The Speed of Life

Life is busy.

Very busy.

With four kids there's actually no way to stop it being busy. You can cut every extra curricular activity from your schedule and still find that just having kids around makes you busy.

Recently though our life has slowed right down. Riiiiiiight down.

August 11th 2014... that's the day we started homeschooling.

We had considered it since before Lion was to start school. We just couldn't wrap our head around it, it just wasn't the right time for us, I guess. Now, with so many changes going on it became evident that this was the right time. This was when we were to do it. Mid-primary school, mid-year, mid-term, mid-toddlerhood (yeah, that's a fun learning curve), mid-aspergers-diagnosis (there's another post there), right in the middle of everything that would be used to tell us that "maybe you should wait a little longer". Nope. Waiting for my kids every afternoon and feeling my stomach knot up as I wondered how their day went, if they were picked on, did they have friends today, how much further behind did they fall in that subject they are just struggling with... YIKES. I was stressed, as I watched their faces round that corner each afternoon and tried to judge from 20m away how their day was, I was seeing that THEY were stressed. The playground was a rough place at their school. We had to report one school kid to the principal for simulating sex acts... unfortunately not before the damage had been done in our house and ill-gotten knowledge was passed on to younger siblings. Though that was a bigger than average situation, when you have kids who take disobedience quite seriously and are constantly surrounded by kids who are disobedient and don't care at all if they are caught and punished for it... it's both exhausting for them and slowly, slowly, slowly it eats away at their own behaviour and you find them copying what they have seen, you hear them mimicking the words they have heard other kids use to those in authority when they get in trouble, it breaks your heart.

Then, you have a holiday. Two weeks off for the mid-year holiday and by the end of it I was starting to catch glimpses of the kids I used to have... The relaxed and calm 9 year old who just wants to invent stuff, the 7 year old who is so kind and gentle. Hey, that's right, these are my kids! Where did these kids go?

For years every time I've brought up homeschooling, even just to chat and "do you think we'll ever..." with Wolf the response has been resoundingly full of reasons why we shouldn't. Although we could both see the reasons why it would be good, he was my level head, the reminder that I had a newborn and was already struggling emotionally, the reminder that we still weren't finished having kids and how would I handle falling pregnant and homeschooling. It's not to say that if we had started sooner we couldn't have dealt with those things, or even that now we were excuse free, but at the time they were our reasons for not homeschooling. This time though his first answer was "Yeah, how soon do you think we could start". I think I might have started crying... I don't remember... We decided that it was best to send them back to school to start the new term, we really didn't know how long it took to get this homeschooling thing happening.  At first we thought we'd see out the year... then maybe just the next term... then we started to look at it in terms of days... we needed to get them out of there.

Towards the end of term 2 they ASKED me to start homeschooling them. Their friends had just announced they were starting and it seemed appealing. I assumed it was the fact that they had heard that the school day is a lot shorter for homeschoolers so I suggested that Wolf and I would consider their request and they should go away, discuss why they want to be homeschooled and come back to us. They came back with a well thought through argument for homeschooling, not a single mention of finishing school before lunch.

Lion was stressed. Lion was seeing a psychologist for anxiety. Lion was not coping in the classroom. Lion had recently been diagnosed "Aspergers with severe anxiety". School just wasn't fitting him well. It had become heavy on the testing and "scores" and if a kid fell behind there was no room to catch them up. I was hearing what a great student he was and how he was doing really well with a couple of areas that were causing him struggles, but the reality of it was that there was becoming a bigger and bigger gap between his "good" areas and his "struggling" areas. 

His teacher was fantastic, the psychologist was giving him ideas to help cope with his anxiety in class, he just didn't fit the system and the system didn't have room for much flexibility.

So we started, we met with the principal, with each teacher, with the psychologist, we met with everyone, we made sure everyone knew that we loved the school, we loved the teachers, we just needed to get out of this system that wasn't working. We cried. We found as many of their past teachers as we could to say goodbye to. The biggest tears were for the teacher aide that they both had for prep... I couldn't bring myself to go see her until the very last day.

Two weeks after we started, Lion has another psychologist appointment. She had a quick chat before taking him in, then after a very short time they were back out. She asked me to come in to her office... then she told me she didn't want to see us again. She confirmed over and over that homeschooling is right for him, he didn't have anything that was making him worried or nervous or anxious in any way. I got some more ideas for how to help him with his non-school related anxieties and then we left.

It's not been all smooth sailing, we go through a Christian distance education school and they are great at helping us figure out where we are going with things and what needs to be tweaked and what we are doing right. I read an article after our first couple of weeks saying that some families find it takes 1-2 years to find their groove, at which point I ran to Wolf and burst into tears saying "I need to find my groove and it can't take 2 years!" I think we are settling into that groove, I am finding that for the first time in my life I am enjoying and embracing routines and predictability. It's kind of frightening. This year we started Monkey doing Prep, that's brought along some new challenges now that I have two kids doing roughly the same work and one doing the very basics, but we have a lot of flexibility so we are getting through. We are still busily filling the gaps that have been left from when they were trying to keep up with the school curriculum, but we are also learning new and exciting things all the time.

So now we are at home a lot. We are also out a lot, but it doesn't feel anywhere near as crazy busy as it did before. We have joined the local homeschool group, we have youth groups and church and sunday school and cousins and playgroup and catch ups with friends... I'm feeling like it's the right kind of busy now.

So things keep moving at the speed of life, which I am pretty sure is faster than the speed of light, because my toddler seems to be growing up right before my eyes!

I didn't take many first day of homeschooling photos... but this one was one of the few I did get.

The Reluctant Reader

My Lion is not that keen on reading lately. He's a great reader and is reading at a level where his books actually contain drama and excitement (the ones we buy, not the school readers. Those are still dull as dirt) but he just doesn't want to read. As a keen reader who struggles to find time to read, I find that very hard to wrap my head around. So this afternoon I told him he needed to knock over another chapter before he got any tech time. Oh the moaning, the complaining, the drama, how could I be so mean?!?! According to him yes, his book was exciting but not this particular bit so he had lost interest. SURELY you still want to get through the boring bit because you still want to see the book wrapped up and resolved?... Nope, it's just boring right now. But leaving it sit aside won't get you through the boring part... Nope, he thought the magic pixies were going to come and take care of that.

Okay, time for an MRI, Mummy Reading Intervention.

Hot chocolate for him, coffee for me, deck chairs on the patio, page for page taking turns to get through this chapter.

It was lovely, but he was right, that bit was boring. Half way through the chapter things took a turn for the better. Our hero was no longer searching aimlessly, he was running out of time and was hot on the trail of the Spinosaurus.... He gets closer and closer, anticipation is building, he pushes through a crowd, looks over the fence and THERE IT IS!!!

"End of chapter 4, can I use the computer now mum?"

"What? Don't you want to see what happens? You can't leave it like this can you? It was just getting interesting!"

"So can I have a go on the computer now?"

*sigh* "Go ahead, that was the deal"

I wonder if I'll ever find out how it ends... Anyone have any help for this reluctant reader's Mummy?

Dragon Starts School!

Dear Dragon,

You started something big.  Really, it's been quite huge!  Your first day of school EVER!  Everyone assured me it would be easier sending you off for your first day than it was to send Lion because I had done it all before.  They were wrong.

I was a mess.  I didn't cry when I dropped you off... but I was a mess.  I took you shopping for your school stuff with Lion WAY back in December.  We were so organised!  Except for the stuff we meant to get somewhere else and with all the time and holidays that elapsed we forgot about until the few days before school started... oops.  But that didn't matter, we went out and bought hats and those hard to find books and had a little time with just you and me in the last days of holidays and it was lovely... and reminded me that it wouldn't get to happen very often any more.

But that first day, that was a great day!  Daddy had made sure his holidays lasted long enough that he would get to be part of the first day of school for you... and you checked over and over and over that morning that he was coming to school too.  You woke up early that day, but you always do.  You and Lion played or watched TV or something... I'm not sure what you two do in the mornings, I know that you have both finally learnt not to come and wake me up over and over and over.  At 6:15, just short of my alarm going off you turned up beside my bed.  "Mum, Mum, is today the day I start school?" "Yes, it is my darling".  You climbed into bed with me, or rather JUMPED on the bed and just about knocked me out, and gave me a massive hug and made sure I knew just how excited you were!  How could I want to keep you home with me when you were so excited about going to school?

The night before I had made sure everything was ready.  I had a table set up in the lounge room with all the school supplies you boys needed and your new shoes and your uniforms and I had your lunches in the fridge ready to go.

all ready for a BIG first day for two precious boys...

You ate your breakfast FAST.  I don't think you've ever managed to eat breakfast that fast with no reminders to keep going.  You didn't need to be told, you just put your dish away and went and grabbed your uniform.

[This is the point where writing this, nearly 6 weeks later, I started crying and had to go and do something else for a little while]

so many books for a prep boy.  Covered with pirates and Lightening McQueen.

I helped you to get your uniform on, new socks can be tricky to pull on until they have stretched a bit.  You looked incredibly grown up all of a sudden.

looking so smart in your formal uniform

We were just about all ready to go to school and it was time to get some photos happening.  Your natural clown personality combined with your absolute excitement meant that we got some very funny photos of you an Lion.  I had to do a trade with you, if you let me take the photos I wanted then you and Lion could clown around for some photos too.

one of your clowning photos has become one of my favourites

We arrived at school bright and early.  We tracked down each of your classrooms, we found Lion's first, his was a multi-age class with prep/1/2, I had to double check that list to make sure you weren't in that class too!  I then went off to check the lists on all the prep room doors, I thought I would start at the classroom where Lion was for prep... it was the one that you were SURE you would be in.  I was so relieved to see that sure enough your name was on the list.  More than having been Lion's classroom, I think the attraction was the Teacher's Aide that is in that room... Mrs Ch and you really hit it off when Lion was in prep, I knew for sure that this was going to be a great year for you now that you were in her class!

Lion ready for his first day of Grade 2

I went back to where you were waiting with daddy and gave you the good news.  Now that you knew your classroom it seemed to all get a bit more real and you went a bit quiet.  Eventually Lion's classroom opened up and we took him in to get settled.  We found where to put all his belongings and store all his books and we all gave him big kisses and cuddles to help him through his first day.  We kind of knew his teacher from previous years and I had only heard good things about her, I wasn't sure about the big difference in ages in the classroom but I knew that his teacher, Miss R, was going to do her best.

*That class has since been split up as school numbers increased over the first two weeks and Lion is now in a straight year 2 class with a fantastic teacher Mrs R*

We took you over to your classroom and it was just getting opened up as we arrived.  I hadn't checked on the door when I found your name who your teachers would be so I was surprised to find that over the holidays the teacher who had been in that classroom for what seemed like forever had decided it was time to retire and it was a new teacher, Mrs Cr.  Thankfully Mrs Ch was still the aide.  We got all your books and paper and pens and things put away.  We found where to put your hat and your bag and your lunch and made sure you knew where everything was then we got your name tag on and started to try to settle you into one of the activities that were happening.  Did you want to play with the puzzles... no.  Did you want to read in the library corner... no.  Did you want to do the connector activity on the table... no.  You wanted to cling to us.  Daddy tried to see if he would have better luck convincing you to try an activity... no. I asked if there was something else you might like to do, you walked straight over to Mrs Ch and asked if you could colour in and could she clear the table (it was holding some of the supplies brought in) for you to do some drawing.  That's my Dragon, organising things to run his way right from the first minute of school.

jumping right in and organising the classroom... That's my Dragon

We left you drawing and doing your best to ignore the friendly little girl, J, who came to sit next to you.  Little did we know that she would become a firm friend and the topic of conversation many many times over the coming weeks.

Daddy took Monkey and I out for a coffee and we did our best to not talk about what had just happened.  I could feel myself getting upset whenever it came up but I hadn't shed a tear yet... I had tried my best to stay excited for you all morning.  Eventually we got home, Monkey went down for a nap, Daddy was doing his own things and I was left to think about my morning.  It didn't take me long to be a crying mess.  I missed you.  You were usually my company while Monkey slept, even though you were supposed to spend that time playing quietly in your room you never failed to appear at my elbow every 2 minutes to ask for this or that or tell me something of vital importance.  Your absence was very noticeable.  I watched the clock, I counted the hours, then the minutes until I could leave to go and get my precious boys from school.  I do that most days, I miss you and Lion while you are at school.

I must have looked at this photo 100 times during the day

FINALLY we left to go and pick you both up.  I collected you from your classroom while Daddy collected Lion.  You spotted me as soon as I walked in the door and started to hop up and down on  your bottom, Mrs Ch saw me and said that you could go and you were up like a shot and walking as quick as you could to come and give me a hug!  We gathered your bag and headed over to Lion's classroom.  I started asking what you had done today... "nothing".  Oh, it's going to be like that.  Thankfully by the end of the week you were a little more forthcoming with information about your day but never very much.

You are settling in well at school.  Your teachers say you are a pleasure to have in the class.  You are making so many friends and I can see you growing up more and more every day.  I am so proud of my Dragon, I pray that you will keep up this excitement for school and be a wonderful student through all your school years.

my precious school boy & I

I love you a lot,
Mummy.

Excitement!

I just got an email saying that there is a super awesome parcel on it's way to me!  Do you want to know what the best bit for you is?  It's for a FANTASTIC GIVE AWAY!

But that's all I'm telling you right now.

So, what else has been going on around here in my bloggy quietness?  Lots.  That is partly to blame for the quietness.  It's been a busy two terms at school and last holidays we were so busy with endless invitations to here and there that we didn't get much of a break.  Now we are in our second week of these holidays and I am feeling refreshed and ready to face the final chaotic term of school.  I made a purposeful decision to stay home a lot these holidays.  As much as possible to do things that included all of the kids and to spend lots of time just being together.

But, leading up to the holidays we did have a little bit of fun...

Lion's school does a school concert every second year and in the other year the do something on a much smaller scale.  This year they presented a Food & Dance Fiesta!  Each year level presented a dance and there was all sorts of food for sale and the year levels all manned stalls selling different things.  The year ones all had to bring in cupcakes to be sold at their stall which was a raging success.  Lion's class danced to "boot scootin' baby".  I was thrilled when the classes came out in lines and Lion was right at the front down the end where I was standing (I had Monkey in the pram so I could only get to the ends).  Then they decided to do a re-shuffle for some reason... Lion ended up at the back, in the middle, behind some rather tall kids.  I got rare glances of him and managed to get a couple of photos that weren't real good but hey, we got a record of the event.  After the first time through they had to come and get a parent to dance with them.  Unfortunately with Monkey in the pram (against his wishes) and Wolf at work, I couldn't be the one to go and dance with him.  He had taught Dragon some of the moves so I encouraged (bribed with an extra cupcake) Dragon to go and dance with him.  You can imaging how much of that I saw with all the parents of the kids in the front two rows dancing in front of my tiny little boys.  Oh well, I was proud of both of them for getting up there... even if I couldn't see most of it.

We went down to The Strand Ephemera to check out some of the artwork on the day before Father's Day.  The kids had a ball but I was suffering with sinus headaches from a horrid sinus infection that just wont go away.  Some of the art was good... some was just really really poor.  These are two pieces that the kids particularly enjoyed.

Last week (1st week of school holidays) Wolf had the Tuesday off so we took of up the the beach hut for the day with Grannysaurus and Cheetah.  We played in the sand, swam in the ocean, boogy boarded, went to Frosty Mango (Aunty Chimera and Little Bear joined us for that)... we had a generally awesome time.  Not many photos were taken because the photographer was having too much fun!  Mum did grab a few on my camera while I was in the ocean though.

I was so proud of my kids... and Cheetah.  We'll start at the oldest...  Cheetah had never ridden a boogy board before and was struggling to catch a wave.  Even after I explained when to push off.  I had a thought... I don't use the top of the wave to tell when to jump, I use the feeling around my ankles of the water rushing back out to sea as well as the look of the wave...  As the next lot of "big" waves were starting to roll in I quickly explained how waves work and at which point in the waves life you need to push off and all of a sudden he was riding like a pro!

Lion was dumped wave after wave.  He saw a particularly big wave coming and got a gleam in his eye... He caught it and it took him two metres and dumped him.  HARD.  His little head popped up from under the water, he spat mouthfuls of sand and sea water out and looked at me.  I thought he might be about to cry... his little voice spoke up... "that. was. AWESOME".  He grabbed his hat, wrung the water out of it, put it back on his head and took of to find his next wave.

Dragon is usually a one wave boy.  He gets dumped once and that's it.  He's sitting in the shallows and wont try again.  He was dumped over and over and over and he just kept going back for more.

Monkey is also a stick to what he knows kinda kid.  Especially in the ocean.  He got out there and was riding the boards with no one holding on to him (much to mummy's horror), he was jumping waves and pretending to fall over... he had a blast!

So there's a little of what we have been up to.  There's still so much more to share... but not today.  I hope there are still people reading this little old blog... it'd be a shame if there was no one to win the fantastic prize I'll have to give away soon!

Lion's First Day of Grade 1

My Lion, Ready for his first day of grade 1 *wink*

Lion started grade 1 this week. Grade 1 is the big time, y'know.  His own desk with a slide out tidy tray.  Spelling words to learn.  Homework will be given.  Not as many "toys" in the classroom.  His own pencil case to keep track of his stationery.  This is 'real' school.

Monday morning was chaotic.  I got us all up nice and early, Wolf had the morning off so he could come along, I got things moving as best I could, but in the usual way I was the only one that bothered to keep an eye on the time so we were running late.  Not only did we need to be at school on time, we needed to have time to take some photos before we left.... except I had forgotten to borrow the good camera from mum so all I had was my phone.  Still, we can do photos with the phone, all is not lost.  8am, we should have photos done and be loading everyone and all Lion's 3847393 bags of school supplies into the car... except I am still trying to get one child to put some clothes on and trying to stop Monkey from removing all Lion's school stuff from it's spot.  While Wolf is finishing getting himself ready I grab Lion for an inside photo so he's not all squinty from the sun.

He's already not too keen on the idea and Monkey wants a piece of the action.  After all, don't I usually want photos of him?  You'd think with a photographer for a mother there would be some half decent first day of school photos... right?  Wrong, nothing creative, nothing spectacular, we barely made it through the point and shoot stuff alive.

Eventually Wolf is ready, Dragon is clothed, everyone is wearing shoes, we can head outside and get some photos by the front door.  I try to take photos for first day of kindy and school in the same place each time because I like the idea of keeping the same surroundings to show the child's change... it hasn't been working for us lately.

Talk about squinty!  I must have adjusted his hat 500 times so it was sitting straight but it didn't help, it kept twisting back around.  *sigh* I guess that'll have to do.

We dropped Dragon and Monkey off with Grannysaurus and found a park without too much of a walk. 

In his classroom we met his teacher, put his books on his desk and his stationery in his tidy tray.  We had some kisses and cuddles, said Hi to his best mate who is in his class this year (and the teacher knew they were buds so sat them opposite each other, we'll see how long until she moves them apart) and we left him to get down to the business of being a big grade 1 boy.

 We were very excited to go and pick him up in the afternoon.  We found some shade to park in, ran into Grannysaurus and managed to get the good camera from her, and headed off to collect our Lion.  He was TIRED.  School is hard work after being on holidays.  We walked slowly back to our car and I asked him about his day.  Apparently it was really hard, they worked ALL DAY... but he couldn't remember what they did.  Eventually he remembered that he had drawn a picture.  His new teacher Mrs B had asked them to draw a picture of some of the things they did on their holiday.  "So I drew a TV and a couch".  WHAT?  "oh yeah, and a boogie board".  Okay.  We took them to be crystal miners, we went to lollipops, we had Christmas, we went to the waterpark, we played in the rain, we spent overnight at the beach hut... and he draws a TV and a couch.  At least the boogie board gives a hint to our beach trip, I guess. *sigh*

So, home we go for our special first day of school afternoon tea.  But before I even let them in the house, I make them pose for more photos.  It's now sunny here now, we can get some without the squinty eyes... you'd think.  That is where the top photo came from, our afternoon photo shoot, so not really ready for his first day of school, more like ready to crash AFTER his first day of school.  Then remember up the top I said Monkey wanted to be in on the photos in the morning... well that same Monkey wanted nothing to do with photos in the afternoon.

Love these boys.

I'm praying for a fantastic year for you, Lion.

I know you will do well because you try your best at everything you do.

Book Week '10

This morning on our way to school we passed  a car... riding a bike, Robin Hood, a handful of Disney Princesses, a witch, a doctor, a policeman, a bunch of Angelina Ballerinas, half a dozen or more Tinkerbells, Captain Hook and other assorted pirates and one Peter Pan.  There can only be one explanation for this...

It's book week this week.  Schools are celebrating reading, encouraging kids in literacy and getting them to dress up as their favourite book character.

Lion's class had been 'studying' the fantastic book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and Lion asked that I make a caterpillar costume for him... "and you could maybe make it turn into a butterfly"... yeah, Lion, and maybe I couldn't too...  It turned out that they had to actually own the book and bring it with them and since we don't actually own that book he had to pick something else.  After much discussion he made his decision.

Recently I picked up a few books for the kids in a seconds store for one of our big book retailers.  One that I picked up was titled "Why are Lions Lazy?" (details and photo source here)  it's a question and answer book about the big cats.  We have many story books that include Lions of all descriptions but this is the book that Lion wanted to take as his inspiration for his Lion costume.  So, late last night I put together a Lion costume for him... you'd think with over a weeks notice I would have done something before the last minute but no.  It was fairly simple, orange shorts, orange shirt, tail and mane... MANE??? probably should have considered that bit of it before hand...

In the end I figured it out and I used an old orange terry square nappy and cut the binding off the edges (thankfully I saved it because that ended up being plaited for the tail), cut the bare edges to be all ratty and cut a hole in the middle big enough to pull over his head and then pull back towards the front so it sat hanging over his face in a mane-like fashion... or something like that.

He was happy with it which was the most important thing.  One grandmother that does the school runs for her daughter said that she was buying all their costumes because once you get all the bits and pieces you need and spend hours putting it together it's better to just spend the $20 on buying a costume.  Now, I know I wont be getting out of it this easy every year but there was no way I was going to start off with offering to buy him a costume.  I'm glad I didn't because this one was free.  Everything we had at home ready to be used.

Dragon wanted to be in on the action too so I dressed him in all orange today and drew a nose and whiskers on him too and he got in on the photos...

ROAR.

They do a parade thing at some point during the day but that wasn't really advertised so I couldn't get along to it but Lion did get an award for "Best Animal Costume"... YAY!

He was very proud of his award and I tried to not let it go to my head.  Because realistically, read that list of costumes we saw, back at the top....

Yeah, I have a feeling he might have been the ONLY animal costume.

So the moral of the story... Don't go as Tinkerbell.

Lion's Sports Day

Friday was Lion's first sports day!  It's not an all day event for the younger grades.  They were joining the whole school for their running races up until morning tea and then they were doing some combined activities for the younger grades until lunch then back to their classrooms for the afternoon.

After hearing from a few friends with prep kids that their kids had no idea what to do when they had their race I talked with Lion a little about what you are actually supposed to do in a race, what the lines on the field were for, when to start running and more importantly when to STOP running.  Come on, you've seen the kids that keep running past the time keepers, past the screaming parents, going and going until they hit a solid object.  That was not going to be my boy, he was going to know what to do.  I needn't have worried about that, they had practice races the day before and they run the year 1, 2 and 3 races first so the little preppies can see what's going on.  Lion had his form perfected.

Lion is the one in in the running pose in the white shirt in lane 2

The race started well, they all ran fairly much as a line for the first 10m.  After that there was one or two who spread further ahead and one or two who fell behind... Lion was one of the ones falling behind... it's in his genes.

Lion on the left, still in lane 2, and A running ahead.

By the last 20m (for Lion) the pack had about 15m of spread between first and last.  The first kid crossed the line, the second, the third, on it went, his friend, A, crossed the line, there was one kid left running.  He looked up and realised he wasn't going to win...

"Now folks, keep your eye on the boy in lane 6...

No, no, I mean the one in lane 5...

Yes, yes, lane 5, he's running and like he's being chased by something...

Okay, he's in lane 3 now...

Like he's being chased by a crocodile, I think...

No, now he's in lane 2, keep your eyes on him...

Is it crocodiles that they say you should run zigzag so they can't catch you?..

Actually I've got no idea which lane he's in anymore...

Or maybe a dachshund, I bet they have trouble turning corners...

Sorry, lane 3 it is, he's in lane....

Oh forget it, he's the only one on the track, if you can't see him you'd better get your eyes checked!

That's right people, Lion's philosophy is "if you've got no chance of winning anymore then you might as well have fun with the race".  He had everyone laughing.  I've always been a little worried that he would turn out to be the class clown... I don't have to worry about that anymore, I think he's aiming more for "school clown".

After that tiring effort the kids were gathered together to walk back to the seating area together so I went over and grabbed a quick photo of my little champion.

I was so proud of him.  I am proud of him for joining in happily and having fun.  Now to figure out where the balance is between "it's just for fun" and "win at all costs" because this kid is right at the fun end... he looked like he was out for a jog... on a very crooked path.  Although his real running style is rather entertaining too... he looks like he's going to hit the ground in a heap at any moment, but it works for him and when he does pull it out he can get quite a bit of speed happening... if he could be bothered.

He did have some more members to his cheer squad.  I was at the end so I could get some good photos and on the sidelines was Nanna and Dragon and Monkey.  We made sure we got a photo to remind us that Nanna came all the way up to visit us for Lion's first sports day...

Dragon didn't want to get in this photo, he was in a bit of a mood by this point.  He wanted to race and couldn't understand why it was just for school kids.  Nanna used her experience with 5 kids, 14 grand kids and 16bazillion great grand kids to know that he just needed to race someone, anyone... so as we were walking home she raced with him... I'd love to say it was the most entertaining running race I've ever seen... but the bar has been set pretty high now.

A and Lion after their race.

CUTE!

Sunday Snapshot

Yep, it's Sunday again.  Time for a snapshot of our week... or the bits of it that I can remember anyway.

Thursday I dropped Lion off at school and walked back to Grannysaurus' house to collect the other two boys and Dragon had found a purple lunch box and asked Grannysaurus if he could take it home... Grannysaurus decided to take advantage of someone wanting to remove some clutter from her house and said "yes" in spite of Mummy frantically shaking her head and mouthing "NO NO NO NO NO".  Thanks Grannysaurus.  Anyway, Dragon had fallen in love with his purple lunch box and wouldn't be parted from it so it came home with us.  I left Dragon playing with his lunch box figuring out what did and didn't fit in it and made him some morning tea.  after I had given him his morning tea I went back in a few minutes later and found that he had one more thing that fitted in his lunch box...

His morning tea bowl!

After a hideous night with no sleep and feeling like I was walking around in a haze I had spent a while trying to convince Dragon to go down for an early nap.  He resisted and I knew that it wouldn't work if I just put him into bed and told him to sleep so I let him go... problem was once it was really nap time he was well and truly in resist mode.  I decided he was settled in with the electronic babysitter so I left him and had a nap for me.  I woke up a little bit later and thought things sounded too quiet so I went to investigate...

I knew he was tired!

So other than using the TV to babysit the kids I do have other options for when I am on my own and need to go do something else in the house.  I simply wrap them up and put the monkey in charge...

As much as I would love them, no one makes baby straight-jackets so a stretchy wrap works well for a short term solution... and that monkey is one tough jailer!

I do let him out though.

Yesterday I did a Tupperware bridal shower for Em.  I wasn't going to start back doing Tupperware until Monkey was quite a bit older and didn't need to feed as often... but special circumstances changed that.  So I had to take Monkey with me.  I wouldn't do it for anyone else but I knew he'd have people happy to cuddle him while I did what I needed to.  Poor little man fell asleep in Aunty Em's arms!

Today Wolf checked with Lion what he was up to and he told him he was taking the TV cupboard apart.  Wolf figured he was pretending like he usually does and just forgot about it... until he realised Lion had removed a door from it's hinges!

Lion has been coming home with almost all his lunch still in his lunch box.  The first two days of school I put stickers on his lunch boxes with with 1's for the ones he needed to eat at morning tea and 2's for the ones he needed to eat at lunch.  After that I told him he needed to eat two of the little ones at morning tea and the big one and the other little one at Lunch.  We had a little problem though, he could never remember if he needed to be saving something for the next break combined with being a slow eater and wanting to go and play so most days he has been hardly eating anything.  I wanted him to have freedom so I tried showing him in his lunch box and asking him what he was going to eat and when before school each day and it wasn't working.  I offered to go back to the stickers "Yes please mum, I really liked it when you did that".  So that, along with a little incentive of tuck-shop for one item on a Friday and some yummy, healthy things in his lunch box, hopefully we'll get him filling his tummy at school.

This afternoon I decided to get some standby yummies frozen for lunches during the week so I whipped up 1 dozen mini ham and pineapple calzones.  I was going to do 2 dozen but realised that I probably needed to feed my family and it was getting to time I should be putting food on the table so I turned the other half of the dough into a pizza for dinner.

Don't they look yummy?

Hopefully I'll get a batch of pikelets whipped up at some point this week to freeze a heap of for morning teas.

I am determined to get on top of this school lunch thing.

So how was your week?

First Day of School... EVER

Dear Lion,

You had your first day of School today.  It didn't go off quite as I planned but I think a lot of peoples plans got a little messed up today.  You woke up bright and early, like usual, but you and Dragon played in your room quietly until I came and let you know I was up.  WOW, that was a very responsible thing to do, perhaps just the thought of going to school was changing you?  You were excited already.  "Guess what, Lion" I said and you gave me a big, huge, enormous grin and told me "I start school today!"

Things took longer than they should have for us to all get ready but I still made sure you knew when to eat which food in your lunch bag, that you had spare clothes if you needed them, remind you of your teachers name and have a little chat to you about how proud I am of the boy you are growing up to be.

It was POURING down with rain and we all scuttled to the car and drove ever so slowly to Grandma's house to park the car.  We had to wait for Daddy to get there with his car so he could look after Dragon and Monkey while I walked you to school (because Grandma wasn't home today).  Daddy got there eventually and we grabbed all your stuff and set off.  We had to walk around lots of puddles because of the rain and some we had to pick the shallowest spot to tiptoe through.  You thought it was great, I just worried that you would end up with water in your shoes!  I wanted to hold your hand and you wanted to hold my hand but I had a big arm-load of school supplies to carry, I think it made you a little sad but you didn't say anything, I did manage to get a hand free for you to hold for the last little bit as we approached the school gate.  You were kind of holding your tummy, I checked if you were okay and you weren't sure, this was a new feeling... I think it was the first time you have felt butterflies in your tummy!

We got inside and found your name tag, I got you to help me to put all your stuff away, pencils in the pencil box, packets of paper with all the other packets, scissors in the scissors box... lots of new stationery to start the school year.  I got you to put your lunch box and drink where they belonged and your hat on the rack and we took your bag outside together.  You had to go and sit on the carpet with all the other kids and listen to your new teacher talk about all the wonderful things you would get to do today.  I knelt beside you for a minute, gave you a hug and a kiss and whispered that I loved you in your ear to get a smile on your serious face and then I left.  You looked a little confused sitting there, we hadn't had time to sort through what was going on in your head, you didn't really have a chance to say anything in all the fuss of first day mums and kids.  But I knew you would be okay, you would soon forget that things didn't quite go like we had talked about.  I had a few tears as I walked back to Grandma's house in the rain even though I knew you would be fine.

Dragon kept asking all day if we could go and pick you up from school.  I was eager to get you too!  I knew with all the crazy rain that I needed to leave our house at about 2pm to make sure I had time to walk to school with your brothers and be waiting when school finished.  Time flew until 1pm.  That last hour dragged on for 3 hours I am sure!  We got to Grandma's and I put Dragon in his raincoat, I put the rain cover on the pram, I stashed a towel and your raincoat underneath and put up my umbrella.  After raining all day the puddles were bigger, Dragon had LOTS of fun as we walked along the path, I got frustrated trying to push the pram through the puddles and keep my umbrella over my head... my backside got quite wet, it turns out that a kids umbrella isn't quite big enough for my adult sized butt.  We waited outside your room and I chatted to another mother about her sons first day of school, all the mums were so proud of their kids, just like me!  I snuck a peak into the classroom and saw you dancing to a song with the rest of your class.  Why wont you dance to songs for me?  You are cheeky like that!

Eventually they let the parents come inside and Monkey, Dragon and I went in to wait for you to be told you could go.  I didn't even see you coming but the next thing I knew you were wrapped around my waist excited to see me and tell me about your day.  You gathered your bag and hat by yourself, took of your shoes for the wet walk home and told me all about what you had done today. You told me "I played with the Lego for a bit, then I played with the dinosaurs, then I played with the dinosaurs, then I played with the dinosaurs, then I played with the dinosaurs, then when it was pack up time I helped to pack up home corner because I played there too."  I think you must have liked the dinosaurs.  Your teacher said you had been very quiet and that you had made a new friend, I liked to hear about you making a new friend.

Just as we were outside getting raincoats back on Grandma turned up to help us walk home.  We had been going to go to daddy's work to tell him all about your exciting day but by the time we got back to Grandma's we all needed dry clothes so we thought we had better just go home.  When we got home you let me know a bit more about your day.  There had been singing and eating and playing and reading and one of the toilets overflowed and the teacher had to put a box on it so people knew not to use it!  All very exciting things for your first day of Prep.

You must have been worn out because you took yourself to bed before the end of dinner!  I got you to have a bath first and we had a little chat about tomorrow.  You told me that I had forgotten to put a special note in your pocket and I would need to do that tomorrow.  I hadn't told you that I had wanted to do that but forgot, you just knew it was something that I like to do for you and I know you read the notes I give you because they come home so worn and well read.  Tomorrow I will put a love note in your pocket.  It will say "Dear Lion, I love you.  I am very proud of you.  Love Mummy."

I love you, Lion.

Love Mummy.

Super Heroes In Training

Just another day at the office for the Super Heroes In Training.

(don't make that one into an acronym... I almost did and realised just in time)

Thanks for the shirts Nano!

Lion found a brand new school bag under the Christmas tree, he was excited but it quickly got pushed to the side for all the Lego and other toys until today.

Lion came into my room today while I was trying (for the zillionth time, thanks to the big boys) to get Monkey to sleep. I silently did my block at him and signalled in no uncertain terms that he was to remove himself from the room post-haste... it didn't work... "I just came in to see how I look wearing my new school bag" he says as he turns to the mirror and does a little back-and-forth to look at himself properly, "I look pretty good". What a sweet little thing he is, "yes you do, Lion. You do look pretty good."

I am going school supply shopping tomorrow. We are getting so close to it now, I have realised that one day a week I will have only Monkey at home. It makes me so happy that I will get to spend that time with him and he will get a break from his brothers (because lets face it, he really needs a break from all their loving) but it makes me sad that my crazy noisy house will be so much quieter on Mondays with just me and the baby. I need to pick up a few things for Dragon to start kindy too but I'm not making too much of a big deal out of that, I think his personality needs it to just be made out to be an "everyday" type thing, just going off to play with Miss C at kindy... have I told you his kindy teacher will be Miss C, Lion's first kindy teacher and a friend of ours since before we had kids? I am so happy about that... I don't think he would have been in on the idea of kindy if it wasn't for going to play with Miss C. God has this all under control... I just need to keep reminding myself of that. God will look after Lion no matter what school he goes to, I can stop worrying about picking the "right" school. God is preparing friends for both boys at Kindy and School and preparing them to be friends to others so I can stop worrying about that. God is preparing their teachers (oh boy, do they need preparation for Lion!) so I can stop worrying about the "right" teacher. Lion's compassion will be a positive and not a vulnerability, his heart-on-his-sleeve will encourage others and not make him a target for bullies, he's stronger than I give him credit for.

Anyway, I love shopping for stationery and stuff. I'm quite looking forward to that aspect of it. My teacher friends have given me advice on where it's okay to cut corners on brands and where it's not. Which cheap brand is good and which brand name brand is rubbish. Which items get stolen and how to name them so the teacher knows for sure who they belong to. What lunch box foods teachers hate in their class and which ones are winners. I've got the best friends!

It is going to be a year full of learning for all of us... I can't wait!

The Queensland School System and the way it's working with Lion

There have been a few comments relating to how the school system works here and how we are working it so I might just do a quick post to answer them all at once...

This is only for Queensland, they are trying to streamline all the states and territories to come under the one system but so far we aren't there.

Feel free to not read this if you just don't care because it's not all that exciting :)

• Our school year is January to December. You start a new grade in January and finish in December.
• The first year is prep then 1 through 12
• You can start prep if you turn 5 before July of the year you start. Ummmm... kids starting prep 2009 will have to turn 5 between 1 July 2008 and 30 June 2009.
• Many schools offer pre-prep the year before and a lot of places that were once off campus pre-schools are now "pre-preps"
• Before that is just daycare but we have called it Kindy for Lion and will continue to call it kindy even though he is "pre-prep" age.
• Only grades 1-10 are compulsory
• Prep is flexible, state schools will not start a child early but will let them wait a year if their parents feel they are not up to it. Private schools will start a child a year ahead but only if you are really really really special or something like that.
• Years 11 and 12 are required if you want to get into university (along with certain subjects but I assume that is like anywhere) but most kids continue to year 12 even if they aren't going to uni.

The old system was a year of kindy (usually a couple of days a week) the year you turned 4 (like, the January to December year) if your parents wanted. A year of pre-school (couple of days same as kindy) the year you were 5 if your parents wanted then you started grade 1 the year you turned 6 and it was compulsory schooling from then on.

So Lion went to daycare that we called kindy for one day a week last year because he was so inquisitive and seemed ready for learning that I couldn't keep up with at home. He is going to daycare that we will still call kindy for 2 days a week this year and wants to go more than that but mummy couldn't cope. I asked around about the pre-prep programs and then asked his kindy teacher what the older group did and if he would be missing out on anything and she said that it's pretty much the same but the kindy needs to be more flexible with class ages and sizes. They use curriculum based learning and encourage them to start reading and writing (which a lot of pre-preps don't do) but are more flexible with learning through play because it is still "just" a daycare. And I can have a certain amount of choice as to how often he goes unlike friends with pre-prep kids who got to choose a 2 or 3 day week Monday-Tuesday or Wednesday through Friday. Next year he will go into prep. I don't want to loose him all week long, it's making me sad thinking about it now *sniff*. I know I cant hold him back but I want him home with me. He's going to be in the older half of his class as it is with his birthday in October, I think it'll be good.