Category: Blog

It can’t have failed to come to the attention of anyone above ground that the last couple of weeks have been exceptionally hot. It seems that in this country we take great delight in cataloguing all the different weather we are experiencing and discussing it at a national and even international level! From the first flakes of snow paralysing the transport system to the first rays of  the sun causing a rush on bottled water as we all forget we can get it out of the tap! Then there are the inevitable thunderstorms that follow the heat, although here it seems more humid after the storms than it did before they started! I was quite disappointed not to be abel to watch the storm but the arrival of a frightened five year old put paid to that but it was nice to listen to the rain! Thankfully the child who is the most scared by thunder managed to sleep through it somehow! The eldest didn’t want to come in but instead camped out on the stairs with her bedding and a book and then promptly fell asleep again about an hour before I needed to get her up for riding!

All the children were pleased that a royal baby has been born, it is exciting that a baby that will be king one day has been born and  I can understand why people are excited all around the world. Indeed I did feel happy and patriotic last night at the news and hope that the duchess isn’t in too much pain after the delivery as he was rather a big boy. Now the speculation about how and when they will leave the hospital, when official photographs will be issued and what his name will be has started in earnest. The news have filled hours with telling us over and over again what has happened and what might happen, but like us, they don’t know yet! In this age of instant news I was pleased that the couple were able to keep the news that the baby was here to themselves for a few hours. Having said that the children are guessing the name Imp thinks he will be called Henry because then that will make 9 and apparently that is a world record, Pixie thinks he will be called Jack and Hpops has yet to comment. Pixie is keen to meet him as her main ambition is to grow up to be a princess so who knows…

I worry for the poor child though growing up in the spotlight although William seems to have managed, I do hope that despite the furore concerning the family they will still have time to be themselves and enjoy the child growing up. I can only imagine how hard it must be for Kate having given birth just yesterday to appear on the steps of the hospital with her precious new arrival and ‘show him off’ to the media and public. For any new parents it is a time when they want to be surrounded by their own loved ones, get to know their baby and bond as a family. You often feel like you’ve been hit by a bus having just given birth, having done it three times all I wanted to do was shuffle down the corridor and into the car, shuffle into the house and recover slowly and in private! I was lucky to get anything remotely sensibly fitting on so to have to face the media would not be top of my list of things to do 24 hours after giving birth. Yes be excited, wave flags, fire a gun to salute and visit the special golden easel but remember that at the heart of the excitement is a family and we need to be careful not to overwhelm them with out desire to know what is going on with the baby. Being a parent for the first time is difficult enough without everyone wondering when the prince will walk, when he will have his first solids and whether his first will be Mum or Your Majesty!

I hadn’t really thought about what it felt like to be patriotic until recently. The wedding and the Olympics as well as the birth have all made me pleased to live in Britain. As a country we do have a number of problems but having looked at other places there doesn’t seem to be anywhere on the Earth that is ‘perfect’, or at least not for long. I have heard people saying we should abolish the Royals but imagine if we did what we’d lose, not just the excitement of weddings, births and pomp and circumstance but the years of tradition, the tourist lure. So many buildings and gardens and feelings of good will exist and if there was one person many of us would like to see up close it would be a member of the royal family. They are our figureheads and we should feel proud of the positive image they present to the world! At the moment the country seems to be on the up, the cricket team are 2-0 in the Ashes, Andy Murray won Wimbledon and Froome won the Tour de France! Now if we could just get over the heat and thunderstorms and have a nice steady 20-24 degrees everything would be perfect  -for a while!

Life seems to be in fast froward at the moment. I have been working at school three mornings a week, mixed in with a little supply work. I began a creative writing club twice a week, with some trepidation but it seems to have gone down rather well, and I am also trying to plan and finish two books, one for the kids which is planned and half written as well as the follow up to the first novel which is semi-planned and has a first chapter!

I have to say I am beginning to fall back into the routine, I am enjoying the  challenges of the classroom, especially the supply work which sees me teaching across year groups and the curriculum. Unless I find a convenient 2/3 days a week or morning job I think I will continue with the supply work in the next academic year. The creative writing group has been great. I was guilty of expecting a gaggle of girls wanting to write about only fairies and such like. I was rewarded instead with a mixture of boys and girls who happily engaged with free writes, planning and character profiles. They have produced excellent work and I am looking forward to doing it all again next term, we may even get around to scripting and filming some of their work. I feel lucky to be able to do a job I am enjoying, especially in the current climate.

Writing itself doesn’t earn a huge amount, unless you are prolific enough to publish more than one title in a year or you are clever enough to write a best seller, I am currently working on two projects, one for children and one for adults as it helps keep both of them fresh! I have plans in the pipe line for future projects but the biggest obstacle is time. Three children and working in a school mean that by the time we have completed the homework and had dinner and then the kids have had a bath and a story and been convinced to go to bed it is nearly time for me to catch some shut eye! However this holiday I have asked them for 1-2 hours per day when we are not out for the whole day to do some writing, Then I might be able to keep up the momentum on the days I am not in school and after lunch on the days I am if I get back in the writing habit!

Talking of job satisfaction my main job, that of being a parent has proven difficult at the moment. The children seem to be going out of their way to be as difficult as possible. Hpops did manage to get a good report across the subjects she studies at school and Pixie and Imp both had lovely work to show me when parents were invited to school to see their books and displays! Outside school their behaviour is not so good. They seem to delight in arguing and fighting with one another, making a mess of the house and moving about as if they can’t see it and generally ignoring everything we say to them or ask them to do! We are battling through and hoping that with a positive reward system such as collecting things they like we will begin to make progress.

It is a shame but due to work I have stopped studying for the moment, I have enjoyed many courses with the Open University in subjects such as creative writing, psychology, philosophy and sociology and I have had fun doing them and hopefully learnt something. Instead I am going to try and read some of the text books without the time pressure keeping to a set schedule or attending tutorials and completing assignments. Instead I can focus my attention on teaching and writing.

Of course we are battling the cold during the Easter holidays. It does seem odd that it is light until nearly 8pm now the clocks have changed to summer time. Apparently we may get some milder air, just in time for the children to go back to school. At the moment the kids have various activities to keep them warm and occupied, riding, football and baking! We are hoping to visit the coast on Friday but I think at least part of the day will be spent inside, and some of it will be spent outside shivering as the kids build sand castles. Mr T and I hit mid thirties this week, this doesn’t really bother me, I am more interested now in having a good time with friends and family and it is odd to think how we change as we age. When you are at the kids ages your birthday is one of the most special days of the year. You expect a party and piles of presents and cards, as we get older this pile of cards and presents dwindles as we collect more of the things we want and need and find it difficult to think of things we desire. Instead  a birthday treat is a nice cake and a day out. Anyway hopefully the results of the writing will soon be available for everyone to see and as for the teaching, fingers crossed that the perfect job comes up and I can get it and make a success of it!

Yes in just a week’s time those of us with children will be trying to persuade them that the man with the red coat, white beard and red nosed reindeer is on his way and about to drop all their dreams down the chimney. Others will be worrying if the gifts they have saved hard for all year will satisfy their little ones, or partners and we’ll all be trying to find that perfect something for that special someone. No wonder Christmas is so stressful. Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy the silly season and now I have my own children there has been a bit of a momentum shift. As a grown up without kids I could lazily enjoy bucks fizz in bed, a 3-4 pm lunch and lots of booze and a film or something in the evening. These days I count myself lucky if there is a 6 or later in the hour section of the clock and I know that once one of the three is up it won’t be long before the other two follow. Stockings and breakfast follow before they are allowed their presents from under the tree, some from us, some from friends and family and usually somewhere hidden a special present that requires their full attention.

It makes me wonder now how stressed my own parents must have felt with our presents. I must admit that when I was thinking about what to get the children I found it easy to dismiss demands for TV’s and iphones but some of the other, still expensive requests seemed reasonable, but why did they want these particular things, TV advertising, friends or even us putting ideas into their heads? I do feel pressure to get them the right thing, something they want but that also means they won’t get teased when they all go back to school and compare notes, after all that’s one of the things that kids do. This year we’ve done quite well with the requests as we started early enough but it hasn’t been as easy as other years, I don’t think it is for anyone, prices are going up, pay is staying the same and jobs are harder to come by. We are still lucky as I can be at home with the kids and volunteer at their school to get some experience points before job hunting next year, but even so it makes me feel for those who worry there is too little under the tree and it makes me worry about how consumerist we have all become.

It has been interesting that my younger children could think of lots and lots of things they would like while Hpops couldn’t really, there were things she would like and enjoy having but she was finding it difficult to think of things she really wanted, I myself have found it difficult and as a result most of us have settled for token things like luxury chocolates, vouchers for a favourite shop rather than specific, perhaps more expensive requests. When asked what the children would like it has become increasingly difficult as things have got so expensive, so we have stuck to things like Lego, annuals,book tokens. I can remember at their ages being delighted with such gifts as well as stationery of jigsaws but in the modern age these gifts are often seen as quaint or boring, after all if it doesn’t have a touch screen, move, talk or actively entertain them what good is it?  I feel that as good as the benefits of modern technology are traditional arts and crafts are losing out a bit, kids expect to be entertained. My pre-ipod daughter is good at entertaining herself, she reads, writes and colours in the littler two require more active entertaining, it isn’t enough to play a game once, Imp is just beginning to be able to play alone but we get frequent complaints that no-one will play with him, as we do from Pixie as well, they expect someone to entertain them and if the ipod is out of charge there is apparently nothing to do! This holiday we are encouraging them to play more board games, do more crafts and, goodness help us, talk to each other. During the first day of their holidays they have helped me wash the car, played Strictly come Dancing, written cards and delivered them to the neighbours and watched a film, the ipods are tucked away, for now!

 

This isn’t really a moan just a longing, we know that the traditional Christmas pastimes will only get us so far before the boring comments start, they’ll have annuals to read, lego to build and games to play and I hope they have a really wonderful time like I did when I was a kid, waking up full of excitement and pleased to get a whole selection box  or toy to play with. I know that on the day they probably won’t spare a thought for those children not lucky enough to be swamped with gifts or wonder who received the shoebox we made up for Operation Christmas Child but I do hope some day they’ll be sharing some lovely memories with their own children and that maybe they’ll be a little less stressed about the gifts and content to have their family around them. For me this Christmas that is what counts, having the kids around us and seeing the rest of the family over the holiday period, not the shiny paper and money spent and so on, especially after the events in Newtown last week, the children slain the same age as my own son, it makes me realise I’m lucky to have kids, to have things to worry about and I’m going to sit back and enjoy the ride!

 

Merry Christmas, and remember it’s the thought that counts!

As anyone who has watched the BBC in the last few weeks may know, tomorrow, Friday 16th November will see the massive fundraising telethon event that is Children in Need. Special editions of the Beeb’s favourite programs including Dr Who, Strictly, Eastenders and music from a whole host of events as well as heart breaking videos will fill the airwaves. My children will be watching some of these in the hope that they can see where some of the money that the school helps to raise every time it comes around actually goes, as well as getting an insight into the lives of those who are less fortunate themselves. The school this year is having a wear silly socks to school and a film and popcorn event, the children give a donation and then get to watch the film and munch popcorn, sounds good! For the first time when I asked the children how much they wanted to take in they went to their own money boxes and produced some money themselves. They’re keen to pay their own way. Not to mention that Hpops has been badgering me to help her with a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child. So off I went with the list of things she had made having read the information on the website, and then this evening we wrapped a box in paper, printed off the label and stocked the box with all the goodies. We went on-line to pay the postage and print off the barcode so that at some point we will be able to see where the shoebox ended up.

‘Mummy, how much did all this cost?’ Hpops asked me thoughtfully, so I told her and off she trotted returning with her money box. This time she handed me some money and told me we could go halves because she was the one who wanted to send the box, I was touched that she cared enough to give up some of her own money. Recently the trend of the children to spend most of their pocket money as soon as they get it, often on things they don’t need and get bored with after a couple of days has led to us setting up standing orders for the three of them for the majority of their pocket money. The rest of it they ‘earn’ through keeping their rooms tidy, putting their washing away and doing their homework without too much of a fight! We try to teach them the value of money as they had begin to adopt the ‘it’s broken, let’s get another one asap!’ attitude.

Hpops in particular has begun to learn as when the TV in the kitchen decided it wasn’t going to work anymore we decided that rather than rush out and replace it, instead we’d show them how to save up and get things they really want! The second way we have been showing them the value of money is by saving up nectar points. There is a certain set of Audio books featuring a certain wizard popular with children and adults that Hpops really wants, the complete set costs a heck of a lot of money so instead of buying them we have been saving up Nectar points, this has shown her how to save, we could have spent the points several times over but by saving with the points we have has the cash we would have spent and she will value them a lot more when in the next couple of weeks we finally reach our goal!

It has meant Mr T and I have had to stop buying things as soon as we want them to try and teach the children to do the same, after all if we tell them they have to save, think carefully about what they want rather than rush out and buy the nearest thing we have to model it! In this way it has helped us as well to prioritise what the family needs and what we can leave for a couple of months for, we are teaching then not to buy things unless they can go into the shop and buy what they want, rather than bargain with us and ‘borrow’ money. They have also been pleasantly surprised how much their pocket money and birthday money has built up since they have been saving their money and  even receiving interest!

My biggest tip for teaching children the value of money is to model it for them, show them that you have a saving goal for a luxury and encourage them to keep their money in a bank account so they can watch it grow, let them have a goal, maybe a longed for to and gadget. The chances are if they have saved for it themselves, the experience of buying it and having it will give them great satisfaction and they are more likely to look after it than the stuff they just get given!

We’re nearly at the end of half term really, we’ve so far been bowling, caught up with some friend and given treats to those who were out trick or treating. We didn’t go this year, instead we carved a pumpkin, coloured in some window decorations, watched a spooky film together with sweets and the kids dressed up. We discovered that Pixie didn’t like her costume because it was too ‘itchy’, Imp only had a Lightening McQueen costume so not particularly scary and Hpops was the only one dresses as a proper witch!

We are much looking forward to a fireworks party on Saturday, and having some family fun. We’ve done lots of crafty bits during the day which has now got much easier as Pixie is big enough to join in independently which means that I can divide my time more equally rather than letting the older two cause chaos. Of course the weather has meant that some of the more outside days out have been put on the back burner for now but Hpops enjoyed ‘Halloween hilarity’ at the stables!

 

Pixie is living up to her cheeky name at the moment and is now afraid to speak her mind, sometimes out loud, in public and rather embarrassingly! There was the time when she at the hospital asked me if she needed to see a different doctor because the first one wasn’t clever enough to sort out her problem, head down, hold her hand and pull seemed to be the solution here! I have to say when out and she says ‘Mummy..’ in that funny little way she has I cross my fingers and hope she just want to go to the toilet or something. I have discovered that raising the kids has been lovely, I have enjoyed watching them learn and grow but now I have to say I am enjoying going back to work part time as I am starting to have adult conversations again, have an interest outside of the house and have something other than running around after the kids to worry about.

To this end I have decided to try and find a teaching position next September, preferably part time so that I can continue with the writing and studying as well. I am hoping to find the fabled work/home balance, wish me luck.