Hmmm. Not One Of Our Better Days...

Seems there are good days and bad days to this home education lark. Guess which type we've had?

I can't think what in particular sparked anything off, but sometimes the pressures of us trying to run the business vs. the pressures of us educating and entertaining our little one......well, sometimes things clash in somewhat spectacular style. Today was one of those. One of those days where we've felt that we're not giving 100% either to the business or to Emily, and what use is 50% to anyone?? I must admit I tend to get terribly upset at times like that; not having enough time for Emily makes us feel that we're letting her down....but then again it's only the ongoing success of the business which allows us to be in the priveleged position of having her at home....if the business slips even just a little one or both of us will have to go out to work, which will be letting Emily down in a different, probably even worse way. I get tied up in knots, and I know Jon does too, although I'm the one that tends to show it more.

So, parts of the day have been a teeny bit fraught, with tears and tantrums...not necessarily from Emily, either :-( Still, the worst bits usually blow over within half an hour or so, and she's happy as larry now, so it can't be all bad.

On a more positive note, what have we actually done today? Well, the long-awaited goldfinches have finally arrived at the niger seed feeder, and we spent ages watching an adult starling feeding two perfectly-capable-but-lazy youngsters who were sat on the wall right outside Emily's window. Emily's been writing scrolls all afternoon detailing the rules of Henry VIII's court, inspired by some real evidence we found on the net. Some of the one's she made up are really funny, she's got a very dry sense of humour!

Emily's joined up hand writing is amazing us now. When we first started home edding back last summer joined up writing was one of the (many) things I was worried about. After all, it's **essential** to a rounded life, or so the schools would have you believe. We had workbooks, we practised, she hated it, it became a chore, we had dropped it by late September. Suddenly, since April or so when she started writing scrolls in her Egyptian project, she's just launched into joined up writing, all of her own accord. It may not be textbook-perfect-style, but it's very legible and it has a style quite of her own, which is really nice to see. She's also writing really quite fast and fluently. Which just goes to show what we always hear about home education, but which is sometimes hard to trust when you're just starting out: when they're ready to do something, they will. When they can see a point and a reason to do something, they will. When they *want* to do something, they will. It works!