It's all going a bit pear shaped.

Well, there’s been oodles of education all over the place today, plenty of touchy feely moments and even some laughter and craft. And despite that, I’ve got two kids in meltdown, presumably at least partly affected by my own mood drop (yes, I still want to crawl off and cry, even though I’ve just eaten the equivalent of a very large bar of chocolate, and I didn’t desperately want the job anyhow, just needed it).

Big loves the cuisenaire rods – she spent ages playing with them, first of all doing actual maths (which she appears to very much enjoy too) and then roleplaying games with them. They came back out while I was making tea – she had a go at another page of that maths assessment. Might have been a page too far though – given that Small was having a major screaming fit due to exhaustion and hunger so I couldn’t go and sit with her and offer encouragement on site, and being three feet away is apparently too far. I *know* I shouldn’t expect instant change just because I’m doing things a little differently, but let’s face it, I do. So having her stamping her feet and yelling really improved my mood no end.

We also spent ages with the pattern blocks – some geometry in there, we discussed rotation versus symmetry, and she made patterns and pictures. Small made towers and knocked them down. I did notice he’s started using two hands to manipulate things, which is making life a little easier for him – he couldn’t get more right handed if he tried.

Next I decided to try to fit in a bit of reading work – make it into a game though. So between us we worked out 8 short words that Big knows all the letter sounds in, and wrote them out on bits of card, then she drew pictures on the back, so as to make a version of this game. Despite the fact that we’d chosen the words together, she’d even written some of them, she persisted in just guessing wildly instead of trying to figure it out. Annoys me rather as she can do it, she wants to read (or so she says) and then she just messes about completely when I spend lots of time and effort doing this sort of thing with her. But we got there in the end, and I’ve promised to make another set tonight.

I wanted to go out to the post office this afternoon, but when I suggested it I got the full screaming fit, so I decided I couldn’t face dragging a 5 year old behind me and gave up on the idea. Then I got the full screaming fit because we weren’t going out. Ever get the feeling you can’t win? At which point I chucked them out in the garden, while I rang the agency to ask for a breakdown of my incompetencies 🙁

After that I caved on the messy play, brought the children back in and let them paint on the big mat in the living room. I think that might be the first time Small has ever painted, certainly didn’t show. He went at it like a pro. Wish the camera hadn’t been full, really should have got a shot of him. Big did some very nice printing as well – wish I had somewhere they could paint a bit more often really.

Then it was time for Small’s screaming fit while Big melted down over the maths worksheets – most of her wailing was when I said that we should do it tomorrow as I couldn’t help her the way she wanted right then. Small passed out on the floor but I brutally woke him up in the hope that he’ll still go down at a reasonable hour tonight. I want some child free time. I *need* some child free time. I’ve got a pile of work to do for one thing, and I want to feel like a human being instead of a walking feeding entertainment machine for a bit.

Hohum, gonna go wash the paint of them now.