Colouring, Chips and Portfolio Day.

Before we left for Canada we had to give a lot of things away. Plants especially. Here is one I gave to my lovely friend Yahoo.

And it is flowering. Ahhhhh bless, this used to sit outside our back door. Thanks Yahoo.

It was really bright when I got up this morning with promises of much sun. However it looked like rain by the time Smallest and I got out of the house late morning. Before that we got clean, coloured, drew and played on the computer.

Then Smallest got his scooter and we made out way to the library. As we were sitting in the library the rain came down, really heavily. Then it started thundering and shook the library. This must be normal here as no-one took a blind bit of notice. (there was only us two and the librarians there though).

We coloured in a picture. Drew and coloured in a dinosaur and sent it to Moo. She Skyped me on my phone and I had to whisper "I'm in the library". They didn't mind though. Nan was in there and she spoke to Moo too. We chose some books and then walked to the cafe.

Smallest and his 'normal' but with the longest fries he had ever seen!

After all the rain had finished we walked slowly back. It was getting warmer and warmer and vey sticky - I guess there will be more storms tonight.

When we got home we decided to start making monsters, which Grandma had bought. Then I had to draw the same monsters while Smallest coloured them in. Then we had to colour in Lightning Macqueen posters.

Two little monsters! Which is the scariest?

When we were all coloured out, Smallest decided he wanted to watch Toy Story 3. We sat and watched it for a while, then Small came home and watched it too. I made dinner and tidied up. The boys played and then had TV.

When Huffle came home we all rushed out to the school for Portfolio Night. First of all we went to Smallest's class and looked at his drawing and writing. He is really coming along well. All of a sudden he is spelling words randomly, reading beautifully and drawing spectacularly. We had a brief chat with his teacher. We are very very pleased with his progress. One thing I have to mention is that on one of his drawings of him and Small in the garden, they were jumping over dog poo! It was very precisely drawn on a big hill! He thought it was very funny! We have no dogs, there is no poo in our garden! Just wanted to get that off my chest!

Then we went into Small's class. We looked at his work. He is at the highest level for reading (which to be fair, his reading has always been a good standard) His math is good (as to be expected again). But his writing......... He showed us a page from his agenda (he writes a sentence in it everyday, keeps his spellings in it and there are notes back and forth from his teacher and me) when he first started and then a page from his agenda this week. I guess the idea is to show how much he has improved. Well he hasn't. His first week, he had beautiful joined up (cursive) writing, but now his writing is messy, not joined, has spelling mistakes and silly ones too. We spoke to his teacher and asked what was happening with his writing and why couldn't he do joined up writing. She said they didn't encourage it but that if we felt he should use it then he could. We have decided he is going to go back to joined up and start writing his journal again at home. I will also do my spelling tests at home like I used to do. One of his other problems is not finishing things. I know we had this problem in England. I also know that he talked too much and got easily distracted and his teacher tonight said he was 'too social'. He already sits at the back of the class by himself because of his talking. I have suggested that if he doesn't stop talking he will have to go in the 'cabinet'. A desk with cubicle style sides. Apparently they have one in the class for someone who cannot concentrate with any other noise going on. I don't particularly want him singled out anymore than he is (purely for being new and English) but if it helps him with his work.............

I understand we have only been here for five months and there has to be a settling in period at school. He seems happy enough there and he doesn't have any 'issues'. He is only eight! Maybe we are thinking too much about this. He gets a different teacher after September and I am hoping he gets the one who gives homework regularly and cracks the whip (not literally) a bit! Don't get me wrong, I like his teacher at the moment a lot. She has been very helpful and friendly to me.

There is a storm at the moment. Rain, thunder and lightning. GREAT!