Walking and Pampering

Yesterday we decided to get a hike in before the weather turns bad and the snow starts to come. I know that is probably several weeks away, but we are going on holiday next week for 2 weekends and then I have lots of book sales and stuff booked so it may be our last opportunity to get up into the mountains, which is really sad.

So we went up to Leysin on the cable car, and walked down to the village which took 1h 45mins, which according to A took us 15mins less than when we last did the walk in 2005, which made me so chuffed. Losing a bit of weight really does make a difference.

The sun was very hot though. We were slathered in cream, but I still managed to get a bit pink.
M was happy in the backpack as usual. He fell asleep for about an hour and was so amusing when he woke up. I knew exactly when he fell asleep because he stopped talking! That boy really does start talking when he wakes up and doesn't stop unless he is watching tv or asleep. Even eating doesn't stop him!

I need to get him used to walking more though. I think its probably just habit that he is in the backpack when we hike, but I'm sure that next summer A won't be able to carry him.

I needed to get home by at the latest, 6pm as I was going for a Mary Kay wellness session but we got to the train station at 4.10pm and the train left at 3.58pm. So we had to wait until 4.58pm for the next one which meant that I didn't get home until 6.30pm, leaving me 15mins to have a shower, get dressed and eat before my friend arrived to collect me. I ended up having a packet of crisps on the train. Such a healthy and sustaining dinner!

The pampering session was good. Nice to get a chance to chat to a few people that I only ever see with child in tow.
One of the women there is such an educator though. She firmly believes in early learning, the school way, and is very up to date with all the legal stuff going on in Switzerland at the moment with regards to education and is very happy to quote stuff at me.
I realise that I am probably quite ostrich-like, but I figure that as M legally doesn't have to go to school until 2011, I'll worry about it then.
Her latest thing is that apparently last year, Lausanne passed a law stating that all children must follow a Swiss-French syllabus. Strange then, that noone I know who is home educating in Lausanne has even mentioned it. And what about the International Schools? Surely they must have an exemption, so there must be a loop hole available somewhere to exploit.....

I also got quizzed on the system that we are using, specifically a reading system.
Stunned silence and disbelief when I said that we didn't. Why do we need to, when he's doing perfectly okay on his own?
To be honest, I felt sorry for them, so I said that we had subscribed to Education City, but not as a regular activity, just whenever he feels like using the computer. The sighs of relief were audible. I tried to make it clear that its not a 'timetabled' activity, its completely up to M when he does it, but I could tell that by then the relief that we actually had something in our possession written by experts blocked everything else I said, out!


Amusing conversation this morning:
Me: Can you do the rhyme like they do on the Green Balloon Club? The one about reaching to the moon?
M: Don't be silly, I'm not going to reach to the moon, because its too high!