Big J versus The Big Fella

Last week Big J was playing Cuponk with little success, when I heard him saying, "I wish I could get really good at playing Cuponk", fair enough, and then I heard him add, "Amen," and realised he was praying for better Cuponk skills! I laughed to myself as he continued listing things he wished for in the same way: "I wish... Amen."

We have not really talked to Big J about God, not being particularly religious or going to church ourselves, so I guessed he'd just heard prayers at school and thought he'd try them out to see if they worked.

Yesterday, we were all stuck at home after it snowed so much that the schools closed, so we went to the Sports Centre with a makeshift sledge. It started out as a lot of fun; we all had a go sliding down the slopes, having snow fights and generally having a good time. Then Big J started to get really cold and wanted to go home. His insistance that we go home NOW turned into anger at the snow and a declaration that he hated it...

"I hate snow, I really hate it....

...and I hate God, 'cos he made snow. That's just stupid. Why did he make such a stupid thing? He's an idiot. It's rubbish. He just made a load of rubbish...

...I hate the whole earth. He thinks it's good, but it's rubbish...

...I hate God. He's a poopy pants. He poos in his nappy. Anyway, I don't believe in him any more..

...How can he get up into space anyway without a rocket or something? I don't think he exists...

...And I hate Jesus. I hate God and Jesus. They are both rubbish..."

So, that seems pretty clear then. My son is not about to devote his life to God, apparently.

He did say today that he does actually like snow again now. I didn't dare ask what he thought of God today! I think I'll wait till he's playing Cuponk again!

I want to ride my bicycle....

At last, we have ditched Little Z's stabilisers for her bike (we will keep them of course as they were a present from Uncle Seanie!).

Last weekend we took Little Z out to Wilverley in the New Forest to ride her bike. She was so good at riding with stabilisers and had at last plucked up the courage to ride much faster than she used to, that we thought she was ready to ride without stabilisers. We took one of them off, but found that she was relying on that one to keep her upright while she started off with both feet on the pedals. The only way to get her riding properly was to take them both off.

We had tears and tantrums and kicking the bike (and that was just Larry! It's not easy teaching a stroppy seven year old to ride her bike!), but finally, lots of shouting, screaming and stropping later she was riding, albeit wobbly, without us holding on to her bike. Yippee!!

So, all we had to do now was to get her a bit of practice so she could start off by herself and ride around more confidently. But that would be easy, surely?!

I took Little Z out to the sports centre today to have another go. We had more tears and tantrums and kicking the bike, but finally, lots of shouting, screaming and stropping later she was pushing off by herself and riding, much more confidently. After shouting at me over and over again, "I want to go home. I don't want to ride my bike. I can't do it!", and me shouting back that we would not be going home until she could *£$% well do it, it was impossible to remove her from the sports centre where she took pleasure in showing me how fast she could ride and how close she could get to running over me while I was sitting on the grass!

Now, she wants a new bike, one with gears!

For Our Amusement

Today is hot and sunny, so staying in to watch TV with the children was out of the question.



I decided to take the children to the amusement park at the sports centre where there are about 15 different rides plus a few coin operated ones (which we just didn't have time to go on "on the way back"!) It has just reopened for this year and is super value for money. The price has gone up this year for the first time in at least 5 years, but I paid just £10 for 16 tokens which works out at just over 62p each. I don't think I can complain about that.

The amusement park is (as far as I can work out) run by one man and his dog. The dog wanders around the park among the people and the regular visitors get to know him. Of course the man does not run all the rides himself. He employs teenagers to help with running the rides. They are good with the children and very polite and helpful. For example, I went on a little train with the children and wanted a photo of us all on it. The young girl running the ride took lots of photos of us as the ride was running.

As always, it's the little things which make the difference with this park. Aside from the good value, I like the fact that the man running it does not appear to 'do it for the money'. Two years ago Little Z and I went there and we were the only ones in the park. The man was there more or less by himself and as I went to pay him (it was £5 for 12 tokens back then) he said, "no, don't pay yet. Let her have a few goes on things to make sure she likes it. Then you can buy your tokens." Again this year, I went to take Big J on the Astraglide, gave the man two tokens (one for each of us) and he gave me one back saying I didn't have to pay as I was taking Big J on. Somehow it makes the day more fun (see photos!) if you know you are not being fleeced by the park owners.















Okay, the rides are quite small and it's not Alton Towers, but as local attractions go, it is one of the best around here.

Swings & Roundabouts

This week has been good and bad. After a long chat with a very good friend at the end of last week, I was feeling positive again about doing supply work (not for the love of teaching other people's often badly prepared lessons and boundary pushing pupils, but for the love of my house and not wanting it to be repossessed!). So, Sunday afternoon came and I started to think about getting my work clothes and bag ready to make sure I was ready if the agency phoned in the morning. Then, Big J, who had not been feeling particularly well since Friday, started to look & feel (as far as we could work out) worse, coughing, sneezing and feeling hot. As a result, I could not go to work until Friday, by which time my motivation for getting out there and working a full week (oh, yes, I remember that.) had diminished. On Thursday night, I did however manage to talk myself into accepting work on Friday morning if the agency were to phone. And they did. (No, never start a sentence with "And").

As I had not been to work all week, I had been able to watch Big Brother (ooh look, I have just lost 70% of my blog visitors), which, although utter rubbish, I find sadly addictive as I am human and therefore nosey by nature. I was pleasantly surprised, then, to find that the children at Nursling Primary School were much better behaved and, for that matter, intelligent than the adults who seemed to be occupying the BB screen. From what I have seen this week, their prospects for the future are much brighter also. My day at Nursling was really enjoyable. My Teaching Assistant walked in and turned out to be a friend of mine whom I know from Little Z's school (one of the mums); the caretaker looked familiar to me, and I later realised we had worked together years ago at British gas (and there go the other 30% of my Blog readers!) and the children were well behaved, hard working and good fun to be with. The planning left for me was as good as I can usually expect and I all the staff were friendly and helpful. I hope I get an opportunity to go back there to work and will certainly apply if any more permanent vacancies arise.

On the job front, I have applied for a year 1 teaching post this week and should hear by Tuesday whether I have an interview. There are quite a few jobs to apply for at the moment, so I am going to be busy this week, making applications and trying to fit in visits to schools between teaching. I have at least 2 days' supply at a nice school in Bitterne I have taught at before, so I'm looking forward to that.

Saturday morning is usually "mum & kids" time as PP works from Midnight Friday night until about 1pm Saturday so is not around and when he does get home he is not really in any fit state to do anything but sleep. I usually take the children out on the bus or an a train ride, or we go to the city centre to look around the shops. This week, I thought we would do something which would not cost any money and if possible would not involve using any petrol either, so we went for a walk. I really do not know why I don't do this every week, as it is free and we all had a great time. It is also very healthy for me as well as the kids and encourages Big J to walk further instead of being pushed around in a pushchair (one of my pet hates is seeing 4 year old children in pushchairs, especially when they are sucking a dummy or eating crisps). This is where we went:

Southampton Sports Centre. It took less than 10 minutes to walk there from my house and is absolutely massive. It is hard to believe that such a huge place could be hidden away not far from the City Centre. There are running tracks, football pitches, netball / hockey courts, golf course, various multi use pitches a ski slope, a small boating lake (never seen boats on it, though), as well as a little funfair open Easter to October and a play park, from where I took all of these photos:





I had just as much fun as they did. There was a surreal moment when the children were both sitting on the bench, while I was on the swing...
(Think little Z did a good job of taking this photo)



Of course, walking in a lovely place like this during the colder, wetter time of year also provides cheeky little boys with the opportunity to splash in puddles and get as muddy as possible!





Finally, I have managed to get back onto my weightwatchers diet again this week and have stuck to it. Christmas is never a good time to try to lose weight, but I am just grateful for the fact that I managed to get through the festive period without putting on any weight. I lost about 1.5 lb this week, which although not much, is a step in the right direction and, to be honest, I am just happy to have lost some weight.

So, despite Big J being ill for a few days this week, I feel that the week has been quite successful. The highlight of my week, by far, (if anyone is still reading!) was on Friday at Nursling, when a little boy came to me and said, "Mrs Sheep..." Aww bless! He was soon corrected by a little girl who said, "She's called Mrs Lamb!"

Have a great week everyone. Remember, however bad your week may seem, it won't be as bad as Jade Goody's!