Thursday, January 30, 2014

January 29th

So drop-off for school yesterday was fine.  It was the start of the more standard waiting-in-the-playground method of drop-off and it went off without a hitch...well, except for the fact that none of the Kindy teachers made it down to the playground in time and the children had to wait for them.  A sweet little lesson in the fallibility of adults.

So it was on to a quick cafe trip for me to celebrate/commiserate with two friends who had their first day of being two child free.  And then I was free myself.  So free I had no idea on what quite to do.  I have a few chores I need to get done around the house in preparation for some new things popping up around the house, but before then I thought I'd pop in to the local op-shop.  

I haven't been there for a while but...but...OH MY GOD!  Look at what I found for three dollars.  Oh yes indeed, a measly little three dollars.  This delicious Lotte dish is a decent size too, about 20cms long and about 5cms deep as well.  I was smitten.  I grabbed it and felt like Gollem.  I'm already visualising my display cabinet of Lotte goodies in the future.

As all parents know the school day isn't really that long.  By the time I got home it was after 11am and after editing photos, blogging and reading I didn't have much time to do much else until it was time to leave at 2pm.

Ted was exhausted.  He was so exhausted that he ran off with his friends and leaped like wild animals all over the little alcove near the entrance to the school for twenty minutes.  He did devour a sushi roll and wholefoods raw bar and two big bunches of grapes while he did so, which I guess was enough to secure his energy levels.

Since he was in such a bright happy mood, I decided to push my luck a little further and take both children into the local shoe store to get their sports shoes sorted.  That experience went quite smoothly, although the wheels started to fall off as we were leaving.  Ted ran the wrong way down two major travelators and kept running away, screaming, from us a I endeavoured to move us in a direction that would allow us to grab some food for dinner.

The trip to the supermarket ended with him screaming, wildly thrashing and hitting me all the way back to the car. Fun times.

We drove home without a sleep which was a bonus.  However the less-fun after-effect of this was that Ted was vicious and horrible in the afternoon with Harriet.  Thwacking her with a long plastic pole that was meant to be part of the marble run saw me throwing the marble run in the bin. 

Harriet found out a couple of big things yesterday.  One of her very close friends from school is going to be moving schools this week.  In a small way it was a slight relief since it also relieves her from ongoing obligations with a mutual friend she didn't really enjoy the company of.   But of course it was devastating in every other way.

She also found out that her current homeclass teacher is only a temporary replacement for her actual teacher, who, it turns out, is the art teacher she had last year.  You may remember that they had a very special relationship and Harriet just adores her.  So of course the idea that she would be her home teacher is just wonderful.  However the reason she isn't teaching this term is that she has been on extended sick leave since before the end of term last year and may not return until next term or even later.


We are all devastated to hear of this news, so we will be putting together a small care package for her over the next week or so.  In celebration of the awesomeness that is her art/home teacher, I subscribed Harriet to this fantastic magazine.  I'd love for her to have a hand in the art world which I feel completely disengaged and uneducated about.  In fact she already knows and enjoys much more about art than I do now, and it's such a gift to have that knowledge, experience and exposure; not just from an occasional visit to the Art Gallery or an art class each week, but with ongoing daily connection with someone who can impart much more knowledge and passionate engagement than she would harness through other arenas. 


















I remain in my literary world however.  I read Holes by Louis Sachar as I mentioned yesterday, and have now also finished The Giver by Lois Lowry.  I loved The Giver and thoroughly recommend it for mature readers from about 9yrs.  It has all the qualities of being an introduction to dystopian fiction for those in that age group, by offering an insight into what an alternate society might be like without issues that could be too too confronting or terrifying for primary readers.  

Only two more entries for this year's January Project!

1 comment:

Genevieve said...

Hey thanks for the link to that wonderful magazine. It looks like the perfect piece of media for our consummate creative Olive. Hurrah. Thanks so much