Jamie at Summer Club

Writing this now in September, the summer holidays seem to have flown by but when they are looming and you think what can I do with a 10 year old for 6 weeks the opportunity to take up one of the summer club options is very appealing.  Not because you want to get them out of the way but because you want them to be active and creative with their time and not spend it on the PC, laptop, Xbox, Wii or watching television, there is ample time to do that outside of summer club hours. 

We have been lucky for the past two summers in having a summer club organised by some of the teachers at Jamie's school, so the club has been a few minutes walk away and we are familiar with those running it and they are familiar with Jamie, which gives us the sense of security that the sessions will be enriching.  That one of them is one of Jamie's favourite teachers ever is also a bonus.  So Jamie went off every day for his first week to summer club and enjoyed it enormously.

There were many different activities for them to do ranging from sport and outdoor fun to creative play inside.  Every day Jamie came home with 3 or 4 items which he had made, painted, or produced and of course which get displayed proudly on the fridge or freezer.  He tried his hand at quite a lot of activities such as pottery, screen printing, mask making amongst others.  I personally was hoping for another of the lovely herb pots which they made last year to match the one I have but they did different gardening this year.  Of course there are costs but they are by no means outrageous and in fact it all works out and very good value for money.

Another huge advantage is the opportunity to spend time at school just having fun - school can be a challenging place for many children and the chance to spend a whole week just having fun I think must help them in their day to day time at school and possibly improve results and performance in the longer term.

It is also nice to see the school building being used for an extra couple of weeks of the year too, I feel that communities have this wonderful resource in their midst and they are never used to the full advantage.  I seem to recall my junior school being used for a variety of activities including evening classes.  It is a shame that two or three local school could not employ someone between them to market the schools outside of school hours to  bring in extra funding for the schools.

Jamie enjoyed his second week too although he was only there for the mornings but that did give us the opportunity to do other activities in the afternoon and for him to meet and play with his friends and it kept him off the dreaded games consoles for a few extra hours!!  I set out at the beginning of the holidays not to hear "I'm bored" and the summer club is a good first start to achieving that objective.

Ciao

Sue
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Reading challenge 13/16 - currently reading If I Was by Midge Ure

Final Day of the Summer Holidays!

No it can't be! It cannot be the final day of the summer holidays, they are all gone. Jamie is tucked up in bed and everything is ready for tomorrow. He is starting in Year 5, his new teacher will be Mr Morris and I am looking forward to meeting him tomorrow morning.

I've messed up on Jamie's new school trousers, as I have had them waiting for him for weeks, a pair from Next, exactly the same size as the shorts he has been wearing over the summer, so all should have been well, but Next's school trousers are 2 inches (yes 2 inches!) shorter around the waist then their shorts - now how does that work? To say I am a bit miffed is an understatement. I will be taking this up with Next tomorrow! Luckily I have an old pair of Jamie's school trousers, which I had kept for the length as a guide to take the new ones up. Angry is me, you bet!

I am sad to see Jamie go back to school tomorrow as I love having him about, but he is happy to be going back so that makes it all right. He will get a special lunch box tomorrow. A couple of his best pals are in his new class T, C and S and that is good.

Jamie and I snuggled on the sofa and watched Australia beat England and I think I may be converting him to cricket, which would be good.

Tomorrow I have lots of plans of things I want to get done, so we will see how it goes, my first job after going out with Binnie, will be to tackle Jamie's bedroom, it is ready for a good clean out after having him at home for 7 weeks. I hope the weather stays good so I can get plenty of washing out! I have a relatively quiet week ahead - a dentist appointment, helping a friend with the Church flowers, getting back into the weekly library routine, and ferrying Mike to the station will be my highpoints and I am looking forward to a week getting stuck into some serious cleaning! (Honestly I am!) But Wednesday after 2pm I am hoping to keep pretty free for some serious cricket watching again!

As for Mike, he has an exciting week, he is going to see a band that he has wanted to see for about a hundred years and has never managed to see before and he is also due to interview, in an pub in London, a VERY VERY famous musician who was in one of this countries biggest bands ever! I may give a hint tomorrow as to the creation of this band!!


Ciao

Sue

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Reading challenge 8/16 - currently reading Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins
Jamie's Reading challenge 5/12 - currently reading Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by James Luceno
SLYMI - 1/52

School Holidays - Hooray

The school holidays start officially today! Jamie has had the chance to have a break from everything today and please himself, so of course we have had quite a bit of Guitar Hero and DSi action. He has got to grips with GHM which is brilliant, but it has meant there has been a lot of Metallica in the house today and his obsession with them has got worse!

A chance for Mike and I to have a chill out and just potter about with our bits and pieces today. Jamie's school clothes have either been washed and put away or thrown away. Just need to organise the list of bits he needs and I have kept one pair of trousers just to get his new ones (when I get them) the right length when I take them up. So a quiet day - well except for the Metallica!

I've managed to sneak a go with Professor Layton and it looks pretty good, but also looks as thought it may be quite addictive!

Ciao

Sue

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Reading challenge 5/16 - currently reading The Prehistoric Monuments of Avebury
Jamie's Reading challenge 2/12 - currently reading by Jacqueline Wilson
SLYMI - 1/52

Friday 22nd May

We had an early start for the first day of half term as we were looking after Kian for the day. We were also joined quite early on by David too, so the boys spent a chunk of the day playing in the park, garden, xbox and a little bit on the computer. They had lunch together and then David left. During the day I had been pottering on distressing a shelf to go in the hallway and am pretty pleased with the result, photo to follow when it's back up on the wall.

We then headed out to the cinema to see Night at the Museum 2, which was very enjoyable. All the characters are there from the first film, but Ben Stiller's character Larry Daley has become a success. When he visits the Museum he finds all his old friends boxed and ready for the trip into the Smithsonian archives and permanent storage, ready for the museum to be updated with all the latest interactive exhibits. So Larry heads off to the Smithsonian to rescue his friends and there comes into contact with Kahmunrah, the evil Pharaoh brother of Ahkmenrah who wants to open the underworld. So Larry with the help of Amelia Earhart puts things right again. Now actually I fell asleep at about this point, not because the movie wasn't good but because I was so tired, so I can't tell you or spoil the ending for you. But what I did see what very enjoyable.

When we got back, I took Kian home and Jamie with him for a sleepover, I don't give them much chance of being in bed and asleep before midnight, but here's hoping for Kian's Mum's sake! Well at least for me I was going to have a quiet night, as Mike was out meeting up with an Aylesbury Friars contact for a curry. I started watching the second series of Rome which I am currently watching and enjoying on DVD.

Ciao

Sue

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Thursday 21st May

I've been blogging for a whole half term, as today is the last day of this half term, wow! Just been up to all of the usual stuff today, trying to get some of my jobs out of the way before tomorrow when Jamie being at home means all routines go out of the window.

My Darling Doug Aldrich second from the right

Also today is the start of the Whitesnake tour in Europe, I am not sure if I will get to see them whilst they are over this time, as they are only playing 1 gig on mainland UK, 1 in Dublin and 1 on the Isle of Man. I've checked out the feasibility of all of them and all look pretty unlikely as it stands at the moment, but you never know. I will have to see if I can work anything out!

I still have three scrapbook pages to finish .....maybe tomorrow.

Ciao

Sue

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