Moving along nicely

In the weeks that have followed my previous post, life for us has been moving along nicely. Lillie has continued engaging herself with her maths books. She hasn't wanted further one-to-one support or asked to try a new area, just simply working on some of the mathematical things we have covered so far. I view this as a step in the right direction, with regards to formal independent learning. Something she will come across many times in the future. She also found a disc that I had totally forgotten about, that came free with a box of cereal a while back. With her love for nature, she was eager to have it installed onto the computer and see what she would discover. I joined her and we had a great time finding our way around. She enjoyed some of the quizzes and done well with answering the questions. And there were plenty of "eeks" and "that's yuk" going on, mostly from me which she found amusing!The freebie disc...

Lillie has also finished GB and Judo club till September now. Yet, has been practising her forward body rolls where Judo is concerned. There's a great atmosphere within the club and the instructor is very encouraging, praising, can have a laugh and banter, yet shows his firm but fair side when needed. Lillie has experienced this latter part already! She and another student had been chatting, however this spilled over into when they should have returned to listening. The instructor asked them to give 5 press ups for this. Lillie was smiling cheekily as she did so. I must admit, I did giggle quietly to myself without being noticed by Lillie. Just the rebel in me I guess. And know Lillie has the same side too. Hence, her smiling cheekily. But, once the press ups were done, the incident was forgotten about.

We've also had some lovely meet ups with friends. Either at their house, the park, or our house. Unfortunately, we had to cut short last Tuesday at our house. Living in an area, that is very local to another town centre, affected by the London looting and rioting on Monday, there were rumours our town centre was going to be 'hit' Tuesday night. The shops had begun the process of closing at 2pm, including where my son works. Thankfully he was only working till 1pm and headed straight for home. With this knowledge, our friends also headed for home earlier than we had preferred, to avoid witnessing or getting caught up with any potential disturbances. Fortunately with the heavy police presence and brave local men on the streets, looting was avoided. However, there were a few scuffles, which were reported on the news. And again on Wedsnesday evening. Sadly some of the reporting was inaccurate, but that's the media for you. Sometimes, I think they can add fuel to the fire and make many decent, law abidding citizens look like thugs, just out for a fight. I for one, and know of many others who felt safer knowing that our streets were being defended by the police 'and' local men and that we have not suffered from the looting and rioting damage seen on our tv screens or what I saw in person yesterday at a nearby town centre. It was a place I grew up in, as a child through to my early teens. I was very saddened to see the scars and still smell the fire damage in the air. It's unbelievable that people could do this to an area they live in.

I have allowed Lillie to watch the news and she was with me yesterday, as I had to attend an appointment. So, she has seen second and first hand, the damage and air of sadness from this past week. Some might say, I shouldn't have allowed her to see such distruction and shocking behaviour at such a young age. My answer to that is, life is not one long sweet experience. It does not exclude an age, race, culture or social class from bad experiences. I want her to be aware of this and for her to understand that what you put into life comes with consequences. Good and bad. Afterall, she is part of a new generation that could either be regarded as worse or better than the one that precedes her. I hope it will be the latter. It's my responsibilty to guide her into taking the better road.

On a brighter note, Lillie and I are looking forward to the weekend. We have no plans in place, so will just see what occurs and of course what the weather has in store! I would also like to share some more brighter news. I passed my Advanced Creative Writing module. Thus, gaining a Diploma in Literature and Creative Writing. I'm now looking forward to my next module - the environment.

I'm going to end this post with a lovely pic of Lillie and her friend, Catherine. A very comical duo indeed....