JanuaryThe children were so impossible in December that we were at our wits end. Thing were also not going well for Matthijs at school so we feared the worst: the novelty of the new school had worn off and he was going to get more and more difficult.
We started January with our traditional New Year’s walk on the beach and it was as if the fresh air cleared their heads. All the St Nicholas madness seeped away and they became, not angelic, but cheerful, biddable and generally nice to know. Matthijs was very proud of his "sticker tree" and was able to add to it practically every day. Daniel of course then insisted, with some justice, that if Matthijs was getting a reward for being good then he should too. Marjolein made him a sticker tree too and, with a typical Daniel sense of fairness, he then drew one for Falco too.
Matthijs’ best schoolfriend invited him to go swimming with him and his father and he had a whale of a time: it is a nice modern swimmingbath with all kinds of fountains, water-slides and whirlpools. Naturally when he filled his sticker-tree and could choose a reward he wanted to go back and wanted to take Daniel along too. Daniel was only too pleased and fortunately the friend and his father happened to be going too, so I had another experienced father on hand to help me cope. Swimming baths are risky places for small children and particularly for Matthijs who is just about able to swim/not immediately drown and somewhat overestimates his capabilities. That, added to his great liking for swimming under water, made it a less than restful experience for me, but still great fun. The pool also has a nice shallow pool with a clown fountain for the toddlers. Daniel is now steadily filling his own sticker-tree so the odds are we will go back.
There was a "Study Day" at school this month (day off for the kids) and Marjolein got together with a friend and her two-year-old and went to the "Chimpie Champ" indoor playground. They all had great fun, perhaps when Falco has finished his sticker tree…
We had a little bit of snow, which was a bit of luck because Daniel had decided that Christmas was only really over when there had been snow. Such is his stubbornness that the very elements hasten to obey… Having sorted out Christmas (finally) he immediately moved on to Easter, did some kitchen mountaineering, nicked an egg and was discovered carefully covering it in intricate patterns.
Falco is still running rings around us. Marjolein nipped up stairs for five minutes to move on the washing and carefully closed off the (hot/sharp) kitchen with the anti-monster gate. She returned to find him enjoying an extra beaker of drink-yoghurt, a chair on this side of the gate and the kitchen steps on the other side. We are going to have to invest in electified razor-wire.
Matthijs is still enjoying his gym club and took part in a "beep test". This is a standard fitness test for children in which a tape of music is played with regular "beep"s. When the children hear the first beep they have to run the length of the gym before the second beep. After a few laps the level of the test goes up and the beeps get closer together, so it tests both speed and endurance. Matthijs and another boy were the best in the group, holding out till level six. The gym teacher spontaneously remarked how well things have been going for him this year, particularly his attitude and attentiveness. School says the same and things have been going well at home, so we hope he has turned a corner. My theory is that he has been a long time recovering from the miserable time he had at the Bornwater school. He seems much more happy and settled now.
There are still twitchy times, because he does not really get stretched at school. The deputy head tested him against the level that he should have at the end of this year ("group 3" in Dutch terminology) and he passed easily. That raises the question as to whether he should go forward a year. There is a limit to how far they can take him in his current class and he is not yet independent enough to make his own way and do projects by himself. It is not an easy decision: he has only just got over the last big change. If we move him up there is no guarantee that we will not have the same problem in a year’s time: there is a limit to how many years you can skip. We do not really want him to be sending him to a secondary school when he is nine.
Matthijs’ jokes have also evolved: he actually made a genuinely funny one and we were deeply impressed, but it turns out that he had got it off a Belgian chilren’s program. It would let you hear it but it does not work in English. He is also apparently the faithful type. His first girlfriend has moved on to new boyfriends twice now, but he still says that he is in love with her. Tragic really.
Falco woke up screaming a couple of times this month so we think that his imagination has just started providing him with vivid dreams. Daniel had a similar thing at this age and it lasted months. We are hoping that Falco will be quicker.
The boy’s school (Wilkenhoek) has a Wilgen Theater once a month: odd numbered classes perform one month, even numbered the next. They invite the parents of only one of the classes because there is limited space in the gym. Marjolein went with the parents of group three (Matthijs class) but saw Daniel perform too because he is in group one (see the film). It was great fun and undoubtedly gets the kiddos used to performing in front of a group: the school really has a talent for combining fun and function. We were in the gym a week earlier because they organised a "Swing Party" for the parents. It had been ages since we went out dancing and the DJ had got the agegroup targetted, so practically everything was recognisable and danseable. We had a great time and very sore feet. We REALLY like that school.
filmp of beach, chimpie & show
3,5 Mb .wmv file
