Not so bad after all

We're all still here - no-one's killed anybody else off!

The electricity went off about 9.45am, but came on again just before 1pm, although they'd warned it would be off till 4pm. The worst news was about Bill's car which has cost over £500 to only partially fix .... yikes!

After breakfast, the morning started with some reading. Jade pulled out a Learning Land magazine and we went through that, although she did skip the page about numbers saying "I hate that bit!". We did some reading exercises, she did a tiny bit of lovely writing, and then did the 'healthy eating' exercise during which I talked about needing the right kind of fuel in a car otherwise it breaks down and the same is true in our bodies. She also did a drawing of a 'healthy lunchbox' and drew a sandwich, a banana, a drink and a chocolate bar which I thought was pretty OK!

We moved on to Spanish after that, when I got out our little collection of fun Spanish activities that I'd got from The Book People a while ago. There are three bilingual stories so she read the English and I read the Spanish - with guesses at much of the pronunciation! We practised some of the words together and discussed the Spanish -v- English words.

Then I remembered reading something lately about how short breaks of physical exercise improve learning, and I was certainly beginning to feel a bit sluggish esp. with the heat, so I took them upstairs to bounce on the bed! They started having fun, but fairly soon Jade went into a very moody/grumpy state, and started shouting at me to go away and leave her alone and shouting that no, I didn't love her after I said I did. She curled up on my bed, and shortly after that started crying, but still didn't want me anywhere near. So I pottered around nearby, putting clean washing away, while wondering and praying about what was wrong and totally at a loss as to this sudden mood swing which is not completely unusual as she has been rather volatile lately. And suddenly it hit me - she'd had porridge with honey in it for breakfast and had then continued eating more honey - more than I'd realised before I'd stopped her. So she was having a complete sugar meltdown! And it might well be that the rest of her behaviour lately is perhaps partly due to sugar issues too. Time for some serious sweet-limiting action, I think. The sugar intake has very slowly crept up from just one piece of chocolate per day, to that plus lollies/ice-creams in the hot weather, and biscuits, and sometimes the next-door-neighbours give her something as well without checking first ... (Grrr). And it certainly won't do me any harm to completely cut down on sugar either. Anyway I brought them downstairs for a healthy and hearty lunch and playing out in the garden, so peace and harmony were resumed.

Straight after lunch I wanted some peace and quiet sitting at my computer, so Jade did a Learning Land CD-Rom and Shannon pottered around with bits and pieces. During the afternoon they've played on the swing, climbing frame and slide, although I limited Shannon's time on the swing as she threw up again on Tuesday after a long swing so I am fairly sure she's getting motion sickness from it, although she protests like mad at being taken off. Jade and I played Snakes & Ladders this afternoon, and as I made tea they've watched about 45 mins of CBeebies. Jade read a library book to Bill when he came in and only needed help with 1 word - disguise - so we've started to fill in her "Reading Mission" card from the library that we got last Thursday.

It's Jade's last day of playschool tomorrow. She seems fine about it, but she has loved it so much I wouldn't be surprised if we have a bit of an emotional rollercoaster tomorrow!