Desolate was the Playground (by sarah)

I awoke and me and dad got Jean ready for school - there were books to find and lunches to make and teeth to brushed and Jean's to be shouted at when they flop and make dressing them hard and so on and so forth.

It was dark when I got up and I thought - hmmm bout time those clocks change.

And we struggled our way to school.

And it was deserted the playground desolate and forlorn - empty of childs hurtling around it was a grey expanse of tarmac with a dreary fence. Where was everyone?

No cars in the staff parking - no lights in the windows - cold and empty - I look at Dad 'When do the clocks change?'

'Not yet'

'Surelly its soon?'

'Your mother didn't say anything about it and I would have expected a sign in the playground'

'Hmm well they must have changed - there's no one here'

So we come home again and I look up daylight saving and find out the clocks change this weekend - so then I'm panicking - have I missed some school trip? Were they all supposed to be at some train station somewhere or something?

No - its half term - yesturday was the last day - Mew 🙁

So then Dad's annoyed cos he could have still been sleeping and Jean's annoyed becuase she doesn't want a holiday - she wants to go to school and play with her friends!

And I ment to talk to some of the mothers about the half baked plans for them to visit during half term :/

Sigh - I just can't manage with the amount of stuff I have to remember for school - and yet I know that other people manage this stuff perfectly well :/

Fortunatly I had got in lots of craft stuff and that to do with Jean and Co during half term anyway- she is currently happily colouring a dinosaur sticker and colouring book and has a spooky ghost one waiting for her attention 🙂

I also have wooden skulls for decorating - and skull bags to sew and ghosts to glitter! I love pound shops and the like 🙂 (Plus I cut alot of the stuff out myself from my craft paper collection!)

I've got cooking activities and everything lined up for Jean but am sad to be two days shorter on sorting house out time 🙁

Sheds – stress (by sarah)

Barbara came back from holiday yesturday and I excitedly showed her the shed - but I got this sinking feeling that she doesn't remember the two or three conversations we had about putting a shed in early this year 🙁

I am now awaiting her getting really upset about the fact that it appeared whilst she was on holiday.

Good Drawing (by sarah)

Today when I went up to the school the teacher told me that Jean has been doing really good drawings and paintings - so much so that the Head Master has commented on it - she is being very careful and precise with it and generally doing stuff that is beyound her age range 🙂

I had noticed these last two weeks that Jean's drawings and colouring in have really really improoved - instead of random scribbles and things there is structure and now there is secondary, tertiary and even quarternary structures. I even found her drawing a map though she insists its not a map:

'It's not a map! It's what things look like if your up up all the way in the sky.'

Unfortunatly she has also been drawing war machines with whirrling blades on them - not entirely sure where she's got that one from!

I showed her how to draw stick men and she drew one and then added a stomach and a face and hair and things and it was recognisable as a person!

She also drew aload of circles and said they are what's blood :/

I'll try and photo some of these and put them on the blog as I think they are interesting!

But then I am her mother 😉

I was a whole year older than her before a teacher commented on my use of perspective! Plus I'm glad she's drawing and stuff becuase she had started saying she didn't want to becuase they weren't good like mummy's pictures 🙁

Abandoned Child (by sarah)

Monday loomed large at me and it was Jean's first fall day at school trial.

So I packed her lunch and dressed her and off she went with Daddy to school.

And then I got absorbed with tidying the house and writing and even a bit of gardening and drawing and then at about 2:30 when I was thinking about sorting out pick up Barbara's gardener Inga started asking me questions and then Mary Barbara's cleaner turned up to return some plants and things and started talking to me too.

And I forgot about school pick up - in my mind Jean was safe in school and it was a whole day just like pre-school and nursery except - we used to leave at 5 to pick Jean up from them.

I needed to be back at the school at 3 pm not 5 pm. At 3:15 I wonder upstairs to talk to Alaric and discover that no one has gone to get Jean - so I shout at Al and tell him to phone the school and grab dad and we drive up there.

Jean was sitting in with the teacher drawing and chatting away and I got told off - and then when I tried to explain that Barbara wasn't here and her cleaner and gardener wanted to talk to me it sounded so pathetic and some how stuck up.

They said that normally reception children would have cried and Jean didn't she was perfectly happy - they did point out this was a good thing as it ment that she's adjusted well and as it was the end of a full day as well it shows she's definatly ready.

Jean was very happy all the way home pretending to be a ghost and telling me about her day.

But then we got home and she got her lunch box out - 'Mummy you made me wait the longest and I didn't have a spoon for my yogurt' at which point I burst into tears.

I felt I'd really really let her down, I've been making her yogurt for school as she's been staying for lunches this last week but I keep forgetting the spoon or her drink or her sandwitches or to put something in the sandwitch and even the entire lunch. 🙁

I am finding remembering everything hard at the moment 🙁 She hugged me lots and then told me she had drunk the yogurt so it was ok - and then I cried more becuase I was failing and crying in front of her and then Al appeared and hugged us both.

I then spent the afternoon snuggled with Jean on the setee watching Mysterious Cities of Gold and eating popcorn - Jean was incredulous that the popcorn came out of bag and I didn't put the popping machine on :/ but she eat it anyway.

A Picture of Words (by sarah)

I have put the poem A Picture of Words on Turquoise Monster - the poem is about the structure of language and is a play on 'A picture paints a thousand words' I thought well what would a picture made of language - made of words actually look like?

I would love feed back on it 🙂

Thanks

Sarah