Week in Review - week ending June 30th

Week in Review

In my life this week...

I've been ridiculously tired this week. My baby seems to be having a growth spurt, because my bump is growing very quickly at the moment, and her kicks seem bigger almost every day that passes! Heather was concerned about me at church last Sunday because she said I looked exhausted and pale, and thought maybe I wasn't getting enough iron. She suggested Floradix so I went and bought some, and have taken it as consistently as I remember to since Monday (two doses a day, sometimes I forget the evening one). I will be 24 weeks pregnant on Tuesday, so I'm excited about that milestone! :) Yay for viability for my little one! :)

Because I've been SO tired out physically, I haven't had much left emotionally and mentally either, so it's been hard to manage the boys this week. I had help on Thursday because Heather came over for the day to help out (she does this every Thursday, pretty much, mainly to do housework for me!). The boys have bickered and argued and melted down WAY more than usual this week, and it has been extreeeemely wearing, even if I didn't have the hormones and exhaustion to add to the mix. Benjamin and Samuel have inexplicably thrown many screaming-on-the-floor tantrums each day, which isn't really like them, and Elijah has been clingy and screechy when tired or hungry, as he usually is, and ohhh it has been a hard week! I think (?) maybe everyone is overtired. Some nights they had a later bedtime than they're used to, and didn't make up for it by sleeping in (they get up between 6 and 7am regardless), so maybe that didn't help? I have no idea! But I hope next week is better!

In our homeschool this week...

So many bits and pieces, which I'll try to note here as much as I can.

We read and worked through some more of Arthur's Apologia Science: Zoology 2 course. We are still working through all the activities in chapter one, and taking our time to do so, because there's plenty there to work on! The experiment this week was about the pressure exerted on our lungs in deep sea water, which involved a balloon inflated in a plastic bottle and then stamping on the bottle to see what happened to the balloon (or, the lungs!). All SIX boys were fascinated with this experiment, and Elijah and Samuel have played with the bottle and balloon (still in situ days later!) ever since!

Matthew has done some maths in the form of maths games online this week, and also has done a lot of writing letters on paper as part of play with his brothers. His letter formation is surprisingly good - at least I shouldn't say that (!) but I was surprised, as the times I have tried to get him to do handwriting lessons (which he dislikes intensely and has resisted!) his letter formation has been really poor and it seems like he's not aware of what letters he's even writing, just copying squiggles that mean nothing to him. This week he wrote nonsensical words like "pore" (with the 'e' back to front) and then asked me what it said - lots of words like that. His letters were all really clear, which was encouraging to me! :) We've done a lot of "chatty maths" with Matthew and Nathan, in a very casual way, again this week. Things like doubling numbers, adding, and so on. This has gone well, in terms of what they seem to understand of it (especially encouraging re. Matthew, much more so than Nathan).

Nathan has done a LOT of drawing again this week, and colouring. His pictures that he is drawing are becoming more complex and detailed this week, I have noticed. He has been building Lego and Duplo a lot as always, mostly machines and things like that, which are also becoming more complex lately. He has been working on his wipe clean book (covers maths, handwriting, telling the time, etc.), and asked me how to do the pages on telling the time. I gave him a quick explanation of how to read the clock to the hour, and that's it, he said, "Oh, okay." and completed all the questions and drew hands on clock faces, etc, within minutes. TOTALLY gets telling the time to the hour. So different from Matthew, which is both a relief and a concern - such a nice relief to be able to teach a child with such ease again, and reminds me of my concerns over Matthew...

Nathan has also been writing letters a lot this week, and randomly wrote the word "me". I told him he wrote a real word and asked if he knew what it said. He looked pleased with himself but said no, he didn't. I reminded him of the sounds of the letters and he knew it said, "me". That sounds simple, but it's the first time he's allowed me to do anything involved with teaching him to read at ALL, which is lovely! :) He seemed really pleased and smiled about it for ages, so hopefully he'll be more open to these things from now? Our All About Reading curriculum arrived from the States this week - less than a week shipping time!! :) I spent a couple of hours putting it together and it looks great! :) The boys seemed excited when it arrived, so I'm hopeful about it. I need to make some time to prepare to teach it, and then we can get going (hopefully!).

Arthur went to Heather's house for a history lesson Wednesday. They did various crafts and activities related to more medieval British royal history, and then apparently Arthur started to seem bored and act silly, so Heather took her daughter and Arthur to their allotment as a change of pace! :) They did a lot there. Arthur learned to identify a lot of different vegetable plants, and did some weeding. They harvested rhubarb and Arthur brought a huge bag of it home! We have had rhubarb crumble twice this week, hehe! While Arthur was out all morning, the boys at home played with homemade playdough (big success!) and spent ages in the garden, and did drawing, etc.

Lots more strategic war games initiated by Arthur this week. He continues to read history reference books at least 2-3 hours per day, chatting his way through it as he is in his own little world while he reads and learns. He recreates much of it in play as he goes, or right after. He also is spending an hour at least each day reading animal/nature reference books, especially fish, reptiles, insects and dinosaurs at the moment. He casually chats about all sorts of things in history, starting, "Did you know that such-and-such happened when...." etc. which opens up into a conversation about why, and what happened next. He has a firm grasp on everything historical that he talks about and can answer questions on a tangent even.

On Friday it rained all day. Arthur read SIX books (two of them in part)! Four of them by 2pm! He started with Enid Blyton's 'Island of Adventure' book (requested more in the series - I have the rest of the set of 7 or 8 on the way thanks to a great deal at eBay), then started the Boxcar Children series - we have the box set with books 1-4. He had lost the first one so he started with the second, and then read the third. Then became desperate to find the first one, so searched the house for ages in a bit of a state (!), and finally found it and read it! :) He read part of Roald Dahl's Matilda, and book 4 of the Boxcar Children, and then part of one of the Enid Blyton Faraway Tree books, which he's read a zillion times so far. He has started a tradition of his own, reading a chapter of the first of those books (The Enchanted Wood) to Matthew and Nathan on the sofa at bedtime, while Neil and I take the younger three boys up to bed. He reads so well, and brings the story alive with his voice and the way he dramatises it, and they love it!

Also on that rainy Friday, both Arthur and Matthew had individual time on the laptop for what they call "map work", which is basically travelling the world via Google maps, usually with various atlas and reference books spread out all over the table. If I let them, they can spend HOURS doing this without getting bored! But I usually try to keep it between 1 and 2 hours depending on what else is going on in the day, or around that time. Sometimes it's only 15 minutes or so.

Benjamin was recognising some letters on Saturday - he wanted to know what the xylophone letters (notes) said, and I told him their phonics sounds. He picked them up pretty quickly. He has been playing the xylophone a lot since then, and not just to make noise, which is nice! :) He really otherwise shows no signs of any sort of academic readiness, so if he does, even slightly, then I'll make mention of it here! These are milestones, even if they're little ones! :)

Elijah's "work" this week has been to continue his exploring. He is still loving Peekaboo, and banging things as his favourite laughing games. He loves round and round the garden on his tiny hands, and initiates by putting the tip of his thumb to the palm of his other hand and murmering in a sing-song way, as though he's saying the rhyme himself. :) He sits and "reads" books for 30+ minutes at a time, either by himself or side-by-side with Samuel, who has been doing this activity since he was Elijah's age. They are not necessarily picture books, but they turn each page, and "read aloud" as they go. Sweetest sight ever when they're sitting in front of the bookshelves working their way through piles of books on the floor side-by-side! :)

Elijah doesn't have any words yet, as such, but he says, "Aaaaooow" carefully when he hurts me (he headbutts and bangs with his hands a LOT, and not being affected by "no" yet!) if I say, "Ow!", as part of understanding what he did, and then he shakes his head for no. He says "Daddy", "deh-deh" (for I want that), "dowww" (just once so far, said very carefully and slowly, for 'down' when he wanted to get off the bed after waking from his nap), and "deh-dee" (very similar to Daddy, for "drinky" when he is thirsty at bedtime/naptime as he sits up and reaches for the drink).

Elijah figured out climbing into the open bottom drawer in the living room to get to the surface of the merchant's chest where lots of things are piled! Also how to use a toy or sofa cushion to get onto the new chest (many times) and onto the window sill - scary!! He did this by climbing from the object onto the school table, and from the school table onto the window sill! Yikes! :S He is head-butting a lot (walls, doors, floor, people, etc!), either for fun in calmness, or when he's more agitated, in frustration - another child to be on the autistic spectrum maybe??... Been there, done that, so I have suspicions, along with the ones I already had from his early babyhood and colic, sensory preferences, intolerance of baths (he's temperature sensitive like Arthur), laughing at typically scarily loud noises, etc. Hmmm...

He enjoys putting things into things right now, and shaking them in containers, taking lids off and trying to put them on again (mucho frustration). He likes banging like crazy on the baby keyboard to get "music" out of it. He likes banging ANYTHING hard against anything hard and noisy (mirrors, radiators, doors, etc) - he does this with such intensity and vigor! Gritted teeth and shiny eyes, lol! He and Samuel enjoyed a metal baking tray full of uncooked macaroni pasta on Friday after dinner, with a couple of metal spoons each. The NOISE!! They loved it, but Samuel got tired of the noise quite quickly. Elijah couldn't get enough and I had to call it a night for him eventually - I think he would have carried on all night otherwise! ;)

Places we've been and people we've seen...

On Saturday (a week ago, not this past weekend), we all went to a midsummer fete with a traditional Victorian fairground and lots of stalls and things. The weather was dreadful (rain and wind!) but we had lots of fun all the same! Samuel was traumatised sitting with Neil on the carousel, but Benjamin loved it! This photo is the only one I got where Samuel wasn't screaming with his head back! Poor boy! I got one of Benjamin too, but he was sitting with Heather's daughter and I don't want to post any photos of her "face-on" on my blog in case Heather would not like it. Little 'Lijah waved his paper flag enthusiastically while he watched his brothers go round!

We ate hotdogs (real sausages, none of that carcinogenic stuff!), popcorn and cupcakes, and wore raincoats! ;) Here are the littlest boys begging Daddy for popcorn, and enjoying it! ;)

Heather makes crafty things and often sells them on stalls at such events, and she had a stall at this one. We helped them out by Neil taking our big vehicle to load up all her craft things and then transported them to the fete (and back again at the end of the day), and Arthur begged to go early to help set up. Neil left him there setting up with Heather and her family for two hours before the rest of us turned up for the start of the fete, and Arthur had a lovely time helping (and was apparently very helpful!). He discovered a pond with ducklings and baby coots, and was desperate to show his brothers when we were there. Before we came home, we spent a while at the pond watching these sweet little birds!

The next day at church, it was an all-age family service (no children's groups) which our church does once a month. This time it was something we hadn't experienced before - "Messy Church" with a nature/creation theme! Samuel went off with Heather and created with playdough, painted with vegetables, and built Duplo. Benjamin did playdough with me, and then chose to work on the collage/sticking with glue activity table. He also did some painting with vegetables and built Duplo. Nathan was mostly focused on building Duplo, unsurprisingly! He built an impressive ship, which all the kids played with afterwards! He did some playdough as well. Matthew didn't seem to gravitate towards any of the activities particularly, and seemed happy just building Duplo most of the time. Arthur spent some time with Matthew at the Duplo centre, and then took himself off to do some collage, cutting and sticking nature pictures - he was very focused on this for a long time. They're all a bit young for the creative writing stuff that was going on, and didn't seem interested in the oil pastels and still life artwork. It was a really fun morning though! :)

On Thursday, Heather came round for the day - she does this most Thursdays to help me with the housework and the boys (mostly housework, usually). She took Benjamin and Arthur to the shops to buy clothes pegs, and then later Matthew and Nathan to the high street for various things. They went to lots of shops, browsed for ages in the charity shop (bought toy cars), went to the cafe for milk and chocolate sticks (!), and then to the library where they looked at books for a while. The boys spent a lot of the day in the garden - I forgot to say, they used adjustable pliers to try fixing Neil's bike in the garden, turning it upside down and stabilising it, then trying to attach the wheels! They asked for a screwdriver but I didn't know where I had one, and didn't REALLY want them to use it - I reckon I should relax more and let them at it next time... Arthur made rhubarb crumble with Heather later, doing all the measuring and everything except stew the rhubarb, and rub the butter in (dirty fingernails no matter how he scrubbed them from garden play right beforehand!).

This Saturday (just gone), all six boys went to the park with Neil for the afternoon. I tried to rest up and clear my head a bit, which should have been blissful but I just didn't get anywhere and felt tired and deflated by the time they got home! :/ Oh well!

Yesterday (Sunday), we went to church, the boys went to their groups and had fun, and we spent the afternoon at the park in the glorious summery weather. I took a lot of photos, but haven't had chance to get them off the camera yet.

Things I'm working on...

Slot games for Elijah, which I've done in the past, but have been reminded of at Pinterest lately! Easy DIY stuff - hopefully I'll find time to prepare a few things for him soon! I want to prepare All About Reading, or at least figure out how I'm going to transition Matthew (see if he needs any pre-Level 1 help first). I also want to prepare science curriculum stuff ahead, including field trip ideas (rock pooling on the south coast is one of the things I want to do SOON).

I have started a written list of my morning routine with check boxes. It's just to keep me on track a bit better, because the morning has so many things that must be done, and if I'm having a tired or vague day, I come completely undone with the sheer juggling thing that has to be done, especially if the boys are being constantly troublesome with each other and I have to keep jumping off my train of thought to discipline or re-direct, or do the next thing that needs doing, before I've figured out what I even NEED to do next! Everything quickly gets overwhelming, and I want to cut through that. This was my first list on the fridge door, earlier in the week (and I had coloured in all but 3 boxes by 9.51am! Yay!):

It is really helping me keep on track so far! :)

What else? My grandfather's (Grandoug's) 88th birthday is this week, and the usual family get-together is on Saturday, which we're all looking forward to. I always make him a birthday cake, so I need to organise myself for that. Benjamin's 4th birthday is three days later on Tuesday next week, so I need to be organising myself for his cake and other birthday-related stuff too!

I'm cooking...

Apart from birthday cake?! ;) Some other food, probably, lol! Yep, still way too vague on that front, but c'est la vie right now! My children are getting fed, so it's okay! ;)

I'm grateful for...

Lovely weather! My little ones! Looking pregnant - I love it! Baby girl clothes arriving in the post! Church on Sunday evening - my turn yesterday to go, while Neil put the boys to bed. I found it sooooo refreshing this week, just some space to BE with God, to worship and pray, and to listen without distraction, to learn from the Bible. Loved it! :)

Elijah and Samuel cutting molars this week - Samuel working on all four 2-year-old molars coming through, and Elijah cut his first molar this week too - I'm so grateful that neither of them has had any particular symptoms! Some of my little ones have had a miserable time with molars and been quiet unwell, but these two boys are doing fine so far, for which I am really thankful! :)

I'm praying for...

Wisdom and direction re. our house move. We have to move, but we can't afford a thing in any useful area (as far as commuting and so on), and we don't know what to doooo. But meanwhile, we HAVE to move! And time is running out. Three and a half months to go until this sweet little baby arrives!

Something I have my eye on...

I can't think of anything right now! A good night's sleep?! ;)

I'll hopefully be "on time" next time - I know it's already a day into the new week and I'm only just now finishing my Week in Review post for last week. Ah well, at least I'm updating! It is taking me AGES to compile these posts though, more than I thought, so I am not sure if I can keep it up, and I'm terrible at making things more concise! ;)

Week in Review (well, fortnight!) - June 21st 2013

I forgot last weekend! So I'll try for a general review covering the past fortnight this time! :) I'm not sure if I'll be all that consistent, but I'll try - and thank you for the sweet comments on my first try at this, last time! :)

Week in Review

In my life this week (fortnight!)...

My pregnancy is going well! I'm 22 weeks now. I have had a growth spurt (or rather, the baby has!) and my bump is much bigger than before. I'm feeling well and it's SO nice to have my stamina back. I get tired and breathless fairly easily, but I have normal stamina now - I can stand to sing worship songs with a baby in my arms at church and not feel faint, lol! I have had the MOST joyful couple of weeks since we found out that we're having a baby girl, and I think it's sinking in properly now. :) I have already bought quite a few items of VERY cute girly clothing at eBay, and I'm trying to slow down a bit now because I know that Neil's sister and my brother (who each have a daughter) are passing on ALL their girly baby clothes to us in the coming months! Yay! :) It's so exciting!!!!

In our homeschool this week (fortnight!)...

Well, my memory is now completely hopeless, so I am not sure if I can even remember last week! Arthur had another history lesson with Rosanna (my doula's daughter) which he had a great time doing - he made another part of some medieval armour he's been working on - he has done the shield, and this time he made the breastplate. It's sized to him so he can wear it and have a lot of fun doing so! ;) He does a lot of writing and "book work" with his history lessons, as well as hands-on stuff and crafts, little plays, etc.  He really resists written work for me, so I'm glad he's doing SOME at least, elsewhere!

We've done some conversational maths with Matthew and Nathan this past couple of weeks, here and there - usually as they're getting dressed or ready for bed. They seem most open to it then, and take in more too. Nathan has no trouble understanding any concepts (so far). Matthew struggles with almost everything, in his head, but he seemed to take in and comprehend the addition stuff we were talking about in casual conversation. Hmmm...

I ordered 'All About Reading' Level 1 this week. We have 'Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons' which we used with success, I guess, with Arthur when he was 4-5 years old. He was bored by Lesson 70, and by then I wasn't sure if it would work for Matthew, so I researched and bought Rocket Phonics, which is GREAT! Arthur was away with reading by then and would have done well anyway, but following through with Rocket Phonics made a big difference. We got halfway through the 2nd (and final) textbook, but haven't done any more. There are some grammar tips in the remaining lessons which would be handy to do with him, but otherwise he is reading fluently at almost teenage level so I didn't think it was necessary. He reads for several hours each day (silently), but he likes to read things out to me that he's just discovered and which interests him (nearly everything, lol!), so I make sure I get to hear him read frequently and correct any mispronounciations. He still makes mistakes, but then he hasn't been formally taught some of the more complicated rules of reading the english language. I think I will look for a grammar curriculum at some point soon to fill in the gaps.

Anyway, I have been teaching Matthew with Rocket Phonics, and he loves it, and he IS progressing, but painfully slowly. He's not really reading, even though he can sound out the words and sentences at the stage of the book that he's at, just verrrrrrry slowly - and he retains almost nothing for the next lesson. I have had my eye on All About Reading for many months, coming across excellent reviews, and testimonies from people who have dyslexic children who are something like 9 years old and still not reading, etc. Also we use All About Spelling and it's FABULOUS, so I am already leaning with a bias towards trying All About Reading. I talked about it with Neil and he said YES, buy it and try it out. It's SO expensive, so it wasn't an easy decision! I was going to buy the pre-reader level for Nathan and eventually Benjamin and the others, and maybe to let Matthew fly through first for confidence, as well as Level 1. But the cost was too much, so I ended up going for Level 1 alone. I think he will be fine starting that without any pre-reader stuff. He doesn't know his alphabet thoroughly enough yet, though he has a pretty good grasp of his phonics alphabet - he just doesn't retain much so he may have forgotten half of it already! :/ I need to run over that with him first. And I feel confident doing an overview of the alphabet, uppercase and lowercase letters, and phonics sounds with Nathan before starting him on Level 1 straight off, as well. I have told them both that I've ordered it, and that it will be FUN! :) The bonus is that we're tracking it from Wisconsin (it's on a plane today!!!) and they are loving that each day! :)

Arthur has spent many hours this week (and last week, but more intensely so this week) following his history reference books through the wars and using whatever is at hand to recreate the strategic battle plans, and then acting them out with the pieces. He LOVES doing this right now, and he is learning a TON about the various historical wars. Mainly the First World War this week, but also wars worldwide from hundreds of years ago. He knows so much stuff that I don't know, now! I actually thought to take a couple of photos of him doing this around breakfast time this morning, so I could add it to my review post here! :) He chose to build simple army components out of Duplo this time, to re-enact some of the battles in the first world war.

Arthur has various BIG history reference books that he reads for pleasure, but this one he's using is The Usborne History of Britain. It's HUGE, and absolutely fantastic. My mum bought it for him, for his 8th birthday (if memory serves!), and he has read it cover-to-cover more times than I can count since then, and dips into it daily for his latest points of interest. It covers history from prehistoric times to modern day, and is full of photos and charts and so on, and the text flows really easily for kids to read, from what I have seen. When Arthur reads with interest, he retains pretty much everything, so he has the most amazing grasp of British history now! The things he comes out with when other adults randomly include him in conversation about something in British history from 1000 years ago or something, usually makes them lost for words for a moment, before thinking what to say next. They usually catch up with me at another time when he's not around to express their awe at his knowledge and compliment me (ME! Haha!) on the homeschooling progress! ;)

We've started the Apologia Science curriculum (Zoology 2) on sea creatures! Arthur has decorated a blank workbook by cutting out pictures of various sea creatures, and we've started work on the reading (we take turns reading aloud, but he read today's in his head and told me he remembered what had been read MUCH better that way, so I guess we'll go on like that then!). He is so excited with the material and can't wait to do all the experiments. So far we've done the first little one, creating gyres (circular ocean currents) with Cheerios and a hair dryer (and a brother blowing, since we only have one hair dryer, lol!):

 

 

He is doing some writing and drawing to fill in the various worksheet options (he isn't interested in all of them, but that's fine), and they're being glued into his workbook, along with photos like the one above, to show experiments. Right now we're trying to drink down a 2 litre bottle of cloudy lemonade as fast as we can, haha! We need it for the next experiment with a balloon, to demonstrate deep sea underwater pressure. I am really excited about this new curriculum! It gives tons of ways to stretch their "muscles" learning-wise, and it's FUN! We can record it, that's another plus, because Neil is really keen to have things recorded in case we are called upon to show what we've done at any point (which I know we have every right to refuse, in the UK, but anyway). I really like that aspect!

Arthur's interests spill over onto his brothers constantly. He draws them in with such enthusiasm, into his battle strategy games, sea creatures stuff, archaeology, dinosaurs, weather - any of his interests which flare up at any given moment. He CAN'T be ignored, such is his infectious excitement about these things, and they just get carried along and end up learning along with him, which is wonderful!

I have tried working on colours with Samuel this week - he is exactly two-and-a-half today! Halfway to another birthday already! Yikes! I have a sneaking suspicion that he is colour blind. Arthur and Benjamin are not. Matthew and Nathan are. Arthur and Benjamin knew a dozen colours with EASE (I told them once what a colour was, and therefore they knew that colour from then on) at 19 months old or thereabouts. Matthew and Nathan didn't know their colours, even the basic ones, consistently until somewhere between 2 and 3 (nearer 3), and even then it wasn't a dozen of them until more like 3.5. I only worked on blue, yellow and red with Samuel, and he didn't retain it at ALL, and couldn't tell me which was which afterwards. Soooo.... I know that's very little to go by, but a mama of many boys, some colour-blind, some not, KNOWS! ;) Or probably does. Now for Elijah - it'll be a while before we have any clues with him yet. And our baby girl will NOT be colour blind, but I'm hoping very much that she doesn't carry it (like I did, and which she has a 50% chance of doing).

Samuel has been doing lots of spontaneous practical skills this week, things like pouring water. He likes to go round after everyone has left the table and pour what's left of each glass of water into one empty glass. He is learning the limit and what will make it overflow, and I've noticed his ability to pour carefully without spilling is really good for his age. He likes Montessori activities and gravitates to them constantly, so I think it would be good to set up some of the many Montessori activities I've pinned to Pinterest, for him to do.

Elijah is climbing, being strategic about placing toys, boxes or sofa cushions in specific places to enable him to climb somewhere he wants to be, opening and emptying cupboards, and has finally mastered taking magnetic letters and pictures off the fridge, and having them facing the right way to stick them back on properly again! He spends ages doing this over and over at the moment:

 

The main thing Nathan wants to do right now is draw. He wasn't well last week and the thing that seemed to cheer him up and improve him the most was when I let him have his dot-to-dot colouring book and some paper, pencils and crayons in bed for a while. He builds and creates a LOT, always more imaginative and complicated things than his bigger brothers, and he spends a lot of time and energy doing so. He gets very upset when things are damaged by careless brothers, poor love! I hope he'll be receptive to the reading curriculum, because I'd LOVE to teach him to read now. He wasn't interested in learning to read yet, last I knew - which was some months ago now.

Benjamin plays, draws, (he still scribbles, like his brothers at his age - he'll be 4 in a few weeks, so if he's like they are, he will suddenly start drawing recognisable things overnight pretty soon), builds things, enjoys fine motor activities, spends hours with playdough, etc. Nothing "academic" yet at all - he ISN'T ready in the least, and it astounds me to think that despite being 3 (and NOT READY!!) he would be donning a school uniform and heading off to proper school in just over 2 months if he wasn't joining his homeschooled brothers! Some kids MIGHT be ready, but unsurprisingly most are not, and my summer baby certainly isn't. I have no plans to do anything academic with him this year, and maybe not for the first part of next year, depending on how he naturally progresses over that time. We'll see. NOT on my radar yet.

So much for a quick review post!! :/ I just can't do "quick"!!

Places we've been and people we've seen...

We've been to our old church twice in the past fortnight, with our usual church the middle weekend. Both were special occasions, and the boys have LOVED seeing their old friends and doing fun activities. There were games and fun stuff, and a bouncy castle, etc.

Matthew's birthday was last Friday and now he is SEVEN!!! Nathan came down with a temperature of 100 the night before, and a sore throat, but he seemed fine the next day, thankfully! Rosanna came round and Matthew requested some party games that are for littler children than he is, but he just wanted them so we did them. He wanted pass-the-parcel, pin the nose on the clown, and musical bumps, balloon bobbing, etc. They had so much fun! He didn't want a party with a bunch of kids (which would overwhelm him anyway, even if he was excited - his autistic-type tendencies mean he doesn't deal well with party-type situations in general), but we have almost enough children for a proper party anyway, so it works! ;) He got a kite for his birthday and wanted to go out to a big field (dog-free for Arthur) in the afternoon, and we had PERFECT kite-flying weather so we went! Rosanna came too. I have a ton of photos, which I desperately want to find time to post as a separate post here, for memory's sake, but I know that I've not managed to do that for MANY birthdays now, despite really wanting to. :( So I'm not sure if I will, but I will try!

Nathan was fine over the weekend and then on Monday he was crying with tiredness by 10am and slept until noon. When he woke he was dizzy and nauseated for 3 hours! :( Poor boy was so miserable! He recovered gradually and then was FINE, running about in the garden with his brothers and eating normally again. Weird virus! Then on Tuesday evening Benjamin was flopping about exhausted before he's usually tired, and when I took his temperature it was nearly 101 and he had a sore throat. :( He had chills and aches and nausea overnight and was pretty miserable, but FINE the next day like Nathan had been. A bit more tired than usual, but that's all. Thursday night (last night) he had a temperature of 100 at bedtime, but wasn't distressed with it, and he's been complaining of a poorly tummy (he couldn't define it as nausea or pain so I'm not sure exactly how he felt) on and off in between. It hasn't affected his energy or appetite, so I don't know what to make of it! I'm wondering if tomorrow will be the day he has dizziness and nausea like Nathan did? And if anyone else will come down with it - it seems to have at least a 4 day incubation period before symptoms start, but overall it's just SO WEIRD!!! :/ We haven't seen people because of not being sure of our germy status, these past couple of weeks, so we'll see how we go over the next week.

The boys have been out in the garden a lot because the weather has been gorgeous and warm. The last couple of days have been colder and with heavy rain showers. The boys had water play, chalks and paintbrushes, etc. on the good weather days, and had a huge mud/water fight which necessitated immediate baths upon entering the house, hehe! Fun times! :)

Things I'm working on...

Keeping up better with the housework. I have energy and a slightly less foggy brain again, so I'm trying to tackle kitchen chores at the start of the day and it makes a big difference. I clean up breakfast, start the dishwasher, put the night load of wet washing in the tumble dryer, and start a new load of laundry in the washing machine. On a good day I will sweep the floor! ;) I change nappies and dress little ones, then get myself washed and dressed, and then it's time for Elijah to nap, usually, as all of the above takes half the morning! Once Elijah's napping, the boys have usually been too noisy while I put him to bed, and their well-known consequence for this is 10 minutes of silence (nothing whatsoever to do/read) sitting on the living room floor when I get downstairs. Right after that I read aloud a chapter from Wind in the Willows, which they love, even if the littles don't understand all of the language. Then there is an opportunity for school type activities, and then 'Lijah wakes and it's time to make lunch. Elijah is clingy and screechy if I'm not holding him or RIGHT THERE within sight lately (well, the last couple of months really), which is tedious during times of pressure like getting a meal ready on time! I need to enlist the kids to help with chores and meals and so on. They are really resistant and it's hard work with the Asperger's Syndrome reactions. I need to work on a new way to tackle this. They do entertain Elijah for me as best they can, and often very successfully, while I start lunch. The afternoon is free-flow. I need a bit more structure, maybe. I am working on thoughts anyway. I also want to work on getting back to more focus on God in our days.

I'm cooking...

Who knows!! lol! It's been one of those weeks where I have no idea whether I'm coming or going when it comes to meal planning! Three times I had no idea what to give the kids for dinner (when it was already half an hour late) - they did get fed, by the way! ;) Neil and I have had a takeaway twice after the boys were in bed asleep. I had to throw out two packs of minced beef which I'd planned to make into spaghetti bolonese, because it has been "one of those weeks" and I forgot/didn't think in time before they went past their dates. :( I HAVE baked banana cake twice, and chocolate chip cookies today though! And a chocolate "house" birthday cake, as requested by Matthew, of course! :)

I'm grateful for...

Healthy children. And that this virus seems very mild. And that it's not Lyme Disease - Nathan was bitten by a tick about 21 days before he started being unwell and I was beginning to get worried about that, with how weird the symptoms were. Then Benjamin caught it from him, so yeah - phew! ;)

Kicks from my baby girl! :)

Summer time!

I'm praying for...

Wisdom and patience in parenting my more difficult children.

This virus to go away! We have our annual family gathering for my grandfather's 88th (!!) birthday on July 6th and CAN'T go if we have any sort of virus lurking about, given how old and increasingly frail my grandparents are. I couldn't BEAR that! :(

Something I have my eye on...

Still baby girl clothes, lol! ;)

Shoes that are small enough for my tiny walker (he's a proper toddler this week! Hardly any crawling and steady, faster toddling EVERYWHERE!) - I found two pairs of shoes in size 2F (!!!!) and 2.5F on eBay, so hopefully he'll fit one of those (probably the smaller pair right now) and can actually have some protection to his feet outside now!

That is a CRAZY long Week in Review post!!! Have a good weekend and week ahead, everyone! :)