Sniffle, Sniffle, Cough

Jon's cold got better.....mine and Emily's got worse. Actually, I don't think his did get any better at all; he just soldiers on regardless, bless. I can't remember the last time he had a "day off" or even just a lie in due to illness. Married to the indestructable man, I am, lol.

Anyway, yesterday dawned with both me and Emily suffering raging sore throats, shivers and aches. Emily wanted to play with her Barbie bits all morning, and I dragged myself as far as the chair to do some more ebay listings. In the afternoon we had a go at this shaving cream marbling malarky. Results were, um, less than impressive. Basically it just didn't work at all well - although we were prepared for that as at least half the comments on related links were from frustrated teachers complaining it didn't work, lol. The proper oil paint on water marbling we did last year worked brilliantly, but this just didn't cut it. Still, it did make a *massive* mess, which counts as instant success in Emily's book, so.....

Today we two invalids felt slightly more human, so we got back to work with lots of multiplication and division, more work on friction and the start of the Just Write 1 book. I think Emily's going to enjoy that. Her first exercise today was to brainstorm ideas to write about (like she's ever short of those) - her only complaint was that she ran out of space on the page. We're really proud of how much she enjoys writing. That certainly wasn't the case during her school reception year, so it must be something we've successfully fostered here at home during this last year. I think it really off took after Christmas when she started her Ancient Egypt project and suddenly discovered that it was fun to write scrolls and written "props" for pretend games. These days she's writes lots, every day, whether it's something "formal" like a Just Write exercise, or simply lists, stories, notes, whatever she decides to write herself. She wrote Tudor newspaper headlines the other day, off her own bat, just for fun. This has to be A Good Thing (and makes up for maths sometimes being such a battle of wits, lol).

This afternoon we went off swimming, and Emily did wonderfully well. She's getting more and more confident every time we go. She mastered ducking right under the water today, which should help conquer her fears. At one point I think we were the only two people there, being watched over by seven lifeguards, lol.

Tomorrow the kittens are off to the vets for their final innoculations, then we're going to Normanby to make a "journey stick" - basically a nature walk, but we'll tie whatever we find to a big stick to tell the story of the journey. Well, that's the theory. As ever, I supsect it's simpler on paper than in practice....