Small has got a cough.
He’s very proud of it. He practised it all night. Which was nice. Not. Made me really glad that I went up early for once, and even more glad when dp left us up there til 10 this morning. Also explains why Small is already in bed – he hasn’t napped at all today, and so I’m hoping that he really is down for the night. I can hope, can’t I?
Anyway, I decided that it was time to make a major start on digging this place out, so I’ve been trying. Why does everything take so long when you are being ably assisted by a 4 year old and a 1 year old? Small has discovered climbing – he’s obviously going to be really into it. As soon as I get the camera out I’ve got such a cool piccie of him in dd’s chair.
Educational activities have actually occurred in and amongst – picking up a set of word cards, dd started sounding them out – turns out she can do that after all. I pushed it a bit after than – got one of her reading books out. Took some doing but we made it through, eventually. Watched her playing with Small’s wooden blocks and she was having a great time making various different shapes out of them, and really playing with the symmetry and so on. Never know quite what to do though – she put two triangles together and said “look, a diamond” and I said, “well, it looks more like a kite to me” and that was obviously completely the wrong thing to say. 🙁
I’m quite bad at this. I know that I’m nowhere near encouraging enough. I’m so terrified of her getting hyper and out of control that I’m permanently reining her back instead of encouraging her to let go. I’m turning into my mother! aargh….but at least I’ve recognised the tendency. So maybe I can learn to reverse it a little?
The good news of the day is that I have indeed located an art teacher! My friend from school (will find that picture too) mentioned that her mum, conveniently located near Doncaster, has just finished an art course. I’d kind of assumed she meant a hobby art course, evening class kind of thing. Nope – she meant a 4 year part time HND in fine arts. She’s done sculpture and ceramics, painting and drawing, and she’s really happy to have a four year old come over and do art with her! Fantastic – and I’m betting I’ll get to learn something to. We’re going over Wed afternoon for the first time.
Right, must go and water plants before tea.
Comments
7 responses to “A busy day”
fantastic news about the art teacher, hope it goes well. Hope Small’s cough gets better soon too 🙂
Yes, wow, the art thing sounds fab! I’ve really enjoyed seeing Anna do well at it with our friend, because I’m so rubbish at tarty stuff. And it’s nice to have some time where Anna’s with someone else, relating to them and learning from them … hope it works well for you. 🙂
oops. I meant arty stuff!
Oh Sarah, just for a moment that was a wonderful image… ROFL!
Jax, you are good at parenting. You are committed and self-aware. We all find ourselves saying stuff we wish we hadn’t said, and recognising it as a problem is an excellent step towards doing it less.
When I found myself getting into negative parenting patterns with C a while back, I found wandering round some attachment parenting websites really inspiring and calming, just looking at other people’s examples of more positive parenting. I’ve had a new computer since then and lost all my bookmarks, but you could try naturalchild.org, seldomfar.com or kellymom.com. And here’s a quote I found while looking for some links for you: “We are not extraordinary women. Yet we know how to nurture. We are mothers.” Sheila Kitzinger
Seconding all of the above (while laughing at the tarty stuff!)
Thirding Jan’s comment. And still peeved about the tarty one … !!!