The sun has got his hat on........

Well, we are half way through the final week of Mr Mum and we managed to organise a bit of sunshine today - it has been hot hot hot at Mr Mum central which makes life a lot easier!

For one, we dont need those pesky buggy rain covers and we dont need to spend, what seems like a lifetime, finding coats and jumpers before leaving for school.  Lets hope the weather stays like this for the rest of Mr Mums time.

So, with the sun shining we left for school, Megan and Emma on scooters and rosie in the buggy.  Emma last about 1.2 mintues before giving up on the scooter, leaving me to carry it the rest of the way.  Rosie had managed to drop dolly, two socks, two shoes and a drink on the way in so we took a bit longer than usual.

Still, made it in, dropped Megs off first and then we dropped Emma off (no tears) before Rosie and I went for a meeting with the Head of the jnr school and T to discuss their IT.  Unfortunately the head was unavailable so after Rosie and D had played havoc at the school we all walked home again.

I was then invited to a Toddler group with B, N & N which was good as there was lots of outside space, allowing the pesky kids to run around while I drunk my coffee and discussed handbags with the Mumsters. Well, my drinking coffee and relaxing lasted two minutes before, as the only bloke there, I was roped into bringing tables out, sorting chairs and putting umbrellas up - I might as well have been working there!! anyway, cant complain as Rosie had fun.

Came home, then went to pick Emma up (half day today).  She had made a yellow Easter chick, or that was the idea, what actually arrived was a yellow mass, but I will let her off as she is only 4!

Had lunch in the garden and pretty much chilled there with the kids, enjoying the sunshine until we had to go and pick Megs up (who was later due to Athletics club).  Came home, had tea outside and left them out to play while I wrote this.

Just time to give you Mr Mums Top tip number 3:

Try to make your children self-reliant:

I think we would all agree, the quicker your kids are self reliant the better.  But there is a fine line between pushing too quickly and letting them learn for themselves. 

I have tried to leave them to get themselves ready in the morning for school, you can try speeding them up and letting them get on with it, but it simply doesn't work - the threat of "OK, I will just leave you here then" just doesn't seem to cut the mustard anymore.  They just sit there with a look saying "Ok, go on then, I will simply watch some tv while you take the others to school and when you arrive home again we can discuss it further".

Another part of self-reliance is around Homework, or using its correct blooming PC term "Home Learning" - a lot more positive thinking apparently! Home Learning is for the kids, it is not an excuse for a parent to complete the assignment with the hope of secretly earning themselves a gold star from the teacher.  You parents need to walk away from the home learning!  Ok, help them a bit and offer some advice but too many of you out there fall into the trap of taking over and completing it for them - it doesn't help the child so don't do it! 


I hope that helps.



So, a pretty uneventful day I am afraid - will try harder tomorrow.  Lets hope the sun keeps shining and keep in touch.

PS Just before I go, a couple of footnotes.  Number one is a Thank you to SN for her comment on the blog - I am glad you are enjoying it and I hope we can count on you to become a valuable member of the Mumster club!  With regards to the PAB meeting, on behalf of all the Mumsters out there, I would like to apologise for the lack of an invite for this weeks meeting.  If there is one next week, I will make sure you are invited as our honourable guest.  As a way of apology, I would like to invite your daughter to a spot of tenpin bowling in May for Megs bday party!!

Lastly, GOOD LUCK to the boys in red tonight - lets show Chelsea how to play European football!