In my Technical World...
You know how I was saying about my computer woes..? Well about a day after getting our new PC, I downloaded an update onto our perfectly functional 9 year old laptop and it effectively crashed it completely! :(
So I have spent several days trying to get that back up and running, and with not a LITTLE bit of frustration!
Eventually I've managed to get it running (thanks Tim M for your advise), but it took a complete system restore to get there. In the long run, this may not be a bad thing, as now it's running like new!! However, I do still have to try and get those updates onto the system without it crashing again ~ and when I have I think I will take it out of Vista up to Windows7 (which always seemed a much more stable & logical system than Vista). Vista is not even supported by Microsoft anymore without Service Pack 2 (which was the update that crashed everything), so I need to move it forward to keep it from dying a slow painful death anyway ~ that's if I even can!!
In my Home-Ed World...
The children started of this week in the 'normal' way and the first couple of days went well. Then, on Tuesday, I took TP, Lilo and DD for a swimming lesson (I'm teaching them now) and then swam my two miles. I got into the pool feeling absolutely fine and got out with a full-blown cold!! How does that work? Since then I've felt LOUSY. Just a cold, but an achy, heady kind of one. As a result I declared the rest of the week a 'games week' and next week is half term, so that gives me time to recover properly :D. I have spent these last two days marking their half a term's work (meaning I don't have to in the break) and sorting out the laptop. I can't tell you how relieved I was to hear that Windows start-up chime, but I don't think I've seen the last of my troubles yet! I tried to re-install just SP1 today and it failed, but thankfully didn't crash anything. Trying again tonight...
So, games week...
The children began yesterday by playing a great game of 'Settlers of Catan' (all but Chip, who was happily playing on PoissonRouge & Starfall on the new PC). To begin with all I could hear was Taz getting irritated with Stitch making too many mistakes, but being as Stitch is only 6, and hadn't played before other than on someone's 'team', I felt Taz was being quite unfair. I told Taz to treat Stitch with at least as much patience as he afforded my Mum (she's not great at games with lots of rules!) and things vastly improved! Stitch played the game really well once he got the hang of it :D. I think Taz won in the end, which would have pleased him too!
Following the game, they sat and watched some old animated Horrible Histories DVD's until lunchtime. Then, after lunch, a few of them played 'Take 2' for a while (like Bananagrams, but played with scrabble tiles) - and then the 'school' day was pretty much done!
I also managed to squeeze in a little photo-shoot to get some 'not-back2school' shots of Taz, and some better ones of Minnie (didn't like my first attempt with her). They can be seen over ... HERE...
I had said we would still do Art, but it just didn't happen. I fully intended to do it with them today instead, but again it didn't happen (mostly because I actually felt too rubbish to plan it properly).
Instead, today the children started the day by splitting up a bit: Lilo, Stitch and DD played Enchanted Forest and Labyrinth together, and then I believe Lilo played Junior Uno with Chip ~ she said he liked it :D. The bigger three had a game of Carcassonne, followed by a game of Monopoly City (which they all agree is more 'fun' that original Monopoly, and is definitely quicker). The younger three wanted to join in with Monopoly, but the game had already started by the time they asked, so they dipped out and spent a good deal of time moping about not knowing what to do after that!
Even Chip couldn't seem to settle to anything today. He played 'Paint', more PoissonRouge and a bit of Cebeebies on the PC, then came off and just got lots of things out, but didn't really play with any of them properly . I think he could have done with my company and attention tbh, but I was marking, restoring the laptop and generally trying to avoid being with anyone (feeling lousy).
I was supposed to cook lunch today too, but didn't feel up to that even, so, for the first time EVER, Taz did it ~ and he did a really good job! It was an easy enough lunch, but I was still proud of him :D. While he was in the kitchen, busy chopping onions, the girls each made him a birthday card (involving watercolours, so they did some self-motivated art in the end). They've made a nice job of them too :D.
After lunch no-one seemed to really know what to do. I think in the end they all went and built towers with the Giant Jenga in the lounge ~ funny how they all enjoy that!!
When Paul came home they all suddenly decided they'd like to go swimming! So, Paul dutifully dropped Taz, Minnie, TP and Lilo off at the pool, took DD to gym, collected Jake (Bugs) from college (after his residential) and came home. Stitch and Chip were disappointed not to go swimming too, but I was really not feeling up to it tonight (otherwise I would have been swimming my miles) and Paul didn't want to take them, because he had a couple of calls he needed to make. Chip went in the car for the ride (and a nap) though and Stitch just played on the Wii for an hour, which was probably better chill-out time for him in the end anyway.
Jake had a great time away in Wasdale, with college. Says they didn't do much walking, but what little they did do the other kids whined about! He's used to hiking up hills in the Lakes, so to him it was odd not to be. I asked whether he had lots of late nights and early mornings ~ he replied, "No, just early mornings ~ going to bed early mornings!!" He thinks he had about 10 hours sleep the whole week!! Glad he had fun though :D I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures he got, but I doubt I'll see him until sometime in the afternoon tomorrow!!!
OK ~ so just one picture...!
No comments:
Post a Comment