Back in the Classroom – Last week of term

2013-06-22 | puppy1952

The last week of term flew by rapidly. I still had two evening shows to prompt, but at least I had the days to spend with my girls. We kept to our normal routine as much as possible. My angels worked hard at getting the hang of writing between the lines, reading, writing and doing their sums. But there was also time to do some fun stuff. We continued our theme of learning how our bodies moved and here are some photographs of them making skeletons from ear buds or q tips as the Americans call them.

How do these bones fit together?

This is coming together nicely

My skeleton has bendy bones

We all have different ideas

What a bony pair of skeletons!

We’re taking these home

This was cool fun

The Intermediate Phase Pantomime was Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. Lots of the girls had been to see it with their parents and others were about to. So I decided to show them an animated movie of the ‘real’ Snow White. Well – what a good plan this turned out to be. The girls were enthralled and totally caught up in the wonder of the fairy tale. Just look at their faces.

Totally absorbed

Snow White is so beautiful

What will the dwarfs find?

This timeless fairy tale has not lost its appeal

Have an amazing holiday to all my girls and their parents. I am writing this post from my brother’s home in England and will be posting daily reports on my adventures while I am visiting here for the next three weeks. Please feel free to share in my experiences.

Back in the Classroom – Writing, Creating and Prompting

2013-06-17 | puppy1952

The past week has been pretty hectic at school. The intermediate phase are in the throes of producing a their pantomime – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Although my little Grade Ones are not involved, I am. So for four days last week I had to leave them in the capable hands of a GAP student while I was on duty as Prompt. But the shows began at 10 and I was back with the girls by 12:30. So far we have had 2 full dress rehearsals, 2 morning shows and 2 evening shows. There are two more evening shows to go so if you have not yet seen it don’t delay – it is really good.

The teaching of handwriting is very important in Grade 1. So many skills are required to form a simple letter. Posture must be right. The fine muscles in the hand, fingers and wrist need to work correctly. Spacial perception has to be developed and in the beginning it all takes a great deal of concentration which is why children with an attention deficit struggle to learn to write.

Now just when we have got used to how to form the letters and learned how to keep them on a line the goal posts have been moved. The new skill we must learn is to write between the lines and we are practising this on paper before we get our feint lined books!

This takes concentration

A good exercise to strengthen those three fingers required for neat writing – the thumb, pointer and middle is paper tearing. The girls got busy making a new book cover. They had to tear coloured papers into small pieces and paste them onto an outline of a fish.

This is fun

Its good for my ‘three writing friends’

I am working hard at this

Not so good for my back when I stand and bend over my desk when I work!

But the bending over a low desk is not so good for my back!

Do you like the results?

The 16th of June is Youth Day in South Africa and as it fell on a Sunday (also Father’s Day) we got Monday off. I hope all my little ones and their parents had a good weekend. I certainly did – got a lot of Third Term preparation done as well as enjoying a relaxing time with my husband and daughter.

The last four days of term are now upon us. Can you believe it – half way through the year already!

Back in the Classroom – Work, puppies and party time

2013-06-09 | puppy1952

Love is a warm puppy! Two of the little girls in my class have recently each acquired a dachshund puppy. These little cuties co-incidentally came from the same litter. I was delighted to be introduced to the two cuddly bundles last week.

Two cuddly bundles with their proud owners

The most important thing we learn in Grade 1 is Reading. If we don’t grasp this skill all other learning will be seriously compromised. Everything possible is done to improve our reading and writing vocabulary. A good way to revise our reading words is to work on cards based on our Reading Scheme.

Here are the girls busily working at their tasks.

We seem to have lots of May and June birthdays and we had another birthday girl on Friday! And wow were we spoilt – a party pack each and the most beautiful cup cakes! Luckily it was Friday and P.E. for the last part of the day so the sugar high was worked off before home time!

The birthday girl handing out the treats

Things are as busy as ever at school. The older children are busy rehearsing for their Pantomime – Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. As I am the prompt I know its going to be good – so if you haven’t got your tickets – don’t delay and don’t miss out on this hilarious take on an old favourite.

Back in the Classroom – Dictionaries, Story Writing, Skeletons and Reports

2013-06-02 | puppy1952

Another good week has raced by and the little girls are just progressing by leaps and bounds. I have been busy with lots of individual assessments and though I have been back in Grade 1 for two years now – I am still blown away by how rapidly they learn.

We are now up to bonds of seven in Mathematics and we once again played dancing digits to get the feel of how numbers are related. Playing games always makes learning fun and they enjoyed a plus and minus activity on the mat when their work was done.

Who can cover their blocks first

The girls were very excited when I handed out their very first dictionaries. They decorated the cover and took them home to be covered in plastic. Now they are beginning to write their own stories, finding words they need from around the classroom, in their reading, from the THRASS chart and also by asking the teacher. Their first creative assignment was to sequence four pictures in the correct order and then make up the story. Wow – did they have fun! One little lass could not stop at one sentence per picture and almost wrote a novel.

Now let me think

Deep concentration

It’s about a birthday, isn’t it.

Coming to ask for words

We are learning about our bodies and how they move. The girls had fun cutting out skeletons and pasting them in moving positions.

Concentrating on cutting out neatly

Mine is very flexible

This is cool

We have had a few rainy days recently so movement in the classroom has become more important than ever! Here are the girls doing Singing in the Rain – in the classroom while it was raining outdoors!

Singing in the rain

The weather has indeed turned chilly and wet here in the Western Cape, South Africa. Voices on the radio warned that the weekend would be beset with storms and flooding and very low temperatures. Friday afternoon, Hubby left for a business trip, the boys had Scouts so after feeding them pizzas I snuggled under the duvet with my laptop and spent the evening working on reports. By Saturday morning the storm had arrived and poor Josh played a hockey match and came home drenched. I remained under the duvet and by 2:30 I’d completed my reports – such a good feeling to be done!

Back in the Classroom – Assessing and Caring

2013-05-25 | puppy1952

It’s a short blog this week and sorry folks – no photos.

At the best of times my life runs at a hectic pace and I like it like that. It keeps me interested and stimulated and I am never bored. This past week, though, the pace was more hectic than ever with dentist appointments, visa applications, bank problems, an unexpected school meeting to attend, an extra sports duty to perform, a midweek and Saturday play rehearsal and the culmination of a Bird Club function that I organised. So I have to confess – I got a tad behind in my marking! I’d love to say that next week will be calmer – but somehow, I doubt that!

For those parents who are reading this – don’t worry – I still managed to teach your brilliant children and my marking is now up to date! Throughout the term we continuously teach and assess and next week we will begin our report writing. Some assessments have to be done one on one with Grade Ones and so the little girls have had to work quietly on their own while their teacher tried to get through individuals as quickly as possible. Sitting still too long is of course not easy when your’re six or seven so I have to remember to get them up and moving often! The minute the noise level rises – we get up, do a movement song or go for a walk, change the task and then settle down again. I am proud that the girls are coping and cooperating.

Even when there is a rushed week of goings on the little dramas of small girls cannot be ignored. On Thursday I greeted my girls with the usual indication of how each one was feeling on a scale of 1 to 4 and one of my most cheerful entered with a one and was in fact very tearful. Her best friend was tearful and before long several others were snivelling too. The problem – her doggy was sick and had to be put down. We had a care circle . Wow ! She shared so eloquently how she felt that I had tears in my eyes. I hugged and she sobbed. The other girls were silent and then as the teddy was passed around they all had words of comfort. “He won’t be sore any more”. ” He will be like a puppy in doggy heaven.” “My doggy died and I still miss him but I know he’s happy in doggy heaven.”

Afterwards the doggy-bereaved child said, “I also have some good news. My friend is having a sleep-over with me and Mom’s going to make popcorn. And I’m getting a new puppy to keep my other dog company!” And the tears were dried and she moved on. Aren’t kids great! We can learn so much from them.

Back in the Classroom – Birthdays, Bonds and Cooperative Learning

2013-05-19 | puppy1952

No matter how well you plan as a teacher you never know what is actually going to happen on that day! Take Thursday for example. As I greeted my girls no fewer than five arrived in mufti! Five birthdays on the same day in the same class – what were the chances! Of course this meant five lots of treats to celebrate too. Oh boy – we worked flat out till snack time before I handed out the first party pack at 10:10. And yes – the sugar high had set in and I had to do a lot of movement activities as sitting still was going to be a problem. At 12:30 they got the sliced cake and cake pops and finally as they left at hometime cup cakes and iced donuts were distributed.

The Five Birthday Girls

It’s a Barbie Cake

We have been working hard on our number concepts. We can count to 100, in ones, twos, fives and tens. We have worked hard on knowing the difference between before and after, one more and one less, recognising numerals and number names and many more things. Now we are ready for real sums. To introduce the concept of partners in our bonds we play a wonderful game called dancing digits which gets the children moving – so good for the brain. Each child is marked with a number (Don’t worry moms – it comes off easily!) and told to find someone else that she can partner with to make, in this case, five. They scurry around and argue and debate, little fingers work overtime and finally they connect with the right partner holding tightly to her hand until the teacher congratulates them on their cleverness.

Together we make five!

So do we although its the other way round!

Zero is a difficult concept but we’ve got it!

Mathematics is so much fun!

In our groups we use concrete apparatus to reinforce the concepts. I cannot emphasise enough how important it is for children to use all their senses to learn. Seeing the counters, touching them, moving them around, listening to songs and rhymes about numbers etc are all part of the learning process. Learning bonds off by heart before the concept is embedded in the brain does more harm than good.

Find three with your eyes and grab it make it one more – make it one less – how many do you need to make five

Interpreting the written sum – Those signs can be confusing!

The girls also did another cooperative activity this week and learned from the previous weeks’ experience. It was so rewarding seeing the lesson learned and the ones who were in conflict last week working beautifully this week.

This week’s activity got the girls looking for 3D shapes in pictures of actual things. They made a graph of these. They compared their columns but also discovered where they went wrong by comparing their graphs with those of the other girls.

It goes in this column I think

This is so much fun

Do we have the same results?

It is the Autumn term and the weather is getting chilly but we have been lucky with some lovely sunny days and inside the classroom there is always sunshine with these precious little girls.

Back in the Classroom – Beach Outing and Mothers’ Day

2013-05-11 | puppy1952

Another great week at our Fun School under the belt so its a bumper blog today!

We pride ourselves on being a brain based school – this means we consider how the brain works and what it needs to function properly. Among other things we try to ensure that our children hydrate regularly, eat correctly and move! We do things that some might think is hokus pokus. I start each lesson with ‘mind moves’ – little exercises to wake up and switch on the ears, eyes and brain. No writing lesson begins unless we do a crossing the midline action game or song and we get our tiny fingers stretched and ready for fine movement. Our sports field is set out as a ‘walk-it’ circuit with stations at intervals where fitness exercises are done and we take our classes out at any time of the day to make us of this facility. Do these things make a difference? Definitely. One day last week I was really feeling under the weather with a thick head – I actually felt that my brain was missing! I muddled through the day and wondered why my girls were chatty, restless and producing messy work. It took a while for me to register that I had not done a single movement song or vigorous exercise with them – Hello. The next day in spite of still feeling groggy myself I got back with the programme and those girls were back to their brilliant selves!

But enough of my inadequacies and back to the rest of our stunning week. The rewards of teaching the First Grade as I have mentioned many times are great. How rapidly these little girls learn. Remember everything is new – so when they have to write a sentence many things come into play – I must get my pencil grip right, mind how I form the letters correctly and make sure the construction makes sense. Up until now the teacher or room parent has written their dictated sentences into their News Book. But on Monday they got to write their sentences on their own! First they tried it out on a strip of paper finding words on the Thrass chart, in their reading or sounding out phonetically and only when a word was just too difficult did they raise their hands for help. I was super proud of the results.

On Thursday we all arrived at school on a slightly chilly morning but still full of excitement because we were off to The Beach! Were we crazy – no in Sunny South Africa winter beach visits are quite acceptable. By nine o’clock the sun was out and it was just a little breezy. The children were briefed to note all the sounds, smells, feelings, tastes and sights they experienced. They needed no second invitation to strip to their bathing costumes and play in the shallows. We had a tough male gap student up to his knees and they were not allowed beyond him. We drew a boundary line on the sand and they weren’t allowed beyond that mark. The moms and dads were vigilent along with the teachers – there were two classes totalling over 60 boys and girls. And what fun we had – splashing in the sea, playing on the sand and building elaborate sand castles.

Splashing in the cool breakers

Sculptures in the sand

Old fashioned Hop-Scotch is still a fun game

Do you like our castle

A Dad getting wet

Kids don’t feel the cold

What a great classroom this is!

Me cold – Don’t be silly – I’m a water baby

We heard the clackety clack of train roaring by

Getting the feel of the gritty, cold, squishy sand

Boys and Girls joined forces and shared building skills and ideas

What joy on their faces

Smile for the camera

Stuck in the Mud

All too soon it was time to pack up and get back to school. We had given the children our paper coffee cups to use as mini buckets and after making sure these and all other litter was picked up and put into the bin we lined up ready to go back to the cars. A senior citizen approached me -“What school is this?” I told him and he said, “I have to compliment you on very well-disciplined and beautifully behaved children. I am a retired principal from Gauteng and it’s lovely to see the little ones having so much fun.” Of course I was hugely proud! What excellent adverts you are for your school boys and girls. That was not the only compliment we got – Fish Hoek Beach’s regular contingent of retirees were down there that morning and several of them asked where we were from and commented on how sweet the children were. They did not mind the ‘invasion’ at all.

Back in the classroom the children drew pictures and labled them with sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste words like – roaring ocean, gritty sand, squishy mud, salty chips, stinging eyes, clattering train, shrill whistle and pongy sea-weed!

It is Mother’s Day tomorrow – and I wish all my Moms a great and rewarding day with your little angels We had a big discussion on what our moms mean to us and then with great concentration they settled to making cards and creating their own sentences using their newfound skill of word hunting – of course teacher could be included a source for words. I just loved what they wrote and hope you do too:-) This one stood out – I love my mom because she teaches me important things! Don’t you just love it!

Busy making a very important card

This if for a very special mommy from a very special little girl

So Creative!

This is a bumper blog so I just need to write about one more thing! We teach our children to work cooperatively. I saw this working in a natural environment on the beach where the children chose who to build castles with. But in the classroom it might not run as smoothly. The children do not choose with whom they work. They have to learn to get on with everybody and of course there are often conflicts which they have to sort out mostly on their own. On Friday I set the girls to work on a specific cooperative activity. They had to make a graph of the different items in their lunch boxes, deciding who would do what and how to go about the process on their own, knowing their roles of organiser, gatekeeper, encourager and reporter. While they were busy I took a few minutes to explain to a room parent what I wanted her to do for me. One of my girls came up to tell me that one of her group was not taking turns! Now this was a mature, sensible little girl and instead of asking the room parent to wait, in my misguided wisdom I said, “Just let X do what she wants to for now and I will come and sort it out in a minute.” Wrong move, Teacher – those few moments were vital to that group – Justice had not been served and the three ‘good’ ones were outraged. They took the law into their own hands with disastrous results – yelling, pinching, scratching and tears! But it was not too late to save the day. We had a mini care circle and they worked out for themselves how things could have been done differently – what wisdom they demonstrated. The ‘culprit’ served a bit of time out and soon joined her group when she calmed down. Everybody learned from the experience. The interesting thing is that each group had a different way of working out the problem with equally good results. In the report back we all learned not only what we set out to discover – what was the most common item in our lunches – but also how each group went about handling the task. Definitely a good thing to do on a regular basis.

Back in the Classroom – First Assembly and Pyjama Party

2013-05-06 | puppy1952

To those of you who faithfully follow my blog I have to apologise for posting this week’s episode late. I have been fighting a cold for a couple of weeks and not been quite with the programme. I fear I have been a grumpy teacher and not given my girls my best either. But thankfully the little people are very tolerant and have put up with me in spite of my moodiness.

This last week was a fun week and exciting one for the Grade Ones. Our topic this term is all about our families. Constructing family trees helped us learn about the importance of each person who makes us who we are. And boy were we proud of our trees. For a few weeks now we have also been preparing for our first ever performance at Assembly. Each grade in the school has to take their turn to demonstrate at an assembly what they have been learning in class. The Grade Ones have been watching in awe as the others have been the centre of attention and now on Tuesday it was their turn.

Parents are always invited to our assemblies a score or so turn up each week. But on Tuesday – wow – every chair was taken. The four Grade 1 teachers were hugely proud of their little stars. They performed to perfection – it was a thousand times better than the rehearsals. It was as if having an audience got them to pull out all the stops. Well done Grade Ones – Your teachers are proud of you!

To end the week we entertained our classes at a Pyjama Party on Friday Night. What an excellent turn out we had. Of course the object of this is twofold – to raise funds for the school and to give our parents a ‘date night’. The little ones had a ball and from the comments I had from my parents they seemed to appreciate what we did.

It was a pyjama party so did I wear my pyjamas? Of course – and my little girls loved my Hello Kitty PJs.

Snuggling into our cosy rugs

Looking for ‘monsters’ in the dark

Bonding

We were allowed to bring siblings and cousins

Even the teacher wore pyjamas

Back in the Classroom – Family Tree Project

2013-04-26 | puppy1952

We have been learning about families. Our own nuclear families, of course are the most important. We have learned that there are different kinds of families – single parent families, grandparent headed families, extended families and so on. The most important thing in a family the girls believe is that each member cares about the others. The girls certainly have a strong sense of family.

We have also focussed on our ancestry and yesterday the Grade 1s constructed family trees. They all brought a bottle filled with sand, a branched twig and loads of photographs and bits and pieces to decorate the end product. They cut out leaves and pasted on labels. It was an Expo Day so many visitors wandered in and out while all this was going on.

I will let the photographs speak for themselves.

Busy Tree Builders at Work

I am the newest leaf

I need to get to the top branches

Grandparents are the roots

Do you like my tree?

Concentrating carefully on the cutting out

Some strong branches on these trees

I have a great family

Back in the Classroom – Welcome Back, Creative Orals, Three Little Pigs and Parent Interviews

2013-04-21 | puppy1952

A lovely sunny weekend ended our brief Easter Holiday and then the second term started with Rainy Day Procedure! But this did not dampen the spirits of my young learners who entered the classroom with their usual enthusiasm and bursting to tell me their news. At my school we go to great lengths to welcome the kids back. We write a welcome message on the board, set out new stationery on their desks and each one gets a colourful welcome back card and a treat of some sort. This time it was a marshmallow Easter Egg. I once said to my grandsons who are now well established in High School, ‘I don’t think they even notice the trouble we go to – they just glance at the card, gobble the sweets and that’s that!” Oh no – they declared – We loved the first day of term and those messages, cards and treats made us feel special. We miss that in High School! (So there Grumpy Teacher!)

Well – my girls made me feel rather special too – they all insisted that they’d missed me and said that school was much nicer than the holidays. That’s Grade 1 for you!

Right from the start we got stuck into good old fashioned hard work. We have finished our prepared handwriting booklets and on Monday we begin to write on 17mm lines in our big books! The girls can’t wait. Our topic this term is My Family and we are learning about what a family tree is. Watch this space to see our projects on this turn out!

Up until now most of our oral work has been sharing in care circles and telling news. We took this to a new level earlier this week. They were told to look at a sequence of pictures in their Language workbooks and in pairs make up a story of at least three good clear sentences. By working cooperatively they had to agree on how the story would then be presented orally to the teacher. My expectation was that I would get three simple sentences – The dog chased the cat. The cat ran up the tree. A boy rescued the cat. They had 5 noisy minutes to prepare but when I stopped them – they said – no we need more time. Okay another 3 minutes. Well, I was (not for the first time) blown away with what they came up with. Each pair presented a preamble about why the dog chased the cat, described what the cat felt like, explained what the dog did when the cat got up the tree, and elaborated on how the boy discovered the cat up the tree and his method of rescue. The great this was that each story was completely different.

I believe that if you give the children free rein to use their creativity, to let them share ideas and give them time to put it all together they come up with more than you expect. The classroom does not always have to be a hushed place of concentrated work. So if you pass my classroom and hear a bit of a commotion – don’t judge the teacher for her lack of discipline – No – It’s Little Geniuses at work!

Relating the story

You won’t believe what happened next

In Afrikaans we have been learning the story of ‘Die Drie Klein Varkies’ The girls love it and enjoy repeating the bits like “‘ Hy klop aan die deur. Varkie, Varkie, Laat my in. Nee, nee, nee! Dan sal ek blaas en blaas en blaas etc.

But the other day they begged – Please can we have it in English! “But you know The Three Little Pigs in English,” I said. “Surely you don’t want it again!’ “Yes we do,”they insisted. It was the end of the day so I decided to Google and find a video clip to make it more interesting. I was delighted to see that in spite of all the stuff they’re exposed to today 6 and 7 year-olds still love the traditional tales that we all enjoyed as children. Just look at the wonder and delight on their faces at the antics of the piggies and that big bad wolf!

Totally absorbed

That so funny

What will happen now

–

He’s climbing down the chimney!

As a teacher it is very important for me to meet my learners’ parents. Parentline afforded me the opportunity of discovering how they are coping with their child’s first term at school. I found out whether or not they had picked up anxieties, problems with making friends, resistance to homework or any other issues. It was also rewarding to hear that their children are happy, love coming to school and love their teacher. It was good meeting with my girls’ parents last week. It was great sharing with them how I found their children in class. It was good to see their reaction and thrill that their girls were progressing well at their own pace. I had the opportunity to show them the right way to help with homework and to put their minds at rest that we would give intervention where it was needed. Ten minutes is not a lot of time but it is surprising how much you can pack into it. When my interviews were done, I felt good. My girls have great parents and I have gained better insight into each of my girls, the better to enable me to move forward with them. It is going to be a great term!

End of School Holidays

2013-04-12 | puppy1952

For a teacher school holidays are a time to recharge batteries – or so that is what we are told. But actually when you are a wife, mother and involved grandmother it is a time to catch up with your other life! Like having your hair done, getting a manicure, servicing the car and catching up with friends and family. Did I do any of these things – I did catch up with two friends and I had the car valeted. Many hours were also spent preparing material for the new term but most importantly I also spent a fair amount of time getting my visitor’s Visa for England organised. This is not as simple as it sounds. There is a comprehensive application form to be filled in online, a fee to be paid and an appointment with the Visa4UK company to be made. Supporting documents have to accompany the application and getting them together is a mission. If you do not have hotel bookings you have to prove that the person you are staying with is a British citizen has a job and can support you. I am eternally grateful to my friend, Linda for supplying me with all the requirements within 24 hours of receiving my requesting email. Then 24 hours later after filling in the online application twice because I was thrown off right at the end of my first try and had to start all over again, I was able to pay the fee and make an appointment with said company. My appointment was on Friday at 1 p.m. the last day of the holidays so I did not have to take an afternoon off school to get it done! (They are in the city and close at 3 p.m.)

My darling husband took me in to the city for my appointment . The weather was gorgeous and we were early. While we were waiting for my appointment we had a cup of coffee and a croissant. “”Let’s go to Robertson for the weekend,”” he suggested. So we googled the number of our favourite cottage on a farm in Robertson and were in luck – they could accommodate us. So after my one hour appointment we raced home, packed and were on the road by 3:45.

Retreat Guest Cottage can be found on a peach, apricot, grape and citrus farm at the far end of a dirt road jutting off the Robertson-to-McGregor tar highway. It boasts two lovely bass fishing dams and we have been going there on and off for several years. The cottage is rustic but comfortable and we just love the peace and tranquility of the setting. The main reason for weekending here is for the fresh water fishing but also for the wonderful birdlife.

Not the Arniston Hotel – but quite comfortable thank you

Enough space to relas

Cosy Kitchen

Personal Chef and Caterer

View from stoep

View on other side of cottage toward the mountains

Rusty kept us company all weekend

Earl was fishing at before I opened my eyes

Rusty and I took a walk to find Earl – Rusty invited me in for a swim but I declined.

The birds were a bit nervous of the dog walking with me but some of them still obliged by posing for portraits.

Cape Turtle Dove catching the early rays of sun

Common Waxbill

Tree full of yellow canaries

Double Collared Sunbird in moult

Bokmakierie – taken a long way off

Grey-backed cisticola

Stonechat

Retreat Cottage Back

Front of Retreat Cottage

Succulent Garden next to the cottage

We took the scenic route home on Sunday afternoon and stopped to photograph one or two birds. We drove through the picturesque little town of McGregor which was rather sleepy on this lovely Autumn day.

Pale Chanting Goshawk – Common in this area

McGregor

Interesting shop fronts

So after a wet and stormy start we ended the holiday with a lovely sunny weekend and it was back to school on Monday!

Easter in Struisbaai – It’s just too wet

2013-03-31 | puppy1952

I was surprised to wake up after my husband this morning. But then it was almost 8 o’clock! He was up, sitting in the Laz-y-boy reading – most unlike him. It was still raining!

“Right now,” I said, “I have this craving for croissants – and I need to get out – I have cabin fever!” So we woke our sleepy daughter and made our way to l’Agulhas where I was sure I would find said delicacy at a little coffee/gift shop called Potpourri. “It is such a miserable day that nobody will be there and we can indulge in a good cup of coffee too.”” How wrong I was. Everybody at the southern tip of Africa was sick of the rain and felt the need to get out for air so we could barely get a parking spot let alone a table for three. I bought a few things I wanted from the gift part of the shop and we headed out to The Southern Most Restaurant and pub to see if they could be more accommodating. After checking their menu and finding only egg and bacon we decided to return to Potpourri and wait for a table. Luck was with us – in the five minutes we were gone a parking spot right outside was available and a tiny table for three was free. Service was instant but no croissants on the menu! I settled for Lemon Meringue while E had an English breakfast and Lolz French toast and bacon. She was annoyed when there was no green tea – I had told her that I was quite sure it was the sort of place that would have it – so she had to settle for Rooibos. I was well satisfied with the hot, strong and black filter coffee and Earl said the Cappuccino was excellent.

I am not usually the sort to have cake for breakfast but I just did not feel like eggs today! The weather called for indulgence and boy did I enjoy it.

We decided that there was little point in spending another night just so we could fight the traffic home on Monday. So we packed up and left a midday and enjoyed a pleasant, unstressed trip home. The weather in Cape Town is somewhat less stormy but I think that might change tomorrow.