it was apparent that both staff and children had missed me – not least when several told me so. I had to ask various parents (who know) not to be too kind as that’s when I wobble and cry, and other than that, the morning was fairly straightforward. We watered plants (it’s amazing how long it takes to water plants with 11 small children with a variety of containers), played in the playground until it rained (which really made the whole watering of plants a bit redundant – suspect some of them may have floated away by now!) and pottered through the day. I did alright until lunchtime, but taking a break almost did for me completely and I struggled to get back into the swing of things this afternoon.
Made it through though, dignity pretty much intact, more kind parents at pick up time, two offers of childcare extended for coming evenings and weekend! As I broached the topic of the funeral with Big it appears a childcare offer may be required as she doesn’t want to go – there may be a new girl visiting on Weds next week and she doesn’t want to miss being there. Small, on the other hand, wants to go to find out whether it’s different to grandfather’s!
It is almost bound to be different to grandfather’s. We’re aiming at a celebration rather than a funeral, and another discussion took place tonight about clothing. K (yes, I had two sisters with K as first initial) said she was thinking of going through her wardrobe and finding the brightest thing she owns and teaming it with some black linen trousers – I said I could do that I have a lovely red shirt. Not sure that that was the kind of bright she had in mind…still, if she doesn’t like it, she can always come over and go through my drawers to find something she does approve of. (And knowing her, she probably will 😉 either that or buy me something!)
Wonder whether anyone has given the northern relatives the timetable. It’s not quite two years since we buried my cousin, seems bizarre that my mother and her sister have both lost a child so young.
Anyways, I’m back to work tomorrow – it’s a quieter day as there are no elementary, so A can work downstairs with us and we usually get a fair bit done. Think kids are staying off with Tim again as well. That’s if the school is still there – we drove past tonight on the way back from J’s house, and the entrance to the carpark was under water (again).
Princess and Scott quite enjoyed their first day back at school. Scott had his maths homework waived as his teacher felt sorry for him (probably not a wise path to take, Scott is quite capable of taking advantage of any sign of weakness!) and Princess was given a biro for excellent work. This all led on to a discussion of how the montessori school is different – Scott has parts of his homework that are “really for Level 5s” – it appears that once you’ve got your level from your SATs, this then sets what you are asked to do in further years. He was stunned to hear that there are no SATs, no tests, no nothing. My sisters couldn’t grasp what I meant when I said I knew where all the children in my class are – I didn’t mean physically, I meant I know what they’ve all done, what they are doing, what they are interested in, what we might do next with them. I spend a lot of time discussing that sort of thing with A, and next term I’ll take even more of a lead on it.
It’s late, I’m tired. I just want to make sure I jot down some of this as I suspect in a month or so it’s all going to be a blur.
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