(it’s a guinea pig )

Claudia has been having a lot of nightmares recently and is in with us again - amazingly she slept until after seven this morning. She’s been fascinated by a grammar book we’ve got & I was woken up by it being thrust in my face, I was a little less grumpy than usual.

I’m trying to remember what we’ve done today - the guinea pig obviously, C’s played Sims & Pharaoh on the computer, made some ‘perfume’ from my roses (grrrr) and checked her snails (she’s been trapping them to see if they mate); they’ve had the train set and the farm animals out. Jasper ate a lot of falafels and Claudia made her own lunch (pita bread, cheese and a tomato (which ‘aren’t disgusting’)) . Our avocados from weeks ago have germinated and Claudia’s in particular is doing well - looked in Linnea’s Garden to see what we are supposed to do with them next. I managed to get the washing done & hung out and water some of my pots. We gave Jasper a ’shower’ out in the garden to de-slime him after breakfast was very entertaining & he really enjoyed it Jasper watched half an hour of Baby Einstein - I hate putting it on - but it gives us some peace and quiet so C can read to me (he still doesn’t really nap).

Claudie finished the 5-6yo mental maths book (days of the week & telling the time), did some Miquon and started the next Singapore (subtraction word problems - something has clicked because they weren’t as nightmare-ish as they usually are), read a bit, did some phonics & DWN. We read the Earth From The Air books - lots of discussion fodder there - talked about countries & continents, alphabetical order, how to use a dictionary, what circuit board components she wants to buy, what independence is, erosion, magnetic poles, the weather in Connecticut, how salt kills animals and plants, why her mud bricks (we have a large hole in the garden) collapse, what different parts of the plant do, why people don’t believe her when says she’s home educated, what Darfur is (isn’t Radio 4 great) and what clothes she wants to buy I made her cry by telling her she needs to pay more attention in swimming lessons We read the myth of Osiris & Set; C did some colouring, a SOTW map of ancient Egypt and a narration about King Narmer & the Double Crown. I’m exhausted.

I did a reception and KS1 literacy assessment with C & was pretty pleased; the only dodgy areas were some of the longer vowel sounds - which are coming - and a few words from the KS2 reading list (months of the year mainly) which she’s never come across before.

Jelly Legs was this afternoon & while C was there I went to the library to have a look for some readers she might like - got some Leap Frog Fairy Tales and a lovely book with pictures of life on the Nile. Then I took Jasper to have his feet measured (purely out of curiosity) - he’s a three and a half - mooched around John Lewis (didn’t buy anything) and WHSmith (bought a magazine) and fed the pigeons. Simon picked us up to save my feet - something bad has happened to my trusty Crocs and I have horrid blisters - must buy new shoes. C & J watched a bit of Ice Princess and read Who Built The Pyramid? (well J chewed it), complained a lot (because I dared to have a ‘phone conversation) and ate fish cakes & asparagus for dinner. I got the video camera out & filmed them being silly - Simon & I have been watching all of Claudia’s baby films recently, she was such a cute baby

We were debating camping this weekend but the forecast doesn’t look good (it’ll probably be packed as well) so the plan is too tidy up the garden, get all the toys out again (we’re going to get a trampoline ) and go to the British Museum at some point. Si has never been and I haven’t been since I was at university.