Making It Up

This is actually todays post. A variable day – lots of temper tantrums this morning, and not just dd 😉 I set her up painting this morning, hoping that I was going to get a few minutes to catch up on some emails while she was going, but she wanted me to be involved. I think that was fair on her part, but I wasn’t really co-operating.

Then this afternoon we did sewing. I’ve got patterns for felt shoes for baby keepsakes which I’m going to be making myself, but I thought we’d try a set for dd’s doll. We started with me sewing and her watching and within a minute she wanted to try, then with diminishing assistance, she blanket stitched right around the sole piece. She didn’t want to do the upper – only did a couple of stitches – but she was thrilled with the end result once I’d put it all together.

Then the sun came out so we did make it into the garden for a little while – I hung out the washing and then chased dd round the garden for a while with much laughter and general hilarity. I think I need to make sure that we get some exercise every day – I don’t know how we’re going to do that in the winter, but I’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Dd’s friends mum called this evening to ask if she’s going to nursery tomorrow, and if she is does she want to stay over. I asked her, and was quite surprised that she turned it down – she usually loves staying there. Right at the moment though she is so negative about nursery that even the idea of staying with her friends didn’t tempt her.

So I guess I need to work out what we’re going to do tomorrow, because it looks like we’ll be spending it together again! We’ve planned a trip to hobbycraft with friends, and I’m thinking about a low temperature glue glun (but only in general terms as I don’t really have much idea what one is!).

This should have been posted yesterday (Sunday) but I was too tired!

Dd had a friend round and we did sticking, with variable success. Sarah had brought pom poms to make pom pom animals, but the craft glue that we had just kind of absorbed into the pom pom and didn’t really stick desperately well. I asked on MPlist and found out about eva glue, so that’ll be another item for our list for hobbycraft tomorrow!

Dp and I had another long talk about home ed last night, I think we differ slightly in details of approach, but not really in principles. I’ve ordered the sonlight catalog so that we can have a look at curriculum ordered stuff – I find it incredibly difficult to get up every day and try to think of something to do with dd – and possibly because of her being to nursery she does rather expect to have something laid on. I thought if we could stack up a pile of half hour activities then I could just dole them out as and when, trying for something vaguely educational (in the able to use as evidence if ever required by an LEA kind of way) every day.

Oh, and nearly forgot. Dd is currently terrified of pretty much all insects, to the extent that she wouldn’t come out of her bedroom yesterday because there was a moth on the wall above the door. So dp got a big glass jar (my teabag jar! Humph.) and caught the moth (which turned out to be a butterfly) so that dd could have a look at it up close and see that it was rather more scared of her than she was of it. I don’t like insects in jars any more than I like animals in captivity (one of the reasons I’m vegetarian) but in this instance it seemed an acceptable evil and the butterfly was released after about five minutes with dd a lot happier about it all.

Still terrified of the dead spider in the downstairs loo though…

Right, I’ve already typed this in once tonight, and then lost it when I hit update.

This isn’t going to be such a long version!

Dd is probably coming out of nursery – she doesn’t seem happy there any more, and I’ve quit work although I will be trying to do some work from home. Partly for our sanity we’ve decided that we need to be a little organised about our home edding approach, even though dd is a long way from statutory age yet. But if we start now, by the time we get to that age, home ed will just be something we’ve always done (and yes, I know all the arguments that it is anyway, but because dd has been in nursery, I’m not sure that is completely true).

Anyway, we are trying for at least one structured activity a day, and to get out and about to meet other home edders on a regular basis. Yesterday a friend came over (sarah of ethics trading mentioned below) and did baking for dd and her ds. Today I took dd to buy postcards for the postcard exchange and we found some reasonably priced maps in wilcos. When we got back in we looked on the maps at places where we know ppl and where we’d already got postcards from. We discussed how long it takes to get from here to aunt k’s and how much longer it takes to get to grandfathers and so I think dd has some idea of scale. Then I wrote two postcards and she signed her name on them.

My parents popped around and they are going to make sure they send postcards from various places (my father goes to Europe a lot on business, so that should work well (especially when they then use his frequent flyer miles to go exotic places on holiday too!)).

Before I go to bed I’ve got to get together the bits for a craft project for tomorrow and then I’ll have to think of something for the next day.

And that will have to do for tonight, as it’s late and I’ve still the proverbial miles to go before I sleep, IYSWIM.

Right, I’ve already typed this in once tonight, and then lost it when I hit update.

This isn’t going to be such a long version!

Dd is probably coming out of nursery – she doesn’t seem happy there any more, and I’ve quit work although I will be trying to do some work from home. Partly for our sanity we’ve decided that we need to be a little organised about our home edding approach, even though dd is a long way from statutory age yet. But if we start now, by the time we get to that age, home ed will just be something we’ve always done (and yes, I know all the arguments that it is anyway, but because dd has been in nursery, I’m not sure that is completely true).

Anyway, we are trying for at least one structured activity a day, and to get out and about to meet other home edders on a regular basis. Yesterday a friend came over (sarah of ethics trading mentioned below) and did baking for dd and her ds. Today I took dd to buy postcards for the postcard exchange and we found some reasonably priced maps in wilcos. When we got back in we looked on the maps at places where we know ppl and where we’d already got postcards from. We discussed how long it takes to get from here to aunt k’s and how much longer it takes to get to grandfathers and so I think dd has some idea of scale. Then I wrote two postcards and she signed her name on them.

My parents popped around and they are going to make sure they send postcards from various places (my father goes to Europe a lot on business, so that should work well (especially when they then use his frequent flyer miles to go exotic places on holiday too!)).

Before I go to bed I’ve got to get together the bits for a craft project for tomorrow and then I’ll have to think of something for the next day.

And that will have to do for tonight, as it’s late and I’ve still the proverbial miles to go before I sleep, IYSWIM.

Forgot to mention we went to Chesterfield medieval market on Tues with friends Ruth and Sarah of ethics trading Dd loved it – there was a jester with a unicycle and juggling clubs that held more sway than the promise of a drink and a cake. Plus we saw a lady with a spinning wheel who was making yarn from dogs hair (got to wonder what it would smell like when wet!). There were a variety of ppl in medieval costumes, doing medieval things, and a good day was had by all.