The curriculum has arrived! (Yay!) Cass promptly retired into a cornor with the origami paper & instructions; her mother started reading the books! There is something wrong with this picture. Hm. Eventually I surfaced long enough to investigate the instruction manual. (As my mother would always say while rolling her eyes at those of us for whom the instructions were a last resort; when all else fails, read the instructions!) Manual MUCH easier than I had been lead to believe. Cass will struggle with the grammar but its about time she got a handle on this so mother is smirking & the books are lovely. I am sooo happy & pleased I made the change. I am going to go ahead & order our history this way too. It will work much, much better for us. Unfortunately that will have to wait until I have sorted out science & math. I can't believe Cass cleaned up the math in just 3 weeks but I guess it means we can afford to concentrate on something else for a while. This is being a really scrappy term for everthing except music. I do so wish people would recognise music is an intelligence too & it requires even more discipline & perseverance than straightforward academics does. We are upping practise times ready for next year & I am doing the pre~preparation for music exams. I know nothing about any of this & am shaking in my boots but Cass isn't batting an eyelash. Why would she? She has unbounded confidence in herself.

Meanwhile we have the state testing to deal with. This means two wasted days up at the primary school & I have no idea how much of the state curriculum we have actually covered ~ & care less. I just hope Cass isn't having one of her 'off with the fairies' days on test days. Can't think where she gets that from.

And I have been preparing Daniel in the Lion's Den for adults. How this ever got to be a children's story I do not know. Well, I do, but you have to dilute it so much it's a tad scarey. I am feeling a tad fraught. Can you tell? I work hard on my preparation if I am preaching but I am not a retired pensioner with oodles of time at my disposal There I was trying to explain Israleli history at the time of the Babylonian exile with a child alternately bleating on about plankton, nekton & blenthos or singing the nonsence words from Sarah Hopkins' music. I wrote some interesting sentences & a heavy edit was required.

My life is a soap opera...

Before we begin; yes, the flute has arrived. The express post curriculum has not. I hit the panic button & manned the e~mail. I mean, it should have been here overnight & we have been operating for 3 weeks with no curriculum. They say it is on it's way now. Hmmm....

Meanwhile who invented unnavigatiable web pages & where are the directions for idiots like me who can't make head or tail of what should be glaringly obvious? I am looking for the music boards examination critea but I don't speak goobly~dook. Nor do I recognise any of the music listed apart from Greensleeves & if Cass has to practise that again on yet another instrument I think she will have a massive meltdown.

And while we're at it, who brought the sniffles into my house that have laid 2/3 of it low meaning I am spending half my days on the phone explaining why we aren't going to be somewhere we should be?

To say nothing of the child who bought herself a copy of Harry Potter & woke the next morning to find her brother had 'borrowed' it & it had gone to work with him!!! Our lovely librarian reserved us 3 copies so now everyone can read it in peace.

I am running a temperature & have a splitting headache but is it the wog or is it my life?

Ongoing saga of... THE FLUTE!

God works in mysterious ways. For those of you who read the beginning of this tale it has been 22 days & still no flute. Dearest, who has all the patience of a hungry shark, was starting to make, 'ring those people' noises. I deal with homeschool suppliers who run home business while homeschooling & have waited longer than 22 days for supplies. I hadn't even begun to panic though it did seem a little odd. After all they are a big, reputable company. No homeschoolers here.

So we trotted off to band today still with our hired instrument & Cass lamenting she would not be home to get the post; she has taken to haunting the letterbox waiting on 'her' parcel. I should also point out Dearest NEVER, & I do mean NEVER, answers the phone. His sons complain bitterly about that fact. So I was shocked to find that he did answer the phone today. He got the paranoid salesman who had been away for 2 weeks with his band & returned to work today to find our cheque taped to his computer screen & that they had SOLD OUR FLUTE!!!! First day back at work & he had to ring us with that news, poor man. He was expecting to be abused all over the shop I am quite sure but Dearest is much cagier than that & much better in these situations than I am. I would have been too stunned to do more than murmmer,' that's ok, no problem; We'll wait till you get another one in.' Not so Dearest. Having done the, 'these things happen' number he asked what sort of a deal the man could do him on a new flute. Nothing delights Dearest's heart so much as a good haggle & an even better bargain. An extra 100 bucks & Cass gets a brand, spanking new flute of our brand of choice. And it's being sent express post at their cost! Don't try & tell me that's not God!

Proud mummy moment.

Cass, bless her little cotton socks, has just cleaned up at the art show! There was only one overall winner & she is it. I believe there is a monetary reward~ which we didn't know when we entered. I promise I will try & post pictures when we get her art work back; I assume we are getting it back. The funny thing is I liked her abstracts & I adored her picture of wood ducks but the painting that clinched it is the one I actively dislike though I admit the idea is good. Cass did an outline of our island but painted it using the Aboriginal technique of dots (migraine making I think) then painted one hand red & one white & handprinted the island. The theme was our heritage so the idea was particularly good; it's just I really don't like the actual painting ~ but then I don't have to do I. I thought she'd be rather chuffed but we missed the award announcements due to choir rehearsals & truth be told, Cass never looks back, only ahead & is no longer all that interested.

But hey! I am chuffed for her. I am chuffed for me too. I looked at all the kids' paintings & most of them were same/same; not an original idea or design amongst them ~ Cass being the notable exception. Had no~one to copy off did she? She had to think it out for herself. And this folks is why homeschooling can still rock my boat. When the going gets tough & my sanity takes a vacation these are 'minties moments' & I know why I do what I do.

SOME DAYS.

Some days I miss Mark. I want to tell him I have just successfully taught Cass how to do long division though I still can't do it myself! I don't think I get why anyone would 'solve for the unknown.' That's why it's unknown. Isn't it? It wasn't easy. It's mad, me teaching math. I kept sending Cass back to the dvd, which made no sense to her either, poor bunny. Hours later, & no wiser, I caved in, sat on the arm of her chair & said, ''Look, I can't do this...'(duh! Like she didn't already know that!) but you need to try & guess the first bit.' It was like watching all the lights go on. 'Oh, you mean I have to solve for the unknown,' said Cass, & proceeded to do so! We stared at her sum with some trepidation. What to do with the leftover bits? Now when they taught me at school (& so obviously did a wonderful & thorough job) we had a whole screed of numbers underneath the origonal sum that confused me terribly. I am a visual learner. I put the leftover number where it made most sense to me. Cass 'solved for the unknown' again & we consulted the guide for how to put down our remainder. One sum down, a whole page still to go. Cass was all done in 20 minutes! Mark would so have appreciated this little story. He always expressed such grave doubts about my ability to teach math. Plus he had his own problems with his son, who was in public school & failing math. Now Cass has 'got it' I can stop worrying because once she's grasped something she remembers. Two pages later she took her first test & knowing her that is probably all she will do from here on in, the tests. So long as she tests above 90% that's fine with me.

My mother was wont to say she wished she'd been given quiet, musical children. Truely musical children, as I have learnt, are not quiet! Sound & noise fascinate them. After a week of workshopping I think I am glad I only have one musical child & yet last night was wonderful.

It began badly with the child who wasn't coming home that night ringing at 1am to say he had made the last boat home; could someone please come & pick him up, that someone being me. So I slept in. Liddy, who answered the phone, slept in & was consequentially running late for work. Her mother, blearly eyed & dysfunctional, misread the boat times & blew all her connections. There are days when living on an island stinks! :) However we did make in to rehearsals on time. For the first time the vocalists & instrumentalists came together & the morning was spent blocking moves, staging, sound checks. Hugely boring & utterely necessary. As we broke for lunch & every one else was sent home we were told to arrive back in our black & whites! Our black & whites were back on the island, were'nt they! Logistically there was no way we could get them. Someone kindly lent us an outgrown pair but we still had 3 hours to kill at the shops ~ which meant we ate & got Theo's birthday present & I finally found some clothing that fitted Cass & met our modesty requirements, plus were half price!

Cass, who has only ever performed in church on the island for people she knows, really was thrown in at the deep end. Luckily she loves performing as the in house performance was very well attended. I've sat in on all the choir rehearsals yet it always astounds me how an audience really lifts some performers. I've heard the music ad infitum for two weeks yet there were still moments that brought tears to my eyes. The best moment? After it was all over & the girls let their hair down on the dance floor, lip~synching, dancing, doing flips. They were fantastic.

Next week it is a band performance for Cass & then we must settle into a Friday night rehearsal schedule. I know practise is essential for any performance but mre than most we need to keep things in balance so hopefully soccer will not have to be missed too often & Cass can burn off some of her excess energy.

ODDS & ENDS.

All our birthdays start this month. The boys will not be home for theirs. Theo is working, Dino is at sea. I won't be home for it either. Cass is rehearsing all day & we have an in house performance that night. Cass' present will arrive shortly, & somewhat early. We have got her her own student flute. In her own funny way she is absolutely delighted but she worries about how much it has cost. Any time we visit the music shop Cass wanders round listing all the instruments she would like to own & play so she knows to the last cent what they cost ~ even a 2nd hand student flute which is all we could afford. Everyone else gets to tighten their belts this week! Just joking.

I am pressing all my panic buttons. Cass has been shortlisted for the intermediate community band which rehearses on the mainland ~ one reason for now thinking the child should have her own instrument. Plus she has been invited to join a choir ensemble ~ which also rehearses on the mainland. No, I do not want to live on the mainland but I am spending far more time than I like there just at present. I am thinking Cass needs a job to help pay for all this but jobs are scarce on the island & she's a month short of being 12. Her sister is offering to help pay (how sweet is that?) but that isn't really fair & she has her own things to save for. However as this is God's deal He will have to provide.

To add to my present woes & when I am particularly time deprived, the washing machine died. Then Dearest, who is on a disability pension & in chronic pain, had to be rushed to the dr.s with muscle spasms. Came out of the surgery to a flat tire, which Dearest was in no condition to change (having just been shot with a relaxant) & his 45k weaking of a wife couldn't. God bless the good samaritans who did it for me! Then noticed we need new tires on the car. I just drive the thing; maintance I do not have time for ~ but it seems I will have to make time. Wonder where I will aqueeze that from? Not to mention I have yet to order the curriculum I need next week. Oh, then there is the art exhibition that is just going up now. Cass has several entries in & from what I have seen so far she has a good chance of picking up a prize so I must make time to take her down for a look as she hasn't seen any of the other entries & was really keen to know what everyone else had done for their entries. She has no expectations of winning anything & does not have a competitive nature. So nice after my sports mad competitive ones. I think I will be pleased when we start schooling again. I will HAVE to be home a little more.