All Kinds of Fun Stuff

Emily took some very cute pictures of Voldy and Sev this afternoon, up at the top of the trampoline netting. Here's Voldemort lying up there (he stays up there for *ages* just lounging!) and Severus showing off his tightrope walking skills. It's very high up. They love it. I'm less keen, myself - it's OK if they jump down onto the trampoline itself, but it's a hell of a height if they decide to jump down the outside instead. I try not to look!


We've had a good week all round. Yesterday afternoon Emily and I went swimming and had great fun racing each other to a giant float we were pushing around the pool. I'm sure some of the adults present felt my behaviour was most unbecoming. Good.

Yesterday morning Jon did tons of biology with Emily, which she lapped up with great enthusiasm. They looked at the seven signs that show something is alive; at the parts of a plant; invented and drew/labelled their own imaginary plants; pressed some plants; looked indepth at animal vs plant cells and drew more diagrams.

Monday morning Emily and Daddy planted lots of stuff in the garden, including lettuce, beetroot, onions, celery, cabbage, potatoes and carrots in the bit of vegetable patch Grandad has allowed Emily to have. Daddy and Emily both did Reiki on the young plants together, lol. Mind you, that didn't stop Grandad from wanting to pour cold water over things yet again and giving them a lecture about how it's too early to plant this, that wasn't done right, that shouldn't be there, that wouldn't survive, blah, blah, blah. The shame of it is that he is a very experienced gardener and no doubt there's a huge amount Emily could learn and enjoy learning from him. But not with that attitude, thanks very much. She's no longer interested in what he has to say and I can't really blame her.
All through the weekend, Emily and Daddy worked in the garden too. Well, Daddy worked in the garden. Emily bounced. A lot. They've been clearing an area ready for a rock garden, which is taking shape nicely.

On Monday this week we went to Jacki's as normal for the psychic circle. Emily normally takes some bits and bobs with her to share on Mondays like art stuff and drawing pads and nintendo games, because the girls have to stay fairly quiet on Monday nights when the adults are trying to do meditations and so forth. This week though the three of them plus Alex apparently spent all night "having a great chat". For four hours?? Goodness. My little girl's growing up ;-)

We saw Jacki, Mei Lin and Jasmine on Friday too, when we went over to them for the day. Lots of English work ensued, with the girls each writing character studies and plot outlines for little theatrical scenes they're going to write. Each one will have three characters so that when they've written the scripts they can all three act in all of the scenes. They're very enthusiastic about that, lol. Emily's writing a fantastic Warrior Cats scene, about two cats from rival clans who fall in forbidden love. The third character is the one who finds out about their relationship and tries to warn them of the consequences. Warrior Cats are undergoing a huge revival of interest here, now that there are new books to read. Emily absolutely loves, loves, loves the series. The forbidden love across clans was inspired by the (heartbreaking!) relationship in Forest of Secrets between Graystripe and Silverstream. I've only read the first six books (first series). Emily and Jon are up to book 3 in the third series, and are eagerly awaiting new releases. I'm going to have to read series two and three (so far) to keep up with her imagination, lol!

What else have we been doing, let's see: Emily and I started our look at medieval history by learning about the rival claims to the throne which prompted the Norman Invasion. She has also been doing a lot of guitar practice and finally getting to grips with some of the times tables, thanks to lots of ball throwing and trampoling-whilst-shouting-out-numbers, lol.

I've signed up today to something that looks like a very interesting volunteer project: Proofreading for Project Gutenburg. It looks fascinating and probably something that I can get Emily to help with too. If you like good literature and feel like volunteering online, go and have a look!

Tomorrow we have friends coming for the day; Friday too we also have friends coming for the day, so Emily's a happy bunny on the social front too. Sunday is her next karate grading - time's going by so fast!