Reasons to be Cheerful: Time, proud mum, school and a bed #R2BC

 
Michelle has handed the hosting baton to me for this month after looking after us for June. So I am making sure that this post is ready to go on time! It has been a pretty good week for me and I look forward to seeing what has made you happy too. So I had better kick off with just some of things that have made me cheerful this week:
1) Time with my girl
I had some extra time with my daughter as I gave her a lift to visit her friend out in the Yorkshire Dales for a drink at the pub. We also had our fortnightly social with her fellow aspies and carers. I got reminded about our wild swimming from last year and hope she is well enough to do more this year:

2) Proud mum

My son is having a good time with his fell running at the moment. His race on Saturday, he was 18th out of 55, means he finished 23rd out of 74 runners for the championship despite being one of the youngest:

He then ran at a small local event last night and was 2nd boy and 3rd overall plus nabbing 3rd place in the potato race! All his training is really coming together at the moment. Not only that but at school he has been put mostly into top sets for year 8 which shows how well he is doing there.

3) School 

I am nearly at the end of the school year. Since October I have been working 1:1 with a child and this week he told me the best thing about this year had been working with me! Just as well when we will be working together again next year... 

I enjoy the fact that not only do we do all the core learning but we have the freedom to get creative. This week we made mosaics to tie in with our Roman topic:

#TeacherTuesday This week's makes

I am trying to be more organised on what I post when so Tuesday's I will try to post something related to my teaching! Actually this week I am acting as a Teaching Assistant which has given me much more of a chance to get creative. There are have been two strands to my makes as the class are studying The Iron Man story and World War Two. 

The Iron Man

It is amazing what you can make with cereal packets, milk bottle tops and some paint & glue. This is the dragon from the story ready to eat up the people of Earth and all the living things:

I was given a top tip of adding PVA glue to the paint to help it cover the cereal boxes better (the waxy coating on the cardboard repels the paint!).

World War Two

First of all I made use of Twinkl to download some paper aeroplanes to decorate the room:

Then we have been coming up with ways to make air raid shelters. This is my test run for an Anderson Shelter:

There will be a fuller post on the Anderson Shelter next week when I have created the final version. I've also had a go at making a Morrison Shelter (I so need a hot glue gun at home!):

End of an Era - Primary School is done

It doesn't seem like nearly 7 years ago when my son started in Reception at school. He does look oh so young on the obligatory first day at school photo:

He has mostly loved being at school (apart from Year 3) and coped very well with a change in primary for Year 4. Today was his leavers' assembly so I armed myself with a few tissues:

He obligingly posed for his last day at primary photo:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Galloping! #R2BC

A day late thanks to the General Election and in order to remain cheerful I won't talk about the results! Here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:

1) On the bus

Not having a car gave us an excuse to travel on the bus to our races at Grasmere this weekend.  You get the most amazing views from the top of the 555 on a clear and sunny day:

It was even more fun taking the open top bus back for part of the route:

2) Grasmere Gallop

This was my son's 4th go at the 5.7 km fun run at the Gallop and he was only 5 seconds off his PB: 

I had braved the main 10 km race for the first time and boy was it tough. So I was very pleased to complete it in 1 hour and 14 minutes: 

We were very pleased with ourselves:

3) New School

My daughter has moved to a new school and she seems really happy there so far. She is now at a secondary school that is smaller than her brother's primary school! Just hoping she keeps enjoying it and continues to do well.

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Reasons to be Cheerful: Proud Mum #R2BC

Still having laptop issues but I can still just about blog! Last week of me hosting and then I am handing over to the lady that started it all for May. So glad Michelle is back in the Reasons to be Cheerful family. Here are my other reasons this week:
1) Proud Mum

My daughter had her first secondary school parents' evening this week. Not sure who was more nervous her or me! Turns out the majority of her teachers think she is a great asset to their lessons and miss her input when she is not there. I knew she was doing well academically but its great to hear such lovely things said about her. 

2) Operation Garden

I've already blogged about the things we have been doing in the garden. On Timehop a picture popped up showing the state of the garden on the day I got the keys. It made me smile to see how far we have come:

3) Six Years on Blipfoto

I celebrated my 6th anniversary on the daily photo site Blipfoto this week. I have taken 2,192 daily photos since I started and I have no plans to stop just yet:

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Reasons to be Cheerful: October is here #R2BC

It's a new month so Jo (Ojo's World) is having a well earned break from hosting and handing back to me! Here's hoping I can do as good a job as her for the month... At least I should have plenty to be happy about as its my birthday and my daughter's. Here are this week's reasons:
1) Photography
I entered an online photo competition on Instagram with UK Pic of the Day and was publicly voted the winner for this photograph:

I am amazed as I've never won any photo comp before - it may only be for kudos but I'm happy with 841 Instagram likes!
2) Macmillan Coffee Morning
We had a successful coffee morning at our house and raised over £20. My son kept adding money from his wallet to boost the total! One of his friends also went home and came back with some cash. Big sister had helped bake the cakes for her contribution.

3) Operation House

One of the key areas needing sorting was the storage in my bedroom. Being a teacher I have a tonne of stuff I need to keep handy and my room has to act as my office. My dad put up these Ikea shelving units this weekend to make it all a lot more organised.

4) Clever girl

One of my daughter's favourite subjects at school is art and she has been involved in a project for Kendal's Comic Art Fest. She has helped to create this fabulous fox (and a badger too):

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Class photos

It's that money making time of the year when they trot out the class photos. Once again I gave in to temptation. How could I resist this rather bizarre facial expression from my daughter as she thought she was falling of the chair she was balanced on:

And my son coming to the end of his time in infants and nearly half a head taller than any one else in his class:

Memories to treasure..

Where does the time go?

Tonight with my daughter I attended the first proper event on her road to secondary school. It was a road show where one of the local secondaries visited her current primary to let pupils and parents know what they have to offer. I can't believe that my daughter is old enough to be making this kind of choice! It doesn't seem all that long since she started in reception:

Now she is faced with choosing which secondary school to go in 17 months time! We live in an area where you don't have to go to your nearest secondary school as the schools all have surplus spaces due to low birth rates. This means that there really is a choice and the majority of children get the one that they want to attend.

So we have an array of taster visits, presentations and tempting visits by teachers from the secondary schools to entice pupils to apply to their school! I have to admit it would be a lost easier (and cheaper!) for her to go to our nearest school. It is only about 20 minutes to walk or 10 minutes on a bicycle to get there in the morning. If she chooses the other school children from her primary go to she would have an early start to catch a bus after 15 minute walk to the bus stop. The third option involves walking/cycling all the way across town.

But it is up to her which school she feels that she would be happiest at. The one where she can do the subjects she loves and can offer her extra curricular activities that she enjoys. If she isn't happy for 5 years at a school then she won't achieve her full potential. I know she is very bright and should do well were ever she goes. In fact she would like to take the 11+ and try for the grammar school in Lancaster but it is almost impossible for Kendal girls to get in there due to the distance.

She has until October to make the final choice. With her primary school lying between 2 secondary catchments her class mates will head in opposite directions at the end of year 6. I just hope that whatever choice she makes it will be the right one for her!

Reasons to be Cheerful week 9 - 2014 #R2BC

The lovely Jo at Ojosworld has been a super host this month and will be handing the reins back to me for March! I really hope lots of you will continue to join in and share your happy thoughts. For this week I am just joining in with everyone else! 

This week its a complete Proud Mummy edition as we had parents' evening at school tonight:

1) My boy

At his Beaver meeting this week he wrote at lovely prayer as part of his Faith badge:

 I love the mix of thinking of others and himself! He came home at the end of the meeting with a haul of 5 badges that he earned before half term:

He is now 2/3 of way towards Chief Scout bronze award after only 13 months as fully fledged Beaver!

As for school he is doing really well. He is a keen reader (even reading on the way into school this morning):

#CountryKids Walking in her shoes

With me doing my walking in her shoes challenge it's meant that by necessity my children are doing more walking too! Going to a village school it's nice to be able to walk down the Main Street in the morning (as long as we get out of the house in time!). We are lucky that its just inside the Lake District National Park so we get lovely views of the fells as we go.

There are plenty of snowdrops at the minute:

 

We can walk down lanes which have very few cars on:

 

Very close to the school is the village meadow which sometimes ahead sheep in during lambing season:

The walks are giving us time to talk about the girls in Africa who walk for clean water and not for fun.

Reasons to be Cheerful: Letter S ( #R2BC )

With an S prompt from Michelle here I go: 

1) Son's School Work




My son seems to have really got into year 1 with enthusiasm. His new teacher is really impressed that he can already do year 2 maths work (he answered the older children's homework!). Reading is something he loves doing and he is progressing well. Today he brought home his first spellings and I was very pleased that he managed to use the look - say - cover - write method and managed most of his first 5 without having a sneaky peek:

2) Singing Praises




It's always brilliant to hear good things about your children. A teacher told me this week how much more mature my daughter seems after the summer break. Great to see that the staff have noticed and let's hope she continues to mature in a pleasant way. She has also been praised by her keyboard teacher and the sensei at Jujitsu (little brother also doing well there).

 

3) Swinging in the sunshine

It's not been a total washout this week. We had some glorious weather at the weekend and we were out making the most of it:

 

 

 

Reasons to be Cheerful: Back to school edition #R2BC

This week the guest host is Tiger Tales so please go and visit her! It's hard to think of anything but back to school this week as that's at the forefront of my mind so here are my back to school Reasons to be Cheerful:

1) Routine

It is actually quite nice to have routines back in place after the school holidays. It will take time to adjust to them and there may be some tweaks but we all know what is happening each day and at what time. Yes getting up with an alarm seems horrid at the moment but I'm sure my body will adjust eventually...

2) New classes


It's so far so good after 1 day in their new classes. Both children like their new teachers and are happy to be back. My daughter starting off well by being über keen to read her new book The Twits and hopefully will Be better at doing homework this year. Apparently all my son did was play with Lego and have a Jesus story!

3) New me

Well I am sticking to the new gym and fitness routine. Since I joined on Friday I've been 3 times plus a few Wii Fit workouts and an aerobics class. Not made a difference to my weight but my body feels tauter already (it's a work in progress to not be flabby!). We have been challenged at our Rosemary Conley class to see September as the new January and to really get motivated. So I have 4 weeks to knuckle down and see the difference.

4) Family

I am so blessed having my parents around to enable me to work. I went back 4 days before the children so they have had to be looked after by granny and gramps. At least now school is back my parents can breathe a sigh of relief that they only now have a regular commitment of one night a week!

This weekend my brother in law and sister in law are coming to stay in Kendal. It's great to be able to see them and enjoy their company.

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Jubilee School Walk

A slightly more unusual way to celebrate the Jubilee today, my children's entire school plus staff, plenty of parents and some younger siblings headed out on a 3 mile hike.


The school has around 150 children and they have a family system where each child is assigned to a school family which has children from all school years in it. If a sibling starts at the school they join the same group. For this hike the children were arranged into these families so that each group of around 12 had one member of staff and 1 or more parent helper.


After our safety briefing we set off on the walk in a very long crocodile through the lanes around the village. We had a teacher in a car in front as an outrider to slow down oncoming cars plus signs in the road to warn drivers. It was quite an impressive sight when you could see us all spaced out along the lane:

About half way round teachers dispensed water and biscuits to restore energy and then we descended back down the hill to the village. It was great to see how the older children in each family helped to stop the younger ones (aged 4 and up) from flagging.


All the parents that went on the walk were really glad they had gone. It was such a lovely experience. Here is hoping that they do it again! For more photographs please check out my Smilebox:

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Reasons to be Cheerful XXVII ( #R2BC )

One of my new Kendal mummy friends asked me this week why I always came across as optimistic which is a great compliment. I think this linky has really helped me to focus on the positive whatever else is going on in my life. Another guest host this week over at Bod for Tea to let Michelle have a well earned break! Back to my own reasons and here we go:


1) My Parents


I am so lucky that my parents live close by and are able to help me out in times of need. I have now had a week with no car (it is in the garage being mended) and my parents have very nobly stepped in to drive the children to all their activities (school, swimming etc.). This has caused them lots of disruption and I am oh so grateful.


2) Proud Mummy


Both my children have now brought home certificates from school for their good behaviour recently. My daughter for her enthusiasm in class and my son for being kind and helpful:

3) Amused Mummy


I've always told my children to say thank you to bus drivers etc when you get off their vehicles. As we got off the 555 from Staveley on Wednesday my 5 year old piped up:

Thank you driver. I like you. I love you

Needless to say the male driver's face was a picture at this and I couldn't help creasing up with laughter.

Then today my son was telling Gramps about what he has been doing at school. They have a dark tent in their classroom at the minute that they use torches in. Apparently my son chose a little girl from his class to play with on his turn in the tent.

Me: what did you play?

Son: Mummies and Daddies

Oh the joys of sweet and innocent 4 & 5 year olds!

4) Spoilt Mummy

Tonight my mum took me to Fellinis in Ambleside to see an encore performance of Phantom of the Opera 25th anniversary show. This was originally broadcast live from the Albert Hall to places like Fellinis and they have repeated it because it was so popular.

I'd never seen the show before and was completely blown away by the music and the singing. Current cast are fantastic and Sarah Brightman did an encore at the end accompanied by 4 very talented musical stars.