Tuesday, May 04, 2004

A Few Minutes Peace!!

Well today I yet again have a bunch of VERY tired children, especially the boys, who yesterday spent the day at Oulten Park watching the British Superbike Championships - birthday treat!! Myself and the girls (and my Mum) went to Stapely Water Gardens to look at the flowers and the fish - very relaxing, at least if it weren't for the mile long queues of traffic at every turn!! Jacob has also managed to break a cold and so school today was just a little (tum-te-dee) slow. Joel was fortunate enough for it to not be a school day for him (he goes to a playgroupy type thing on a Tuesday with his sisters and my friend), so at least I only had to chivvy along one child.

Elisheva seems to be over the worst of her cold now and has slept most of the day - seems like she's catching up on lost sleep (from so much coughing - bless her), but she's just woken up (or been woken probably) - so much for a moments peace!!

Well, half hour later, baby fed, tea in the oven, girls amusing baby, boys amusing each other ...!

I haven't mentioned Friday....So...

On Friday evening we had Paul's 'End of Year Bash' for college - a dressy affair and I had no dress to wear, so off I went to the charity shops and picked myself up a lovely black dress for £5!! But I - strangely for me (for reason's which will become apparent) couldn't resist the alluring bookshelves. I managed to spend an additional £12 on books - all for the children - but I picked up some bargains including: the most fabulous hard-back edition of 'Cider with Rosie' with original photograhs taken by the author and some beautiful paintings (probably worth all of the £12 in itself :) ), Jungle Book and the Just So Stories & The Second Jungle Book, three of the Enid Blyton Mysteries in a 'bumper book', The Animals of Farthing Wood, Harry the Dirty Dog (which I remember reading in school!), Floss, I could go on...and on..., but suffice to say - I was chuffed!! To get such 'classics' at 50p a piece, or less, pleases me greatly! I also managed to add to my ever growing 'Ladybird' library (I like the readers, but the 'Ladybird Classics' is my main collection item) because these seem to be written at just the write level for my son's interest and concentration levels at the moment. And then I hit upon this book called "The Little Giant" about Isambard Brunel (born in our home town of Portsmouth and a place the children know well), published by Anglia Young Books - it's great! Both a reader AND a history book and just right for year 3! I've sent for a catalogue of their books - and am hopeful!

It's so strange to find myself scouring the bookshelves of charity shops for my children - something I never planned to do really. For myself I don't really enjoy reading, but I am hoping to re-discover the joy of books (something well and truelly knocked out of me by boring school reading schemes!), by reading them with and to my children. I also need to seriously work on my fluency of reading, because I find myself making silly errors when I read to the boys. Being FORCED to read for the sake of my children is proving to be a mutually educating experience!

Another joy of home-schooling discovered. Another pleasure in life being re-discovered!! Praise God. Perhaps when I'm set to reading more I might find it easier and more pleasurable to read my Bible too!

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