Not doing too well on the employment thing. Jasper has decided he’ll eat raisins though, which is good, his diet is so restricted anything new makes me very excited. We have a SALT referral pending (he has a grand total of four words - dog, fish, duck & star), wish he would transfer some of his rather fearsome strength & climbing ability into TALKING.

Simon & Claudia cleared all the junk (huge piles) from the desk this weekend & Si rebuilt her computer, it kind of works now & we’ve agreed she’s going to try & keep the desk clear from now on. The kids went out with my mum, which Jasper particularly enjoyed. We did some shopping & cooking.

Claudie & I stayed in bed late on Saturday morning & I finished reading Kensuke’s Kingdom which was excellent. She did some maths - mainly mental arithmetic, some from 2B & some from this (which she claims is far too easy - I did point out it gets harder ) - and spelling (!) & we lounged about chatting. Simon tried to go out with Jasper who got very upset after 10 minutes of snow so they came home. They’ve done lots of drawing & Hama beads., Claudia spends ages with the Paper Fashion kit.

We restarted the activities. Claudia enjoyed dancing on Wednesday, I’ve been debating dropping it but she’s suddenly enthusiastic again. Swimming went well as did piano.

She’s been in a generally good, happy, cooperative mood all week which has been lovely (especially since Jasper is being a little sod spectacularly two). She’s done sewing (made a little beaded purse) & lots of drawing, maths, history (she decided she wanted to do the mapwork from SOTW 1 - we usually just read), a bit of spelling & even a GP English exercise. She finished Chamber of Secrets & has started Prisoner of Azkaban, though she keeps stopping to read Beast Quest books I think I’m going to read Gobbolino the Witch’s Cat next week.

Claudia’s plans for the year:
- Layla read more aloud (since C has been reading I’ve become very lazy)
- more trips/outdoor activities (I hate the cold & Jasper can be a PITA)
- more cooking & craft (argh mess & ditto Jasper)
- more Latin

Reasources we use regularly (& like!)

Language arts:
GP Junior English
Collins Focus On Spelling (Book 1), Word Work (Book 2)
Getty Dubay Italic (C)
C reads pretty much constantly.

Maths:
Singapore Primary 2B (argh, we will finish it!)
Schofield & Sims Problem Solving Books

Bond Verbal Reasoning (2nd Papers)
Bond Non Verbal reasoning (3rd Papers)

Latin, Minimus
History , SOTW & whatever interests C wants to follow
Science, reading, BrainPop & occasional science kits

Art & music, stuff that happens when it happens, C wants to do more drawing.

Activities:
Monday - swimming with Jasper
Tuesday - Claudia swimming lesson & riding
Wednesday - dancing
Thursday - piano lesson
Friday - ERAPA/Krazy Klub, Girls’ Brigade.

No more activities.

Christmas wasn’t awful, in fact it was mostly lovely (86yo great grandma Wii boxing while leaning on her walking frame). Claudia was really excited, she loved her presents & was suitably grateful; she has really enjoyed having the cousins around. She did a lot of maths in the run up to Christmas & drawing & a bunch of craft kits (she got enough to last another year from Christmas too ) she was given some fiendishly fiddly anatomical models, so we’ve been getting frustrated with those. Jasper doesn’t like the idea of opening presents, he has no interest in them whilst they are wrapped, but he enjoyed his new puzzles, cars & train once I unwrapped them. He’s loved all the attention, being the youngest is pretty good! We also visited Simon’s parents & the kids both got a huge bag of presents (Toby got a lovely present too).

We’ve all been ill at some point or other, Jasper particularly - it wasn’t a restful holiday in any way at all - Simon & I are quite exhausted. I had a few really bad days leading up to it. I’d put off Christmas shopping until the last minute & it was as upsetting as I’d expected. The day after Boxing Day was hard mostly because I was so tired & New Year’s Eve was awful. I cancelled our plans because J was still ill & I was just so miserable, in the end my mum persuaded us to visit them, the children had a ball, Simon drank cocktails & we made it home early.

I’m scared most of the time, Jasper doesn’t sleep well, I don’t feel healthy. I’m drained. Moan … moan … we’re still okay, the children are happy & gorgeous I’m going through the motions. Limbo land.

In 2009 I would like Simon to remain employed, Jasper to learn to talk & Claudia … she can stay the same but I’d really like to be more patient with her. Minimal expectations are better.