A Weekend Outdoors

At last a good weather weekend.  About time too!

Conquered

On Saturday we headed off to walk up Warton Crag - we tried this a couple of weeks ago and failed because of thick fog.  Warton Crag is one of those places that when you drive up to it, it looks huge, but when you climb up it you are surprised when you get to the top because it isn't as bad as you thought.  Always prefer a walk that way compared to the other.  Warton Crag (for those not in the know) is a lump of limestone close to Carnforth and from which you can get amazing views of Morecambe Bay.  Unfortunately, although it was a nice day, there was a lot of haze, meaning that we didn't get good views - we couldn't even see Grange.  Oh hum, we will have to go again on a clear day.

On the rocks

Anyhow, it was a nice family walk.  I always think we are at our best as a family when walking - no stress, lovely scenery, time to ourselves to be as silly as we wish and nature to explore and interpret,  no deadlines, no traffic etc etc.  Tom's walking has got better and better, this walk involved scrabbling up rocks, pushing through gorse bushes, mud etc etc and he just accepted it and got on with it.  He didn't once get out of breath and was surprised to find we had climbed so high!  (Oh to be as fit as him!).  The walk didn't take that long - we were up and down before lunch so decided to see if Archer's Cafe on the beach was open.  It was and we tucked into a very very good lunch.  We really must remember this place as everything about it is quality: the cheese is good vintage cheese, the bacon good thick quality bacon, etc etc.  We had to queue to get in but it was worth it.

We then decided to head into Morecambe to a big sports shop to see if we could buy Tom a bigger cricket set and a skipping rope (the school has a big box of skipping ropes out every morning now for the kids to play with - Tom seems to enjoy it so we thought him having a rope at home would be a good idea - maybe get an adult one too so we can join him).  We were out of luck they didn't have anything we wanted so we came away empty handed and returned home.  Matt and Tom then took their bikes to Storrs Common for a play whilst I waited in for a customer who was collecting some cakes.

Big truck, small child

Running

Boy and an ice cream (rare occurrence)

Sunday - a beautiful beautiful day.  We decided to go to the Lake District for a walk and zoned in on an Elterwater and Skelwith Bridge walk - not too hilly and 7 miles.  We thought that Tom would be able to cope with this now - he is ridiculously fit these days.  It was a fantastic walk.  Started off along a river and Elterwater - a very small mere, then through a picturesque village, up a hill to a working quarry - where there were many large vehicles to nose about.  Then up another hill to Little Langdale where we found a lovely pub and had a much needed rest before heading across some hills, into a wood and back to the beginning.  It took us a good ? hours to do the walk but it was fun.  The sun was out so we were all in T-shirts and Matt and Tom had their sun hats on.  I even wore sunglasses (first time in years!).  Everyone was in a good mood.  Tom had a slight grump when we were on a flat path, but as soon as it turned into a rocky hill to clamber up he was in his element again and cheered up.

Herdy

Washing boots

We saw plenty of nature: some frogs, some frogspawn, plenty of Herdys even a Herdy lamb (still a little too early in the season for these).  We had plenty of stops, snacks, and generally enjoyed the sunshine on us.  Once finished we drove back to Elterwater and had a well earned rest and dinner there.  We then drove home.  Tom was asleep within minutes of setting off after earnestly telling us he wasn't tired.  He certainly deserved a good sleep - he walked so well.  We got home and he went to bed after one short video.

Matt here.
It's about a week on from Nik's post about our reaction to Tom's parents evening. We have started getting him to do a bit more writing and some regular basic arithmetic at home, which seems to be paying dividends already. He has to write a proper sentence (rather than a random collection of letters, which is what can happen) each day, and we have a tick chart up on the wall. For each good sentence, he gets a jelly baby, and when the chart is full of ticks (20), he'll get a present. Almost certainly model railway-related.

On a slightly depressing note, he says that he sometimes ends up crying in the playground at school during break time because no one is playing with him. Apparently, when this happens, Mrs. Tennant tends to ask other kids to let Tom play with them. This is obviously something that saddens us, but I'm 99% sure that this is because he's too shy to barge into other kids' games and join in rather than the other kids not liking him. We going to have a word with Mrs. Tennant to see whether (a) this happens very often and (b) other kids in his class sometimes suffer from this too.

I'd like to think that it's not as big a problem as we fear. He always goes to school very happily in the morning, and is generally smiling when he comes out at 3.30. He's never got upset at home in the morning and said he didn't want to go to school, which is a good sign, and when he's playing with his classmates outside of school, they all play very nicely together. Often they're a bunch of loonies.
One of our friends in the village (father to three girls at the primary school) reckons that parents are always more sensitive to things like that with their first/only child, and I'm sure he's probably right. We just want Tom to be an active member of the community in his class, and he isn't quite there yet. Still, he's only five, and they're all still finding their way in the world. I just wish we had a magic wand to instill a bit more confidence in him.