The Real Jenty

So, the harder homework has started.  Bradley announced when he came home this evening, that his teacher told them to google sloths so that they can report back tomorrow.  Then while we were on the hunt for sloth information, he also said that they were talking about Pompeii at school and if they wanted to they could look that up too.

Bradley thoroughly enjoyed what we found, and in fact, so did Connor.  And I thought we’d share 3 of the websites that we really liked in our searches… because they ended up being fantastic for all sorts of subjects and I’ve bookmarked them for future projects!

1.  Learning about Rainforests - what a perfect site for kids to learn!! Simple information, that was easy to read with enough information for him to give a full report back tomorrow about sloths.

Pompeii ended up being a little trickier, mostly because the first sites we found were far too complex for a 7 year old to read easily.  After searching with kids in the keyword, I found these 2 sites that I thought were really awesome…

2.  Kidipede – History for Kids.  Very easy to digest information, that told us about Pliny the elder

3. Discovery Channel – just WOW!! The whole history about Pompeii is on the site, and simply written, and it has a video that narrates Pliny’s story (he’s the only guy that wrote about Pompeii fateful day).  The kids just loved it!! We even went and built our own volcano and watched it erupt online!! Very cool, and it illustrated the point so very well.

Then we went from Pompeii and looked at a few of the other things on the site, and under Explore by Subject, we found the Dinosaur channel… awwwssssumm (as Connor said)… there’s a Dinosaur viewer that shows you so much about each dino… just perfect for 2 dino mad kids!!

We’re definitely going back there to explore some more!

This conversation happened this morning, while we were having tea in bed.

Connor: “Next time when I’m a dad, I’m going to marry you mommy.  And daddy is going to marry you.”

He says “next time” when he refers to time going foward, he hasn’t got the notion of a few years or tomorrow yet.

Me:  “Aww that’s lovely my boy, that makes me happy”

**Silence***

Connor:  “And Bradley… ummm… Mommy, can boys get married to boys?”

Oh wow, wasn’t sure whether to tell the truth, because a lie would just have been so much easier.

Me:  “Yes, in South Africa, boys can marry boys”

Connor looked a little shocked at that, before he asked why.  I then explained that sometimes boys don’t like girls, and only like boys.

And there was a little more silence while he digested this.

Connor: “I don’t like boys that much.  I think I’ll marry Jade.”

He gets left alone for 5 minutes, and comes up with a plan… every single time!

I got from work this evening, and he proudly showed me his new “tattoos”…

He wasn’t happy with transfers today, he got hold of stamps from somewhere in Bradley’s room, coloured them in with koki (coloured marker pen), and then stamped them all over his arms.

LOL!  Hopefully it’ll come off in the bath, Lance has no idea which type of koki was used.

And this in a week with all the strikes… which means that he’s not even going to be able to run off that energy at school because we’ve been told today that his school is closed until Monday because the primary school down the road was threatened.

Snippet of a conversation this afternoon, in the car, while we were discussing what to buy for supper

Me:  Pork is made from pigs

Bradley:  also bacon!

Bradley:  And Connor, chicken is made from REAL chickens

Connor: No, no, no, chicken comes from REAL shops

I couldn’t help laughing!

Bradley has finally learnt how to tie his own shoelaces.  This particular journey has been a long and painful one for all of us… he just didn’t get it!  We eventually gave it a rest for a few months, and then last week I decided to try and show him again… within 5 minutes he did it like a pro!!

First my theory… it matters not how much you push your kids to do something.  It won’t work.  They will only be able to do it when they are ready.  He just wasn’t ready before.  The fact that he was supposed to know how to tie his laces before he got to Grade 1 is besides the point, he was unable to get it right.  Now his fingers allow him to do it. It’s like crawling… you cannot force a baby to crawl until they’re ready… it just won’t happen!

Second the results of this feat… he has gained independance of sorts.

Seriously, it’s true.  Now he wants to do sport at school again.  He’s wanting to play soccer and hockey… and the reason… he can tie his laces himself without asking anyone for help!!

It’s been a big thing in his life.  The ONLY reason he told me that he didn’t want to stay at aftercare and do sport in the afternoons was because of the laces issue.

This tiny tiny step has meant an immense change in his life and I’m so so very happy that he’s finally got it.

My mom is going away for 10 days and I’ve needed to organise transport for the boys while she’s gone, with the view that this would happen more and more often now because my parents want to travel more.  So, Beauty is going to walk to pick up Connor, because the school is about 2 blocks away…but Bradley was an issue.

So after much debate about afterschool vs transport, we’ve decided that a school transport system is the way to go for now, and we got the names of a few places from the school.

I met with the dude that we finally a. chose and b. managed to get hold of (the others didn’t even return our calls), this morning at the school.

I hope we chose right. He looks ok.  His car/van looks ok.  What he told me about his service sounds ok.

But it’s a leap of faith.  I have to trust that he’s been truthful.  I hope and pray that he was.

It’s a parenting debacle.  This trust issue is huge.  You trust that when you go back to work after maternity leave, that the person looking after your baby is trustworthy.  You trust that the school you organise for your kids is trustworthy.  And now I’m trusting that the person driving my child is trustworthy.

It’s BIG!

And the worry is not unfounded either.

This dude was telling me this morning about some of the stories he’s heard… or at least I pray he’s heard and it’s not about him. Firstly not all the parents actually meet him before they arrange transport… they do everything via email and phone… sounds a little odd to me especially when your child is 5 or 6 years old… sure you’d want to meet the person who is going to collect and deliver your precious child.   Then he told me about some of the other  services where the service is outsourced to a third party, and your child ends up being carted by a person driving a car with smooth tyres and without seat belts.

Now I had that on my mind the whole day, and then I got to my mom’s house and we were discussing this whole thing, and she told me what she’d seen that afternoon when picking up Bradley from school.  A car stopped next to her, and this lady started piling kids into her car.  It was a white VW and there were too many kids for the car, so they were all squashed on the back seat.  Then she tells the one kid to get into the boot, and tells the other kids to keep quiet until they get out of the school premises.  She piles the bags around the child so the security guard (I’m assuming here) can’t see what she’s done.. and she drives off.

Holy moly that has freaked me out!! I wish my mom had gotten the woman’s number plates because, by God, I’m going to tell Bradley’s teacher about it on Tuesday.  That cannot be allowed to happen!

I just pray that this dude I’ve organised is ok.

Picture the scene… driving past Lifestyle Nursery on our way to a party, and Bradley notices the Llondoloza security posters, and this conversation ensues:

Bradley: “Ooh look Llondoloza signs.  A’s daddy is the boss there.  He’s the boss of the security men.  Mommy, does he also go to where robbers are?”

Me:  “Yes, sometimes”

Bradley: “Oh…  that’s why he has every type of gun”

Me:  “Does he?”

Connor: “My daddy has a pimple gun”

Me: “a what?”

Bradley:  “A paint-ball gun?”

Connor: “Yes, a pimple gun”

Bradley: “My friend, Storm has lots of paint ball guns.  They’re real you know.  We used them at his party last year.  We shot boards and stuff with paint.”

Me: “I remember, that was fun wasn’t it?”

Bradley: “Yes, and Storm is going to be in the army when he’s big.  He said that.  He’s a toughie you know”

Parts of that conversation worried me just ever so slightly…

On Saturday at the wedding, Cybersass mentioned that she thought Connor was so sweet.  LOL, I think she’s been reading my photo blog only

Yesterday was case in point.

I heard a small noise in my bathroom, and went to investigate because it didn’t sound like he was on the loo like he’d promised.

I found him crouched behind the toilet.

In his hand was a bottle of tissue salts, with a few emptied on the floor and he was shovelling them into his mouth.  The bottle was empty on further investigation.

After a little discussion, he insisted that he only ate one, but he’d hidden the bottle there on Sunday and had had some the day before too.

Hectic!! It was tissue salts for nervousness and anxiety… I’d taken them when my hair was falling out in chunks in an attempt to reduce stress levels. My oath!! Thankfully, they’re not that dangerous for him to eat.

What he did actually scares me.   He’s hiding like this more and more often now.  He knows what is wrong, but he insists on going ahead with his little plans… but behind walls and around corners (and our house has a lot of those).

He really worries me.

I took the day off today to take photos of Angel’s final dress fitting in anticipation for her wedding this Saturday.  Because Connor is yet again sick (after only 4 days back at school ) he tagged along with me while I shopped up a storm.

So on the way to Clearwater, he pipes up “How do mommies and daddies get babies in their tummies?”

OMG seriously!! He’s 3 for crying out aloud!! I’m not ready for that question!!

**silence** **because he floored me with that one**

“Do they buy them in the shops?”

Oooh I was tempted, very tempted.

So in the end I said “The baby grows in the mommy’s tummy when the mommy and daddy love each other lots and lots”

And then he replies “Do you love daddy a lot?”

Oh boy “Yes I do”

I knew this reply was coming “So where’s the baby in your tummy?”

Glad he soon lost his trail of thought once I told him that he was my baby and I’m not having anymore because I’m too old

Connor saunters into the kitchen with his train “Look what I can do Mom!”

I look a little closer to see that he’s wrapped the cord from a pull-along train around his neck and the train is dangling down his back!

FREAK OUT!!

—————

On the way to the shops to get toys for them because they finished their star charts successfully, Connor and Bradley were chatting about the star charts and when they’re naughty etc.

Bradley says “I’ve learnt to accept my punishment now.  That’s why I don’t cry when I get time out, I’m just quiet. ”

Talk about digging a knife into my heart and twisting it!! That hurt!!