We survived the summer holidays!!! WOOHOO!!!
My routine list worked really well for Moo! His summer reading challenge bookmark had 21 books written on it!! Yes, Moo read 21 books in six weeks! His list included a lot of Julia Donaldson books, Billy and the Mini Monsters, Funnybones stories, obscure books family had bought him, some books that took him several days. I introduced him to chapter books too.
I also completed my first arts and crafts summer homework project – to make a book in a box. Which was to basically make a model of his favourite book from the summer – inside a shoe box!! We did “Sharing a Shell”. I found some printouts of the characters on Twinkl, glued them to some cardboard. Painted a beach/rockpool scene in the box. Dangled a seagull from the top and glued the characters to the beach scene. Tada!! Done! Annoyingly I didn’t get a photo of the masterpiece before taking it to school! Gah!
The teachers were so pleased with everyone’s effort that yesterday Moo came home with 20 house points in his diary for his project! I was so proud that our hard work had paid off.
Normally I won’t do things like that, but this year I want to be bit more pro-active and pro-school. I’m usually one of those parents that detests all the extras that school ask for. Money for mufti days, donations for tombola, and various other things they ask us to do throughout the year. Many people heard my complaining when Moo attended his old school. This year I may even get involved with the fundraising… maybe… I will think about it at least…
On Wednesday 4th September Moo went back to school. Our chaos days started again and we were back to catching 4 busses a day to get the boy to school and back. It’s exhausting and costs £4 a day to get him to school. We also went to Silverstone Race Track after school on the Wednesday because Daddio was running the Silson Silverstone 10K (he did it in 47m09s for those who are interested).
By Saturday I had to get my crutches out and have a quiet hobble day. First week back was painful.
Then Monday came and it was time for my gorgeous Bashy to start his first day of school. He’s doing half days for two weeks before they let them go full time – which is a little annoying as it originally meant I would have to get 6 busses in one day. Thankfully my lovely neighbour has saved me and this week I have been picking Bashy up at lunch, then she’s been picking Moo up in the afternoon as her son is in the same class.
Phew! Some breathing room!
On Wednesday I hit a (metaphorical) wall. I was shattered, absolutely exhausted, my pain levels were high and I was feeling flustered. That morning I fell apart on the Home/School Link and explained my frustration with the busses in the afternoon. She is now on the case to see if there is anything the school can do to make it easier.
Currently Moo finishes at 15:30, then I have just 4 minutes to dash 350 metres through a horde of parents walking as slow as they can up a hill, then get back down the hill the other side of the school, with Bashy who’s tired, emotional and tripping over his own feet, Bee in a pushchair, and Moo being slow and tired… It’s a flipping nightmare, it is a mad dash and I’m practically dragging the kids up and then down this hill,sometimes Bashy is crying the whole way because he is DONE, he doesn’t want to do it and I don’t blame him.
The issue is, that if we don’t get the 15:34 bus we are stranded until the 16:30 bus decides to show up, because walking home is along a busy main road, with the narrowest path I’ve ever seen, it’s so uneven and it puts you dangerously close to the road. The path is not well kept at all and there is absolutely no protection from the elements. I’ve hated it the few times I’ve tried to walk it and always end up using my crutches when I get home. Parenting on crutches sucks! So, I have my fingers well and truly crossed for something to help until I have a driving licence and car!!
Next week is week two of half days… afternoons should be a bit smoother. We will see. That’s enough from me for now.
Hope the start of your new school year is going well!
Take care!
The Anxious Pixie!! xx
The Anxious Pixie 