Joseph

I decided I should probably blog about Joseph, seen as he's a pretty consistent part of our life at the moment.  At the moment he's coming 3 days a week 9-3.30.  Well, he's meant to.  His mother has issues with time and he usually gets dropped off more like 10am or 10.30, and it's not uncommon for her to pick him up at 2pm, or 4pm.  I think it's a cultural thing, the lack of dedication to time.  But it sure makes life hard for me.  I try really hard to plan stuff for Joseph, activities, outings, etc, but it gets totally thrown because of his mother's inconsistancy.  And talking to her about it doesn't help as she really struggles with English, and always just pretends she understands.  I cut her soooo much slack coz I feel bad that she's a single mum living in a country that's not her own, as a refugee, trying to learn english.
Anyway, she's the bad side of the whole situation.
Joseph himself is great, he really is a good little kid.  So excited to learn and to do things.  I've been working hard lately to teach him his numbers 1-10, and to write his name.  Infact, I've been trying to make everything we do educational in some way. When we go for walks we stop and look at the numbers on the letter boxes, when we're at the park we talk about the colour and shape of everything.  I guess I want to do for him what I'd want someone to do for my child, not just babysit him, but enrich him.  After all, my title is "Home Educator".  I also try to do things with him that I know he doesn't normally do, like baking, or swimming (he's been swimming twice his whole life - I've taken him both times), or to the museum, or gardening, or going to the library, or dancing.  We have fun together.  And my boys loooooove him.  Vili gets super excited when he sees him, cuddles him, wants to be right next to him.  And Malachi and Joseph are just buddies. 









I'm glad things are working with Joseph.  Without him and the income he provides Malachi wouldn't be thriving at Pre-school the way he is.  So I'm glad to have him.

**The day after writing this, Joseph's Mum gave her 2 weeks notice, said that her friend was going to watch Joseph now.  I am kinda bummed, for him.  I've met the lady he's going to, and he's just gunna sit and watch TV all day, not be spoken to in English, not socialise with other children.  I'm really sad for him actually, sad that all his hard work, all his learning, is going to be a waste because it won't continue to be reinforced.  And he was finally starting to write his name!! Oh well.  Because we still need the money, I'll be having another little boy come and replace him.  I know that replacing children is like trading 2nd hand cars, you give up one set of issues for another set of issues.  Watch this space for more on the newbie.**