Dig for Victory

Two thunderstorms and torrential rain on and off during the night did NOT help my headache!

To make matters worse, I seemed to dream all night and you know how that means you wake up feeling you haven't slept?

Also not good for headaches (especially on day two of one...) is being out the front in the sticky humidity at 8.30am shovelling top soil! Having collected (or rather, Roarke collecting) 10 bags of top soil courtesy of Freecycle last night, I thought the least I could do was use them. It took 5 bags to raise the part of the driveway that had sunken.

That was the part that Mum and I relaid in May for the second car to go on. It brought home the fact that - next week - it will be five months since Dad died. Don't want to even go there...

I did a fine impersonation of a fisherwoman today. Joshua and Samuel wished to play outside first thing but William wanted them to play indoors with him. The little lad has been being left out abit over the past two weeks - largely due to the others having issues/attitude problems following a bullying incident at Sunday School - and not treated very well, so I asked them to stay indoors whilst I was working out the front.

Of course, this never works, does it, as it meant they had an "attitude" and so didn't play either nicely or fairly with Will. Despite only one window on the front being opened, we could hear William screaming and yelling very clearly.

Next thing we heard was ME yelling! I opened the front door and yelled up at them all to come down - but what I didn't realise was a) their bedroom door was shut and b) they couldn't hear anyway over William!

The level to which I raised my voice before finally being heard (having muddy boots and not being in the mood to take them off to go upstairs and SO in the mood to shout) was enough I should have thought to rattle the windows of the school opposite... nevermind the LEA visiting -I'm surprised it isn't the Noise Abatement people!

Hmmm. Note to self... (mutter, mutter)

Things brightened up though (especially after I dosed myself up with painkillers and decongestant) and the boys settled down to English. Joshua is, apparently, writing a book. This is how autonomous education works - after 13 months of panicking that Josh does not want to pick up a pencil, and forcing myself not to push him due to his hangups (courtesy of school) over the dysgraphia, the child decides for himself to write. Oh yes, the book is being written by hand - not on the pc!

Meanwhile Samuel has decided to carry on writing (on the pc!) a story he started a while back. He spends so long looking up every spelling, bless him, that it takes him an hour to write one paragraph. Still, knowing how he struggles with words, I am so proud of him. He came rushing in at one point and said "Mum, I just wrote 'astonishment' all by myself - 'cos that does mean 'surprised' doesn't it?". Again, autonomous HE rocks - at least for my lads.

However, William informed me that "I will do my learning, but later after I've played on the 'puter". An excuse copied word for word from his older siblings...

Made two loaves today - and we had a dinner that didn't involved courgettes, just for a change.

The boys have been watching Evacuees avidly over the past week and today saw the end of the programme.

Unbeknownst to them, Mum and I are hatching a plot. We intend to spend a day helping the boys relive that experience here! Tee hee! Mum was born in 1942 and is well aware of the issues of rationning - we grew up on many war time recipes and still use them for our Christmas pudding recipe. Mum will help plan authentic meals for the day. The boys can do the washing by hand (need to borrow a mangle - I remember doing THAT as my weekly chore even when I was a kid as we weren't very well off). No computer. No tv. Only the radio. And I'll select what toys they are allowed to play with. Oh and they can dig over the vegetable patch!

What do you think? Who do you think would give up first?!!

Seriously though, I think it could work, and would tie in with the other work they've been doing on WWII.

I managed to work some more today on our resource pages, especially some of the history ones - see the new links on Ancient History, European History and World history in particular.

Still a long way to go!