A LIFE WORTH LIVING....: Quick catch up

Saturday, 23 February 2008

Quick catch up

Having two days not having to do anything has been just what I needed. I got up to see to Beauty both mornings so Al could have a lie in, but after that he took over and I just had to relax. I have had detox days before when I make and drink fresh juices but I found it really hard this time not so much in the detox effects but the lack of food!!!.
I enjoyed a wonderful hour and a half on Thursday afternoon courtesy of a lady called Reswana. I had reflexology then a full body massage with some bits of Bowen technique to help with my lower back pain.I have never felt so relaxed for ages and will have to try to find funds from somewhere to go more regularly.

Whilst I was in the clinic Alan and Emily had decided to take Beauty to the park as she had behaved so well last time he had taken her.This time however she was a nightmare barking and growling at every dog in sight.To be fair they did let her off at one point when they thought there were no other dogs around but she spotted one and went haring off but did come back when called, took her some time but at least she came back!!! I think the difference was that she had been left in the car for a short time while they had done some shopping and that must have got her wound up and would account for her behaviour.So still some way to go before we can fully enjoy the walks in the park.We will just have to keep going for short walks there and get her confidence up.

The rest of the day I rested and snoozed.Yesterday Al and Emily went off around 10am and I got to watch some daytime TV and generally just veg out!!! I snoozed for a couple of hours in the afternoon whilst Al and Emily played. By 6.00 I was starving and was glad to have some real food and then when Emily came home from her friends we read and then had an early night and I slept some more!!!

Today has been a cleaning day for us all and Emily and I tackled upstairs and managed to get her room done together without falling out!! She said she loves having a tidy room it's just the process of getting one that she doesn't like!!

After a quick lunch we went to see The Water Horse
Loved the Movie, it had stunning scenery and the story told by an old man in a pub was magical.
It had some predictable elements to it and if you liked ET I would guess you would enjoy this but overall it had us hooked, the acting was good and the Water horse was wonderfully created.

Back home and Milly watched some TV and I set about preparing turkey escalopes done in Parmesan breadcrumbs and a creme fraiche and sweet chili sauce on the side, with baby baked pots , spinach , broccoli .Milly had everything bar the spinach and sauce so we have another thing she will eat, must ensure not to make it too often though or it will end up on the "hated" list..

Today I have started off well with breakfast and lunch being very healthy and had a couple of juices as well. I had some M and M's at the cinema and could probably have had less at tea time but overall I have done well and will build on that over the coming weeks.That's the plan any how!!!!

2 comments:

Michelle said...: "managed to get her room done together without falling out!!"

Wow! Clo also loves having a tidy room and plays in there more when I've tidied it but is no good (like her father) at tidying up after herself. If she "helps" me she gets distracted by discovering things as she's tidying and gets diverted then I get frustrated and we fall out. So now I tend to blitz it on my own and "filter" stuff at the same time. She knows about the filtering as I've told her that's what I do and isn't happy about it - but not unhappy enough to keep things tidy herself. Also she rarely notices what I've filtered out. Today it was an empty Glenmorangie box and sheet upon sheet of a home made puzzle that she'd photocopied.; 23 February 2008 at 23:53
Lynn said...: This is uncanny, the routine could be any time we do the room together.I wonder how many more households have exactly the same situation!!
I usually find it easier to tidy by myself as well and was surprised when we got through it without incident.......; 24 February 2008 at 21:41

This is me.....

There comes a time when you have to stand up and shout: This is me damn it! I look the way I look, think the way I think, feel the way I feel, love the way I love! I am a whole complex package. Take me... or leave me. Accept me - or walk away! Do not try to make me feel like less of a person, just because I don't fit your idea of who I should be and don't try to change me to fit your mold. If I need to change, I alone will make that decision.When you are strong enough to love yourself 100%, good and bad - you will be amazed at the opportunities that life presents you.” Stacey Charter.

Why we Home educate

( Slightly edited from a blog post I did when we started out) In the end the actual decision to take Emily out only took a matter of days but before that it had been around a year and a half of talking about ti and reading books, Free range education by Terri Dowty, Educating your child at home by Jane Lowe and Alan Thomas were two that had a real impact for different reasons. Free range education has lots of examples of real life home educators and I think I can say that it was this one that convinced me the most that we could do it. We are two very average people ,neither of us left school with many qualifications, we went on to do quite well in our chosen professions and had no need to think about the education system at all until Emily came along.

I knew about home education and when Emily was born considered it as an optionbut always felt my lack of education would be a problem and that I wouldn't be capable of providing her with what she would need.Looking back with hindsight it is easy to see how wrong I was!!

School never really suited Emily......After the nursery year at a very highly rated, high achieving school we knew that particular School wasn't for us and took her out. We enrolled her in a lovely village school with only 70 children in the whole school .The ethos of the school was totally different, the children didn't wear uniforms and there was much more emphasis on the children being individuals.The head was a sensitive and principled man who wanted the best for the children. We thought we had struck gold.Over the reception and year 1 Emily gained confidence and really started to bloom. It was at this time she was diagnosed with dyspraxia( we had had to go down the diagnosis route as our observations of Emily's difficulties were not enough to enable the teachers to tailor things so she was helped and given less work in class) but she managed quite well in the more relaxed play orientated early years.Year 2 with more emphasis on academic activities got progressively harder for her. She is very sensitive and it wasn't just the academic side it was the embarassment of having to put her hand up for the toilet,seeing others being told off and worrying in case she did something wrong and got the same treatment, panicking because she couldn't do the work and the teacher never had time to sit with her (alot of this did not come out until she had left school) her behaviour at home became worse and worse she was so angry and obviously stressed . At this time we began to seriously consider taking her out but held back because of my lack of confidence in my ability to provide her with an adequate education ,my health being so poor was also a major stumbling block.

Then in year three it became blatantly obvious that something needed to change .She was struggling on all levels and we couldn't allow the school system to damage our daughter anymore.She became ill with a bug that was doing the rounds and she was off for two weeks , during that time I had a conversation with a friend who home educates her two children and I was so upset I couldn't make a decision and she said just go with whats in your heart and that really helped me to shift my thinking and stop worrying about what I couldn't give her and focus on what I could give her.

We never sent her back.I still get emotional when I think of that time , the look on Emily's face when we told her she would never have to go back to school was priceless,the immense sense of relief that we were off the treadmill of school life and the excitement of the time ahead and to be honest the fear of the unknown......

So here we are four years on and a lot of reading and researching later I feel comfortable with what we are doing . The changes that have happened so far have been helped along the way by the many wonderful blogs out there.They are so varied and there are so many different approaches , I have found ones that I can identify with and have read a lot of archive material that has been written in each and found answers to so many of the questions I have had that they have helped me to sort out what will work best for us .As much as I wish we had done this earlier and saved Emily from the distress that she went through I do believe things happen for a reason and that the time was right for us to take her out and that looking on the bright side one of the benefits is that at least she has had a taste of school and now we all know without a doubt that it is not for us !!!!

It is very liberating to be making decisions based on what works best for us as a family and not what society expects.

Let your child be a child.

No child was ever spoiled by too much love.

Be authentic with your child.

Listen openly to your child’s needs.

Believe in your child’s good intentions.

Find the humour.

Look past the behaviour… what is your child feeling?

Have fun with your child today!

“There is no reason why we cannot say ‘No’ to children in just as kind a way as we say ‘Yes’.” - John Holt

“Play is really the work of childhood.” - Fred Rogers

“The best way to make children good is to make them happy.” - Oscar Wilde

Children thrive in a peaceful and loving environment.

A child needs love most when things go wrong.

Children reflect the treatment they receive.

A few qoutes I like....

Life shouldn't be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in, broadside, thouroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly shouting, 'WOW'.... Beth Moore

The perpetual testing of public school children is like a gardener constantly pulling his plants up by the roots to see if they are growing....(unknown)

Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instuction...Helen Kellers teacher

I hear and I forget I see and I remember I do and I understand...Confusious