Sunderland - Episode II. Stu and Em's.

After Rob & Pauline's, from the 5^th March to the 26^th March we stayed with friends, and what a fabulous and lively 3 weeks it was!  Stu is an old school friend of Pete’s and I had met them both only twice very briefly.  They have 2 energetic and outgoing girls, Olivia (7) and Hannah (6) so along with our boys it took... oh, 20 seconds before they all warmed to each other!   Lucky for us, as well as very generous hospitality from Em and Stu (and a big gracious thank-you again to you both), they had 2 spare rooms with bunks arriving a few days after us that the boys occupied, and a trampoline.  We also have very similar parenting styles and bed times so the major things fell into sync nicely.   

We were also able to arrange for Tyler and Charlie to go to the girls’ local primary school, Plains Farm PS, where the head-teacher had no problem for both our boys to slip into classes based on their age – Tyler in Year 4 and Charlie in Reception.  This was great!  I was not going to have to home school for a little while at least, the boys would be occupied during the day and getting lots of exercise, and I could focus on finding a place to rent near Pete’s new work (and maybe even relax a little).  Well, Tyler took to it, no probs.  Right in there, class mates buzzing around asking questions, having school ‘dinners’ every day... He enjoyed every moment.   Charlie, well... a little different.  Day 1 – happy to go in but did not want to participate at all.  The classic conflict of interests such as him wanting to go and play whenever he wanted like in kinder; not wanting to sit with the other kids on the floor when asked.  He did come home happy though and so I was not prepared for the next day.  I had Charlie doing a full koala hold around my leg, wailing for me not to go.  He had to be peeled off and dragged kicking and screaming into the classroom.  I am sure the teachers in reception were having warm, fuzzy feelings towards this Australian woman who failed to give prior warning that her youngest was ‘unfamiliar’ with the education institution, but I couldn’t help that.  He needs to go school sometime, right?  Anyway, after half an hour or so he calmed down and actually really enjoyed the day!  Joined in, played, had fun.  

My personal
home-schooling technique

He was all primed to go again and was even laughing with the teacher after school.  Even before bed he was looking forward to it.  Ah, but with dawn came a fresh perspective and we had a little meltdown before leaving for school.  It wasn’t fair for the class to have Charlie disrupt them all when the school was doing me a favour in the first place, so that was that.  My little home school buddy and I got to hang out together each day instead.

We all ate and played well at the Ashton household.  Biscuits, biscuits (I ate so many biscuits), Yorkshire puddings, dumplings, Toad in the Hole and Crispy Duck. Uno, Guess Who, Wii, iPods, trampolining and scooting around outside...  Also had great Sunday dinners, one out at the Rosedene Hotel, to boot. 

Forsters @ Rosedene

Stuart and Emma