We started a tradition after his mum passed away that every New Years Day we would drive the 90 minutes to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park. It’s a fun day. Perfect for our son. Maybe this kinda qualifies as a resolution.

I honestly can’t remember what my 2018 New Year Resolution was. Must have been a good one.

On our dog walk today, strangely a rather blue sky one, our son without prompting announced:

“I’ve got two resolutions this coming year. The first one is to learn to read. The second is to move from bottom set, to the second bottom set.”

It is so frustrating that someone so clearly special is just hoping to get out of the bottom set into the next bottom set. I suspect all the parents of kids in the bottom set will be saying the same thing. But it does just seems to add further fuel to the idea of pulling him from school and looking at other options. How can I afford it. How can I not afford it. It’s so difficult. So confusing.

The mad dog brings us back to the present. Why does he have to eat whatever he can find at the same time that he poops. It’s a bit of a talent. Today’s poop snack was the foulest looking leaf. Talking about foul food so we come to the Jelly Bean Challenge. Today’s question was how many Roman Emperors reigned. I realised this may not be a level playing field when our son asked

“Are we only counting Emperors and Co-Regents from the unified empire”

Eh!!!

“Before you get the West and East Empire split, often Emperors did not recognise the other Emperor”

Eh Yes Absolutely. I have given this much thought and gone for 500.

“That’s a silly answer”

Ok I will go for 1000

“Even sillier”

Ok 150

“The answer is 70 or 71”

So today I enjoyed Rotten Egg flavour Jelly Bean. This was the first one which sent me edging towards the toilet. I can’t remember this being in the Parent Job Description!!! Anyway tomorrows challenge is a zoo related one. The winner will be the first person to spot a Painted Dog.

I hope everyone has a really good 2019 and all tears are hopefully banished.

55 thoughts on “Resolutions”

  10. Happy New Year, I love your blog, funny and very heartfelt at the same time. My sister in law successfully home educated her daughter, it worked because they got and get on so well, and they got used to not having much money.
    I recently read about a woman who bought nothing for a year (except paid for rent and bills, basic toiletries and a tight groceries budget) and SAVED £19,000.
    We will be following strict low budget living on to return to UK, and living on a small boat, I am sure I will be writing about it.
    All the best. It’s heartwarming to read about your lovely interactions with your son. I used to think I was a fun parent but your games are really great!

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. Thank you so much. Is it a canal boat? I’ve always wanted to stay on one. You see them and they look so much fun and really beautiful. Yes if I do go for the home option then it will have to be full economy mode. Problem is – is that fair on our son, he only gets one childhood.

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      3. A few thoughts re the economy issue… My mum brought us up on a very low budget but we had great childhood.
        She was renovating an old house and garden and so we had WWOOF people come, via that we made friends in London, at half terms etc we’d go and stay on people’s floors with sleeping bags and backpacks via family railcard train tickets, (she still gets cheap train tickets now by booking way in advance and getting notifications when tickets are released via Trainline) and go to free museums.
        We also met people in NZ too and later went there. Now there is also Workaway, their website has a lovely host story, about a family that couldn’t afford to travel so let the world come to them, in the form of young people from around the world. It’s sweet.
        As kids we never ate out and always took sandwiches and drinks from home and never bought food or drink out, plus we went camping and did homeswaps.
        We had a lot of good experiences on a shoestring. My friend has brought up her kids the same way, great life, little money.
        If you have a good home education network that can provide good free expreiences too, and support for parents. I suppose it partly depends on that and on how bad school is.
        All the best.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Yes money doesn’t determine the quality of the childhood. It’s about trying to do things smarter. We have had to scale things right back. But it does worry me. He’s not had any sort of a holiday in over 4 years yet he hears the other kids talk about Turkey and Spain and Hong Kong and Australia and the US…. Feels like he’s missing out.

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  11. Maybe your resolution for 2019 is to explore options for your son’s education. Clearly, he is very interested in learning and it baffles me that more is not being done to counter-act the dyslexia.

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  13. Happy New Year, blogger!
    I am thrilled by your life story… sometimes when I feel that life is hard on me I remember that there are people out there who struggle with emotions and life is being more hard then I can imagine.
    I consider that you are a fighter and a survivor, and that little boy of yours is a wonder, who deserves all the love and attention you can give.
    Somehow you are blessed and that storm you are going through is there for a reason, to make you tougher and powerful, to make you strong and still have a good heart.
    Turn those salty tears of sadness in tears of joy, and thank God for what you have today.
    Happy, Merry 2019!

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    1. Thank you so much. Even though it’s been a nightmare I still am blessed. It is a privilege. Son is my life now. My purpose. I can tell from your blog that you are a fighter as well. Reading blogs about the real world and how people keep their faith, like yours, keeps me going during the dark times. Un An Nou Fericit.

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  14. I’m voting home-schooling…if I had a vote. You are far better equipped to teach & love him. He is just a body, a number, a statistic to the school. They are ultimately responsible for his poor performance and, in turn, will do what they can to hide that in reporting. If they have low results, they get less funding, perhaps?

    Have you asked him what he would like to do? Go back to school or stay home with you for learning? Present both options, the pros & cons and let him decide. He is off the charts smart. I’m sure he would understand the economic impact. Would it interfere with your job?

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  19. You mean … you were considering counting the pre-division emperors? Duh! Rookie error! 🙄 (I didn’t know any of that, either.)

    And the dreaded bottom set. Kids hate that feeling, don’t they, of being there? Teaching mixed ability groups is so much better for all concerned, IMO.

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  20. Ach, those resolutions. I do try with them now and again. I think your tradition a good one. I feel like I shall take a trip this month. I was doing it every Christmas, but that didn’t happen this year. Yeah. It’s time.

    And as a fellow parent, I get your pain.

    But as a teacher, I get your son’s choice.

    I’ve had too many students who were told they can be anything they want to be and didn’t think it took any work to BE that thing. Your son’s looking at the next immediate goal, the thing he knows he has to pass next. That ain’t a bad thing. I know there’s the whole “shoot for the moon, land among the stars” thing, but after seeing so many students utterly fail because they assume saying equals accomplishment, I’m all for your son wanting to take small steps, too. x

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