Broadening your Education

On the way to school each morning we tend to listen to Radio 2.  One of the reasons for this is that it coincides with when Chris Evans plays his 'Super 70s Smasher'; a tune (unsurprisingly) from the 1970s.  This morning it was the Rolling Stones.  A crucial part of this feature - at least as far as my kids are concerned - is the competitive element: you have to try and name the year when the song was released.  Every day we guess - after all, these songs came out before I was born, let alone the boys - and we've been keeping a tally for weeks now of how many each of us have got right.  Joel is thrilled that he has been right more times than I have...  It's always a trauma if Chris forgets to tell us the year though; I have to go home and ask Mr Google...

It got me thinking again about how important it is to teach your children things they may well never learn about in school.  I've mentioned before how Jimi Hendrix has saved our school run.  I'm disproportionately proud when Joel can name the band he's listening to...  I mean - I know it's not going to save any lives or anything - but it pleases me that he can recognise Stevie Wonder or the Jackson Five.

I'm thinking about making the boys an album of seminal tracks.  Music that all kids everywhere should grow up with as part of their DNA.  But where to begin...  I know I could make an epically long play list - but I don't want to do that.  If you were making a CD, and had maybe 15 tracks as your limit - what would you put on it?  What song is so important that you would put it on there?

Thinking back to my own childhood music recipe; I mostly remember Eric Clapton, Abba, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles and Carole King. My Dad used to pilfer guitar riffs from all over the place though when he led worship at our church. It was only relatively recently that I discovered the opening chord sequence he used for a song called 'Rejoice, Rejoice' was actually from 'Substitute'by The Who...   I suppose it was one way of broadening our musical education!

So what would be on your list?  The Beatles?  The Rolling Stones?  U2?  Mozart??? 

I may be some time...

Harvest Festivals - the Trilogy

This morning I went to my third and final Harvest Festival of the year.  Once your children get to school, you don't do these things once - oh no...  once is for wimps!

The first of these was Joel's.  Years one and two in school trek off to the local parish church; sing some songs, and listen to a chat from the vicar there.  All good fun.  I particularly enjoyed not having a squirming toddler on my knee.  In years gone by, I have been the parent chasing a wiggly and noisy toddler about whilst everyone else is trying to hear their pride and joy say their one line in the school production.  It was nice to not have to think about taking enough toys / snacks / nappies to get through thirty minutes, plus the always-longer-than-you-think waiting for something to actually happen time.  I also particularly enjoyed the kids singing 'Cauliflowers fluffy'; with additional dance moves.  Marvellous.

The second Harvest Festival was actually a harvest / thanksgiving / 1st birthday service at our church (how's that for multi-tasking?!)  Our congregation have been meeting in the local primary school for a year now.  It was a good chance to celebrate all that has happened over the last year; and to thank God for all He has given us individually and corporately.  We did this through the medium of huge ice-cream Sundaes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, singing, bacon sandwiches and prayers of thanks chalked on the playground. We have learnt a lot over the past year, and look forward to what God has for us in the years to come.  I'm sure God would have us dream big dreams for our future together; after all, as Bill Hybels would say: "The local church is the hope of the world". 

My third and final part of my Harvest Festival trilogy was this morning.  The Nursery and Reception age children aren't traipsed down to the church - they do their celebrating in the school Hall.  They all came in wearing headbands with certain vegetable pictures attached; Nathan was a cabbage...  They told us the story of Oliver's Vegetables; where a small boy searches his Grandad's vegetable patch in the hope of finding some potatoes to make some chips; in the process, he finds lots of other vegetables, which of course turn out to be very tasty...  My favourite part of the proceedings had to be the rousing rendition of 'Big Red Combine-Harvester'.  They were brilliant.

So what have I learnt from my Harvest Trilogy?  Well, I've certainly learnt that it's hard to pick songs that are perky tunes, fun for the kids and that actually thank God for the amazing things he gives us.  What's your favourite harvest song?  My personal favourite is probably 'Blackberries in the Hedges', but no-one around here seems to know that one...

Also, and I know this makes me sound old, but there is always something to be thankful for.  I think whether it's the joy on a child's face as he sings, the fact that you don't have to worry about wiggly toddlers, or something bigger like the sun and the rain that help things grow.  God has given us so many things, and I think it does our perspective and mental health endless good to be grateful.  Life might not always be easy (I know, no surprises there) and I'm not advocating pretending life is all shiny when it isn't; however, I know I'm more likely to be content if I focus on the multiple blessings from my heavenly Father than on the things that bug me, or that I don't have.

Today, try to cultivate (ooh, appropriate gardening term alert... pleasing!) an Attitude of Gratitude.  What are you thankful for?

School runs, 'the wall' and Jimi Hendrix

This Sunday one of my friends from church ran the Berlin Marathon.  I know, crazy chap.  Aaron ran the Marathon, because he wanted to - but also to raise money to support Christians Against Poverty; a marvellous charity helping people out of poverty - but also helping people avoid getting into debt in the first place.  There's still time to sponsor him if you like; just go to his Just Giving page.

I haven't seen Aaron yet since Sunday, so I don't know how it all went.  I was thinking about him this morning, and wondering if he had hit 'the wall'.  The metaphorical wall (after all, I'm hoping he managed not to run into any real ones...) when your legs turn to jelly, and you just feel like you can't go on...

I wondered this, because this morning - Nathan hit 'the wall'...

I kind of expected that this would happen at some point.  The novelty of going to school has worn off now; but it hasn't quite yet been replaced by the stamina required to make it through without tears.  He was properly tired this morning, and sad. 

"Can I stay at home with you, Mummy?"  "The day is too long..."  "Will you come in with me?" *generalised sobs*

He even tried to bargain with me, and ask if I would pick him up at lunch time.  If he can negotiate like that whilst crying and only four - hopefully he'll have the Middle East peace process all sorted by the time he is ten.

I gently cajoled him through the process of getting ready for school.  Breakfasted, dressed, clean(ish) and ready, he sat in the car - still crying - until the radio came on.  Thank heaven for Jimi Hendrix...

After a couple of bars of the opening guitar riff, the tears were forgotten.  Well - at least till we got to school.  Bless him; nothing soothes the pain of school like a bit of awesome guitar. 

He went into school, a bit sad again - but not as sad as he could have been.  I've promised him fish fingers for tea, in honour of his perseverance.  I think I might be cooking favourite teas all week actually.

So - what do you do when you hit the wall?  Just keep running.  That and listening to some Hendrix anyway.

School days

So it finally happened...

I remember, back in the haze of exhaustion of looking after a toddler and a baby, I foolishly calculated how long it would be before my boys were both at school.  It was a long time away; I must have been crazy to even think about it at the time.  I think sleep deprivation makes you go a bit bonkers.  Don't get me wrong, I love both my kids very much; but during the relentlessness that is parenthood with tiny ones, I briefly looked forward to the halcyon day when someone else would be responsible for them - if only for a portion of the time...

We're now over half way through Nathan's second week at school.  How did that happen?  The baby mentioned above is now a truly handsome four year old.  Astounding.

He's enjoying school.  I know it helps that he's been going to the school each day with Joel for longer than he can remember - in fact when Joel was in Reception, Nathan used to cry each morning because he wasn't allowed in!  Nathan also did his Pre-school year at the School's Nursery; so he's feeling pretty at home.  He knows about half of his class already; so I guess it's just like he moved room for him really.

It's going to take a while to build up the stamina for school though.  They're all a bit tired out by doing five full days.  According to their super-TA, one of them fell asleep yesterday afternoon during their story time.  Ah well, I can think of afternoons when I would happily do the same.

So, to my lovely friends still battling the baby / toddler phase.  It really does go faster than you think.  Enjoy your little ones.  Nathan's still little really; in comparison to Joel (he's 6 going on 36) - who's coming home full of details of the scientific experiments they've been doing, and asking me ever more difficult questions such as "why can't you see gravity?"...

Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think...

Curve-ball Questions and Winter Warmers

Yesterday I went on a school trip with Joel to Kenilworth Castle.  This was good fun, although it was exceedingly cold...  It was bitter, particularly in the morning when it was grey and blustery.  The sun did make a valiant attempt to break through later on though; unfortunately, by the time it had had any noticeable affect on the temperature - it was time to get back on the coach...  Oh well, that's life I suppose.

We had never been more appreciative of coats, hats, gloves, scarves and wellies. And for the flask of tea which I'd brought...  We huddled together for warmth like penguins.  Shivery doesn't cover it.

Part of the day was spent following 'English Heritage James' around different parts of the castle.  EHJ had an interesting job keeping the kids interested, but he did it well; asking the children to compare the rooms / ruins we were in, with their equivalent rooms / ruins at home.  The things that are obvious to adults aren't always the things children notice however - and this did lead to some slightly unusual questions and comments from the little darlings...:

"When is it lunch-time?" (When we'd just arrived...)
"If I was rich, I wouldn't have a picture of Samuel Pepys on my wall"
"Are you a doctor?"
Child: "Oak isn't wood" EHJ "Yes it is, it comes from oak trees" Child: "No it doesn't"
"Where are the horses now? Are they dead?"
"Did the princesses do any jousting?"
"I couldn't find any treacle balls..." (trebuchet - I think...)

EHJ coped manfully with the curve-balls he was thrown, considering the complete unpredictability of children and what they will ask...  The children left happy, having had a brilliant day.  To be honest, they were thrilled just by the coach ride there and back; so all the fun in-between was just a bonus.

Whilst looking out the window on the way home, we noticed a field of horses - also wearing their winter warmers...  They had quilted coats on.  You know it really is cold when the animals need clothes.  I was musing with a fellow mum that maybe the horses could have done with hats, gloves or maybe ear-muffs...  Oh how we laughed...

Shepherd no. 1

Christmas play season approaches... 

In Joel's class they've been learning songs for their Christmas play since they went back to school after half term, so it's not surprising that a small slip of paper came home with Joel this week.

On this small piece of paper were the four short lines that Joel (aka Shepherd no. 1) has to learn for the play.  This shouldn't be a problem for the boy who could tell you how long any given person from pretty much any series of Total Wipeout took to complete the Qualifier (Knock out Chris? Well, that would be 1 minute 10...)  Memory is one of Joel's strong suits.

The only slightly disconcerting element was found in the final sentence, asking me to provide a costume for the Shepherd, which needs to be in school by the end of the month.

How do you dress a Shepherd??  Last year I think I had it very easy actually, as Joel was a narrator - and just had to wear uniform.  I know the classic nativity shepherd attire would be a dressing gown, probably with tea-towel head gear; but Joel doesn't even have a dressing gown (I know - such neglect...  Well actually, he's always boiling - so he'd never wear one anyway.)  I'm not sure he's going to go for the whole tea-towel thing either.  Joel's never really liked dressing up anyway...

So - any ideas?  Particularly ideas that don't involve sewing prowess. 

All I need now is for Nathan's nursery play to also need a costume of even greater difficulty - like being the donkey!  There is no job in the world that requires as complex a skill mix as Motherhood.

Happiness is - a cup of tea in bed...

Yesterday, on the wettest and most horrible day of the school run so far this year, I was blessed in many ways...

My husband happened to have taken the day off, having worked on Saturday this weekend just gone.  Joel was very happy that Daddy was going to be around, and (unprompted by me I hasten to add!) asked Paul to take him to school.

Paul - being as he is a nice Daddy, and also because I had got up early with the boys on Sunday - agreed to take the boys to school.  So the next morning, with the wind howling and the rain pelting down, my three boys set out from the house, whilst I remained curled up in bed.  Heaven.

Life got even better when Paul got home, when he (again unprompted by me - wonders will never cease!) brought me up a cup of tea.  I think tea making might be one of my love languages...

Paul ended up doing all the school and nursery runs yesterday, and I even managed to have a singing lesson without taking Nathan with me.  Paul even did a food shop...  It was nice that Paul had a day off, and effectively I had one too - although I still cooked everybody dinner.

I think, although the school runs went well (unlike this morning, but that's another story...) Paul now has renewed appreciation for what I do each day.  I am very grateful.  Well done super-dad!

Food is not 'bad'

Am I the only person worried by how much schools are pushing 'healthy' eating? 

My elder son Joel has just finished his first year at primary school, and during that time he's learnt a lot about all sorts of things.  He's loved school, which of course is great.  His school have helped him settle in, and generally been brilliant; so I don't want this to sound like a disgruntled parent rant...

Don't misunderstand me - I'm all for children eating healthily.  My children have a pretty good diet, plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, sensible-ish amounts of protein, carbs etc etc.  Not too many sweets.  Even the odd bit of oily fish.  They aren't over-weight and their teeth aren't falling out.  All in all, they're a picture of health and energy - they're certainly active enough to be exhausting me over the summer holidays!

The thing is, Joel now regularly reads packaging on food and tells me how many calories there are in each portion, or how much fat they contain.  He asks me if they have too much salt, or too much sugar.  And I guess all of that is fair enough; what bothers me is how each food has been given the label of 'heathy' or 'unhealthy', 'good' or 'bad'. 

Joel recently told me that chocolate was unhealthy, which personally - I thought was a major disaster!  Not to mention a gross over simplification...  Chocolate has actually been shown to be good for all sorts of things. 

I don't think there are many foods that could truly carry the label 'bad', and I guess they'd be the ones full of artificial additives and things which when given to children, you knew that within 20 minutes you'd be scraping them off the ceiling. 

I think talking about how much your body needs of something, rather than whether it is good or bad has got to be the more sensible approach, especially where children are concerned.  Children are so impressionable, and at this early stage words from teachers are taken as gospel truth.  I think labelling any food as bad is potentially dangerous too, given that so many younger and younger children are considering dieting, and the rates of eating disorders in children and young teenagers are higher than ever.

Food is GOOD

The boys and I have just made a chocolate cake - we just won't eat it all today...