My three little lounge lizards – an update

I’ve had the delight of my three little lounge lizards all being home on Wednesday and Friday last week (as Charlotte – Dear Daughter 8 – is a bit tired with the start of the school year – lots of testing and goal setting).

It’s been so great to have Charlotte home with us, as we really do miss her and have been thinking of her so much. She was so excited to get back to school (after a much loved first two terms at QMC last year). She is enjoying all the extra-curricular school activities of choir, art, tennis, speech and drama and touch-rugby. She tells us how much she enjoys learning French and loves her art classes. But, on the flip side, she’s not interested in the ‘topic’ that’s been set for them this term – writing about themselves and society. She’s finding maths not particularly challenging and is miffed that the school is switching to Maths Whizz – as she loved ‘Mathletics‘ (so I’ve paid for her to be enrolled on that at home). She’s not feeling passionate about writing at school – but was a little happier after being included in a ‘Writers club’  – where they were focusing on poetry (I LOVE her latest poem on her blog). She does enjoy seeing her class-mates, but they are all pushed really hard and there’s little time to do anything than ‘focus’ (her new teacher is strict we’ve heard – even tears pages out of the girls work-books if she doesn’t consider the work up to standard!).

Next term, we hope, will be better. She will have a new teacher half way through (we don’t know who yet), as her current teacher is pregnant. So finger’s crossed her once passionate love of her new school, that saw her ‘zinging’ home with enthusiasm last year, will return again soon. At the moment she’s feeling a little down and needing a few ‘at home’ days to keep her going.

So, on Wednesday, we had the pleasure of Charlotte’s company at home, for an ‘unschoolers’ play-date – which worked out perfectly as the oldest child was eight and the youngest just turned six. The eight year olds went off to play ‘Dragonology’, swap notes of their knowledge of guitar playing and experiment with an electronic-circuit building kit; whilst the six year olds played dress-ups, put on plays and flitted from one imaginary game to the next. Alice happily played alongside it all (being distracted away from the big children’s electronic-circuit building). It was a great day.

On Thursday Charlotte went back to school, for an active day of swimming and sports, and later that night joined her class-mates for a sleep-over at Wellington Zoo. She’d been on a a sleep-over there before – for a friend’s Birthday party – and had a fabulous time.

On Friday morning I turned up at the Zoo with an always excited Alice (she adores the Kune Kune pigs!) and Sophie. We happened to arrive just as Charlotte was boarding the bus back to school. She asked if she could stay with us and her teacher kindly agreed. We then enjoyed a wonderful Friday morning at the Zoo together and a fun afternoon simply being together.