Making it up

On either one.

I’ve just played Mancala over at HigherGames against someone calling themselves Battlestar. Was a bit freaked out by the stream of questions throughout, but then personage disclosed that they were 10, which I thought sounded plausible. I proceeded to thrash her three times - I feel really mean.

Today I did an aptitude test. Exactly the same verbal reasoning one as I did on Thurs. Will be interesting to see whether I’ve managed to correct any of the questions I got wrong the other day, or whether I’ve incorrectly assessed which ones they were and got others wrong. (While I was told how many I’d got wrong, I wasn’t told which ones they were). I told the ppl today that I’d sat the test a couple of days ago - it seemed only fair.

Then the second aptitude test was computer checking - didn’t do that the other day, but did do it seven years ago when joining the bank. Didn’t really feel I needed to disclose that though! If my accuracy rate is OK, I’ve improved hugely on how I did on that one from last time, as I nearly finished it.

Tech test - laughable. What is this Enterprise Java you speak to me of? Oh well. And I shall draw a veil over the rest of it until I find out whether I’m going to be called for personality testing and a second interview.

The children have had another lovely day with Tim from what I can tell - Small did contrive to fall asleep though, which doesn’t bode well for tonight. Although he doesn’t look 100% to me, I wonder if we are starting with something?

And now they are eating food that I’ve actually cooked for once, and all is calm.

I am so proud, my old school has made it into the BBC online news.

Nice to see that the pupils are Internet literate.

1 to go.

Made it with time to spare today, so obviously learnt from yesterday about how much time I need to leave to navigate a strange town to find a parking place!

Cautiously optimistic about the interview - I wasn’t at the end of it, as I felt it had been quite difficult, but a chat with the agency, and further feedback this evening is that it went well, but I won’t know til next week. So I do need to go to the presentation day tomorrow in Sheffield, which is just the first of a two step process. Bother. I was hoping I wouldn’t need to.

In other news, Tim coped admirably well with the children today - he’s done educational stuff with them (printing!) *and* excavated the table as well! He’s now relaxing in a warm bath, as it has been hard on his back. When I say coped, I am referring to his physical difficulties with looking after the children - he’s always been very good with them, that isn’t an issue at all

And I met Gill, which was really lovely. In fact so lovely that I stayed nearly three times as long as I’d anticipated, time just flew while we were chatting. And it was peaceful.

as things are rather hectic.

As most of you know, I’m in the swing of trying out for jobs. I’ve been putting 2 - 3 applications in a week (sometimes 2 - 3 in a day!) and it’s beginning to pay off. Accordingly I’ve been to Leeds for aptitude tests today, and I’m off for a proper interview tomorrow. Spent some of this evening dreaming over houses nearer the job…

In and amongst I’ve been doing a lot of work on websites, and pondering my future on the web as it were - if I don’t get the paying job, I need to find some other ways of making ends meet.

And there’s been a touch of education here and there. Big is now in full flow with awkward questions at the most inconvenient times I know other ppl swear by car ed, but I’m more likely to swear at it, as being half deaf makes holding in depth conversations while driving exceedingly difficult. Today’s conversations started with sea monkeys, drifted through fish, via dolphins to mammals, eggs and being a mummy. Sigh. Lots of her conversations end up with her being a mummy, it appears to be the only thing she can see herself as being.

Oh well, isn’t all bad

We’ve done a couple more reading lessons, and I found some other activities to practise the sounds she was finding most difficult. Must try to fit in toe by toe tomorrow though, as I think the little and often is important.

Headed out to ballet tonight, but for some reason it was all locked up So we went shopping instead. I was supposed to be buying clothes for tomorrow’s interview, but I couldn’t really bring myself to buy another suit that may or may not fit in a weeks time. (For anyone out there trying to lose weight, I can highly recommend job hunting and interviews - the weight just drops off!) So instead we got one of these (although having seen the price on that one, I think we’ll take this back, get a refund and go to Toys’r'us!) and a set of Mega Blocks builder vehicles - Small is very happy with those. Hey, it’s all educational

Nic doesn’t love me any more.

so now I’m going to have lunch

Can’t read a map though, and blood pressure after driving into Leeds must be almost in the normal range.

I also need to go buy some more clothes - the suit I bought for the first interview is now too big - oops.

These are actually Tim’s thoughts, but I agree with them too, so thought I’d share them here.

I think it is important to recognise that:

1) There are a lot of funny people out there.

2) Most people are mainly honest and decent.

3) There is much less reason to worry about web weirdos than about the bottle of bleach under your sink (for example).

4) In the real world thousands of children die each year in traffic accidents, domestic accidents etc - a tiny number are harmed as
a result of internet weirdos.

4) The high profile stories we see in the media are there only because they are good stories, not because they are things that we
should focus our concerns on.

5) I can think of no good reason for taking unnecessary risks.

6) There are a number of steps you can take to minimise your exposure to risk through your blog. These include: Excluding search
engine spiders from your blog. Not using an identifiable domain name (not your surname) and not naming members of your family on the
blog. Password protecting either the entire blog, or just particularly sensitive posts.

I’ll add that wordpress has some features that mean you can allow ppl graded access to the blog, so you could blog more privately to selected ppl if you felt so inclined.

Blogspot does not allow you to exclude search spiders - although you can list your blog as private. Not quite sure what this means search engine wise. You can’t do password protection there either.

a pile of stuff - which has cleared a corner of the room, and recycled some of the packaging I’ve been hoarding. Result!

And our shopping trip to Netto was OK - Small really loves going out shopping with me, strange child. He’s pretty well behaved as well, as long as it’s just me and him Very confused in Netto today though, as there was a man going round with a trolley, putting stuff back on the shelf. He couldn’t make head or tail of that. I got a big jar of coffee, then a bit further round the shop, found the smaller jars at a much cheaper price (even though the big jar had 50% extra free) so I took the big jar back. The chap with the trolley was incredibly grateful that someone actually put something back instead of just abandoning it, which rather made me wonder about our approach to this stuff, as a society. How come we expect other ppl to clear up our mess? I mean, I don’t. I don’t drop sweet papers (although I will hurl apple cores into hedges ) not that I very often eat sweets! I think one of the things I would find oddly difficult about smoking would be dropping the cigarette end - it always amazes me that ppl who are otherwise caring and thoughtful will just drop these wherever they are.

Bizarre, the CBeebies team has just sung the old night night song from their new base - wonder if they’d been getting complaints? Does anyone else think it’s slightly freaky how horribly cheerful they are at all times? And how they sing and dance!

And in other news today, feedback has been received on the screening doc I was agonising over last week. They like the look of me - I’ve an interview on Friday. And before the interview, I have to go into the agency offices and do numeracy and verbal reasoning tests. Joy. I’ve been sent samples of these - very reminiscent of the tests I had to do for my job at the bank. I got what became known as the perfect score on those - a couple of points lower than my soon to be boss who did them at the same session So that’s trips to Leeds and Halifax, looks like I’m in for a busy week.

No sign of Big yet - she didn’t take pjs, so I assume she *is* coming back tonight…

Big white flakes - Small has just noticed them but doesn’t seem very interested. Apparently there is actually some lying over at mother’s all of three miles away, but there was absolutely none here this morning. Big has gone out with Grandma for the day, and Small is bereft without anyone to jump on. He has done some drawing on the computer with “Daddoooo!” and had a couple of books read to him by me, got lots of toys out all over the floor, and had another abortive attempt at wearing pants (he was bought them at Christmas as a present - this wasn’t my idea!). He so wants to wear them, but so doesn’t get the idea of potty or toilet. In warmer weather (and outdoors!) I’d give it a go, but not up to it indoors, so major tantrum time when I got his nappy out.

Right, I’ve got a list of things to do, a phone call to make, and my toast has just popped. See you all later.

but feeling rather sick.

Nope, not the kids, for once. While transferring my laptop upstairs to work in peace and quiet I happened to knock it against the door. Not hard at all, but it gave a plaintive beep and switched itself off, and has resisted all attempts to turn it back on.

Aaargh….

obviously I have it backed up, just as obviously the stuff I’m working on right now isn’t backed up (don’t worry Merry, I’m backing it up now!) and trying to work on a different machine is akin to trying to write with my other hand.

And I miss it already!

don’t disturb him! He’s only sitting quietly doing a jigsaw all by himself for the very first time (one of those peg board ones, think I got it for £1 at Hesfes last year!) Of course, the flash of the camera disturbed him, and there seem to be some pieces missing, so I don’t think he’s going to finish it

Up and down sort of day. In response to comments, for those not utterly familiar with the history, I am only employing a more proactive (yeuch, horrid word) approach to learning to read because Big is pretty much demanding it. We’ve had wanting to read performances for over a year now, and I’m a little surprised that nothing is sticking - we’ve got Jolly Phonics books, tried out 100EL, phonics games, we’ve got starter readers by the set, Dr Seuss, some ladybirds, magnetic letters, and so on and so forth. We don’t currently have a working video player, so can’t make use of your kind offer Kath, although I’ll keep an eye out for school programs. Katya, so kind that you don’t see me as a conformist - in this case though, I think it’s Big that is desperate to conform. Maybe I need to find more home educated children who *don’t* read so that she doesn’t feel so bad about it all.

Anyway, we did a fair bit of pottering about - Big did some knitting and I did some crochet, then our Saturday science took the form of finishing off the Meccano ferris wheel.

Small then got rather destructive towards it, so I took him out to Tescos to shop for a few bits, and left Big to play with it in peace. Was rather annoyed when I got back to discover that she’d abandoned it and stuck the tv on, against my express instructions.

More pasta for tea (that’s four times this week! anyone for a balanced diet? No?) and then a page of maths afterwards. And that meant we’d done everything I mentioned this morning, so we got to do the fun bit - putting the eggs into the sea monkey kit. She was thrilled

And finally…

The reading thing has become even more of an issue this week, with two visits from A (now at school and presumably doing something to learn to read ) prompting Big to declare that she can read, just in her head. I don’t like this at all - it indicates to me that she sees it as a problem that she can’t read, and she’s prepared to lie to cover that up. (I did ask her whether she can read, and I’m fairly sure that she can’t, *even* just in her head).

So last night I discussed the latest plan with Tim, and this morning I put it into action. I’ve been sent a toe-by-toe book this week, free from someone via someone else on mp (have since discovered it retails at £25, youch!) and this morning I explained to Big that today we are going to do certain things, a reading session being one of them, and if we get them all done, then we will do her sea monkeys. I set a timer for 20 mins, and we sat down with the book.

She knows pretty much all her lower case letters, though we’ve got high levels of confusion over the reversable ones iyswim, and also w and m. Capitals aren’t as good, but that doesn’t surprise me, as we’ve done next to nothing on them. As soon as we got to the second page of combining letter sounds into syllables though, the wriggling and evasion began, and the workrate dropped right off. At that point I found having the timer was good for me, as I was able to check how long we’d got left, set an achievable goal for that time, and calmly repeat that we weren’t going anywhere til the time was up. So we did some more.

Now, I really don’t like this approach (mandatory reading lessons), but I feel that Big has forced my hand in some way as reading is clearly becoming a very large issue for her. I don’t like her feeling that she’s got to lie to cover up something she perceives as a deficiency - I don’t quite know why she’s doing that. She does compare herself with other children, and is quite sensitive over the end results, I think I need to address that too, but I don’t really know how.

Anyway, also quite impressed that I’ve done reading, got them dressed and fed them - I’ve only been up since 11! (Thank you Tim for a wonderful lie in!)

Rest of the bits we’re doing will include some maths, as she enjoys it although she’s now claiming she doesn’t and some practical skills (knitting and maybe some washing up ) and then we’ll get around to the sea monkeys. Look at me, I’ll end up with normals at this rate!

it wasn’t duplo, but I know most of you have experienced the joys of treading on a brick, so can identify with the pain that caused me to fall sideways, taking a chair with me as I went.

Ouch.

And now I’ve had enough. Big is refusing point blank to cooperate with anything I ask her to do - it hasn’t been pretty. Small is whimpering in the middle of the floor, unsure why mummy just screamed at him too. I shouldn’t be left overnight with children in the run up to my period, it isn’t fair on any of us. Not least in that I never remember in time to plan to do anything sensible like have a pj day with wall to wall cbeebies, which would have worked far better than having goals that I feel bad about not really attempting.

Anyway, I now have a severely bruised foot - circular bruise, wonder what it was I trod on? - and two slightly traumatised children, and Tim has called to say he is stuck in traffic on the A14, despite the fact that nothing shows up there on the RAC or AA websites. So he is comforted by knowing it isn’t a traffic jam, just a figment of his imagination, and I can see the return of the cavalry receding into the distance.

I think I’ll do housework. Wonder if there’s a table under this pile of stuff?

I’m making a list, I’m checking it twice….

sorry.

I’m actually just trying to motivate myself to leave the house. I realised that, barring taking the bin out ;), I haven’t left the house since last Saturday when I shopped. Oh hang on, no, I went to group on Monday didn’t I? Ah that makes me feel slightly better.

But it still isn’t good enough. And I’ve got a pile of stuff to get in the post, so I thought I’d see what I could sort out of that. Some of it is of unknown ownership though - recovered at Melrose as I was leaving. There’s a blue girls top age 7-8 complete with pink butterfly badge, a Princess Fiona dressing up dress (ladybird age 3-4), and a pink all in one leotard and skirt thing which Big thinks belongs to Poppy?

Will also be posting huggababy to June, set games from the first coop to Heather and Debbie and aargh, I’ve forgotten - what’s the other thing???

Bother. Still, trying to hold three conversations by IM, blog and have a squirmy child on me knee, not surprising I’ve forgotten something…

Just received this in an email advert:

Knitting Wool - Pack of 5

Knit your own jumper or scarf with this soft knitting wool. For knitting needles size (cm): 2.5 - 3.5
100g/300m wool per ball. Available in various colours. Material: 100% acrylic. Price per pack. 8 Similar item, 100g Fab Knitting Wool, (5 x £1.49) £7.45, purchased at Woolworths in Wimbledon on the 12th of January 2005

Surely if it’s acrylic, they shouldn’t be selling it as Knitting *Wool*?

Yes, I know it’s a tiny bit ot for this blog’s usual concerns, but I’ve got two children, resolutely determined not to be sleepy, not so quietly trashing the living room, while Tim is away at his dad’s overnight. Hohum.

Big declined the opportunity to do maths today, “unless you stand there with me”. Hm. That isn’t quite what I have in mind when I agree to help - I don’t mind getting up and down and so on and reading bits out, but I’m not about to stand leaning over her chair for 40 minutes. Perhaps we need to reorganise the table somewhat so that she can be sitting next to my computer.

Despite this, she did plenty of maths today, in the shape of those IQ cubes. “Look 2 and 2 makes 4, 3 and 3 makes 6″ and so on and so forth. She also managed to make one of the puzzles into a cube, all on her own, which hugely impressed me as I’ve struggled with them myself on many an occasion. Small enjoys them too and they are chunky enough for him to slot together and make patterns, so I can call that learning - lots of dexterity practise in there.

He is becoming more mischievious by the day though, I really didn’t enjoy retrieving all the pieces after he’d hurled them around the room while laughing manically. I

interrupted by screaming from upstairs, guess they aren’t asleep then

don’t enjoy having to disinfect the bath on a nightly basis either - could be time to head for potty training if he is declining the nappy in favour of the bath, but I’m not sure how you achieve that when he isn’t overly fond of the potty or the toilet either.

Anyway, having to run up and down the stairs and talk to one of my sisters on the phone has completely derailed my thought processes, and I haven’t had tea yet, so I’ll call it a night blogwise, and pop back later if I remember any of the other things I wanted to discuss. Beginning to think I should make notes through the day!

After yesterday’s less than educational offerings, determined to do better today. So imagine my joy at all of this being self determined! I think the pictures speak for themselves