Bad start, got a bit better
I hate the weeks when A is working nights (well, OK, then, evenings - 4pm onwards). We all end up overtired and get crosser as the week goes on. This morning I did manage to sleep in til 8am when M came in to see if I was getting up yet. I don’t know what unearthly hour he woke up at, but he was probably disturbing A for quite a while before he woke me. Once L was awake we came downstairs and I played/watched him play his Lego Star Wars game for a bit before breakfast. He is really obsessed with it at the moment and he likes me to watch and join in on the 2 player option, L permitting. So we started off well, doing something together, but then the morning just deteriorated.
I went back upstairs for a shower and M followed me up (he says he’s scared to be downstairs by himself - not sure what that’s about other than he wants extra attention?) and I got annoyed about the amount of noise he was making while A was still trying to sleep. Then I said it was time to do his activities and we started with maths. He messes about, twiddles on his chair, pretends he’s run out of breath and allsorts and it really winds me up. While he was doing maths I was trying to get ready to go out to West Park as well as checking how he was getting on. It’s always a bit of a rush but L had fallen asleep and I was trying to make sandwiches, put the slow cooker on for tea when we got back, pack nappies and the cake we’d made to take etc etc. Anyway, we fell out over the 5 times table and then over how could 21 + 18 + 16 possibly add up to 31. Very silly, but I was so mad and so was he, he was being so cheeky and not even trying to attempt to work anything out. Luckily A got up and supervised the finishing off of the maths while I cooled off (I was horrible shouty mummy this morning) and then we did phonograms and spelling which went much better.
I said I wasn’t prepared to spend an hour in the car driving to West Park when M was just messing about (I felt like if I was going to all the effort of getting stuff ready to go out, the least M could do was co-operate) and M said he didn’t want to go, he wanted to stay at home and do things with me and go for a bike ride with Daddy, so we didn’t go out after all.
Things improved a little when I suggested we sit and listen to The Song Tree together. We listened to a couple of the programmes last year but didn’t hear the beginning of the story. We sat together at the computer and joined in with learning the song, tapping the beat etc and I wrote out the words so we could remember them better. We had fun singing together, it’s something we both really enjoy. It’s annoying that the programmes are only available for 7 days and only supposed to be recorded by UK schools. I don’t have a digital radio and even if I did I wouldn’t like to tape the broadcast at 4am, but after some suggestions on the Muddlepuddle list I might be able to sort out a workaround. A friend who is a music teacher got the CD for the Magic Hummingbird last year, but it was only the songs, not the actual programme with the story as well.
The Magic Hummingbird is about the Hopi tribe and how they call on the golden eagle, their sacred bird, to help them when the rains fail. At the end of the programme we looked up the Hopi on Google and found out where they were from in Arizona, and found the spot in the atlas, and found out what the Black Mesa is.
We had lunch (sandwiches were already made so that was easy!) and played Battleships together and M wrote one of his birthday thank you letters (eventually, after alot of prompting to get paper and pencil out). When A came back from his dyslexia tuition we went into town to get some cash out and buy a few bits. When A went to work one of M’s friends called for him to play out, so he got some fresh air and I got some time to fiddle about on the PC. We had stew for tea and watched Blue Peter, then M played more computer games while I talked on the phone to my mum. M and L had a bath together after that and I read some more of Homer Price, our current readaloud.
