"It's Christmas"

Sundown 2018

The coldest one yet, but still the best Santa we know.

Christmas Jumper Day

All children where asked to come in a Christmas jumper and bring in a donation for their class hamper; to be raffled off at the school Christmas Fair:

Father Christmas at Pennells

Fortnite Cup Cake

Years ago, Jamie used to attend DramaBugs.  Recently I have seen The Back Garden Bakery advertising a number of workshops on FaceBook.  See: http://www.backgardenbakery.co.uk/   When we signed up, we realised it was Helen who used to run DramaBugs, who now does the Bakery courses (and still a little bit of drama on the side!).  It was great to see her again after so many years - but it did make me feel rather old!!  Where have all the years gone?

Anyway, two of Jamie's favourite things in one place - what's not to love?

Annual Report - December 2018

Jamie achieved his usual attainment:

Reading: Exceeding. (Above expected standards) Your child has made Good Progress.   To help improve he needs to read at a sufficient pace and skim read to ensure that key information can be identified, ensure that responses to reading questions give a clear answer and that sufficient evidence is included to support his answer, and use inference and deduction to understand a characters thoughts, feelings and responses.

Writing: Secure. (In line with expected standards) Your child has made Good Progress.   To help improve he needs to include complex sentences using relative clauses and subordinating conjunctions in all of his writing, make vocabulary choices to ensure that words are chosen for effect, punctuate speech accurately, and write with clear paragraphs that have the necessary structure and organisation for the purpose of the text. 

Maths: Secure. (In line with expected standards) Your child has made Good Progress.   To help improve he needs to use accurate calculation skills in all 4 operations, including with decimals, multiply and divide multiples of 10, represent fractions in their simplest form, round numbers to the nearest power of 10, and use bars and diagrams to represent the structure of problems.

Attendance = 95%+

Children In Need 2018

Today was Children In Need Day.  All children went in non-uniform in exchange for a donation:

Fireworks!!

Thought we would go to Harby to see the fireworks this year and we weren't disappointed.  And what is even better is that Jamie met up with one of his best buddies and his family, and so had a fantastic time as well as the fireworks....

Happy Halloween Party 2018

Pumpkin Carving

WheelGate Lil' Park of Horrors

Had a brilliant day (as usual) at Wheelgate www.wheelgatepark.com

We did pumpkin carving - although we only managed to cut the top off and scoop out the gunk as the tools they gave us were a bit rubbish.  But I suppose you can't give pre-schoolers and primary children sharp knives to cut out can you?  While we were 'carving' we actually saw people in the pool - in October!

As usual we could not get them off the little roller coaster, but we had time to go on the carousel, as well as into the indoor play areas for a cup of tea (or two).   Happy Halloween!!

Happy 50th Birthday (Jamie's School)

Jamie's school is 50 years old this year.  To celebrate they decided to have a 1960's day; where everyone dressed up in 60's gear.  In the afternoon there was a disco which mummy agreed to help at (and loved it!).  I bought both Jamie and myself Beatles T shirts.

Jamie went as Paul McCartney:

Thanks to Uncle Paul for letting us borrow his tie and badges, and of course his Beatles Yellow Submarine figures.

Jamies latest YouTube Video

One minute, Jamie was playing 'live' with Lucy over the internet.
The next minute, they have all decided to meet in Birmingham, and.....

The sights and sounds of EGX 2018 - Can Jamson get a Fornite Victory Royale at the UK's biggest gaming event?

See:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4gyQMoV2Ss&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2e4BNzuE8KgpL6yIvuYlZ3nGGwTG5PnLepsCfmDFn8xw7ftScVkvvsmp0

Adjusting Your Mothering

A few years ago I borrowed Raising Boys by Steve Biddulph (www.stevebiddulph.com) and I thought it was time to dip in again.  These are the links to the two posts i wrote in 2012:

http://grumpymumtobe.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/bringing-up-boys.html 
http://grumpymumtobe.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/raising-boys-testosterone.html

Enjoy your little boy while you can, Steve writes.  I feel like I am loosing a little bit more of my little boy every day.

Steve goes onto say; The 6 to 14 year old boy still adores his mother (I hope) and has plenty to learn from her.  But his interest are changing - he is becoming more focused on what men have to offer.  A boy knows that he is turning into a man.  He has to 'download the software' from an available male to complete his development. The mothers job is to relax about this, an stay warm and supportive.  The fathers job is to progressively step up his involvement.

As a boy grows from helpless baby to towering teenager, your parenting style has to adjust with him.  To begin with, you're 'the boss', providing constant supervision.  In the school years you teach, monitor and set limits.

In the primary school years a lot of gentle steering and helping goes on.  Mothers watch their son's activities for dangers or for a lack of balalnce.  Encorage your son toinvite friends over, and be kind to and chat to them.  Feeding them always helps!  Ask them for their points of view and their ideas about school and their lives.

Steve also discusses boys 'shutting down their bodies'.  Little boys are full of feelings and energies he writes, but in the jungle of the schoolyard they soon grow ashamed of useful and healthy emotions like sadness, fear or tenderness.  To make himself cope, a boy suppresses his feelings and tenses his body.  If you touch the shoulders of a 10 year old boy, you will often find that his muscles are rock-hard with tension.  Then, one day, puberty strikes!  The boy is suddenly aware of a wonderful feeling of 'aliveness', of quickening - all located in the one place! Its no wonder that a boy soon attaches all his feelings of closeness (and all his sense of aliveness and wellbeing) to the activities of his penis.  Boys want to feel alive in their bodies.  That'd why they like music with a heavy beat, and why they love activity, speed and danger.  They instinctively know this can help them break through into manhood.  A boy who enjoys his body and can hug his mum and dad often has many ways to feel good - dancing, drumming, or playing sport for the buzz of the game.  For these boys, sex carries a little less weight - its a pleasure rather than an obsession.

Re- reading the book, I must remember to borrow it again around age 13 when the real changes begin.  God help me!!

Jamie and the Nannas

Jamie watching The Number 9s....

….with daddy on keyboard and guitar.

Gaming Afternoon

Five, nine year old boys.  What could possibly go wrong?

LEGO at Lincoln Castle

Had a fantastic day out at Lincoln Castle with cousins Noah and Seth, and Abigail (who is their cousin on the other side!)   As we went in we were given a Quest to complete - to find all the Lego characters and solve the puzzle - in order to save Princess Orra's magical Brick Kingdom.

Here are the boys with their unicorns.

Whitby

After Scarborough, we moved along the coast to Whitby.  Here we stayed at The Glenora Guest House.  Highly recommended (although I did miss my bath!).  The proprietors - Paul and Julia - could not do enough for us, and Jamie could not get over Julia remembering his name at breakfast!  They were even good enough to send my keys back home (first class) after I left them behind (silly mummy).



The first morning at Breakfast we asked where might be good to go on the beach.  The couple opposite us said they were going fossilling.  So we followed them to Sandsend; which was more than just fossils!  There was a pool that appeared as the tide went out which was very safe for the children to play in.  We bought a dinghy from 'Tides Beach Shop' conveniently placed, and I settled down to read Dracula while daddy did some rowing....

Scarborough

For a change, we decided NOT to go to Norfolk, but to go to Scarborough and Whitby instead.  Mummy and Daddy had been before Jamie was born and had loved both places, so when Jamie's friend Will said they were going, it seemed perfect!!

In Scarborough we stayed at 'The Marine Residence', which was a bit small and not very homely - but Jamie had brought his X-Box with him so wasn't lonely.  We had a visitor parking permit with the hotel, but it was quite a long way to walk into the town!!  On the Tuesday we met Will and his family at Peasholm Park.  We then took the North Bay Railway along to the beach where some of the party went swimming!  We arranged to meet on the beach on the Wednesday but this time parked in the Sea Life car park.  Unfortunately, it wasn't so warm.....

Day Trip to Cleethorpes

We were a little bit naughty today as we went on a trip to Cleethorpes in school time (she said in a whisper).  I think we were punished for it however, as this was the dullest day we have had so far this summer.  Daddy enjoyed the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway and Jamie loved the arcades and being a sand angel.

A Couple of Family Shots with Lucy, Nana G and the Cousins

Water Bomb Fight!!

Red Belt at Karate

Congratulations!  Jamie is now a Red Belt!!  

Annual Report - June 2018

Once again, no change from his last report: https://grumpymumtobe.blogspot.com/2018/03/spring-term-report-card-march-2018.html 

Reading: Exceeding. (Above expected standards) Your child has made Good Progress.   To help improve his reading, he needs to continue to develop his skills in identifying the viewpoints of authors.

Writing: Secure. (In line with expected standards) Your child has made Good Progress.   To help improve his writing, he needs to secure his use of punctuation to indicate direct speech, and develop the use of fronted adverbials in his writing. 

Maths: Secure. (In line with expected standards) Your child has made Good Progress.   To help improve  his maths, he needs to be able to work out the area and perimeter of shapes, and know the decimal equivalents of quarter and three quarters.

His teacher wrote; it has been a pleasure to teach Jamie for a second year.  He is hardworking and takes an excellent interest in everything we do.  He responds well to challenges and can work well both independently and with others on greater depth learning.  Jamie makes thoughtful contributions to class and group discussion.  He has worked really hard to develop his cursive handwriting.  Jamie is well-behaved, sensible and friendly.

Attendance: 99.38%

Alfie's Gaming Party

Playdate with Alfie

Ready Player One

Had Noah to sleep over tonight, and took him and Jamie to see Ready Player One; which was brilliant, as it had loads of 'Retro References'.  Noah's dad (my brother) always says if Noah isn't talking, then he's eating.  Here we have a quiet few minutes....

Visit from Cousin Lucy

Lincoln City match on the Saturday and a visit to the Garden Centre on Sunday!!

Star of The Week

Very Proud.  Jamie got Star of The Week for 'excellent contributions during our timeline work and super knowledge of history'.  I was invited to attend a Celebration Assembly and here is a photo of all the children (and their parents) who were awarded Star of The Week:

Nick Sharratt

What a fantastic afternoon we had with Nick Sharratt, as we learnt to draw like him.  There were loads of people we knew in the audience, so it had a really friendly feel to it.  Mummy and Jamie both did loads of drawings during the afternoon, and at the end we had our books signed and Jamie's drawing got a seal of approval (Fin-Tastic) from Nick.  Highly recommended!!

Sleepover with Noah

"We're On Our Way To Wembley"

Early start for all concerned, as the boys went off to cheer Lincoln City on at Wembley, in the Check-A-Trade Trophy against Shrewsbury.     (They didn't win).

Happy 9th Birthday Jamie

This year Jamie had a party at home on his actual birthday for family and then a gaming party for a few of his friends on the Friday.....

Afternoon in Hartsholme Park

Easter Bunny 2018

He has been a very generous Bunny this year!

Spring Term Report Card - March 2018

No change from his Autumn Report, See:
https://grumpymumtobe.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/autumn-term-report-card-december-2017.html

Reading: Exceeding. (Above expected standards) Your child has made Good Progress.   To help improve he needs to continue to develop his knowledge of the features of a range of non-fiction texts and be able to make comparisons.

Writing: Secure. (In line with expected standards) Your child has made Good Progress.   To help improve he needs to make sure his writing is organised into separate sentences that are not too long, and use inverted commas and other punctuation accurately to indicate direct speech. 

Maths: Secure. (In line with expected standards) Your child has made Good Progress.   To help improve he needs to secure his understanding of rounding numbers to the nearest 100 and 1000, and  develop his skills in counting in hundredths (as decimals).

Sport Relief

Here's Roger Bannister:

Our own Dennis The Menance

Due to the snow last week, World Book Day had to be moved.  Jamie went as Dennis The Menace.    He still loves reading The Beano every week and Nana bought him both The Beano and The Dandy annuals for Christmas.  

Parents were invited in to 'Share a Story' so I was able to hear Jamie read aloud for the first time in a long time, as he doesn't like to read out loud at home.  (I think he feels it is a bit babyish).

Jamie's teacher awarded him a prize (chocolate eggs) for best in class.  She said it was because of his spiky hair!!

Love Tokens

Jamie gave Trinity one of his Oreo's today.  It must be love.....

Sledging!!

 

And the snow kept snowing, so another day off school(3 days in total) so we all went sledging on the Village Green.  We didn't stay too long though as it was bitterly cold!