THE FROG-ACADEMY

Quick Catch-Up!

Life here has a distinctly holiday feel to it - namely kids running around wildly making too much noise a lot of the time. The boys can occupy themselves well enough when they put their minds to it and they do at times - especially if that time is allowed to include copious amounts of PS2 time. The current craze being Tony Hawks Pro-skater 4 which they are incredibly and scarily good at! The only real alternatives in their minds being TV or PC time (far too many square screens in this house for my liking). When they get a flat “no” to any or all of the above then out come the better toys (after a few “what can we do then...?” type complaints); Knex, mini-skateboards, footballs, hot-wheels & cars, Beyblades and these really fast tyre things (can’t remember their name)., playmobil, soldiers - you name it they have it. But of course they have nothing to play with, or nothing that is any fun!! What is it about electronic toys that makes them so attractive to boys (big and small ones) and mind-numbing! It seems to tune them out of all possibility that fun might be had in other ways.

OK - anti PS rant over. :) It does have it’s pro’s I know (that’s why we have one), but I struggle to find them sometimes.

Other than too much SASS (staring at square screens) time, there has some other stuff happening, namely a mass Hama craze – especially on Joel’s part, but Jacob has produced some lovely bits too. Looking forward to an order from Merry. I want to have a go at some of the Hama sewing patterns myself, so I’ve order that pattern book. Jake has done a few more drawings of various types of cars, including some cartoony ‘wacky races’ type ones. Phoebe has spent some time on Reader Rabbit nursery and on Ed’ City. She loves both. I’ve paid for Abbie on Ed City too, but she doesn’t seem that taken with it (rrrr). I should have paid for Ellie or Joel first - they are more into it. Ho-hum! I was planning to sign Els up this week, but it turns out it’s going to be a shorter one than I had hoped, so she might have to wait :(

Today is the first of our churches 2 day holiday club (shorter than usual for a reason), so the four oldest are packing off to that at 1.45pm courtesy of a friend with a car! I shall then aim to get the babies to bed for a 2hr nap and then to sit and orgo-plan for next term. I need to go through all my resources (and I have many) and work out exactly what I do already have that I can use, especially for Joel, what is missing and what I’d like to add in. Also I’d like to see if there is anything I can sell on that I am not likely to use , but being a terrible curriculum collector I doubt that I will be able to part with anything in reality - just in case I have a child who it would work for!! I think I might try to work out some kind of rough schedule for the term/year as well. I want to see if I can make it more workable (not that my last attempt was that bad actually) than ever before - and incorporate more ‘fun’ and ‘free-range’ activities (albeit guided ones). If I get all that done in two hours (who am I trying to kid!) then there’s some floors could use a hoover too.

OK - so that’s the kids gone now. I’m off to do what I have planned or else I shall fritter away two hours on here! I'll blog if I get chance later. I’ve got the children all to myself until well after bedtime tonight. Paul is busy with church stuff all evening tonight and tomorrow - sigh! I struggle with tired, after-club kids at bedtime. Put that together with ratty, teething baby and it’s not a recipe for much fun, but I’ll see what I can do to make as peaceful as poss’ and then come and blog to off-load I expect ;-)