Life is a Highway - it’s the journey, not the destination

Yesterday was a house bound day. M decided to make use of the snow around and generally played about but A started the day with a slightly dodgy tummy and so was a little more subdued. It didn’t get her down too much, but she just didn’t venture outside.

At some point M made some reference to hydrogen, I can’t remember why now but anyway he was looking at a poster of the periodic table I put on the wall recently and so I decided to show him Periodic Table Videos. He was quite impressed by the hydrogen blowing up in that And it was a newer one than when I last looked. We looked at a couple of other ones, Nitrogen and he mentioned it was what was used in his racing cars (Nitrous Oxide) so we discussed it being Nitrogen and Oxygen a bit and googled why it made the cars faster. We looked a bit at Carbon, A was quite excited that a diamond is a form of carbon. Finally I showed them Lead as I knew it had a bit about it not letting radiation through it and we’d looked a bit at radiation at the science museum last week. So of course it then leads on to a ‘do you remember in The Simpsons when…’ conversation!! (one episode they were spared effects of radiation through lead paint or something). I should really think about writing my own Simpsons based curriculum…

Once we’d looked at that I mentioned that I had seen an experiment I would ike to try from an e-mail we get from the Krampf Experiment site. It was about the iron in fortified cereal and trying to separate the iron from it so you can see it. It worked really well. I was a little doubtful, but definitely some iron filings in there!

Since we were in a science-y mood they took out their kit and did some messing about with it. I had been making soda bread in the morning too so said to A to try some yoghurt mixed with Bicarb to see what it did as that was what happens in the bread. Need to refill almost everything desperately in the kit now!!

I think the next part was ‘then we had lunch!’

In the afternoon I think M stropped over some reading, oh and yeah I stropped at him over some maths. We did some twist and check multiplication cards. We’re still on easy multiplication here, 2’s, 5’s & 10’s. So we chose the 5’s. He was just not getting it and I was more annoyed at him not saying that he didn’t understand, then failing to pay any attention when I was trying to explain and still not getting it but deciding it didn’t matter and he’d done enough to warrant a game on the playstation. Hmm. I got out our Math U see blocks and looked at it all again with him. He just goes into some sort of different child mode though when we do stuff like this and I can tell he is struggling to concentrate. Argh. Anyway, I was so sure he understood the concept of multiplication but now well I’m not so sure. Need to look into it more and think of a good way to approach it with him. We can clash so much and he’s sensitive about it anyway

When James got back we popped to get some essentials like milk and er some Meccano I had reserved from Argos! I had looked at the vintage set before Xmas and have just seen it was half price so grabbed it. So in the evening we did some of that. A was the most into it which was surprising, M was already dreaming about different models he could make. Instructions? who needs instructions??

It was our 2 year anniversary too last night so James and I watched Hancock and ate lots of curry and chocolate.

Today we were up v. early to go to a dr appointment. Then before I knew it it was time for us to go to Shirebrook nature reserve. Quite impressed at the turnout considering the snow. We all headed with sledges to the nearest hill and had a fab time. The ranger tried to sneak in some science about how some things slide better with weight or not if some kids were waiting for turns on the sledges but the kids all just took turns and played together so it never happened. Unfortunately A’s tummy started playing up again even though I thought she was better and we had to cut short our time there. A shame really as in the afternoon they were supposed to be chopping down trees and M really wanted to do that.

Some pics to brighten the blog:

So we came home and did some more Meccano, reading and some skip counting practise. Before bed we read The Tree of Life: The Wonders of Evolution as A has been asking lots of questions about where people come from. She wasn’t convinced so I told her that not everyone believes it and some believe that God made everyone. She thinks this is a much more plausible explanation Our library has a few books on creation so might be an idea to have a read through lots of different things for her.

seemed to be a theme of today. I had full intentions of going to the HE group today and told the kids that they had an hour to get dressed and do a bit of reading before we were going out. I neglected to mention where we were going, maybe that was a little sneaky of me, as I knew if they knew it was the HE group they might have been more willing. As it was it wasn’t that they were grumpy or being unco-operative really they just decided that playing some convoluted Ice Age pretend game was much more important. I pootled about making sure I was ready in case of them deciding to get dressed but they didn’t. I actually quite like watching them do these games. It *always* involves lava being on the floor and them having to work their way round it. I figure they probably don’t have *that* much time left when playing like that will be important to them. So I let them be.

I was chatting to James and looking out my window when I saw a bird I’d not seen before so I told the kids and decided to look it up in A’s bird book. I think it was a Pied Wagtail, nice to have something different! On looking at the RSPB site we realised we could listen to some bird calls so the kids wanted to hear if the blue tit and robin sounded like some soft toys they got the other day at the RSPB reserve.

Lunch seemed to start late and take a loooonng time to finish. A is not the fastest eater really at the best of times and today they decided to read a whole load of Beano comics while eating so it was longer than usual! The box of comics is from the 90’s and I chuckled when M came to me reading some joke about someone’s favourite band and it was Blur. He laughed, but it was a laugh that I knew meant he hadn’t understood really. I managed to recall a song he’d know and so he said ‘oh so they’re old then?’ Er not really. Cheeky so and so

We did venture out at some point. We took their bikes down to the local country park. It was very cold though and they were a bit whingy. we got past the little park only as I’d said I’d go no further if they kept whinging like I was torturing them and making them go out. We headed down a part of the Trans Pennine Trail that has a big oak tree they like climbing on. It’s in a little glade type bit and just looks fab as a place that kids could be kids iykwim. I always feel a little daft hanging round when they’re playing there, I need to take a book and plonk myself on the nearest bench and let them play. Mind you they wouldn’t even let me walk 6 ft away today.

All the birdwatching knowledge kept coming back today too as we saw loads of sparrows, robins and magpies. I couldn’t stop them going on about them tbh!! Spent lots of time listening and seeing if we could recognise the songs but I’m rubbish at distinguishing them!

normal late afternoon of games but this time when James got in I headed out to Jax’s to help her do a bit of packing. Always nice to be able to have conversations with adults without being interrupted all the time by various kids. Although I suppose I don’t have that problem too much nowadays, but I always remember going to visit people and never getting into conversations as no sooner would it get interesting than someone needed you for something. Lol.

Been camped on the puter all evening, but got to be up early tomorrow so better be thinking about bed soon.

Saturday started fairly early as we wanted to get along to Old Moor RSPB reserve in time for the start of the Big Garden Birdwatch event. We arrived just in time for them opening the doors to it and so got stuck straight in. We decided to not do the actual birdwatch at the reserve as we figured a whole hour doing that straight might be too much but we headed out to the hide with one of the staff members to look at the birds anyway. There’s a lot of hides out on the water sides but this one looked out onto an area they had lots of bird feeders on. We saw absolutely loads which was fab as we don’t get much in our garden back home. Goldfinches (or strawberry faces as A calls them!), chaffinches (M’s fave), robins, tree sparrows, a willow tit and lots of great tits. M really enjoyed watching them all, as did A but all of a sudden she wanted to go off and do something else.

There was some crafts going on inside so we did some painting. Mostly using some bird stencil shapes. Both M and A wanted to make the the right colours and they all looked really good. When we’d done way more than our fair share of painting we had a v. quick walk round the reserve. We didn’t go too far really. The kids were annoyed that the hides were full of people with no room for them to look. Downsides of weekends I guess. So we went back to the original hide to do some bird bingo. We had to get 4 birds in a row to claim a prize. It was much harder this time and we were wishing we’d done it earlier. Eventually we got the lot and M chose himself a set of wildlife top trumps cards and A chose a bird book. Nice prizes

We headed for an afternoon at work. My dad was ok with the kids being there so I spent the afternoon in a supervisory role helping the kids do some ‘work’. Stacking shelves and quality control, the latter being their favourite!! They did about 30 mins and then sat with magazines and then later on spent their wages back in the shop

Sunday should have been better than what it was. I woke up expecting it to be raining but actually it stayed dry all day. We wanted to do a geocache but James was feeling a little tired and so we stayed in most of the day. We did do our birdwatch though. I split it up into 15 min intervals for the kids and they took it in turns to watch. We didn’t see too much some house sparrows, blackbirds, a magpie and a pigeon. I think it was a little windy tbh. I wanted some peace later in the afternoon and did my own little one where I added some great tits and a robin to the count.

We introduced James to Memoir 44. He really liked it, but M was getting in such a strop when he thought he would lose. I think a bit of perfectionism is getting in his way! They ended up winning anyway *rolls eyes*

Today we had no plans. We played some yahtzee, M was much better at losing this time! I won the first game between A and I and A won the 2nd game with all of us. The kids spent some time playing some weird game jumping round the living room and having to avoid obstacles. Perhaps too much Raven watching? M finished his first magic tree house book, think he read 4 or 5 chapters today rather than the normal 1 *rolls eyes* A sat and looked through the whole of Mouse Guard. She was so quiet and enthralled in it I decided it would count as reading. She’s doing so well atm I really don’t want it to be a chore for her.

They played on some games later, both of them have nearly completed the games that they bought after Xmas. A is playing Littlest Pet Shop on the Wii and M is playing Need For Speed: Undercover. At least their money was well spent! We then went shopping, bleurgh, came home and watched some rubbish about the World Rally Championship.

Oh and hopefully will find out more about the Young Archeaologist club soon as have finally managed to get through to the lady who runs it. Apparantly they have spaces

Apparantly yesterday has been dubbed Blue Monday and I was certainly in a gloomy mood when I woke. No real reason, just wasn’t at my best.

We spent some time looking at a load of (more) RSPB stuff that came through the post, loads of posters, colouring stuff and a teachers pack I’ve yet to look at thoroughly. We filled out the forms for the Climate and Wildlife Action Awards and filled up the bird feeder that also came (our free gift for joining the RSPB) and put it outside. We don’t tend to get many birds in the gardens even though there are loads about. I wonder if there is too much competition around with all the gardens We’ll persevere though and we do get some blue tits on the bird feeders we had already. Not many though A and I also tried a little activity of making an ice mobile which unfortunately didn’t work too well when we tried to finish it up today.

Kids read some more Magic Tree House books and looked at the Dinosaur Non Fiction companion book which arrived. A decided she didn’t want to read the 1st book in the series and wanted to go to the Dolphins at Daybreakbook (unsurprisingly ). She is doing so well with her reading. I’m so impressed by how she’s getting on at the moment, she read the first 2 pages of that book so well. It probably doesn’t sound much as she *is* 7 I suppose but I’m really pleased that she’s getting there. She’s not been the same as M who could always sound out words and work them out, she just couldn’t do it and with M I was sure it was just a matter of time and waiting for him to want to do it. With A I’ve just been quietly wibbling and hoping she’d get there. Feeling much better about it right now.

We read some number devil. All about prime numbers (or Prima Donna numbers as it calls them). Talked a bit about remainders in division and I think it’s going in. No major confusion yet anyway.

Today I was supposed to be going to the home ed group but I woke in a ugh mood and decided against it. M wasn’t too bothered and A was complaining of a sore tummy (same recurring ache - doesn’t stop her eating crap though!) so felt better once the decision was made to stay home. We watched some CBBC - serious ocean and something about dingoes. A is really enjoying animal programs at the moment, must get my Life of Mammals dvd’s back for her. We’ve been watching Zoo Days on channel 5 when we remember too. Much better than *another* simpsons repeat!

We listened to the Jeremy Vine show on the radio and the kids were really excited to hear 2 people they knew on the radio. Led to some conversations about how some people want to have more checks in home ed etc. Oh and whether we had famous friends. Lol!!

We did more e-mailing to friends. I set up M an e-mail account too. A played lots on her Littlest Pet Shop game and M dissappeared to play some racing games. I finally switched everything off to watch the Inauguration of Barack Obama. Felt more involved than that sounds though!

Got a call about getting A into Badgers so we’ll be going along to see how that is on Thursday. Hopefully she’ll like it

well I suppose it’s not even over yet, but there we go! I’d been feeling ill all the 2nd half of last week with some kind of virus (thankfully no-one else has had it yet) and this week I’ve just felt wiped out. So tired. I normally get up really early with James nowadays but haven’t done all week, I’ve just needed to sleep. Feeling much better today though

So all week, we’ve been a bit lax with anything too heavy workwise. I’ve been keeping up with our reading from AmblesideOnline, we’re on week 4 now, which went well and made me feel like I’ve not wasted the time. M wanted to read the War Boy book I blogged about before so that’s been our history this week. Which reminds me, was supposed to put it in the timeline book - shall do that later this afternoon. Have hardly done any maths, although did a lesson from MUS this morning that went down well. I also got a book about infinity for them called The Cat In Numberland which although we haven’t read yet, looks really good. They’re both kind of obsessed with infinity atm! Also read Katie and the Mona Lisa to keep some art appreciation going But all fairly relaxed tbh.

Wednesday we went out to the nature reserve home ed meeting which was really nice. Managed to speak to some other people. I feel like I’ve been around for a bit and know a few people by their faces, but I don’t know them well enough to chat so sometimes I feel a little awkward at groups. But getting better. Went off to my mums afterwards for a change of scene listening to Bindi Babes (Alex’s choice) on the way. Yes we have more audio books on the go Not so many this time, 3 each. A is getting more into them too.

I’ve been quite enjoying watching M read a few more things lately. It’s been over a month since I decided to stop the reading of ORT books every day and take a step back to see how things would go. I never said anything to M about why, but when he turned round to me one day and said that he gets all confused in his head when he tried to read I took it as meaning I was probably doing the right thing. He doesn’t ever ask to practise reading, but he picks up comics often and will attempt reading lots there. I don’t think it feels as hard for him. The other day we were getting petrol and he read ‘Have you checked your oil?’ only pausing to check he had ‘checked’ right. Ok hardly earth shattering, but what I liked about it was he wasn’t doing it for anyone but himself and that’s how he generally is, doing it for himself. Oh I saw this Artemis Fowl Graphic Novel and think it looks fab. Might have to get it.

And now I’ve lost my train of thought as the kids were fighting over the playstation so have been sent upstairs. Humph.

Been to a car boot today Managed to come back with not too much crud which is always good. Got a Mastermind game after seeing Alex playing with it at Hunstanton, a microscope set, a bloody awful car board game and a couple of books and small things. Was actually quite nice although we’d kitted ourselves up for muddyness and it was typically lovely!

At home we had some patch time and Alex and I played Mastermind with her rules which were slightly easier, but still made her think about it all so of educational value still! (need a logic category).

(Em hair fell out yesterday so we decided on a SB hairstyle as I can do that one!)

Marcus sat and played the playstation - *sigh* He is rather obsessed, can’t imagine where he gets that trait from

There was also some looking at some Usborne beginner books and Marcus wanted to do some of the internet linked bits at the backs of the books so they spent a good deal of time playing the Jousting game.

We also did a little bit of science / gardeningy type stuff in the way of “The Bean Experiment”, am hopefully going to get them to write up (narrate!) what happens in a little book. Oh and kids did more counting practice in 2’s with help from the 100 square on the kitchen door.

And that’s been pretty much it for today, Alex has mucked about with my camera loads, taking quite a few photos of toys and requesting photos of herself. I liked this one:

Back to ‘proper’ work tomorrow again

before I get out of the habit

Hunstanton was fab and loved it all. Although I am so not used to staying up late as I struggled through the days to make up for it. Sea life centre was great and brought some education to the week Marcus was very good at asking questions, not shy at all which helps with my worries about him (him not wanting to do groups etc). I just loved seeing the kids all getting on so well really, I know we say it all the time after we get together, but they really do mix so well with limited bust ups.

Since we got back we’ve chilled out mostly (it’s the weekend!) but in amongst the lazyness has been some early morning sums done in my bed, counting money (Alex managed to grasp counting in 20’s quite well even while Toy story on in background), Marcus also seems to have got to grips with counting in 2’s and 10’s. We discussed sets of numbers so I suppose a very basic foray into multiplication going on there. Not bad really.

Also today we caught the tail end of The Clan of The Cave Bear movie which led to some discussion on Neanderthals, early humans, a bit of evolution (seems to be a recurring theme round the blogs!) and if I could have found the book I got from the charity shop on early people we’d have looked at that too, but I couldn’t.

Been browsing round the web today and come across the DK readers which tbh I never knew existed. How silly am I?? been away from sites like the book people for too long. Anyhow I saw on Red House that you can get some superhero one’s so pondering getting those one day. Unfortunately they aren’t on the bookpeople site which has others I want. Always the way. Seems to be a few boy-ish ones, so am going to try and get a level 1 book about something to test the water with them. Marcus is very into comic books so maybe, just maybe this could be the thing we need to inspire him. Can feel an amazon and book people order coming on.

Today’s been good, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but good. Started with a lie in again, I’m so bad at getting up. I think I’ll keep some story books near my bed and then when we’re being lazy in bed we can read something.

After breakfast we cracked on with some work, I started by reading some stories which have been lacking a bit lately. We read 2 stories from March in Enid Blyton’s Book of the Year which I love just for the old fashionedness of it. Then Marcus read the book he read the other day again to me. I figured that we could maybe do each book a couple of times so that he can get chance to be good at it iykwim. Actually he is very good at it, but it was nice to hear it with a bit more fluency today. While he was doing that Alex sat with those flip over word games we got from ELC (can’t find link), well one anyway as most of the sets had at least one missing - grrr. She guessed most of them so I don’t think it helped her struggle with the last sound, she just looked at the first sound and found the picture that went with it. Anyhoo, after that we practised some more 3 letter words and I gave Marcus some 4 letter words to practise (no pics just the words). They both did really well.

Did a page and a bit of Miquon with the cuisenaire rods and Alex decided to do a page of sums too, but I think she only did 3 out of about 5 before she got sidetracked (I left her to get on with it, she did really well all on her own!).

It was approaching lunch time then and since it was lovely and sunny we decided to go to the little park with the football and bikes. Then lunch, which the kids ate outside and I decided to declutter a bit more of the garage. Only did a bit and then turned my attention to trying to find some stuff. It’s been bugging me that 6 months down the line and things like lego were still nowhere to be found so, today I did find:

lego!!!!
reader rabbit maths game
next explode the code and Miquon workbooks
critical thinking book
loads more workbooks
loads and loads of books and magazines
scalextrix
learn the recorder book

I didn’t find:

recorders
seeds

and tbh I looked everywhere so I can’t imagine they are in there now which is annoying to say the least.

Kids played outside all afternoon while I did this with a bit of time spent playing the Arthur game again. Marcus was interested to try the reader rabbit maths game but found it too much like hard work which is him all over with Maths I reckon, it is work for him and not enjoyable work! Both kids excited at the prospect of new workbooks (strange), I think I’ll start Marcus on the ETC book 2 as really the 1st one was a bit easy for him, although it has been good practise in becoming more fluent in 3 letter words much more and with writing them. And he enjoys them so all the better. The second workbook has blends which although he can do, I think the practise will propel him that next stage forward. Alex will stay on the 1st book I think as she still struggles with those end sounds. I really need to look into buying the next set for Alex though as we only own 1 set of books 2 and 3. Shall no doubt be thinking about a Sonlight order unless anyone knows where else they can be bought?

Evening has been telly again, but I don’t mind that as it’s not on any other time and James’s dad came round so Marcus read his book again and alex showed off her reading. Also attempted to play battleships on paper with Marcus (thanks to Nic - I had no idea it could be done this way having never played any version of it) but he kept getting distracted.

I had been meaning to blog loads of times over the last few days, however I never seemed to get there.

Tuesday felt like it was a bit of a wasted day, mainly because I’d planned to go to the Home ed group but was feeling decidedly shaky and too tired to face the tram and bus to get there so we never made it. It was a pity as it was a lovely day and they apparantly had a climbing wall available. Anyway I declared it a ‘lazy’ day and I sat on my computer. I half expected M and A to laze about too and watch telly but amazingly it never went on. They found some lego and played fantasticly together making up games. To say I was surprised would have been a bit of an understatement! So we didn’t do any work that day but when James came home from work it was still nice so we headed out for a drive to Chatsworth where we had a look round the garden centre and had a nice walk and play with the frisbee.

Wesdnesday was back to work and we did some 3 letter word practise for Alex, just trying to get her to think about the end sounds really. Marcus did something, I think it was reading Stunt Duck from the phonics book. We also did a bit of Maths too from the Orange Miquon book. Think that was probably the most of it in the day time. At around tea time James’s cousin came over and saw the abacus sat on the dining table and decided to sit down with Alex and do some maths with her. Half of me felt like he was testing her to see how she does with it, another part of me was just happy that someone was taking time to sit with them and do stuff and it made me realise how little they get in the way of time with others doing anything. My parents certainly don’t spend any time with them talking about anything other than what’s on telly, james’s dad definitely doesn’t either, although I imagine at a later date he will be useful when we want to learn about the war and all that stuff (he’s really interested in it and knows all sorts of useless facts ). Even James isn’t that great at doing anything with them. Anyway, Alex surprised me by catching on to counting in 2’s and generally just being good She definitely has a different maths brain to Marcus and can pick it up much easier.

Thursday I read the riot act to the kids. All week long when they go and get dressed in the morning they know I’m waiting for them to come downstairs and start work. We don’t ever do too much, really only about 15 mins of reading and maths plus whatever else I think they might like. Anyway, they always end up playing upstairs and leave me waiting which just riles me as I think it’s bloomin rude. They have all day long to play, I hardly nail them to the table to do work! So I went off on one and probably made too much of it, anyway I made them do lots of work. Marcus did some Explode the Code while I sat with Alex reading through some very basic Usborne readers we got from Barbara. She did quite well with them but got fed up by the last one so we left that. Marcus had a go after that and did really well too, I think it really was a bit simple for him, but was a good exercise in looking at the pics to get a clue to the word. While we were doing this some parcels with some Oxford Reading Tree books came (thanks Sarah!) and we had a quick look through them (not reading just looking at the pics) and I think they’ll be perfect for Marcus. He’s doing well, I think it’s helping making him focus on it once a day. After reading I made them do some maths (I was still being evil) so made Marcus do a page of sums (only about 6 though). Alex did about 4 pages and wanted to do more - she really likes them atm. I really wish I cold find something to help Marcus come along with it, he just doesn’t seem to ‘get’ it all. We’ve been doing some adding in little chunks for over a week now and he still looks at it as if I’ve asked him to perform brain surgery and he just can’t remember what to do at all. I dunno, I’m really struggling with it. Maybe a computer game or something might help. Shall look to see what we have and get him started, I know we have zoombinis. Anyone have any other recommendations? In fact if anyone has any good ideas for things to do with him shout, cos my brains seized up. Don’t want to make it an issue, just want to find the best way to do it with him.

We went to the park afterwards as again it was a lovely day, they took their bikes and scooters down and I read a book on the bench. Came back for lunch and then Alex and I sowed some seeds while Marcus played a bit on his playstation.

This morning we’ve all been up early as I wanted to tidy up as we’ve visitors coming soon. How come no matter what time I get up they’re up with me? But i’ve been grumpy this morning and already had a go at marcus because he has said he still doesn’t want to go to Beavers tonight and tbh I can’t be arsed to waste any more time on it. I can’t help feeling dissapointed that he doesn’t want to give it a fair go. But then I feel bad for getting angry at him and feeling dissapointed, I don’t feel like it’s the right thing for me to feel as his mum, but I do. So that’s got me down a bit. We’ve already done some reading practise but really I can’t face much more at the moment as I’ve very little patience. I hate feeling grumpy

where did I get to? Oh yes, Thursday was a funny day, mostly because we were out of routine and went straight to the bank in the morning after breakfast instead of doing some work. It was cold and horrible on the walk down and a little whinging was heard but it wasn’t all bad. I struggled to keep them doing anything worthwhile when we got home so I inspected the garage for seeds and the kids just pootled about and read some magazines I bought them.

Friday we did some explode the code, Marcus is getting noticeably better with reading, but I still feel he’s not there for books, he’s more at the few sentences stage, but I can stop worrying about him being able to read - he can Just need to concentrate on developing it. Alex is struggling with end sounds so I’m going to work on that with her.

I also introduced the kids to Fimo - they love it. Way behind on the trend but who cares! Made some lovely bits and bobs.

It was a lovely day on Friday and I was keen to be outside doing something and the kids fancied going to the park at Rother Valley. So amazed was I that they wanted to anything we jumped at the chance and took a walk all round the lake stopping at the parks for a play and a general muddying up.

Friday evening was time for Beavers - Marcus was so not keen to go but I made him go to see what it was about. Apparantly he liked it a tiny bit but wasn’t too overly impressed. James took him and noticed they really talked down to the kids and thought Marcus wouldn’t cope well with that. We’re going to try another night for him next week and see how that goes, he’s not looking forward to it.

Saturday was another nice day so James washed the car and I started chopping things up in the garden (my arms ache now!), with us being outside the kids followed and they helped in various ways. James’s dad came round and sniped a bit about Marcus going to Beavers as “well he has to learn to meet strangers” so I bit his head off. I was grumpy. Was sure we did something else but can’t remember now. Oh it was the eclipse wasn’t it? Yeah we spoke lots about it and the kdis seemed to grasp the idea and were really excited to be watching it all night. They were grumpy by the end though so we were glad when it was bed time!

Sunday was miserable weather but Alex and I walked over to the local allotments to put our name down for a plot. We’re 27th on the list so I’m not overly hopeful for anything soon, but I suppose I have to be on it to be in with a chance. After that we headed out for a drive, took a look round my village of choice for buying a house (yeah right) - Tickhill in Doncaster. Lovely village, still a good size, lovely small local type shops and very picturesque and in the country. I liek where we are now, but I don’t like the fact it has no shops, we don’t have a corner shop as it’s closer to go to Sainsbury’s. Makes it feel like there’s no soul to it though really iykwim. Very boring and of course in the city. After driving about we headed over to see James’s aunty who didn’t make it to the wedding and we showed her the pics. She treated the kids to a McDonalds for our lunch so we headed off to do that and then it was home for lazing about. I picked up my knitting needles again after sorting the stash under the bed and Alex is keen to learn so we’re going to try that soon.

Today was a lazy lie in as I’ve been very tired lately but then we were up and did some more explode the code and worked out the number bonds to 10. M & A both wanted more sums after I had felt we’d done enough so they made up some for themselves, Marcus did some writing and then they dissappeared in a whirlwind upstairs doing goodness knows what! And now it’s lunch, so I better get something made, house is empty though so need to be creative!