Halfway through January and the household is back to the usual routine. Hubby travels to Worcestor Monday evenings and comes home on Thursday evenings leaving me as a single parent for most of the working week. Now that tutorials have started up again I am having to rely on babysitters to enable me to get out of the house - while I don't mind leaving my 14 year old in charge if I am at a school meeting 5 minutes away, it is a different matter if I am at a tutorial over 2 hours drive away!
Once again, the OU has decided that Norfolk is an unknown county when it comes to tutorials...my German tutorials were originally due to be in Cambridge (although thankfully the tutor has agreed to run some in Norwich - as she lives in the county she would rather do them here as well!) and, of course, the tutorials for my next French course are in Cambridge as well. Only this time they are 3 hours long, meaning each evening will be at least 7 hours including travel! Thank goodness there are only 3 of them. I have no doubt that the tutorials for my other German course will be in Cambridge as well.
I am doing my best to get ahead on my current German course before the other course start in a couple of weeks. I know the French is going to be a big step up from last year and it is really important that I get a good result for that course as it will have a big impact on my overall degree result. So as long as I pass the two German courses the marks aren't hugely important - I just need to pass!
So, most of my non-work time is now taken up with studying. 120 points of study is supposed to be equvalent to a full-time uni course - not sure where 4 chidlren, work and an absent husband are supposed to fit in!
Work is going well - we are doing lots of French in class and writing to our partner class in Toulouse. We received letters from the French children and our class seem to have really enjoyed trying to translate them. It has given them a new outlook on French - having something tangible they can learn from is bringing it to life. I have booked my flights to Toulouse (yay!) and the French teacher is coming over here at the end of February, so it will be good to meet her. I'm really enjoying being in the year 5/6 classroom and think this the place for me in the future. Looking forward to the University Primary PGCE open day in May so that I can discuss my options with the tutors and find out more about the course. Only another 2 years until I can apply!
