Thursday photo #192

Isn’t it an an amazing feeling when you’re well again after being ill? I have to admit, it’s rather good to send the children to school again after almost a month off too.

The new school

Libby’s school has been using mobile classrooms since before she started there due to a problem with the building. For reasons I don’t quite understand, the building itself couldn’t be rescued. And instead of building another school on the same site, they built a brand new school in a different place.

Monday was the first day in the new school, and it’s fabulous. It’s not large or extravagant, but it is comfortable, warm and new. They have a new provider for school dinners and they’re all raving about the food. Underfloor heating keeps them warm and the classrooms are all slipper zones. It sounds like the perfect learning environment.

Reading levels

During reception, Libby struggled with reading. It wasn’t enjoyable but we persevered, reading every day without fail. This year started the same way, with very basic books coming home and only small improvements forthcoming.

And then, something clicked. She moved rapidly up the reading grades, skipping two levels towards the end of last term. I worried that she may go backwards over Christmas as she didn’t read much, but that wasn’t the case.

After reading with her teacher today, she has moved up another two levels and is reading much more fluently. It’s wonderful to see all her hard work finally paying off and I hope that in time, she will get as much pleasure from reading as I do.

Disgusting dinners

This week hasn’t been Lia’s finest hour. Libby went out for the day with her dad on Saturday, while Lia stayed with me because she had a cold. And on Monday, Lia didn’t start in the new school, because preschool moves into it in a few weeks time, when everybody else has settled in.

The whole sorry scenario has put her a little out of sorts, and she has taken it out on my cooking. Now, I don’t profess to be a wonderful cook, but I put food on the table and everyone eats it. The girls have never known anything different, and my husband knows better than to complain.

Then on Tuesday, I put dinner on the table and Lia took one look at it and declared, “That’s disgusting.” Off she went to her bedroom with a flea in her ear, until she was ready to come back down and apologise, before happily eating her dinner. Lesson learnt. Or so I thought.

Wednesday dinner time arrived, Lia sat to the table. I hadn’t even brought dinner in from the kitchen before Lia uttered the words, “That smells disgusting.” Upstairs she went, to think about what she’d done. Then back down to say “sorry” and eat her dinner.

I do hope we will soon be able to chalk this one down to experience. I would be horrified if she said anything like that at somebody else’s house or in a restaurant. But for the time being, I’m going to have to develop a thick skin. Or get some cookery lessons.

Our Thursday photo #192

Unusually, I’ve taken a sum total of no photos whatsoever this week. So, our Thursday photo is a rush job as we ran out the door to school this morning. You win some, you lose some.