star wars reading scheme instead whilst we had some quiet time on the sofa. We did pretty well with learn nothing day overall yesterday until just after 9pm when we were watching a Harry Potter movie with Big Small and she started asking about werewolves. The Daddy One refused to answer citing learn nothing day as a reason not to leave the sofa but my curiosity was roused and so the werewolf page of wikipedia was fired up and we discovered that Remus Lupin is so named after the Italian legend of the the twins that were suckled by a wolf, which we had talked about on our Tuscan adventure last year after we saw a statue of them in Florence but we had not made the connection. We also deduced that Lupin was a derivative of the French and Latin words for werewolf and so, at 9pm, we blew it! We have been spotting butterflies in the garden today, S's paternal Grandparents bought us a poster that had come free with their paper so we tapped it to the easel for easy identification. S has also been flying paper planes in the garden and playing a game of postmen, writing and delivering letters. This afternoon she performed for me in her rock band, singing and dancing with pink circles around her eyes! This inspiration came from the sleepover as The Daddy One in the family she stayed with was once in a rock band! E has had a friend over to play this morning for two hours which was a great success, they played lego and playmobil and on said websites and discovered a shared passion for fish fingers! No one wanted to go to the park this afternoon but we did go this evening, to Fittleworth, on our way home from collecting some ebay winnings in Haslemere. It is years since I have been to Haslemere and I had forgotten how upscale it is with its pavement cafes and pizza express! As you can see from the photo Baby Small is very pleased with his new clothes storage solution! the people we collected it from turned out to have two small children and S&E struck up an instant friendship, playing on their slide and comparing playmobil!

The little things are the big things

The little things are the big things.

I now have two mouth ulcers, too late with the vitamin B and the merc vic, they are only little things but are bringing me down in a big way. I am fed up with them.

There are lots of others little things we do that make a big impact. Co-sleeping has to be one, it is a little difference but makes a big impact on our family life. 21st century humans living in a western society seem to under estimate the importance of physical closeness, unless they are paying for it of course. I have just had a lovely snuggle with Middle Small, he is a fabulous hugger! Breastfeeding too, a little difference to the majority of other families that has a major impact on our health and well being.

In The Smalls circle of BFFs I am fast becoming the only Mum who has full time access to her own car and undertakes no paid worked what so ever. S has about 12 BFFS (Best Friends Forever in Barbie speak) Several of which are pairs of sisters, one pair of sisters mother doesn't drive, another The Daddy One has just suffered a major dent in his income, another the family are down to one car and in two cases the parents work, from home, all of these are little things on there own but to S they add up to a big thing and that is that at the spontaneous whim we can not always rendezvous with her friends exactly when she would like to. She has grown more understanding of this of late which is a big help to me.

The position is similar with Middle Small's friends, some of whom are the siblings of Big Small's friends. Several of their families are without independent transport altogether or constrained by having a working parent in the family. This is something we struggled with for a while but seem to have reconciled for now at least. The unkind little things I said to Middle Small last week have turned into big things in his mind and wiped out the far greater number of kind things I do for him. I guess the thing I find ironic, from a big picture perspective, is that it is life learning, and a strategically well timed return to college and formal education at the age of 29, on the part of The Daddy One that has allowed us to be outside the box gallivanters. That is my thought on learn nothing day. The Little things are the big things.

Learn Nothing Day

July 24th is Learn Nothing Day. A vacation for unschoolers. Last week Big Small, 6, declared the idea ridiculous and wondered why anyone would want to have a day in which they learnt nothing. The Daddy One has taken the two biggest swimming this morning, when they returned we had had an epic roast lamb lunch and, whilst the German Grand Prix was on, I took the boys to the local park for two hours. At the park we mostly raced cars down the slide. Big Small has been watching Horrible Histories whilst we have been out. We will always be Outside the Box but for the next few weeks we will not be gallivanting much. You might find that it is the same park in the background of the photos rather than the usual different park everyday that is more the custom on this blog. Normal service will resume in early September, generally considered to be the best month of the year to be a home educating family.

Seasons

Seasons

We have had The Daddy One's parents here for the day today, they arrived around 11am and have just left, 9pm ish. The Smalls popped out to buy some plants for their Grandma who has had a birthday since we last saw her whilst I whizzed up a cake and a tiramisu for us to have later, ironic for someone who feels her families sugar consumption has slipped into the red of late (sugar reduces immunity and mouth ulcers are a sign of reduced immunity.) When they arrived the 7 of us walked into our village and Big Small completed the next phase of the circus summer reading scheme before we headed to our local pub for a beer garden lunch. Scampi. Our visitors also made a quick trip to see the allotment.

Much lego and duplo play this afternoon and S made a boat. We have watched The Oddessy, Barbie a Fairy Secret and a Star Wars movie.

The sad news from Norway has rather hung over my day today. The Daddy One, being in the oil business, has been to Norway 3 or 4 times on business and has commented each time on the great philosophy and attitude of the Norwegians. He has has several Norwegians working in his office.

Barbie Garden

The afternoon has seen some burst of creativity from S - after the lovely medal for me she has made a Barbie garden and also read her first Asterix book which she rather liked and together we investigated the origins of the word cocktail. Baby Small has been doing impressions of The Shouty Man from Horrible Histories and playing cars down the ramp, I haven't let him sleep this afternoon so he crashed out really early, his afternoon power kip yesterday propelled him on till past 11 o clock last night. I chickened out of telling Middle Small that teenage Dude wasn't coming, he didn't seem to remember it was Friday and he made a painted box too.

Winning Mummy

We have been on a sunny, nature walk today. We have seen deer up pretty close, 6 or more species of butterflies including red admirals, have flown around us, we had an interesting conversation about the Viking binoculars that the reserve loaned us and whether they were from Viking times which led on to a conversation about Romans and the order of historical events that wowed some passing American tourists, we have seen all kinds of mushrooms growing in the wild, found an 'S' shaped cloud and talked about cloud shapes, some great life learning, autonomous home ed things...............................

There is a path all way round the RSPB reserve that is made of rocks and gravel some of which are sharp, over the years we have done the walk, with babies in the womb, in the sling, in the double pushchair the paths have claimed enough of our families skin that I really would have thought the penny would have dropped by now but no, again today Middle Small did a big slip and removed some skin from his hands, at the same time as Baby Small was lying down and having a tantrum on the path, a kind old lady gave him some Middle Small some savlon from a very old tube which he graciously accepted... I am not sure yet which version of today I will file in my memory.

There was a time when I read Faber and Mazlish when I had high dreams and aspirations for my siblings and there future relationships, today, I feel more Bill Cosby about the whole thing and figure if they make it to 18 alive I will deserve a medal. I guess the larger you family the higher the highs and the lower the lows A friend from our local home ed group was waiting in the park at the end of the walk and it was lovely to see her supportive, non-judgemental and friendly smile and have a chat but when Middle Small started pestering her son I figured it was best to leave and Big Small was "bored." We also bumped into our allotment neighbours and their grandson. As we walked the reserve I was having a strange text conversation with our teenage helper who normally comes on a Friday but it turns out this week, for the second week in a row, he is not coming, I am pretty sure I didn't sleep through a conversation about his leaving us and was feeling perplexed and confused. In my mind I was trying to reorganise the things I had planned for this afternoon, including picking up some vitamin B which I find is the answer to ulcers and feelings of stress, so, as a result, we called into the supermarket on the way home as S has been after the latest Barbie magazine and the man at the till asked the "girls" (argh!!!!) why they weren't at school. When he started questioning me about how I make them learn and how much time I need to set aside for teaching I just sort of glazed over.

One Day I'll Fly Away

S is mad about paper planes at the moment, she returned home from the sleepover with "SP4" and has been flying it about the house for the past few days. This afternoon we had a local friend over for coffee and she had kindly made us an origami box with a butterfly on the outside and some chocolates on the inside. Later on we googled paper planes and found a Guinness word record attempt on youtube. It was filmed on the 6th September 2003 and so said "SEP 6" in the corner of the screen, S thought this was fabulous as it is her initials and her age and of all the options we could have clicked! Sandra Dodd often writes about coincidences and I like this one. Via youtube S also discovered that paper planes are a form of origami. This evening the plane has been used to delver airmail notes to us. S is our super fly guy.

In Other News

• Baby Small can say eucalyptus

• E has been making lego and been on lego website, he seems troubled over whether he likes lego or playmobil more.

• S has been writing in her diary -she can spell a surprising number of words.

• S painted a cool picture of "Mum and Dad! and painted a yellow frame around the outside