Pies and a Poem

Things are still rolling along suspiciously well in this household. I'm waiting for fate to bite me on the bum when I least expect it, but for the moment, life is good.

Yesterday was another busy day for Emily. She did lots (and lots) of maths in the morning, and enjoyed an English task where she had to write a recipe for a birthday cake. We also read a lot of poems from this Fairy Poems book - very funny and well written. Emily especially liked one about the old fairy godmother whose magic is a bit tired now, peeping in through windows at the children being enchanted by silver boxes which teach them how to frown, and how much this "new magic" troubles her. There's also a More Fairy Poems book we have, and I think there are Mermaid Poems and Princess Poems in the same series.

In the afternoon we spent an hour doing gymnastics and dance on the new gym mats, with much hilarity, and then moved on to an afternoon of science experiments. We made our own green fizzy potion for Daddy to drink :-)) and sealed up a satsuma in an airtight box with bicard and vinegar - apparently the trapped carbon dioxide will permeate into the fruit, so when you eat it it tastes fizzy. Don't know if that worked, as we forgot to get it out today, lol. Will have to find out tomorrow. We also made some crystals, or at least attempted to - we must have done that experiment at least a dozen times in the last twelve months and it's only worked once!

This morning Emily couldn't wait to get started on some work, so I guess we must be doing something right. I'm really thrilled to bits with how enthusiastic she is at the moment. Her whole attitude has changed, quite dramatically. The last few months of 2005 left a lot to be desired, for us adults at least, and various incidents left a really nasty taste. Some of that must have rubbed off on Emily, but 2006 seems to have been so far (fingers crossed) a new start. We're making a positive effort to spend less time and emotional energy on negative things and people, and she has a real spring in her step as a result.

We did lots of work on telling the time this morning, and looked at this great Poetry Writing Book too. Inspired by the first task in there, Emily went off to write a counting poem, and this is what she came up with:

"One wicked white witch wraps warts round wriggly worms;
Two terrible toads tickle twenty tiny tabbies;
Three thick thimbles threading through thorny thistles;
Four fluttery fairies fixing fire flies;
Five fine flowers fly from France;
Six slippery snowflakes settle on soft snow;
Seven silly statues sit silently on stone;
Eight enormous elephants ignoring eighty earthquakes;
Nine neat nectarines nestling near knives;
Ten tall toadstools taking time to talk."

We were v. pleased with that and so was she, more to the point. :-)

This afternoon I've been trying to take advantage of ebay's 5p listing day to get some more stock listed, although I haven't got very far. Jon and Emily have been baking with a vengeance and have made donuts galore and a rather scrummy blueberry and apple pie.

Tomorrow we're off to Normanby Hall for more scootering and bike riding, then Saturday Emily's got a full day of ballet/playing at a friend's house. Busy week next week - somehow we need to fit in a doctor's appointment, a trip to York, two lots of friends to see, pick up Emily's glasses, swimming, various deadlines and lots more bike riding. Daresay there'll be some education in there somewhere, I'm just not yet sure where!