I’m tired (again), really tired, too tired. Tired enough that if I didn’t have an absolute phobia of doctors I’d go and see one. As it is I’m assuming I’m just anaemic & popping the iron again; J is sleeping better so I shouldn’t feel this exhausted.

We had a lovely weekend, pretty perfect On Saturday we dragged ourselves up early and went to Avebury, Silbury Hill & West Kennet Long Barrow. Watched a Pagan wedding (handfasting??), lots of tambourines and read a bit about it all. Simon hadn’t been before. The weather was great and we were all nice to each other There was a barber surgeon at Avebury with all the ghoulish tools of the trade including leeches (well one, called Nosey btw ) was very interesting especially since C & I have been reading a history of medicine book. Since everything was free we treated ourselves to afternoon tea in a tea shop in Marlborough. We’re getting a bit better at this normal life stuff.

C has some photos here

Lots of educating going on - recent successes have been the Stone Age & prehistory stuff (including SOTW which I’ve come to the conclusion I don’t like but it makes C laugh), Evan-Moor - she loves the literature pockets and we did a science one today which involved her writing a pretty great story entitled ‘How to Catch a Frog’ (using a slow moving creature as bait ) and Miquon Maths which I had completely forgotten about but in the short while we’ve been using it C’s maths has improved greatly. Lots of stuff about weather too. We’re off to Bath to look at Roman stuff (& the Costume Museum) next week.

C’s been entered for her first proper ballet exam in July (more money)

Now the rollercoaster bit … why does everything have to be brilliant or heartbreakingly awful? Is this just a result of my high-strungness? I was in tears 10 minutes ago - J keeps biting me (hard), most of the time I can deal with C being stroppy with gritted teeth but I completely lost it this morning - local school won’t take her because we aren’t regular church goers (yup I looked). The house is always messy … now I feel fine and can’t remember why I felt like screaming. Arg.

It’s miraculous that I’ve posted anything - J has a stinky nappy, again.

How To Catch a Frog! by Claudia

Once a little girl and her mother went outside into the garden. Katie asked her other how to catch a frog from the pond. Katie’s mother said ‘We would need a net to catch a frog and a slow moving animal to use as bait!’.

So Katie went to get a net from the garden shed and looked in the garden for a snail. She went back to her mother and said ‘I have some bait and a net, now I will catch a frog!’.

Katie put the snail down by the pond and hid behind a bush. A frog jumped out of the pond then Katie jumped out from her hiding place and quickly put the net over the frog. Katie felt excited that she had the frog. She went back to her mother with the frog.

‘I have caught a frog!’

Katie’s mother said that was good and then said ‘Go and put the frog in the tank in the kitchen.’

Katie watched the frog for a few days then took it back to the pond.

The End

Frogs by Claudia

Frogs are vertebrates, amphibians and carnivores.

Frogs live near the water in bushes and grass. They are brown and green and camouflaged. They have four legs. The back legs are very strong for jumping, the back feet have webbed toes for swimming. The front legs are small they can use their front feet for pushing food into their mouth. The frog’s eyes are on the top of its head so they can peak out of the water without getting eaten.

Frogs eat flies, small snakes, slugs and snails and insects. They catch them with their long sticky tongue, and eat them with teeth on their upper jaw.

Frogs lay eggs called frogspawn in the water, these become tadpoles. Tadpoles have gills but they lose them as they grow. As they get bigger they grow legs and lose their tails, then they are froglets.

The End