Yesterday we had nothing going on this week aside from work for me on Thursday and our regular evening stuff. But we’ve quickly filled the week up again :).
Today though we had no particular plans other than getting to the street dance lessons I’d been emailing the teacher about way back in February when we couldn’t make them as they clashed with Chatterbooks. Scarlett had wanted to make smoothies today though and needed bananas and yoghurt for her planned recipe so after a lazy morning (they watched CBBC and played with some construction block style toys).
Then we gathered up all the needing to be returned library items and went into Lancing. We called at the library to take things back, pick things up and arrange for Frankie who is chicken sitting for us this coming weekend to call round and find out what happens when. We called into the various charity shops and picked up some cds / dvds in one (some of those given away free with newspaper ones) which the volunteer on duty who happened to be a regular library user let us have for the bargain price of a £1 for the whole big bundle. We also called into the CoOp for some food bits and bobs including the ingredients for Tarly’s smoothies.
Back at home I made pancakes for Tarly and I for lunch, Davies stuck with peanut butter sandwiches. Then Davies did some Xboxing while Tarly painted my toenails in rainbow colours and told me animal facts.
Street Dance was pretty good, it’s held in the hall Davies used to have Badgers in years ago and is a local dancer running twice weekly classes for local kids. It’s pay as you go which suits us perfectly and she runs a half hour group for 5-7 year olds followed by an hour class for 8-12 year olds. Scarlett had been allowed to join the older group but actually she struggled a bit. She loves music and loves dancing but for her it’s all about flinging herself about to music and flailing her arms and legs about. Which is joyful but not the controlled use of a body that dance classes call for. I did quite a bit of dancing when I was a kid from various dance classes (it was called disco dancing back then ;)) and school stuff – for most school productions I was in the chorus by virtue of being passable enough at singing and dancing to do both in a crowd. Davies loved it and looked pretty good, he picked up the moves fairly quickly and understood the moving to the beat of the music. At the end K the teacher said he had done well and had natural rhythm. He really enjoyed it and is very keen to go back next week. Come September if he continued to like it he could step up to twice weekly when Badgers finishes for him on a Wednesday.
Scarlett initially said it had been too hard and she didn’t want to do it again but her and I had a long chat about some stuff being worth putting effort in for and not giving up just because it doesn’t come easy. We talked about my sponsored swim and how I had struggled in the middle but kept on going, not because I had to, because I could have just stopped, but because I wanted to do it, I wanted the feeling of having conquered something challenging. I think Davies is more self motivated and able to do well despite not having huge external expectations on him, Scarlett tends towards the lazy ‘well if noone’s telling me to do it I just won’t bother doing it then..’ which could be potentially dangerous for our approach to life so every so often we have these chats which hopefully help her reevaluate what she wants and how she’s going to make that happen.
Then I remember she is seven 😆
Back home again for tea – S had scrambled eggs ( I had toad in the hole later, it’s been an eggtastic day). Ady arrived home feeling rough – another relapse in the Goddard Family Cold we’ve had circling between us for bloody weeks. The kids and I started reading The Scarecrows Servant. Ady went off to bed early and I’ve been half watching a film (Love Happens) which is nice and tidily just ending as I come to a close with todays blogpost :).
Glad you finally got to the dance class! Good to hear D enjoyed it too – will S try the younger group?
Comment by Alison — 27 April 2010 @ 7:24 am
Yes, D was great, really glad we finally got there too. Not sure it’s the answer to back flips still but he certainly looked more comfortable than at gymnastics. S says she’ll give the younger group a try once and then make a decision. I actually think she’d be fine at the street dance if she had a proper try and got her head round the fact she’ll have to put actual effort in rather than it just happening straight away for her.
Comment by Nic — 27 April 2010 @ 6:44 pm