dandelion sculptures

Project 52 2018 week 16 – dandelions

This week was all about back to school after Easter.  And of course the weather was warm and sunny for much of the week.  At least it’s continued (with a few showers) into the weekend for us.

Week 16 of Project 52 started off with us heading up to Trentham Gardens to meet my best friend, godson and her baby girl. It was a bit of a drab and dreary weather day, but we still had a good time and the boys spent a lot of time running around together.  And I was able to take photos again of the wire sculptures ike the fairies and these dandelions.

School mostly passed by in a blur.  Tennis after school, recording playing and being awarded another ‘bead’ for being able to play a piece they’d been learning.  Hair cut Wednesday – finally, because N’s hair has been very overgrown. VIP at school for english and maths, and then Learner of the Week.  I also had a chat with his teacher because she’s requesting someone to sit with him for his (at least english) SATs because he just won’t read the questions. He just guesses. When he does comprehension tests and worksheets as homework, he knows what he need to do, and will read the text and then answer the questions fine. But in class without someone sitting there, he’ll just guess. I despair, because he can do it, he just won’t, even though he knows it’s an assessment. N ended the week being learner of the week for his fraction work so he was very chuffed.

Then tennis club on Friday – I’d thought they’d be playing outside, but instead were still in the sports hall. Disappointing – it’s not the same in this venue compared with the actual club venue. One of his friends moved up a group, so N wanted to know why (he’s not very accepting at recognising that someone his age who’s played for less time might be better). Then they seemed to have lumped the younger, less advanced group in with N’s class. It didn’t look like they were playing much, because they were having to wait a long time for their turn. This is the same issue we had last year, so I’m not impressed. Before Easter N’s group had 1 coach or assistant to 3-4 of them, and seemed to be getting some good attention. If they don’t sort it out, I’ll have to have a word, although we’ve discussed doing some private lessons once he finishes school tennis at the end of this year.

Saturday wasn’t very relaxing. N’s moved up swimming class to stage 4 which means a later session. So we nipped to the supermarket early before swimming. Then the vet’s to pick up some stuff for the cows, the bakery and home.

N’s been bursting to use his new water gun so I got him to set up some targets rather than getting soaked myself. Just sat down at 4pm and I’m exhausted. I was meant to be dancing on Saturday, but we’ll have to see if tirdness takes over too much.

dandelion sculptures

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22 Comments

  1. I absolutely love dandelion clocks, so this is my favourite. I hope you get tennis sorted and the school are ok wtih the SATS. Hugs xx

  2. lovely photo of the dandelions, glad the weather is improving and good idea to set up targets for N. That’s a pain about the tennis lessons, sadly like most activities they’re more interested in the income generated rather than what the kids get out of it and they get bored easily if they’re left hanging around

    1. Ah this club talks the right stuff, but I think they get swayed a bit by parents asking and pushing for certain things, and the fact that they’ve now got a tots group they’re trying to fit in while running across 2 different venues. I’m hoping it gets fixed because it’s really irking me now.

  3. Ahh! My younges will have someone sat with her in her SATs next month just to keep her working because she will just lose concentration. It sounds like your boy is doing welll at school though.
    Gorgeous photo x

    1. He’s worked so hard, and improved so much, and he still likes school. But his reading (or lack of it) drives me mad. I’ve heard lots of people say they’ve or other children in class have had people sit with them. Seems quite common nowadays. In my day, no-one even at GCSE had support. Hope your daughter’s SATs prep is going ok.

  4. Pity about the tennis – we found that every time you changed coach or group, you had to see if it worked. H got fed up when other people moved up who were better than him too. We gave up in the end as H wasn’t that keen despite having done it for a good few years.

    1. I know hat feeling. I’m keen for N to continue just because it’s the only thing he’s been interested in sportswise. I think he should give golf a go though, because although he’s wild, he’s pretty good at hitting the ball.

  5. Water gun….now there’s an idea! This dandelion pic looked impressive enough as a thumbnail. Even better full size. Love how you’ve captured this, it’s a very impressive picture and your timing was great. #mysundayphoto

    1. Thanks John. I dread a water gun, but thankfully he had his cousin over to play with today, so I escaped the water…my brother turned up and didn’t!

  6. Hi, maybe getting Learner Of The Week is the perfect encouragement for N to want to read the questions. It does remind me a little of when my daughter was learning to read and write, she would write higgle de piggledy letters and they would spell whatever word she thought. She turned into an avid reader so no harm was done, she was just stubborn… That sounds a little annoying about tennis club, hopefully, they sort their act out and give the children the attention they need.

    xx

    1. Yes, stubborn is definitely N. He likes that he finds reading easier now, and his writing is coming on better but he just needs to think about the spellings he knows/what he reads and how they need to be translated into writing rather than guessing the spelling of words that he does really know. He does everything on his own agenda, so we’ll see what happens

  7. You’ve got me exhausted just reading this, (: I agree tennis is more fun played and watched outside. I’d be bursting to use a new water gun too, smart of you to set up targets.

  8. Trentham Gardens is beautiful, it’s years since we last visited. It sounds like N has had a very good week at school, apart from the problem with reading questions. I can understand your frustration about the tennis, I would feel the same!

  9. When Kaide did his SATs last year there were a couple of children who had the same problem and they had someone sit with them, they all got really good marks, so definitely worth doing if the option is there, its disappointing about the tennis, and if he’s really serious, private coaching may be the way to go.

    1. I’m not sure he is serious about it, but I feel sad that he’s been there from the start, done nearly 2 years (with most of that playing twice a week), and 3 people have come in (2 are naturally sporty anyway) after a year, and have pretty much gone straight up a class. One, didn’t look like much difference in ability (the other 1 I’d seen play was definitely more consistent). But private lessons might give him a bit of a boost – it’s just whether we can actually get sessions at a time we can make)

  10. I really must get to Trentham this year now you’ve said it’s doable in a day. Hope you get the tennis sorted, and good that school will deal with the issue re SATS, seems hard to believe we had that whole joy a year ago already #365

    1. Here’s hoping they accept the request, although it’s bad we need to ask given he can actually do it, he just switches off and chooses not to read. His comment yesterday was ‘but if I know the answer I can just write it down’. Sigh. Trentham is only 1h25ish for us to get to You’d need the whole day for the gardens, if you want to do the shopping visit, I’d suggest staying in the premier inn on site, and doing Monkey Forest and the shopping one day, the gardens the next (assuming the weather is good!)

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