Wild Flowers

Today has been utterly boring. We’ve done nothing of note but veg out and watch the football. This morning started late, the Peas watched Springwatch over breakfast and ‘normals’ were finished. There was much cheering as we finished reading Understood Betsy as our Ambleside reading ( the Peas haven’t really enjoyed it but I thought it was a lovely book and may buy it to pop on the bookshelf . I think Pea 1 would have enjoyed it if she had read it herself). Also read some poems (our current poet is James Whitcomb Riley and he’s not as enjoyable as our last poet-Eugene Field ) and a bible story.
That was really the morning done with, apart from music practice, which was a bit of a strain today. SweetP is having problems with her violin-it’s too big and she can’t comfortably reach the strings for notes. She’s perservering but feeling a little unhappy. Hopefully her teacher will be able to get a smaller size soon as she’s so keen that I’d hate for her to lose enthusiasm. Pea 2 is another story. After the cello concert at the weekend she’s feeling very disheartened. She’s upset because she didn’t get to play the group piece she thought she would and also because she feels that all the other children are performing longer pieces and that she’s not that good yet. I had a nice cuddle with her and talked through how she felt but, to be honest, she doesn’t practice anywhere near as often as she should and has only herself to blame if she feels that she’s not progressing. It seems that she has been wanting to take her prep test for a while but hasn’t said anything . I mentioned it to her teacher a few weeks ago and I think that that has brought the issue to the fore. We discussed practicing far more often, putting the effort in and I promised to talk to her teacher so she seems a bit happier now.
After lunch, we played a few games of Steve the sewer bunny on Discovery kids, read a story about Joan of Arc, handled guinea-pigs and rabbits, played some games, Pea 1 half painted a wooden jeep and Pea 2 and SweetP read their library books. Pea 1 had an almighty flip out about no-one playing a game with her , then another one later on when we were all playing her game and had to be restrained by me until she’d calmed down : It’s strange how she always seems to have meltdowns like this if she’s been at DEP’s for the weekend/over night. She comes back and has a wobbly day quite rarely now but it used to be a frequent event.
Then we watched some football, had some junk (and veg) for tea and drove Pea 1 to Girls Brigade. I meant to walk the dog down but we left it too late and I had shopping to get so fitness failed again . Got some shopping and stopped at a friends for a cuppa and chat. She starts back to work tomorrow and isn’t looking forward to it-she likes her job but sorting the tax credits and stuff is a nightmare. Last time she was left virtually penniless and in debt when she took the advice of her ‘lone parent advisor’ . It was nice to catch up though but all too soon I had to leave to go to the cash point to get money for the G.B summer outing (£45!!!!! for us all to go, including DEP as it’s his day with them) and pick up Pea 1.
Unfortunately, whenever we seem to have a busy home-ed week, I’m too busy to type it up and so this blog really consists of ’same s!*t, different day’ to my mind . Hopefully when (if ) the computer goes downstairs or I get a laptop ( rofl ) I may find more time to include some interesting home-ed