We’re into the sunshine term of hat wearing and late evenings. Early bedtimes for the girls are harder to achieve with sunlight streaming through the curtains. The garden is such a wonderful temptation and hard for them to resist. I’m having to work extra hard to ensure a proper ‘wind down’ at the end of the day for the girls. All too frequently it’s a ‘wind up’!
Charli ‘surfing’ at Houghton Valley Playground:
Of course, I wouldn’t mind if there was no school in the morning… but alas there is. I recall last summer holidays when they got into a routine of going to sleep happily around 9.30pm and waking around 8.30/9.00am. And ‘sun safety’ wise it was the best time for them to be outside playing! Over the holidays we’d retreat indoors at midday and enjoy a little ‘siesta’ of reading and game playing – but at school they’re outdoors when all the health recommendations state, ‘Seek shade between 11am and 4pm’.
In New Zealand the danger of skin cancer is exacerbated by the hole in the Ozone layer over the country (which overall is reported to be getting smaller – though it varies all the time – this year it’s larger – but reports suggest it may even close up entirely by 2075 – a lifetime for our children!). The Cancer Society have an information leaflet on being ‘Sun Smart’ and explaining the ‘Ozone layer’.
Oops! No sun-hat! But it was before 11am (on the school hols) and at least we get a ‘star sticker’ for long sleeves!
Anyway, enough of the rant (but there’s another one coming later in this post!). The weather this week has been sunshine and good times. A little wind – but nothing too strong to put us off venturing forth at the beach and the playgrounds. All the neighbours have come out of winter hibernation and we’re frequently enjoying a natter in the early evening sun. It’s wonderful to hear the sound of children playing (and crying/throwing tantrums – and rejoice when it isn’t coming from my back-yard!). Many of the neighbours are fond of music and most have good taste. ‘Piano man‘ has been playing for countless hours this week (he’s probably been on ‘New Zealand’s Got Talent‘ and I wouldn’t even know!).
This evening, however, there’s a change in the air (Mary Poppins must be flying in for a visit!). The rain has rolled in this evening (in time for the weekend) and the news report I’m listening to as I type reports a ‘cold front’ on its way. Ah well, that is the reality of spring and my garden says, ‘Bring it on, I’m thirsty!’
It’s been a ‘milestone’ week for Sophie, with her first session at the creche at our local swimming pool. It was a piece of cake! She said to me, ‘Mummy, I want you to enjoy a long swim. I’ll be okay. The teacher’s will look after me’. I left with a beaming smile on my face and there were no tears.
Come on Mum! It’s time for creche!
The creche session is only for two hour’s and I was only away for just over an hour for Sophie’s first time. As I swam up and down the pool my eyes couldn’t take themselves off the creche – which is on level one overlooking the pool. Sophie was wearing a bright red ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ top and I was delighted that not once did I see her splayed against the window looking out anxiously for me in the pool. When I returned to creche she didn’t even notice me as I crept in. I was so proud of her and felt so liberated in myself. Thank you Sophie so much!
Charli has been back at school and is overall happy. However, the reading ‘scheme’ goes on a colour code and she’s become fixated on going up the colour ladder (second rant incoming!). I wish there was a more discreet scheme so the children didn’t compare themselves against others. She is extremely motivated and has always been very driven and independent. I’ll never forget, when she was two year’s old and very tired, how she insisted on doing up the buttons on her P-Jays by herself. I could see she was desperately tired, but she wouldn’t accept any help. She persevered for three quarters of an hour and finally succeeded. Of course she was so over-tired by this time that it was hard for her to then get to sleep! This is the pattern of her life!
Charli has always been so determined to do things before she is physically ready, which causes her great frustration at times. She is also such a sensitive soul and takes failure to heart in a big way. She’s a perfectionist and I admire the way her teachers deliberately make mistakes to show the children it’s ‘okay’ and teach them the coping mechanisms to move forward calmly and not take it to heart.
Anyway, this week she’s been talking about ‘red books’ and how easy they are. She has asked to move onto ‘yellow books’ – even writing in the parent/teacher communication book that comes home each night (unbeknown to us!), ‘Please can I move onto yellow books, now’. She is reading them extremely well and they are easier than books she picks up and reads at home, but I also understand that there is a need for her to know certain ‘key words’ inside out before progressing. Understandably, it wouldn’t be wise for her to be pushed forward too quickly and then feel over-challenged and disheartened.
This evening, she proudly read all her ‘Poem Book’ that comes home each Thursday with a poem linked to the letter of the week and then got engrossed in numerous other books and projects. She has such an incredible concentration span and will happily busy herself with writing and reading for well over an hour at a time (she’s always been like this).
By eight o’clock, and with Sophie fast asleep, I knew it was time Charli was upstairs and cuddled up in bed with a story, but she really didn’t want to stop. Finally, we got up to bed at 8.30pm and put on her favourite classical music CD and read a story. At 9.10pm she came downstairs in tears. She was over-tired and couldn’t get to sleep. She has a couple of nasty sand-fly bites (friends that have lived in NZ and now left for other shores tell me that they don’t miss the little critters in the slightest – that’s no surprise!). It seems the more a sand-fly bite is itched the longer it stays (and itches). Dealing with bites in a child is hard as their desire to itch is so strong! We’ve found gentle rubbing with a mixture of salt and water helps and then covering the bite with a plaster to prevent the itching causing skin damage and increasing the risk of infection. If left alone they clear up in a few days – with Charli it’s a week of misery (for all of us)! She’s frequently plagued by them (Sophie is more fortunate – Charli says, ‘They don’t like Sophie’s blood because it tastes sour!’).
It’s now close to 10pm and she’s finally asleep, but she sobbed so much and was going on and on about wanting to go onto yellow books. It really upsets me that a reading scheme can cause so much anxiety in a child. Learning should be fun and when the joy goes out of learning, so too does the will to learn. I’m really hoping we can resolve this before it manifests itself into a mountain out of a mile hill scenario.
Today has been industrious for me too. Sophie has no adapted to having mostly me for company and after our little outings in the mornings to the library, play-dates, swimming etc. we spend a few hours at home before school pick-up. Today, she put on a fancy dress ball for her teddy bears. We turned up the music, played instruments, danced, dressed up – fabulous fun!
Whilst I did my laundry she painted. Whilst I started the mammoth task of cleaning out our car, before it became a health hazard, and tidying up the garage (before it became rat infested!) she played on her scooter and filled up dump truck loads full of gravel (which is supposed to go on the plant beds, but always ends up scattered around everywhere making walking with bare feet uncomfortable – for the adults (the girls are oblivious!).
The day started at 6.30am. It’s now 11.00pm. I’m glad it’s nearly the weekend and we can enjoy family time. Thanks for listening! Sarah xx
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Hi Sarah,
Thank you for the lovely comments! I’m so glad you enjoyed the blog! I’m a bit behind lately, as I’ve been home with the flu most of this week, but will catch up soon=). I’ve been having fun perusing your blog as well- your daughters are adorable! I’m a teacher, and couldn’t agree with you more about the lack of discretion schools use with leveled books. Our school uses letters… doesn’t take long before the kids catch on. I like the idea of color a bit more, because with a little work on we teachers’ parts, we could mix it up the arrangement, so students wouldn’t recognize the progression as easily. Hmmm… something for me to think about=). Also, I’m not familiar with sand-flies, but my family has always had good luck with liquid dish soap for taking the itch out of mosquito bites. Hope that helps! Again, so nice to meet you and I’ll look forward to following along with your adventures=).
Hi Jenni and thank you so much for visiting! Cheers for the tip with liquid dish soap – we’ll give anything a go! xx
Phew – I’m exhausted just reading about all that fun. Sounds like you’ve bounced back Sarah from your bug and making the most of the Spring sunshine. Great to see your girls making so much of their talents.
Hi Julie, the flu is thankfully behind us and we’re really bouncing back in the Spring sun. Now I just need to be a little more self-disciplined at getting myself to bed earlier so I’ll have a stronger constitution to battle off anymore bugs brought home in the school bag! x
hey sarah, saw ya at “just hay’s” and thought i’d pop onver.
i am loving that pohutukawa tree photo in the sidebar!
funny about charli’s school book progress. i remember when i was teaching (sixteen years ago lol, i’ve been homeskooling evah since. am about to return to uni and then to the classroom) the kids were so concerned about which colour they were reading…
and really? everyone gets it in their own time. i love the reading journey of a child, oh… and the talking journey and the walking journey lol.
love the photos of your fresh-faced girlies. our children, our future FOR SURE!!!
happy weekend!
love and sunshine
katie X
Hi Katie, thank you so much for visiting and best wishes with your return to Uni. You sure will have a lifetime of experience and wealth of ideas to bring to the lucky school you find on completion of studies.
With the reading, I am so assured that everything will happen in it’s own time and not at all worried. Charli’s reading very, very, well, it’s just the book reading ‘scheme’ that’s annoying her! She’s an independent lass alright and hopefully she continues to hold on tight to her strong personality. School is quite an adjustment for my little free-spirit!
Love, Sarah x
Hi Sarah,
Your babies are so cute. Thanks also for the link luv 🙂
Cheers,
Sara
Hi Sarah, and thanks lovey, I always enjoy your varied links and photos (the recent ones of the autumnal bikes are magic!) xx Sarah
I’m so sorry that Charlie is getting so stressed over her reading books. It sounds like the colour code that we use in our school, (started on pink? ), and I have to say that although there is often a chart on the wall showing the stages I haven’t come across any children who have been that stressed about their progress. We always reward every child’s efforts with lots of praise, stickers, reward charts etc.
Assuming it’s the same scheme, there should be lots of different types of book within each band as well as a good selection of library books of all levels for the children to look at/read/share. The idea is that the child should be able to read 90%-95% of their going home book independently to give them confidence and develop an understanding of the text, comprehension and noting punctuation. Guided reading in school, with a teacher, where they use new phonic knowledge and decoding skills as well as understanding of the text is with a book from the next colour band. When the child can read 90% of the next band independently then they will move to that band for their going home book and their guided reading in school will also move up. At the start of year 2 , 6years old , the expected level would be orange band and hopefully by the end of the year they should be at white band or free readers.
Do try and talk to her teacher over Charlie’s feelings and if she doesn’t feel that Charlie is ready to move to the next level my suggestion would be to read the school reading book for form’s sake and then focus on books from the library.
We have a massive tome at school which tells you what band many story books are and if it is the same scheme and if it would be helpful I could see if there is an on line version or copy some of the information for you. It would be such a shame if Charlie’s first years in school which should be such a fun time, were to be shadowed by this issue.
Hi Ruta, Thanks as always for your supportive words of wisdom and advice. The reading scheme does sound the same. Charli’s teacher is absolutely brilliant and is going to talk with her about her great motivation and being patient. She’s on a par with all the others in her class and it seems that generally they are most on the same ‘colour’ and it’s probably best they are; so they don’t feel ‘left out’. She’s just so excited about progressing and can’t wait to move on. I have got a number of books from the library, which she loves, but she sees the progression in the scheme and is just so excited and can’t wait to move on. I have absolute faith in her teacher knowing when she’s ready. Thankfully the last two day’s of the week they bring home their ‘poem’ and ‘publishing’ book so there’s no ‘colours’ to cause anxiety! 🙂 I very much appreciate your words of wisdom and experience. Best wishes, Sarah x
Another mammoth post! Sounds like things are returning to ‘normal’ with you eh? I’m never sure if routine is a good thing or not…it never pays off either way in our house!
Why dont you buy some cream for Charli to put on so she doesnt get bitten? You remember the nightmare I had with a hospital trip that resulted from too many bites, after that I now need to be very careful and always apply anti bug biting cream or spray.
You can buy it from the chemists and the more Deet it has in it the better. I used something called Bushman Plus, you can get it in a spray and cream and it has sunscreen too. I know I cannot live without it now.
Good to see you have some new readers!
Lots of love honey xxx
Thanks so much Marrisa – I got that stuff – but forgot it was ‘that time of year’ and got caught out! I’m now fully equipped in my handbag, car and Charli’s school bag. She doesn’t find any of the various remedy creams for after the bite helpful (neither do I!). Prevention is definitely the best ‘cure’. xxx
Hello Sarah,
Also have the colour scheme stresses. Anya is on Yellow and really badly wants to get onto purple like her friend. Apparently purple books are huge!
Avon (as in the Avon lady – does she do NZ?) – do a range of skin stuff that is really good for preventing bites. It worked for me in Wales and France. Not designed for it but a good side effect.
Take Care
Chris XO
Hey cous! Great to hear from you and thanks for your input on the darned bites – yep, we do have Avon lady in NZ too (she’s a well traveled woman hey!). Glad to hear we’re not alone in the colour scheme stresses! Hope Anya gets on to purple soon. Love, Sarah x
I did notice immediately that I had added an E to Charlie’s name, and posted an apology straight away but must have messed up the ‘send’ so I just wanted to send my apologies because I know how irritating it is when names are misspelled. I did have 2 children in my class yesterday, Charlie D (girl) and Charlie S (boy) which was probably why the spelling was in my mind. Sorry.
Please, ‘no worries’ (as the Kiwis say!). I’m always in awe of how teachers can remember all their students names – especially these days with so many varied ones with unusual spellings too. xx
Hi our loves…lots of good advice from friends about the reading books….I remember it well when I was in the classroom…you are certainly doing all the right positive things and Charli has such a range of amazing books around her. However I know what problems these reading schemes can do …she is doing so well and I know you have great faith in her lovely teacher….all will be well I’m sure. Hope the sand fly bites are getting better….Shoo fly don’t bother me says Grandma and a big cuddle from us. Well done Sophie on your swimming and you were so good to let mummy have a long swim….a big cuddle for you too.
Thanks Mum, I do remember you coming home from school with stories of how the reading scheme sometimes caused problems and added an extra dimension to managing your students happiness! Lots of love, Sarah x