Time with the Meister
So being the youngest of 4 for ten years meant the Meister had to be lugged around to a lot of older kids activities. This suited her as long as she could be a part of the goings on, but being ignored is not something that she can cope with. This is the 7,8,9 year old, who used to follow me around the house with a diary or a notebook, asking when we could schedule some quality time. She wanted me all to herself, which hardly ever happened, but when it did, she vocalised her approval.
So with the older two daughters doing their own thing, and the Boy increasingly wanting to just have the house to himself once in a while, without it being full of women, I had this idea that the Meister and me would get lots of time to do all the things she wants to do. She is a doer. And that is sort of happening, but it is happening with a new baby sister. It looks like the Babe is going to get to be our only child, rather than the Meister.
After the Babe was born, the Meister did go through a bit of a transition phase. She wanted lots of attention, and we tried to give it to her, and then she suddenly turned 11 and it was like she matured about 3 years worth in a two week period. These days she is tidying her room, getting up every morning to have a shower, and a healthy breakfast, and to make herself look gorgeous, which she does quite well. She has bery definite ideas about music, and what she wants to do, and just gets on with it. It's funny, because she was my wild child, and now she is a nice young woman, who is doing her own washing and helping me cook the tea, and look after the Babe.
She gets to do a lot of things these days. The lovely home ed mum S has started a Book group at Stockport library. I didn't mention it to the Meister for a while, thinking she was the type of person who would not let ANYBODY tell her what to do. But when I finally did mention it, she was really excited at the prospect of going. She always reads the book, I rarely have to remind her, and she usually talks to me about them. This month we are reading a really good one called Finding Violet Park . We are finally reading it together, before we have read them independently, or I haven't gotten around to it at all. But this book is really good, and talks about a lot of issues. It is written from the perspective of Lucas, a troubled teen, but somebody who really thinks about things. And I think that suits us very well. We have lots to talk about thanks to Lucas. And hopefully we shall finish the book today.
We nearly finished it yesterday. We spent an hour or two reading to each other. I wasnt' really paying attention to the clock as it was one of those wonderful together days, that used to happen a lot more when they were younger. The kids looked after the Babe while I went to Pilates, and did some shopping on the way back. (They were very happy with me buying Nutella. :-) Funny how I am more likely to do things like that when I get to go to Pilates!) We pottered around, read some books, watched a film, had fish and chips from the chippy for lunch, and just relaxed. It was a really lovely day.
The whole week has been pretty good, actually.We had History Club as well. The lovely home ed mum E, who recently returned to the North of England from the French countryside, is another doer. She has started this once a month History club, and the kids are put into groups and given periods or topics to research. This academic year is being used to make a timeline. So we started with prehistory, the Stone Age, bronze age, Romans, Celts, Viking, etc, we are up to the Tudors now.
The Meister was doing Henry Tudor this week. She has done something different every month. And once a month is about all we can handle! She did a poster presentation for the Romans, and a play of a Slave Market for the Vikings and Saxons, and made a little round house and warp weighted loom and a Beaker for the Bronze age Beaker people. And this time we didn't do that much with it being Christmas and New Year, and me being lazy and fed up. :-o But she managed to find out a lot of info that she didn't know before, like Henry Tudor's mum was 13 when she had Henry! And we wrote a poem. We managed to talk about metre and feet as we were doing it, so we can call it a literature lesson as well, in spite of how bad it is. ;-)
So with the older two daughters doing their own thing, and the Boy increasingly wanting to just have the house to himself once in a while, without it being full of women, I had this idea that the Meister and me would get lots of time to do all the things she wants to do. She is a doer. And that is sort of happening, but it is happening with a new baby sister. It looks like the Babe is going to get to be our only child, rather than the Meister.
After the Babe was born, the Meister did go through a bit of a transition phase. She wanted lots of attention, and we tried to give it to her, and then she suddenly turned 11 and it was like she matured about 3 years worth in a two week period. These days she is tidying her room, getting up every morning to have a shower, and a healthy breakfast, and to make herself look gorgeous, which she does quite well. She has bery definite ideas about music, and what she wants to do, and just gets on with it. It's funny, because she was my wild child, and now she is a nice young woman, who is doing her own washing and helping me cook the tea, and look after the Babe.
She gets to do a lot of things these days. The lovely home ed mum S has started a Book group at Stockport library. I didn't mention it to the Meister for a while, thinking she was the type of person who would not let ANYBODY tell her what to do. But when I finally did mention it, she was really excited at the prospect of going. She always reads the book, I rarely have to remind her, and she usually talks to me about them. This month we are reading a really good one called Finding Violet Park . We are finally reading it together, before we have read them independently, or I haven't gotten around to it at all. But this book is really good, and talks about a lot of issues. It is written from the perspective of Lucas, a troubled teen, but somebody who really thinks about things. And I think that suits us very well. We have lots to talk about thanks to Lucas. And hopefully we shall finish the book today.
We nearly finished it yesterday. We spent an hour or two reading to each other. I wasnt' really paying attention to the clock as it was one of those wonderful together days, that used to happen a lot more when they were younger. The kids looked after the Babe while I went to Pilates, and did some shopping on the way back. (They were very happy with me buying Nutella. :-) Funny how I am more likely to do things like that when I get to go to Pilates!) We pottered around, read some books, watched a film, had fish and chips from the chippy for lunch, and just relaxed. It was a really lovely day.
The whole week has been pretty good, actually.We had History Club as well. The lovely home ed mum E, who recently returned to the North of England from the French countryside, is another doer. She has started this once a month History club, and the kids are put into groups and given periods or topics to research. This academic year is being used to make a timeline. So we started with prehistory, the Stone Age, bronze age, Romans, Celts, Viking, etc, we are up to the Tudors now.
The Meister was doing Henry Tudor this week. She has done something different every month. And once a month is about all we can handle! She did a poster presentation for the Romans, and a play of a Slave Market for the Vikings and Saxons, and made a little round house and warp weighted loom and a Beaker for the Bronze age Beaker people. And this time we didn't do that much with it being Christmas and New Year, and me being lazy and fed up. :-o But she managed to find out a lot of info that she didn't know before, like Henry Tudor's mum was 13 when she had Henry! And we wrote a poem. We managed to talk about metre and feet as we were doing it, so we can call it a literature lesson as well, in spite of how bad it is. ;-)
Henry Tudor
The War of the Roses had raged for years,
thousands of people were dead.
At last a Lancastrian put an end
to the battles, the fear and the dread.
Henry the seventh at Market Bosworth
ended Richard of York,
Now England needed a good strong king,
someone who wasn't a dork.
Henry Tudor claimed the crown,
by descent as well as conquest,
Then he married Elizabeth of York,
bringing the houses together was best.
Who was this man who claimed to be king,
when others wanted the throne?
To answer this, we look to his mum,
and here a link will be shown.
Lady Margaret Beaufort was she,
who had Henry at age thirteen.
Though she was a royal Lancastrian
never had she been queen.
Three times great grand-daughter was she
to Lancaster's Edward the third,
But some messing about by John O'Gaunt
meant the family from kingship were barred.
Yet Henry the seventh had lots of support
and king he did become -
His followers forgetting about the clause
stating 'Never shall Beauforts wear crown.'
Once he was crowned he proved to be
the best man for the job.
He made the monarch hold more of the power-
the nobles – he made them sob.
Private armies had to go,
taxes had to be paid.
The nobles were made advisers only,
decisions by the king were made.
Henry Tudor built up the treasury,
which was empty because of the war.
The white rose and the red
had left England rather poor.
But Henry Tudor collected the gold
and tried, it seems, to be fair,
He kept in check pretenders and rebels,
who to overthrow him would dare.
By the time he died, the country was rich,
on its way to its finest hour -
Though his son would start a whole new problem
by challenging papal power.
In a nutshell, that's Henry Tudor,
the seventh Henry was he,
The son of a Welshman and Lady Margaret,
descended from Edward three.
Comments
Post a Comment