One To Ten

1. Matthew bought home his school report yesterday. Not the one that says how he is in school but the one that rates his performance in his year group. For the levels of his work he is mostly 3A, this is the top end for his year group. For writing it is 3C which is the lowest but he's NOT below his target group of 3. For reading he is 4c. This is the upper expectation of a kid a year older than him or the lower expectation for a kid 2 years older than him. I am so pleased for him with that.
They also have a chart, red line is the low expectancy and blue for the upper. Matthews green line on the charts for Matthews Listening and Speaking, Maths and English are just a little below the highest line. This means that Matthew is in the upper groups with his ability. For writing he is just above the lower line. This has always been an issue but he IS in the guidelines for his year and not being dragged below the acceptable line which is something we are telling him to be proud of. Matthew will NEVER be the best writer with a pen but with the pc he can type very well. As he gets older he will use more tech so it will make life easier on him.

2. I had a meeting with James' teachers this week. They are still concerned about his speech and aspects of his understanding and how he is not doing what the other kids are doing despite him being one of the oldest in the class. They have recommended I take him to our GP so we can get him referred to the local child health center so that if he needs extra help when he goes to reception class he can have it funded so he can have some of the one on one teaching that he gets on well with. James isn't great it in group situations and he doesn't like loud noises so if he can be taught to focus in smaller situations, he will do much better overall. It's just getting him help early enough to benefit him for the first real year or 2 of school life.

3. Liam is .... well... Just Liam. He's a little ray of sunshine, he's growing to be a very confident young man and currently is very much into computer games like his big brothers and Minions from Despicable Me. He LOVES that movie and keeps telling us "My birthday soon, Nar-na toys. Toys R Us." making it very clear he wants minions for his birthday. He calls them "Nar-na's"  as in the mini movie the Minions are chasing a banana. This is the funniest thing in the world for people aged 3 and under so if you haven't shown your kids it, I suggest you Youtube it and watch them giggle.

4. Liam has given up his potty and will use the toilet at home now like he does everywhere else. I think the potty was a comfort thing but he's ready to move on.

5. My weight loss has slowed down but I am noticing the difference.  I have lost 22lbs and I am feeling firmer, I have more energy. My ankles look smaller. I am feeling rather good on the whole.  I have been increasing activity the past couple of weeks but it's not speeding up the weight loss but my muscles seem tighter and stronger. I have the original Just Dance on the Wii and that's great fun. It easily kills 45 minutes when I have chance to have a go.

6. It was 2 years ago today that I started driving lessons. Next week will be 8 months since I passed my test. Still not uber-confident but we have a new car and I feel so much more relaxed in a smaller vehicle. I had my first drive in it on Wednesday to drop Matthew off on a school outing and it felt good to drive. That makes a huge difference.

7. We booked a holiday for when school finishes (ok, hands up, we miss the last 2 days) and I will be driving the 2.5 hours to get there. This will be my biggest journey as yet as I have only really been doing little flits here and there but I want to be more confident.

8. Only 3 more weeks until our holiday and summer holidays commence. That means ONLY 15 DAYS left of school runs until September!

9. I am looking forward to the rest. The last 3 weeks of this school year are filled with appointments and bookings and general keeping busy. I have joined a form of PTA group at the school where a bunch of us parents are trying out new ideas to raise a bit of money for the school and for charity. We've already got an end of term school fete on the last day of term but I won't be able to help out with that as I'm away but when did I become one of those parents? Scary. We have visits at playgroup for a fitness morning for playgroup kids once a week.  We have appointments with our GP, health visitors and speech therapists, parents evenings, PTA meetings, kids parties, helping in nursery and trying to do housework and that's just this week! I'm certainly gonna be a busy bumble bee. Phew.

10. Finally, hubby is getting on well with his new post at work. He's been doing it almost a month now and has settled in well. For the next few weeks he will be shadowing another member of management to help get more of an idea of the role he is doing. This is the next step to management and he is really enjoying it. They have also agreed to a payrise once he has done a little more work and got a little more experience so it's all good.