Midweek Update

Blimey, I can't believe it's Wednesday already. Where's all the time gone?? We have so many plans and so much to fit in....really makes we wonder sometimes how people with kids in school manage to do anything much with then when they get home. We have all day, every day, and still can't fit everything in!

Yesterday passed in a bit of a blur; I know there was some maths and English done, but I'm not quite sure what happened next - but Emily seemed to have fun, whatever it was! [ADDED (on Thursday!!) Just remembered what we did on Tuesday afternoon. Went swimming again and Emily managed to swim, yes, really swim a whole half width of the learner pool!!!! Was fantastically proud. :-)) ]

This morning we spent hours tie dyeing using a kit Hazel recommended from ebay. We'll await the results tomorrow with bated breath! Spent unfeasibly large amounts of money at Brigg Garden Centre this afternoon, on crafty bits and bobs and four Christmas decorations. £3.99 per bauble???? Huh? If you had to kit out a tree from scratch you'd end up spending a fortune. It really has gone a bit potty. Still, they have trampolines there, so we ticked the PE box as well as the "learning to spot value for money (or lack of it)" box. When we got home Emily made a lovely card for Romy to say she's missing her while Romy's on holiday, so that was art/crafts covered for the day too.

I've been searching for an interesting fiction series for Emily to read. She adores non-fiction, but is less keen on reading stories; it has to be something special to really grab her interest. And a series, preferably, to sustain her enthusiasm. The Terry Deary Egyptian Tales and Tudor Tales were right up Emily's street, but I can't find much else that hooks her. Uncle David & Aunty Barbara brought her a box set of Secrets of Droon titles from Canada at Christmas, which were good. Jon found out about The Magic Treehouse series, which looks fantastic, full of historical tales and even King Arthur type tales too. Unfortunately, it's an American series and not available from our wholesalers; some of them (not all) are available on Amazon, but they're not cheap :-(. Oh well, we have Viking Ships at Sunrise (no. 15, evidently) as a taster, so we'll see how she gets on. I've searched the major UK publishers for something similar, but no luck. Much of the fiction Emily would like is either too young for her or slightly too old for her to read alone - Jon reads to her every night, but it's something to make her want to sit down herself and curl up with a *fiction* book I'm searching for, as opposed to the non-fiction she currently devours at a rate of knots. Any recommendations most welcome!

Tomorrow we're starting recorder lessons, apparently. Should be interesting.