I didn’t go to bed til nearly 2 am when Ady got in and we all really struggled to get up this morning. But we were off to the Safety Day that some of you may have seen posted about on various HE lists which was a good 90 minutes drive away so we needed to be out of the house shortly after 8am and we just about managed it.
Thanks to Satnav we found the place fine and were quickly swallowed up by efficient people with clipboards issuing name badges and coloured stickers. We had time for a cup of tea before splitting up into groups for the first talk of the day. I went with Scarlett in the Red Group and we started with a fire brigade talk. Ady and Davies (Amber Group) started with road safety. The fire brigade talk was great, they showed us all the pieces of the uniform and breathing apparatus, did some puzzles and games with the children and then took them for a sit in the modified educational fire engine. Tarly got stuck straight into all that and loved having a go at the hose :). I had walked into the room and been recognised ‘are you Nic? I recognise you from flickr! Oh she’s called Scarlett really, I always wondered what Teeny’s real name was!’ which was sort of nice and sort of odd. I was also recognisd from Alison and Layla’s local HE group which I’ve been to once so explained why I had been there that time but never again and discussed whether any of our children would decide to give school a go like Poppy is :lol:.
Scarlett was delightfully five for lots of the day including making loud, tactless and very accurate observations about people. These included sticky out ears on a small boy, eczema on someone’s arms and asking a woman if she was still pregnant! 😯 She happened to be the rather amazingly trim mother of six children including a 4 month old baby and happily very used to small children and their un-socially-educated ways and thought it was hilarious. It was lovely to just focus on one child, I was so glad Ady was able to come.
We followed the fire brigade with a road safety chat while Ady and Davies went in for their fire brigade session which was pitched older with various role play stuff I think -and no fire engine peeping. Then we broke for lunch.
After lunch Scarlett and I went to a talk by a community police officer who touched on stuff like stranger danger, using emergency services and the role of the police. Then the children went off for a story. Ady and Davies did some first aid and I could see them bandaging each other up over the other side of the room. Finally they ended with a chat with the police officer again pitched for the older audience.
I did lots of chatting too which was nice, to people I’ve loosely met before and plenty I’d never met before as well as those recognising me from other people’s flickrstreams of me on my first ever camping trip :lol:. We collected our various certficiates, stickers and activity books etc. and set off for home.
The radio was reporting bad traffic on the M25 so Ady decided to avoid it and came home via Portsmouth. We stopped at a Tescos on the way to get some bits for dinner tonight and the Ben 10 watch thingy (is it an omnitrix or something?) that Davies has been coveting for weeks. Archie and Elliot have one each and he is always wearing one of theirs when I go to pick them up from there and yesterday he spent ages counting up all the coppers in his money box. He has been making a supreme effort with various things we talked about last week and I just really wanted to buy it for him so did :). Scarlett had got a mini face painting kit from the safety day which cost £1 and was happy with that and wanted nothing more so that was good too :). Unfortunately it appears to be faulty so Ady is taking it back tomorrow to swap over.
We got home about 6pm in the end and after toast, couple of chapters of story they were off to bed. Scarlett was playing with scissors in bed because ‘I just love the noise they make’ so I took them off her before she actually cut anything but it made me laugh as aged about 9 I desperately wanted to be a hairdresser solely because I loved the snippy sound sharp scissors made in the air so much :lol:.
It was a long round trip and there were chunks of the day where it felt like hard work but it was lovely to be at something so ambitious logistically and have no responsibility for any part of the organisation and to be able to walk away at the end too. Both the children enjoyed it and it is one of those sort of events you know they’d get exposure to at school and not necessarily at home so well worth doing.
the safety thing day sounds good, but where are the firefighter pics?! 😉
yup it’s an omnitrix – you’ll be singing the theme song in no time 😉
did he get the lights n sounds one or the picture thingy one? andrew wanted one when he first got into ben 10 but i refused
Comment by Liza — 25 April 2008 @ 12:28 am
I was so tempted to go to that day…:-(
Comment by Roslyn — 25 April 2008 @ 7:54 am
Yeah, the day looked really good, but I couldn’t face (a) losing out on at least 2 lots of tutoring money, (b) having to sort something out for Dylan for the day, and (c) being organised by Jaki all day, lol! Glad you all had a good time, and rofl at being recognised all day 🙂
Comment by Alison — 25 April 2008 @ 3:41 pm