Soft skills

Small appears to have missed out on development of a lot of so called soft skills so far. Not that I think many 5 year old boys have many of them tbh, but it is particularly disappointing that three years at a montessori school, instead of producing us a child who tidies up automatically at the end of an activity, has given us a child who will do anything and everything to avoid tidying up at all times. That includes after tea, when his chore is to clear his plate and glass away, and wipe his mat down ready for the next meal. Two days running he behaved so atrociously that he was sent up to get ready for bed, and then I realised that this was playing into his hands and insisted that the table was cleared first. As with many other tasks, this goes better when I stand over him, so I’m trying to just relax into the idea that I’m here to spend time with them and enjoy it. I think I’m doing better than I did before I worked at school – perhaps 9 months of being patient with other ppl’s children has improved my patience levels with my own, or perhaps it’s just the fact that I’ve only got the two of them that means I’m not feeling quite so strained all the time.

We haven’t done much overtly educational stuff today. I didn’t think it would last long 😉 The kids cleared off upstairs to play at building dens when I finally surfaced this morning, so I contented myself excavating a corner of the living room. I do mean just a corner at that, and I got two carrier bags of stuff to leave the house out of it, so I wasn’t too unhappy. It looks loads better too.

After lunch, they wanted to do craft stuff, Small had his Pirate Things to Make and Do (Usborne Activities) book, and he wanted to make a treasure chest. That meant finding a box, and fortunately, Big had been given a craft set that she was happy to do in a box that could be repurposed to be a treasure chest. So that was what we did – I helped with the construction part of it, and then left them to it when it got to the painting and making treasure stage, and they carried on and made maps and all sorts. In the meantime I collapsed on the sofa feeling pathetic and pained, and wondering whether I ought to see a doctor about the level of pain I’m getting from my left hip. It’s nearly constant now, and is inhibiting some movements that I’m fairly sure it shouldn’t, so perhaps it is time.

After being creative, there was some spat or other that resulted in Big being sent to her bedroom until teatime. I hate doing that (she probably wouldn’t realise!) but I am determined that she is going to stop talking to ppl in the way she has been. She needs to learn some self-control, and removing her from the situation does seem to help. Small went upstairs and came back down to ask if she could play in his room, on the grounds that it was one of her rooms as she’s been sleeping in there, but I thought not, so he sat down and played Set with me instead. He’s quite amusing to play games with as he’s kind of competitive and not all at the same time, and you’ve got to be pretty patient as well as he’s not the most focused of creatures. It was quite an enjoyable session, and nice to spend some time with just him, although I’ll have to contrive other ways of doing that rather than relying on her being sent to her room!

And now it’s evening. Children have eaten and been traumatised by tonight’s chapter from The Sleeping Sword (or at the very least Tim has, I bought it specifically for him to read to them, and didn’t look into it all that carefully. Oops). The oven is on, and we’ve found a screening of Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life [2003] so all is pretty well with the world tonight.